Compared to extra virgin olive oil, which has been enjoyed for millennia, a more recent trend in natural health circles is avocado oil. The oil pressed from the pulp of the fresh avocado fruit, which is destined to truly take over in the years ahead.
The widely hailed benefits are often true, but its powers are deeper than realised. Avocado oil consists of 70% oleic acid, a heart healthy monounsaturated fat which can also lower the inflammation behind acne. It’s high in fat soluble antioxidants, particularly the skin-strengthening lutein and cryptoxanthin.
However, there’s also evidence that avocado oil can increase collagen production, by inhibiting an enzyme which breaks down existing collagen in the skin called lysyl oxidase. The result? More youthful skin, and stronger skin in the face of irritants. Avocados themselves can even increase the absorption of other carotenoid antioxidants like beta carotene. That power is mostly down to the oil, so by cooking sweet potatoes with avocado oil, for example, you can significantly amplify their skin-clearing nutrition.
This all comes alongside a uniquely flavoured cooking oil which both helps you to avoid toxic oils like canola oil and soybean oil and make a clean, acne-friendly diet a lot more flavoursome and interesting.
As for topical application, I recommend diluting it with a high linoleic acid oil like grapeseed oil, but the collagen-boosting properties may show their face again, and avocado oil is also a decent source of vitamin E.
Avocado oil is another piece of the puzzle of getting an impossibly great skin tone, and that’s why today we will discuss the purest, most nutritious brands available.
Overly refined, chemically processed, and rancid oils will be excluded. For a quick shortcut, Avohass and Fushi are the best brands here.
Let’s get started:
One – Avohass
An avocado oil which is grown in Kenya and bottled in California, and perhaps the best ever made.
This avocado oil has everything. Firstly, and most importantly, Avohass is cold-pressed and unrefined. It’s extracted from hass avocado flesh without any harsh chemical solvents, industrial deodorisers, or deacidification agents, instead using the expeller pressed method.
Avohass is also certified organic by the USDA, officially pesticide and herbicide free, as opposed to brands which slap a misleading “contains organic ingredients” label on the bottle. It’s also packaged in a dark, amber glass bottle to keep sunlight out, and the quality report is excellent: this avocado oil is greeny yellow, thick, and strong smelling, with the distinctive aroma that you may like or dislike, but which nevertheless confirms that it’s all natural. Tales of rancid batches are rare with Avohass.
Avohass is as close as you can get to the raw oil magically transported from the fresh fruit to a bottle. All the beneficial, skin-clearing, heart protecting compounds will be present, including the vitamin E, lutein and cryptoaxanthin.
Avohass is even available in several infused flavours: garlic-infused, lime-infused, and chilli-infused. And yes, those ingredients are skin-friendly, particularly garlic with its sulphurous compounds like allicin.
Does Avohass have any flaws? No, because it’s even great value for money, with 8.5oz of avocado oil per bottle.
AvoHass is the pinnacle of avocado oil, the culmination of decades of experience, the best brand available.
Amazon link: Avohass California Organic Extra Virgin Avocado Oil.
Two – Olivado
Another perfect avocado oil brand. Olivado meets the biggest requirement, being cold-pressed and unrefined. The bottle is a large size, weighing in at 8.45 ounces, giving you months of supply.
This avocado oil gets particularly great reviews, with its colour described as dark green, resembling the fruit which it came from. Olivado is extracted from the fleshy pulp of fresh avocado fruits, grown in either New Zealand or traditional farms of Kenya. In fact, they claim to support 1350 traditional farmers across Kenya.
The production process is 100% natural, beginning by mashing the pulp of the avocado into a guacamole-like substance. This is then spun in a centrifuge with no harsh heat, but at speeds so fast that the oil begins to separate. Olivado restricts the temperatures in this process to 50 degrees C at all times, meaning that the oil does have antioxidants, vitamin E, and unique phytonutrients, and doesn’t have mutated free radicals and chemical byproducts.
Like Avohass, Olivado comes in a snazzy, dark glass bottle, for UV radiation protection. Olivado leaves no stone unturned; they even check each avocado fruit by hand, discarding any rotten ones and keeping only the freshest fruits.
Olivado’s avocado oil is meticulously produced, using every traditional secret and technique imaginable.
Three – Fushi
From one of the greatest skincare oil companies around comes this pure and nutritious avocado oil.
Fushi is certified organic, by the UK Soil Association rather than the USDA. Reviewers describe Fushi as a dark green colour (great), smelling strong and distinct (equally great) and properly thick (excellent once more).
As an avocado oil should be if you want to clear your acne and enrich your skin tone, Fushi is cold-pressed and unrefined. No harsh solvents and deodorisers went into the making of this product. Fushi presses their oil from the pulp of avocado fruits, always using the new season’s harvest for freshness and non-depleted nutrition. Each 100ml bottle contains 1kg of fresh avocado pulp.
According to Fushi, the bottle will last for 6 whole months when opened. It helps that the bottle is dark-coloured and made from glass again. Another advantage is Fushi’s trustworthy reputation; their grapeseed oil and rosehip seed oils are excellent. In fact, Fushi is my number one UK-based skincare oil brand (note that it’s available in the USA and Canada too).
Are you after an avocado oil made from a team of true experts? Then Fushi is the brand for you.
Four – Renewalise
Another cold-pressed, unrefined avocado oil. Renewalise is also confirmed to be hexane free, and features an amber glass bottle with a dropper for easy dispensation.
This avocado oil is extracted from the pulp of fresh avocados as it should be, and another advantage is its 1 year refund guarantee. Renewalise is officially certified as organic by the USDA, and explicitly free from any herbicides, pesticides or fungicides.
How important is organic certification with avocado oil? Nowhere near as important as with grapeseed oil, because the avocado features in the “clean fifteen” fruits and vegetables year after year. Its outer skin is so thick and hardy that insects have little interest in it, not compared to the swarms of insects that feast on strawberries and blueberries and thus turn those fruits into some of the dirtiest conventional crops around.
Maybe insects dislike the taste of avocados as well, but either way, even cheap avocados contain little pesticide residue. Organic is a nice bonus, but the most important factor is confirmation of cold, expeller pressed, solvent free, deodoriser free oils, and overall natural methods.
Renewalise meets those requirements. The only downsides with Renewalise are that 1) it weighs 4oz compared to 8.5oz for Avohass, and 2) for some reason, they only recommend it for topical usage, but for that purpose it’s unbeatable.
Renewalise is a top quality avocado oil for applying directly to your skin.
Five – Swanson Organics
A huge bottle of avocado oil, weighing 16oz, which somehow sacrifices no quality whatsoever.
Swanson Organics is dark green, according to its reviewers, with a natural smell. This brand is cold-pressed, expeller pressed, and unrefined. It’s certified organic by the USDA, with the green and white seal on the bottle. In other words, Swanson Organics has all of the classic features of a traditionally produced, acne-clearing avocado oil.
The typical refined avocado oil is made like this. Firstly, the avocado fruits are dried with hot air, before being subjected to oil extraction with hexane, an industrial grade chemical solvent. The resulting oil is brownish, and is so damaged that it must be chemically deodorised. The oil is also bleached, to reduce degraded byproducts of chlorophyll and carotenoid antioxidants, and deacidified, all in the presence of scorching heat.
The result is an oil which is both stripped of its nutrition, and filled with warped fatty acids and free radicals. It may be sourced from avocado fruits, but by the end, refined avocado oil is indistinguishable from soybean oil.
You have to avoid these industrial, mutated apocalypses of oils, and Swanson Organics is the solution. Avocado oil is becoming more popular by the second, meaning that cheap oils are multiplying by the second. The only small downside with this brand is its plastic bottle.
Swanson Organics is a reliable and natural avocado oil, officially certified as organic.
Six – Avogreen
Our next avocado oil is our one and only to be sourced from Mexico, the global king of the hass avocado market, supplying 45% of avocados worldwide.
Avogreen is confirmed to have the two key characteristics, being gently cold-pressed in an expeller machine, and unrefined. The avocados are harvested at the perfect time for optimal nutrition, which is important, since studies show that the oil content of avocado fruit flesh ranges from 16-17% in September to 25-30% in April.
Avogreen is particularly good value for money, supplying 8.5oz for a low price. There aren’t many user reviews, but one commented on Avogreen’s green colour, and another one on its “nice aroma and flavor“. According to Avogreen, this oil is perfect for any purpose, as a salad dressing or as a topical treatment.
Avogreen has escaped the eye of the acne-clearing community, but it’s easily an above average avocado oil.
Seven – Bella Vado
A brand which matches Avohass and Olivado in their endless and relentless pursuit of quality. Firstly, Bella Vado meets the classic requirements, being cold-pressed, unrefined, and free from hexane and other industrial chemicals.
Its first big advantage though, is being certified organic by the USDA. Bella Vado also boasts of containing 15 to 20 avocados per bottle, sourced from only the finest avocados; they discriminate so heavily against poor quality avocados that they can only produce a small amount of oil each year.
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Even the quality report is particularly amazing: comments on the colour include “green”, “dark green”, “light green”; green is the theme. This oil’s smell is also strong; a couple of people were actually surprised by its strength at first, but that’s a good thing, because it proves that the oil is authentic. Finally, this is a dark, glass bottle, a bottle which weighs in at 8.5oz.
If buying the finest quality avocado oil is important to you, then Bella Vado is unbeatable.
Eight – Sky Organics
An avocado oil which is particularly affordable, yet full of nutrition and quality.
Sky Organics is cold-pressed, unrefined, hexane free, deodorisation agent free – free from anything that compromises the quality of the oil. Each batch of oil is tested for potency.
Sky Organics is sourced directly from artisanal farmers in Italy and southern France, compared to the New Zealand and Kenyan avocados of Olivado, with the oil itself being bottled in the USA. The bottle is plastic, but a dark colour. Customer reports on the smell are positive, with no tales of rancidity. Every natural oil has its own distinct characteristics, so what about avocado oil?
Firstly, the natural colour varies from deep emerald green to gold coloured with a strong green tinge. An oil which lacks any green pigment is suspect. The odour, meanwhile, should never be overpowering, but it should have a distinct avocado smell, and should never smell foul and rancid.
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Texture-wise, it’s a fairly thick oil. Avocado oil should taste buttery and nutty and very similar to the fruit itself; the oil comes directly from the flesh, rather than the seeds like with pomegranate seed oil or grapeseed oil, so there’ll be a close correlation with the healthy fruit that you’re used to, which is a great thing, because it makes quality oils easier to spot.
With Sky Organics, the only downside is that a couple of customers reported on lighter coloured oils, but others mentioned the signature green colour, so perhaps seasonal variations in the antioxidant profile caused the change. Sky Organics is also a trustworthy oil brand overall, selling a top quality castor oil and sweet almond oil.
For those reasons, Sky Organics is definitely one of the better avocado oils you could buy.
Nine – Elle and Eve
Elle and Eve is another avocado oil which stands above the competition. It’s confirmed to be food grade, and manufactured in a Good Manufacturing Practises (GMP) certified facility. It’s hexane free, and in a dark coloured bottle.
Elle and Eve is another cold-pressed oil, with temperatures limited to 50c. This is a far cry from the scorching, antioxidant destroying temperatures in industrial facilities.
For example, one study tested different cooking methods on the antioxidant levels in eggs, and found that lutein levels fell by 23%, 17% and 19% after boiling, microwaving, and frying respectively. Overall, carotenoid levels didn’t fall, but the bioavailability fell, since lutein was converted from the well-absorbed trans form into the weak cis form (the superiority of trans-resveratrol supplements is a clear example of this).
What’s more, factories deliberately strip the carotenoids away from avocado oil during the refining process, because they create a natural pigment. It doesn’t occur to them that the health benefits and distinct flavour are the only reason why anybody even buys avocado oil.
With Elle and Eve, you can guarantee that lutein and other carotenoids are in place. The only disadvantage is that its 4oz bottle is fairly small, but it’s also quite affordable.
Elle and Eve lacks any unique features, but meets every requirement for an acne-clearing avocado oil.
Ten – Kamen
A high quality avocado oil brand, with the special feature of a big 16.9 ounce bottle. This brand isn’t certified organic, but Kamen has stated outright that pesticides, herbicides, or artificial fertilisers are never used.
The avocados are grown “in the heart of Californian avocado country“, and bottled in California too. Kamen is a cold-pressed avocado oil, and interestingly, it’s specifically a first press cold pressed oil, meaning that it comes from the first round of cold pressing which produces the most wholesome and nutritious oil, rather than pressing leftovers from somebody else’s cold pressing session.
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According to Kamen, the smell and flavour has “subtle, earthy, buttery undertones with hints of sweetness“, and reviewers have described the colour as emerald green. Its quality report is above average, and another advantage is Kamen’s glass bottle. This avocado oil is also non-GMO and paleo certified. If you store it in a cool, dark place, it should last for 6 months.
Kamen is a less known avocado oil, hiding deep within the market, but almost the best one.
Conclusion
While the market for avocado oil isn’t riddled with fraud at the moment, this oil is gaining popularity among natural health enthusiasts so rapidly that you should expect countless cheaper brands to spring forth from the dark depths of the skincare oil underworld soon.
Like with rosehip seed oil, it’s impossible for fraudulent avocado oils to escape if you have the right knowledge, because they will always be given away by their lack of the signature green colour. Remember that the smell of avocado oil isn’t necessarily pleasant, but a unique aroma is a good thing, as long as it isn’t foul and rancid.
When the avalanche of fraud finally sweeps in, these brands will still be here, meaning that you’ll be impossible to ensnare.
NEXT: learn the root causes of acne, clear your skin permanently
Thanks for reading!
Any concern about the oleic content in avocado oil?
Yes, I recommend diluting it with a high linoleic acid oil like grapeseed oil when applied topically, but it’s safe to eat raw.