Avocado and Shea Butter Soap

Last updated: October 2026

Avocado oil soap recipe: a cold process bar with shea butter

A rich cold process bar, 8 to 10 bars. This avocado oil soap recipe makes a conditioning cold process bar from avocado oil, olive oil and castor oil on a base of Baraka's shea butter and traditional coconut oil, made with shea butter handmade by the women of the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana's Upper West Region. Five oils, lye and distilled water give about 4 lb (1,814 g) of cured soap with a creamy, stable lather. It is an intermediate project: about 45 minutes of making, then 4 to 6 weeks of curing.

The method follows the same steps as How to Make Shea Butter Soap, with avocado oil stirred in at trace for extra richness. If you are new to working with shea, the Definitive Guide to DIY with Shea Butter covers the butter itself before you take on lye. This project suits anyone who has made cold process soap at least once before.

In This Recipe:

• Avocado and shea butter soap recipe
• What This Recipe Is For
• Why Make This Yourself
• Why These Ingredients Work Together
• Ingredient by Ingredient
• Before You Begin: Soap-Making Safety
• Ingredients
• How to make avocado and shea butter soap
• Directions
• Troubleshooting
• Storage and Shelf Life
• Scaling and Substitutions
• Customisation Ideas
• Essential Oils
• Application Tips
• What We Know and How We Know It
• FAQ
• Try These Next
• Disclaimer

Avocado and shea butter soap recipe: the full formula at a glance

Five oils, lye and water. Baraka's avocado and shea butter soap recipe uses 1 lb (454 g) of shea butter, 1 lb (454 g) of traditional coconut oil, 8 oz (227 g) each of olive oil and castor oil, and 2.1 oz (60 g) of avocado oil, saponified with 7 oz (198 g) of sodium hydroxide (lye) dissolved in 14 oz (396 g) of distilled water. It makes about 4 lb (1,814 g) of cured soap, cut into 8 to 10 bars. The lye and water suit only this exact oil combination, so recalculate them if you change any oil or its weight.

Recipe detail	Value
Method	Cold process soap
Skill level	Intermediate
Prep and make time	About 45 minutes
Time in the mould	24 to 48 hours
Cure time	4 to 6 weeks
Total oils	About 50 oz (1,422 g)
Superfat	5%
Yield	About 4 lb (1,814 g) of cured soap, 8 to 10 bars

The batter weighs about 4 lb 7 oz (2,016 g) before any essential oil goes in. Part of the water evaporates over the cure, which is why the finished bars weigh less than the raw soap.

What This Recipe Is For

An everyday bar with a richer feel. These are the situations this soap is made for:

• Everyday cleansing of hands, face and body with a rich, gentle lather
• Extra conditioning for people who prefer a richer bar
• Replacing synthetic detergent bars with a traditional, hand-made soap
• A comforting addition to a self-care routine
• Giving as a hand-made gift once the bars are fully cured
• A next step for makers who have made a plain shea butter soap and want to work with more oils

Why Make This Yourself

You choose and weigh every oil. Making this soap at home gives you a true soap made only from oils, lye and water, with the glycerin that forms during saponification kept in the bar. It is an intermediate project: forgiving on scent and mould, but exact on the lye and water weights. One batch yields about 4 lb (1,814 g) of cured soap, 8 to 10 bars.

Commercial bars have real strengths: they are consistent, widely available, inexpensive and made to last on a shelf. Many are syndet bars, built on synthetic surfactants rather than saponified oils, and their formulas are set for large-scale production. A home-made bar is the choice for people who want to know every ingredient by name and weight, and the difference between the two is one of composition. Choose by what matters most to you: convenience, or control over what goes into the bar.

Why These Ingredients Work Together

Conditioning oils balanced with cleansing ones. This bar pairs oils that make lather and hardness with oils that make it feel rich and mild. Shea butter gives a smooth, creamy bar, coconut oil gives quick, bubbly lather and hardness, olive oil gives mildness, castor oil steadies the lather, and avocado oil adds extra richness at the end.

In soap, each oil turns into a different kind of soap molecule, and the balance between them sets how the bar behaves. Too much coconut oil makes a bar that feels drying; too little makes one that lathers slowly. Here coconut oil is about 32% of the oils, shea butter about 32%, olive and castor oil about 16% each, and avocado oil about 4%.

Ingredient by Ingredient

What each oil does in this bar.

• Shea butter gives the bar its creamy texture and contributes to hardness. Baraka's shea butter is unrefined: strained and filtered only, with no refining, bleaching or deodorising, so it keeps its natural ivory to pale yellow colour and earthy scent. Baraka's Raw Shea Butter is the ingredient this whole recipe is built on, which makes it the one to buy first if you make this bar.
• Traditional coconut oil is the main cleansing and lathering oil, and it adds hardness. Baraka's traditional coconut oil is virgin, mechanically pressed from the fresh kernel of the coconut in Ghana's coastal coconut belt, with no solvent extraction and no chemical refining.
• Olive oil is a gentle, mild oil that makes the bar feel softer on the skin.
• Castor oil stabilises the lather that coconut oil starts, so the bubbles last longer in use. It is used here at a higher share than in many recipes, which is one reason this bar needs its full cure to firm up.
• Avocado oil is pressed from the flesh of the avocado fruit, not from the seed. Its main fatty acid is usually oleic acid, the same one that dominates olive oil, so it adds conditioning and a creamy feel to the finished bar.
• Essential oil (optional) adds scent only. Avocado oil is a pressed oil and has no essential oil of its own, so choose a scent from the Essential Oils section or leave the bar unscented.

Where the shea butter comes from

Baraka's shea butter is made by hand by women's producer groups at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, in Ghana's Upper West Region. The shea kernels are cracked, roasted and milled to a paste, then kneaded with water and boiled so the fat separates, and the butter is cooled and filtered, with no solvent at any stage. You can follow each step in How is Handcrafted Shea Butter Made?

Wayne Dunn, who founded Baraka, has worked directly with the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre for over 15 years. Baraka's shea butter is tested periodically by the Ghana Standards Authority against Ghana's national standard for unrefined shea butter. What that relationship has meant for the women and the region is set out in Baraka's Social and Environmental Impact Report.

Before You Begin: Soap-Making Safety

Lye burns, so protect yourself first. Sodium hydroxide is caustic, and the solution it makes with water heats up quickly. Follow these rules every time:

• Wear protective gloves and eye protection whenever you handle lye, the lye solution or raw soap batter.
• Work in a well-ventilated area: open a window or work near an extractor fan, and keep your face away from the fumes as the lye dissolves.
• Always add lye to water, never water to lye.
• Use heat-resistant containers, and stainless steel or silicone tools. Never use aluminium, which reacts with lye.
• Keep lye, raw soap batter and curing soap well out of reach of children and pets.
• This is an adults-only project from start to finish.

Ingredients

Everything is weighed. Weigh oils, lye and water on a digital scale, never by volume.

• Shea butter: 1 lb (454 g)
• Traditional coconut oil: 1 lb (454 g)
• Olive oil: 8 oz (227 g)
• Castor oil: 8 oz (227 g)
• Avocado oil: 2.1 oz (60 g)
• Sodium hydroxide (lye): 7 oz (198 g)
• Distilled water: 14 oz (396 g)
• Essential oil of your choice (optional): 1 tbsp (15 ml) in total

Equipment: digital scale, safety goggles, gloves, heat-resistant jug for the lye solution, stainless steel pan for the oils, stick blender, silicone spatula, thermometer, and a loaf mould large enough for about 4 lb 7 oz (2,016 g) of batter.

How the lye and water are calculated

The lye is worked out from each oil's weight, using the grams of sodium hydroxide needed per gram of that oil. The avocado oil is counted too, because oil added at trace still meets lye and turns into soap.

Oil	Weight	Lye per gram	Lye needed
Shea butter	1 lb (454 g)	0.128	58.1 g
Traditional coconut oil	1 lb (454 g)	0.183	83.1 g
Olive oil	8 oz (227 g)	0.135	30.6 g
Castor oil	8 oz (227 g)	0.128	29.1 g
Avocado oil	2.1 oz (60 g)	0.133	8.0 g
Total before superfat	About 50 oz (1,422 g)		208.9 g

Taking 5% off for superfat gives 208.9 g × 0.95 = 198.4 g, rounded to 7 oz (198 g) of lye. The water is twice the lye: 2 × 198 g = 14 oz (396 g). The superfat leaves a small share of oil unsaponified, which makes the bar milder and gives a margin for small weighing errors.

How to make avocado and shea butter soap

Lye water, melted oils, trace, then a long cure. To make avocado and shea butter soap, dissolve the lye in distilled water, melt Baraka's shea butter with the coconut, olive and castor oils, combine the two at 100 to 120°F (38 to 49°C) and stick-blend to trace. Stir in the avocado oil and any essential oil, pour into a mould, unmould after 24 to 48 hours, then cut the bars and cure them for 4 to 6 weeks. Each step is set out in Directions below.

The making itself takes about 45 minutes once everything is weighed. Most of the time goes on waiting for the lye solution and the oils to reach the same temperature, so start the lye first and melt the oils while it cools.

Directions

Step by step, one action each.

1. Put on gloves and eye protection before handling lye.
2. Weigh every ingredient into its own container.
3. Line or prepare the loaf mould.
4. Pour the distilled water into a heat-resistant jug.
5. Slowly add the sodium hydroxide to the water, stirring until fully dissolved.
6. Set the lye solution aside in a ventilated place to cool.
7. Melt the shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil and castor oil together gently until fully liquid.
8. Wait until the lye solution and the oils are both between 100 and 120°F (38 and 49°C).
9. Slowly pour the lye solution into the oils, stirring as you pour.
10. Use the stick blender in short bursts, alternating with hand stirring, until the mixture reaches light trace: it thickens and leaves a visible trail when drizzled across the surface.
11. Add the avocado oil and the essential oil, if using, and stir until evenly mixed.
12. Pour the batter into the mould and tap it gently to release air bubbles.
13. Cover the mould and leave the soap to set for 24 to 48 hours.
14. Unmould the soap and cut it into bars once firm enough to handle.
15. Stand the bars on their sides in a well-ventilated space to cure for 4 to 6 weeks before use.

Troubleshooting

Most problems come from temperature, timing or weighing.

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
White, powdery film on top of the bars	Soda ash: unreacted lye on the surface meeting air before the soap has set	It is harmless and cosmetic. Plane or wipe it off after curing, and next time cover the mould with a sheet of baking paper.
Bars still soft or slightly sticky after unmoulding	The high share of castor and liquid oils, or a cool room	Leave them in the mould another day, then give them the full 6 weeks of cure. Firmness comes as water leaves the bar.
Batter thickens too fast to pour	Over-blending, oils and lye too warm, or an essential oil that speeds trace	Blend in shorter bursts, work at the lower end of 100 to 120°F (38 to 49°C), and spoon the batter into the mould if needed.
Oil pooling on the surface or layers separating	The batter never reached true trace	Blend until it leaves a visible trail before pouring. Do not use a separated batch; it can have pockets of lye.
Bars crack or crumble when cut	Cutting too late, or a lye or water weight that was off	Cut within 24 to 48 hours, and check every weight against the calculation above before you start.
Orange spots appear months later	Liquid oils in the bar going stale, often from heat, light or old oils	Use fresh oils, keep cured bars cool, dry and dark, and use the oldest bars first.

Storage and Shelf Life

Cure first, then store cool and dry. Cure the bars for 4 to 6 weeks and do not use the soap before curing is complete; the FAQ explains why. Once cured, bars typically keep well for 12 to 18 months.

Store cured bars in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight: a drawer or shelf with airflow works well. Stack them loosely or wrap them in paper rather than plastic, so moisture can escape. Between uses, keep the bar on a well-draining soap dish to make it last longer.

Unused shea butter keeps 2+ years when stored properly, away from heat and direct sun, so you can buy enough for several batches.

Scaling and Substitutions

Scale every ingredient together, and recalculate the lye for any swap. The table gives a half and a double batch, with the lye worked out again from each oil's weight at 5% superfat.

Ingredient	Half batch	Full batch	Double batch
Shea butter	8 oz (227 g)	1 lb (454 g)	2 lb (907 g)
Traditional coconut oil	8 oz (227 g)	1 lb (454 g)	2 lb (907 g)
Olive oil	4 oz (113 g)	8 oz (227 g)	1 lb (454 g)
Castor oil	4 oz (113 g)	8 oz (227 g)	1 lb (454 g)
Avocado oil	1.1 oz (30 g)	2.1 oz (60 g)	4.2 oz (120 g)
Sodium hydroxide (lye)	3.5 oz (99 g)	7 oz (198 g)	14 oz (397 g)
Distilled water	7 oz (198 g)	14 oz (396 g)	28 oz (794 g)
Essential oil (optional)	1 1/2 tsp (7.5 ml)	1 tbsp (15 ml)	2 tbsp (30 ml)
Bars	4 to 5	8 to 10	16 to 20

For substitutions, change one oil at a time and always run the new recipe through a lye calculator such as SoapCalc before you make it. A different oil needs a different amount of lye, even at the same weight.

• No avocado oil: replace it with the same weight of olive oil or sweet almond oil, then recalculate the lye.
• A harder bar: replace up to a quarter of the shea butter with cocoa butter, then recalculate the lye.
• No coconut oil: palm kernel oil gives a similar hard bar with quick lather. It is pressed from the kernel inside the palm fruit's stone and is not red palm oil, which comes from the fruit flesh. Recalculate the lye.
• Less castor oil: moving some of the castor oil's weight to shea butter makes a firmer bar with slightly less lather. Recalculate the lye.

Customisation Ideas

Change the look and feel, not the lye balance. Any idea that changes the quantity of an oil means the lye and water must be recalculated before you make the batch.

• Adjust the amount of avocado oil slightly for a richer or lighter finished bar, then recalculate the lye and water.
• Add texture with 1 tbsp (15 ml) of finely ground oats, stirred in at trace, for gentle exfoliation.
• Change the mould to individual bar moulds instead of a loaf mould for a different shape.
• Add natural colour with a pinch of green clay, mixed into a little of the avocado oil before you add it, for a soft, avocado-toned bar.
• Add a swirl by colouring a third of the batter with clay and swirling it through with a spatula.

Essential Oils

Up to 1 tbsp (15 ml) in total, or none at all. This recipe works unscented, and the shea butter gives the bar a faint earthy scent of its own. If you add essential oil, the 1 tbsp (15 ml) in the ingredient list is the total for all essential oils together, which keeps the batch well within the limit of 1 tbsp per 16 oz (454 g) of oils.

Lavender, cedarwood and rosemary hold well in cold process soap and suit the green, earthy character of the bar. Citrus oils such as sweet orange fade quickly in soap, so they are best blended with one of those. Add essential oil at light trace and blend briefly, because some oils, especially floral and spice oils, make the batter thicken faster.

Application Tips

Lather, rinse, and let it dry between uses. Use it like any bar soap for hands, face or body: lather with warm water and rinse well. Because this soap is rich in conditioning oils, a light lather goes a long way, so there is no need to scrub hard.

A soap dish with drainage helps the bar last longer between uses. Store the bar dry between uses for the longest life, and keep a bar in use out of standing water, where it softens quickly.

What We Know and How We Know It

The facts about Baraka's shea butter and coconut oil, how the shea butter is made and where, come from Baraka's own product documentation and its relationship with the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre. That avocado oil is pressed from the fruit flesh rather than the seed comes from published research, including a study of avocado pulp oil extraction published by Biblioteka Nauki and a cold-pressing study in the Brazilian journal Food Science and Technology. That oleic acid is usually its main fatty acid, with a share that varies widely by cultivar and region, comes from a 2021 study of four avocado varieties in OCL (Oilseeds and fats, Crops and Lipids), a 2023 study in Foods, and a review of avocado fatty acids by Opiyo and Mugendi. The lye values, soap-making method, cure times and troubleshooting come from common practice in the home soap-making community.

FAQ

Can I use avocado oil in soap?
Yes, avocado oil works well in cold process soap, where it adds conditioning and a creamy feel to the lather. It is pressed from the flesh of the fruit and is usually high in oleic acid, much like olive oil, so it behaves similarly in a recipe; this bar uses a small share, about 4% of the oils, stirred in at trace and counted in the lye calculation. Larger shares are common too, but because avocado oil is a liquid oil, more of it makes a softer bar that needs a longer cure. Pair it with harder fats such as Baraka's shea butter and coconut oil, as here, and recalculate the lye whenever you change the amount.

How long does homemade soap need to cure?
Cold process soap like this one needs 4 to 6 weeks to cure fully, and should not be used before curing is complete. During the cure, excess water evaporates from the bars, so they become harder, last longer in use and feel milder on the skin. Saponification is mostly finished within a few days, but a bar used early is soft, wears away quickly and can feel harsh. Stand the bars on their sides with space between them in a dry, airy room out of direct sunlight, and turn them once a week.

The Impact of Your Purchase

When you make skincare with Baraka ingredients, you are buying from women's cooperatives that earn fair wages and keep traditional processing methods alive. Baraka's 2025 Social and Environmental Impact Report records income opportunities for more than 3,000 women in northern Ghana, over $100,000 invested in women's enterprise infrastructure, and equipment and fuel recovery that have cut the carbon impact of shea processing by up to 90%. At the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana's Upper West Region, Baraka's shea butter is made by hand, and the waste left over from making it is dried into fuel blocks that fire the next batch. Baraka also offsets 100% of the carbon cost of shipping to customers. You get full transparency about what touches your skin and your family's skin, and about where it came from.

Meet one of the women behind Baraka's shea butter in this short film: Shea Butter Producer: Zenabo Imoro.

Shop the Baraka Ingredients in This Recipe

Shea Butter · Shop Shea Butter · Baraka's unrefined shea butter is handmade at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre and gives this bar its creamy texture and much of its hardness.

Traditional Coconut Oil · Shop Traditional Coconut Oil · Virgin and mechanically pressed in Ghana, it is the oil that makes this soap lather quickly and set hard.

Browse more for your soap making: Butters, Oils and Recipe Books.

Try These Next

More shea butter soaps to make next.

• Shea Butter and Turmeric Soap: the same cold process method with a warm, golden colour from turmeric.
• Shea Butter and Goats Milk Soap: a creamy milk soap that teaches you how to keep milk from scorching in lye.
• Honey and Shea Butter Soap: adds honey to a shea base for a sweeter scent and extra lather.
• Creamy Cow Milk and Shea Butter Soap: another rich, milk-based variation for an extra-creamy bar.
• Shea Butter and Aloe Vera Soap: swaps part of the water for aloe, a good next step after this recipe.
• Classic Goat Milk Soap with Essential Oil: a different traditional base for exploring beyond shea butter.
• Lavender Goat Milk and Shea Butter Soap: a floral alternative built on a goat milk base.
• Shea Butter and Honeycomb Soap: a textured, honey-scented variation with a different character.
• Shea Butter and Peppermint Oil Soap: a fresh, minty variation for an everyday bar.

About These Ingredients

This recipe is expanded from our Definitive Guide to DIY with Shea Butter, which covers more formulations, ingredient options and variations for shea-based DIY skincare.

Disclaimer

The information in this article is for general education. It reflects traditional use, reported experience and, where noted, published research. It has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or Health Canada. Baraka products are cosmetics and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease or medical condition. Always patch test a new ingredient, keep products away from the eyes and out of reach of children, and speak to a qualified healthcare provider about any skin or health condition. If you add essential oils, use no more than the amount given, and leave them out for young children, during pregnancy and on sensitive skin. Individual results vary.

About the Author

Wayne Dunn is the founder of Baraka Impact and a former Professor of Practice in Sustainability at McGill University. He holds an M.Sc. in Management from Stanford and has spent over 15 years working directly with the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana's Upper West Region to source traditionally made shea butter and natural oils. He shares DIY skincare recipes and ingredient guides designed to be made at home with real ingredients — and sourced with full transparency about where they come from.