A bath bomb keeps a wide margin at retail: a 5.5-ounce bomb costs $2.34 in baking soda, citric acid, oils, fragrance and color, the shrink bag and label, mixing and pressing time and the card fee, and sells for $8.00, a 70.8% margin. Shops and spas pay $4.25, which keeps 50.6%, and a gift box of three keeps 64%. Labor costs more than the ingredients. Margin = (price − cost) ÷ price. In the example below, a month of three lines brings $5,830 of sales and about $3,550 of gross profit, before insurance, safety records and the owner's pay.
The short version
- Margin = (price − cost) ÷ price; markup = (price − cost) ÷ cost.
- A retail bomb: $2.34, sold for $8.00, 70.8%.
- Labor costs more than the ingredients.
- Shops and spas keep 50.6%.
- Gift boxes of three keep 64%.
- TaroStack costs each bomb from what each batch used. More below.
A bath bomb, costed
Hoʻola Botanicals, the made-up skincare maker in Kailua, Oʻahu, I use in these examples, presses bath bombs 12 at a time:
| A 5.5-ounce bath bomb at retail | Cost |
|---|---|
| Baking soda, citric acid, oils, fragrance and color | $0.70 |
| Shrink bag and label | $0.15 |
| Mixing and pressing, 45 minutes a batch of 12 | $1.25 |
| Card fees, 3% of $8.00 | $0.24 |
| Cost | $2.34 |
The business behind these bombs is in bath bomb business plan, and a batch of 12 worked through in starting a bath bomb business.
Margins by channel
| Product | Sold where | Price | Cost | Gross profit | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath bomb, 5.5 oz | Markets and online | $8.00 | $2.34 | $5.66 | 70.8% |
| Bath bomb, 5.5 oz | Shops and spas | $4.25 | $2.10 | $2.15 | 50.6% |
| Gift box of three | Markets and online | $22.00 | $7.91 | $14.09 | 64% |
A wholesale bomb leaves $2.15 against $5.66 at retail; the gift box leaves $14.09, with its box and tissue.
A month's numbers
A month for Hoʻola Botanicals' bath bombs:
| Product | Units | Sales | Gross profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bath bomb, 5.5 oz, markets and online | 300 | $2,400 | $1,698 |
| Bath bomb, 5.5 oz, shops and spas | 600 | $2,550 | $1,290 |
| Gift box of three, markets and online | 40 | $880 | $564 |
| Month | $5,830 | $3,552 |
The wholesale bombs are twice the retail count but bring less gross profit; they keep the molds busy and put the name in thirty shops and spas. Humidity is the cost a spreadsheet misses: a damp week cracks bombs, and every cracked bomb is a whole bomb's cost lost. What the cosmetics law asks of a small maker is in mocra small business.
Get the calculator
Download the bath bomb margin calculator. One sheet: one line for each product and channel, with its price, materials, packaging, labor and fee rate; the cost, gross profit, margin, markup and the price your target margin needs fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator holds one cost per bomb. Citric acid and fragrance prices move, a humid week cracks a batch, and a new mold changes the pressing time.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs each bomb from what each batch used, so margins sit on real cost.
True cost from the batch. Each batch takes baking soda, citric acid and fragrance at the price of the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows in the next batch's cost.
Labor on the batch. The minutes a batch took are recorded on it, so the hours behind each product are on record.
Margins by product. Margins are reported per product on that actual cost, and a price-creep report per supplier shows whose prices moved.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a bomb cost | One price from last season | Cost from the batch's deliveries |
| The hours behind a batch | Remembered | Labor minutes on the batch |
| An ingredient creeping up | Noticed late | A price-creep report |
| Margins by product | Re-worked by hand | Margins on real cost |
Recipes, batches, costing and margin reports are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.