Teach Soap

I am going to make some lip balm with a lip balm base and was just wondering how much do people sell these for. I will be adding fragrance to them and how do you work out how much each drop cost.

I do know that I have to add the container into the costing of the lip balm before I work out how much to sell these online. I have someone that is interested in buying these from me

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http://www.handcraftsupplies.com.au/store/

You really need to start using google and researching your goods before you start selling them. Things like production costs, selling costs etc should all be worked out prior to selling. That's part of running a business. If you can't work out your costs, then you're going to end up in trouble.

What other people sell them for won't matter if it's a price that your "customers" won't pay. It also depends on quality (a melt and pour lip balm base is not the same as a lip balm recipe someone has spent months perfecting and as such is not worth even half the cost), packaging, labeling costs, etc.

Cost of ingredients + shipping to get them / petrol to pick them up + cost of packaging + cost of labels to go on them + cost of ink to print the labels + electricity to use the printer + electricity /gas involved in melting any ingredients + plastic sealing to wrap the finishing goods in + time spent making them + website fees, etc, etc, etc all come into play when working your cost vs profit. And everyone's will be different.

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

You can't add a fragrance to a lip balm or you will have someone sue you!!!! You add flavours to lip balm as they are specially formulated to be able to be used on skin. The skin of our lips is one of our most sensitive parts. As Coolah says - you need to research before you start selling and you also need to trial your goods for a reasonable period of time before selling ESPECIALLY when you are making them for the first time.

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Soaper from Melbourne Australia
Founding member of Melt & Pour Soap Crafters ... find us on Facebook - we'd love to see you!

I did mean flavour but for some reason had fragrance on my mind.

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http://www.handcraftsupplies.com.au/store/

WHEW that's a relief!!!! You need to add up all your costs (Coolah has listed most of them below) and then divide by the number of lip balms you are making to get a wholesale cost. If you search on this site there is a calculation for working out retail. If you google you will also find there are many ways to work out how much to sell for.
As Coolah says - there are different prices that the market will bear - if you have formulated your balm specially using carefully selected oils and butters for their properties you can charge more. If you use the same stock standard base that everyone else uses you have to charge less.
You really need to do your homework before you start selling and work out what others are selling theirs for and why, what is in your lip balm and what the benefits are to buying yours instead of someone else's.
Also this is a "stay on" product so you also have to test it thoroughly and make sure you are adding just the right amount of fragrance and colour/mica so that it is safe.

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Soaper from Melbourne Australia
Founding member of Melt & Pour Soap Crafters ... find us on Facebook - we'd love to see you!

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I will be testing them as I am making some for my niece first to see how they come out

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http://www.handcraftsupplies.com.au/store/

How old is your niece?? I wouldn't be testing on children!

And you need to test on more than one level. For example, my lip balms are tested by a Middle Age Nurse who spends their day in a Hospital, a stay at home mother who lives in a constantly hot area, someone who leaves it in their car permanently, another who has it at their work desk permanently.

It's the same thing with anything you make - you need time testing, variation testing, etc. You need to know how the lip balm will hold up after a month, 3 months, 6 months, etc.

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

My niece is 10 years old plus I will be using the lip balm as well and I tend to keep things in my hand bag all the time and we tend to have very hot weather here in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

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http://www.handcraftsupplies.com.au/store/

Good to know that you will be testing it on yourself as well
About the only two things I consistently stress to people starting out is research everything yourself - it's amazing how much you learn along the way through google and supplier's website and test, test, test ... there would be nothing worse than having someone have a bad reaction to something that you'd made because it reacted badly to something as simple as being kept over time. I bought a lip balm once from a market and it separated after about a month. My daughter bought a different flavour from the same seller and hers went grainy

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Soaper from Melbourne Australia
Founding member of Melt & Pour Soap Crafters ... find us on Facebook - we'd love to see you!

Sounds like you've already made up your mind and that you know best, so...

Creating bath and body products isn't an overnight money grab. Time and effort (at least 12 months before selling) is advised if you care about the end result and doing the right thing.

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

How do you know how many drops of flavour to use.

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http://www.handcraftsupplies.com.au/store/

Through learning, google and research. The information is out there already.

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

A product will usually list the amount to be used in a formula, most of the time by percentages.

Another big thing to consider is liability insurance. Once you start formulating and selling bath and body products, you should have insurance coverage so that cost will need to be figured in as well.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!