While ultimately it is up to you how to price the products you put your time and effort into, in order to ensure you are not under charging and loosing money it is best to first figure out exactly how much the product cost for you to make. This will vary from person to person and product to product as we many have different ingredients, packaging and shipping costs.
Save your receipts!!
I am going to use some basic examples to help you understand the dreaded math a head.
Lets Calculate the cost of a facial oil, we are making 100g of product.
The Formula Reads (this is a made up formulation strictly for an example purpose, I have NOT made or used this formulation)
These Products will be priced according to New Directions Aromatics Canada
30% Sunflower Oil
30% Safflower Oil
10% Jojoba Oil
10% Grapeseed Oil
10% Sweet Almond Oil
8% Rice Bran Oil
2% Broccoli Seed Oil
Shipping Cost $15.99 for the 7 items
15.99 / 7 = 2.28428571
Cross Check 2.28428571 x 7 = 15.99
I round up to cover all my bases $ 2.29 per product.
Sunflower Oil $16.93 1000 ml add shipping of $ 2.29
$16.93 + $ 2. 29 = $19.22
Now we need to figure out how much our Sunflower oil is costing us per gram (since we formulate in % which converts easily into grams this makes our math easier)
19.22 / 1000 = 0.01922
You can cross check your work by taking 0.01922x 1000= 19.22
1 gram would cost 0.01922
Since our formulation calls for 30% Sunflower Oil (remember we are making 100g of product for sale so this easily converts to 30 grams)
0.01922 x 30= 0.5766 ( you can round up to 0.58 if needed)
TOTAL COST FOR SUNFLOWER OIL IN FORMULA $0.58
Safflower Oil $22.86 1000ml + $ 2. 28 shipping
$22.86+ $2.28 = $25.14
25.14 / 1000 = 0.02514
Cross Check 0.02514 x 1000 = 25.14
1 gram would cost 0.02514
Our formulation calls for 30% Safflower Oil ( remember we are making a 100g batch so this easily converts to 30 grams)
0.02514 x 30 = 0.7542 (you can round up to 0.76 if needed)
TOTAL COST FOR SAFFLOWER OIL IN FORMULA IS $0.76
Jojoba Oil $40.79 1000 ml + $ 2.28 shipping
40.79 + 2.28 = 43.07
43.07 / 1000 = 0.04307
Cross Check 0.04407 x 1000 = 43.07
Our formulation calls for 10% Jojoba Oil ( remember we are making a 100g batch so this easily converts to 10g)
10 x 0.04307 = 0.4307
TOTAL COST OF JOJOBA OIL FOR THIS FORMULATION IS $ 0.43
Grapeseed Oil $12.41 1000ml + $ 2.28 shipping
12.41 + 2.28 = 14.69
14.69 / 1000 = 0.01469
Cross Check 0.01469 x 1000 = 14.69
Formula Calls for 10 % ( converts to 10g for 100 g batch, if this confuses you please refer to my previous post on how to read a cosmetic formula)
0.01469 x 10 = 0.1469 ( round up to 0.15)
TOTAL COST OF GRAPESEED OIL IS $ 0.15
Sweet Almond $16.57 1000ml + 2.29 shipping cost
18.86 / 1000 = 0.01886
Cross Check 0.01886 x 1000 = 18.86
Formula calls for 10% ( converts to 10 grams for this example formula)
0.01886 x 10 = 0.1886 ( round up to 0.19)
TOTAL COST OF SWEET ALMOND OIL IS $ 0.19
Rice Bran Oil $12.46 1000ml + 2.29 shipping
12.46 + 2.26 = 14.74
$14.74 / 1000 = 0.01474
Cross Check 0.01474 x 1000 = 14.74
Formula calls for 8% ( converts to 8 grams )
0.01474 x 8 = 0.011792 ( round up to 0.12)
TOTAL COST FOR THIS FORMULATION IS $ 0.12
Broccoli Seed Oil $27.81 100ml ( this one is a smaller bottle ) + $ 2.28 shipping
27.81 + 2.28= 30.09
$30.09 / 100 = 0.3009
Cross Check 0.3009 x 100 = $30.09
Formula Calls for 2% ( converts to 2 grams )
0.3009 x 2 = 0.6018 ( round up to 0.60)
TOTAL COST FOR THIS FORMULA IS $ 0.60
Now lets total it the cost for this product
0.58+ 0.76 + 0.43 + 0.15 + 0.19 + 0.12 + 0.60 = 2.83
TOTAL COST IS $ 2.83
Now add your packaging and label costs.
You can now decide on your profit margin which is generally 4 - 6 x the total cost of product (this allows you room for wholesale options) including labels and packaging.
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