How do you price handmade soap?
Start from what one bar really costs you: the ingredients for a batch divided by the bars you cut, plus packaging, a wage for your time and a share of overhead. Then set a retail price that leaves a margin, often around twice that full cost, and check that a wholesale price (commonly about half of retail) still covers your cost. Compare with what similar soaps sell for where you sell, and adjust.
1. Ingredient cost per bar
Multiply the weight of every ingredient by what you paid for it, add them up, and divide by the number of bars. The example uses the calculator's recipe (Olive oil 50%, Coconut oil 25%, Shea butter 20%, Castor oil 5%, 1000 g of oils) with made-up prices per kilogram, and 12 bars:
| Ingredient | Weight | Example price per kg | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 500.0 g | $9.00 | $4.50 |
| Coconut oil | 250.0 g | $6.00 | $1.50 |
| Shea butter | 200.0 g | $12.00 | $2.40 |
| Castor oil | 50.0 g | $8.00 | $0.40 |
| Sodium hydroxide | 138.5 g | $5.00 | $0.69 |
| Batch total | $9.49 | ||
| Per bar (÷ 12) | $0.79 |
Fragrance, colorants and additives go in the same way; they are often a big share of the cost. Water is usually too cheap to matter.
2. Full cost per bar
| Cost | Per bar |
|---|---|
| Ingredients | $0.79 |
| Packaging | $0.40 |
| Labor (estimate) | $1.25 |
| Overhead (estimate) | $0.25 |
| Full cost | $2.69 |
Labor here is $15 an hour for one hour of making, cutting and cleaning, spread over 12 bars. Overhead covers things like molds, market fees, website and insurance, spread over the bars you sell. Leave your time out and the price only pays you back for materials.
3. Retail and wholesale
- Doubling: a long-standing rule of thumb doubles cost for wholesale and doubles again for retail. Made Urban points out it can lose money if overhead is left out, and suggests building up from full cost and a profit margin instead (Made Urban: How to price a handmade product).
- Example at 2 × full cost: $5.38 retail; at a 60% margin, $6.73.
- Wholesale: retailers commonly expect to buy at about half the retail price (Made Urban: How to price a handmade product). At 2 × full cost, half of retail is $2.69: exactly your full cost, so a wholesale order earns nothing. At the 60% margin price it is $3.37. If you plan to sell wholesale, set retail so that half of it still covers your full cost and a profit.
- Fees: marketplaces and card processors take a share of each sale. Check your channel's current fee page and include it.
4. Sell by cured weight
Bars lose weight as they cure, so weigh cured bars before you print a weight on a label (Makesy: How long does bar soap need to cure?). In the US, a bar sold as a cosmetic needs a net weight statement; see soap vs cosmetic.
The numbers on this page come from the same costing and pricing code the Soap Ledger app uses for per-bar costs and suggested prices. In the app, ingredient costs come from what you paid for each lot, and unknown costs are shown as unknown rather than as zero.
Lye safety. Verify every weight before you make this, and follow lye safety. Not a safety or compliance certification. Eye protection, gloves and covered skin; ventilation and a clear, uninterrupted workspace.
Try it in the lye calculator. Get the exact ingredient weights for your recipe, then multiply by what you pay.
Sources
Written for Soap Ledger in our own words. Numbers in the examples are calculated by Soap Ledger's engine when the page is built. Last updated .