It forms brown to black metallic isometric crystals with a Mohs hardness of 5.5 to 6.

The ulvöspinel component tends to oxidize to magnetite plus ilmenite during subsolidus cooling of the host rocks, and the ilmenite so produced may form apparent exsolution (trellis type) laminae in magnetite.

The texture was once interpreted as indicating solid solution between ilmenite and magnetite, until the oxidation reaction and resultant textures were reproduced in laboratory experiments first described by Buddington and Lindsley (1964, Journal of Petrology 5, p. 310–357).

Ulvöspinel was first described by Fredrik Mogensen (1904–1978) [5] from a dolerite layered intrusion in the Ulvö Islands, Ångermanland, Sweden in 1943.

The locality is an iron, titanium and vanadium mining area that has been active since the 17th century.