Teach Soap

So I made a soap that I will eventually call my "luxury line" and its made with olive oil, coconut oil, almond oil, shea and cocoa butters and I scented it with orange, clove, bergamont and ylang-ylang. I counted up all the costs of the oils and EO's used, including the lye, added my cost for my time (which a lot of my friends are saying is too low) and came up with the numbers of my actual cost to make the soap which came to $.82 per ounce of soap.

Now, this figure doesnt EVEN include rent, insurance, packaging,

When taking advice read here and other places on how to calculate your wholesale price (costs x 3) and then realizing that retail should be at least twice as wholesale - well, this gives me a wholesale costs of $2.46 per ounce, and a retail cost of $4.10 per ounce of soap. (this retail # is cost x 5, because cost X 6 was just too high for me to even consider asking as a price per ounce which was almost $5)

I hand cut my bars at this time, still learning, (and not really selling- dont worry folks! lol) to see what the retail price would be for each bar of soap, it ranged from $13.35 (all the way up to the lunker bar which weighed in at 4.75 ounces) - $19.47!

Who in their right mind is going to pay almost $20 for one bar of soap? The initial sticker cost is just astounding to me. And these figures dont even include what the cost of a real business will need to reflect to make even a small profit.

Now, I know for my self that this soap is a really good formula and that it lasts a lot longer than any other bar of soap I have ever used....but a first time customer is not going to know that. There have been recent discussions in the forum about bar size and I have come to at least think that the standard size of a bar is 5 ounces. I couldnt imagine if I had a bar larger than 4.5 ounces at this price....I dont think that anyone would buy it.

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Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com

First, bar size. 4 oz is 120g and the size sold here is usually 100g so your idea of bar size seems very large to me. 4 oz is the largest bar I would consider making. So that's 2.46 x 4 wholesale = $9.84 and a retail price of $19.68 and frankly unless you are Macy's I would not expect anyone to buy at that price.
No doubt I will get negative comments but I do not think it necessary or even desirable (price) to use olive oil in soap. There's very little difference between it and high oleic sunflower oil, in my opinion. I don't see the point of using almond oil either. It would be great in a leave-on product, but soap is rinsed off quickly.
EO's are really expensive; I don't use them in soap, fragrance oil is costly enough, having to use 5% of it (I suppose the lye eats 4% of it since I only need to add 1% to a synthetic product such as shampoo).
The most expensive CP soap I have heard of is being sold at Macy's, so you could perhaps use them as a reference point!

Well, see, where I am I can get olive oil for 13 cents an ounce...thats even cheaper than the crisco I use at 24 cents per ounce, for cryin out loud! I can get almond oil for 23 cents per ounce.

I know that I have to figure out how to make a uniform bar, then things will probably seem more of the same, but, still....the basic soap costs me 82 cents per ounce to make. Granted, I will not always use 4 different kinds of EO's because yes, they CAN be very expensive.

I just wanted to hear what other folks say about this numbers process and game....how in the WORLD can anyone make any profit at all making soap? I will not use fragrance oils no matter how cheap they are, and I am OK with making unscented soaps...but people want to buy that stuff. they want their soaps to smell enticing....how does one even break even in the long run?

Thanks for the tip on Macy's selling high priced soap, my recipe certainly is a luxury item, and that I will have to push to potential customers.

I am quickly thinking that at least I should round down the prices per ounce and cut that 4.75 ounce bar in half!

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Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com

Well if it makes you feel any better, while perusing the web today, I saw a bar of soap--block really, for 28.00 a block.

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Dawn

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Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com

I price my soaps based on ingredients only. But that said, I do it for the enjoyment, so long as I make my money back plus a little profit to help pay the bills and expand my options to try new things, i am happy.

I also use Olive Oil as it's the cheapest option. It's used in 99% of soaps because of the price being so reasonable.

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

I sell my 4 oz bars for $4 each or 3 for $10. My market may be able to support a slightly higher priced bar, but I'm happy with this price for now. If supply costs skyrocket, then I'll need to make an adjustment. I make several types of unscented soaps (they sell pretty well) and that offsets the cost of the EOs & FOs used in other bars. I do make a bar that has a high % of shea butter and another that has a high % of cocoa butter and those are $5 each.

I also use a lot of olive oil because I can buy it locally for a very reasonable price. I'm sure the high oleic sunflower oil would be great in soap, but it would cost me a lot more than olive oil does.

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

I would doubt that you would sell very many of those bars of soap around here. As for me that bar of soap would have to smell like Heaven and then I would probably stick it in my underware drawer and preserve it for awhile. At least that way I would get to smell it everyday!

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I have found that the price of ingredients (particularly carrier oils) can vary dramatically so it might be worth it to shop around. I love BB but shipping to where I live is very high for heavy boxes full of oil. I had to find a source closer. So I use BB for everything except bulk oils.

For comparison I make a nice lavender bar with coconut, olive, palm, castor and shea and the base cost is $1.27 per bar (roughly 4 oz). That would make for a retail cost of $7.62 if I'm calculating right (I don't sell my soap except to feed my habit). Essential oils are expensive--you might try to stick with scents that are less costly (particularly bergamot & ylang ylang--yikes, they are pricey). I have shopped around for essential oils and have occasionally found them cheap but the quality wasn't nearly as good as BB. I wouldn't want to trade off quality for price so I'd stick with a trusted source and choose different EOs.

Your price for olive oil amazes me. The cheapest I can get is from Costco and it would be three times or more what you're paying. Now you can see why I never use it!

I was reading yesterday that there is an olive oil glut and the EU is buying up the surplus to try to maintain prices.
13c an ounce was quoted here.
I just went to Walmart and bought 3L of "extra virgen" (oh yeah) olive oil that worked out at 8.25 cents/oz in US units. It seems that price is dropping a lot. That's cheaper than corn oil.
(edit) I'll have to change my recipe!

I agree! Looks like I may have to make a stop at walmart this week... thanks for the heads up.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

If it does go that low, I'll got back to using EVOO instead of pomace.

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

Thank you for all your thoughtful replies. I appreciate the input and feedback!

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Kristen D. Vineyard
visit my blog http://washwithvegetables.blogspot.com

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