A handmade soap bar can go out four ways. A kraft box protects the edges and the scent and stacks neatly on a gift shop shelf. A belly band, a printed paper strip around the bar, is the cheapest and lets the bar breathe, but the scent fades and the edges chip. Shrink wrap seals in the scent and keeps the bar clean, but a bar that isn't fully cured will sweat inside it. A muslin bag with a hang tag looks like a gift and suits markets, where people want to smell the bar. Whatever the wrap, the bar should be fully cured first, and the label carries what the product needs: a true soap its identity, net weight and who made it; a cosmetic soap an ingredient list too. In the example below, a South Carolina soap maker's options run from 6 cents to 53 cents a bar. Below are the options, the label, the example, and a free cost calculator.
The short version
- Gift shop shelves: a kraft box, with a window if you want the bar seen.
- Lowest cost and a natural look: a belly band.
- Clean and scent sealed in: shrink wrap with a label, on fully cured bars only.
- Markets and gifts: a muslin bag with a hang tag.
- Cure bars fully before wrapping, especially in shrink wrap.
- The label depends on what the soap is: true soap or cosmetic.
- Count the wrap in the bar's cost, and check it against your wholesale price.
- TaroStack counts boxes, bands and labels like ingredients, used in every batch. More below.
The options
| Option | Scent | Protects | Shows the bar | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kraft box | Holds it | Well | Only with a window | Gift shops |
| Belly band | Fades | Little | Yes | Markets, a natural look |
| Shrink wrap and label | Seals it in | Keeps it clean | Yes | Shops wanting clean bars |
| Muslin bag | Lets it out | Moderately | Through the cloth | Markets, gifts |
The label
What goes on the label follows what the soap is. A true soap, mostly alkali salts of fatty acids, cleaning because of them and sold only as soap, isn't a cosmetic: its label names the product, its net weight, and who made it. A soap that claims to moisturize or deodorize is a cosmetic, and its label also lists ingredients in the cosmetic format. A claim to treat skin makes it a drug. The test is in FDA soap regulations, and the cosmetic label in cosmetic labeling requirements.
An example: four ways to wrap a bar
Salt Marsh Soap Co., the made-up soap maker in Charleston, South Carolina, I use in these examples, sells bars to gift shops at $4.50, which they sell at $9:
| Option | Parts | Per bar | 120 bars a week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kraft soap box | Box 38¢, label | $0.44 | $52.35 |
| Belly band | Printed band 6¢ | $0.06 | $7.42 |
| Shrink wrap and label | Band 3¢, label | $0.07 | $8.88 |
| Muslin bag | Bag 48¢, hang tag | $0.53 | $64.05 |
The gift shops asked for boxes, so the shop bars go in kraft boxes with a window: 44 cents of the $4.50 wholesale price, nearly 10%. The market bars wear belly bands at 6 cents. How the bars are priced to shops is in how to sell soap wholesale, and every packaging cost in packaging cost per unit.
Get the calculator
Download the soap packaging calculator. Two sheets: components, each part of each option with its pack price, units, how many a bar uses and waste; and compare, each option's cost per bar and per week at your volume, with notes. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Two wraps for two channels means two packaging items to keep stocked and two costs per bar, and bars that are still curing can't be shrink-wrapped yet. A notebook doesn't show which bars are ready to wrap.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack counts boxes, bands and labels like ingredients, used in every batch.
Packaging in the recipe. The box or the band is an item in the bar's recipe, so every batch uses it up at the price you paid.
Curing held. A batch still curing can be held, kept out of what can be sold, until it's ready to wrap.
What each channel earns. Each batch carries its true cost, packaging included, and margins show by product and by customer.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Boxes left | Counted when you run out | Used by every batch |
| Bars still curing | A sign on the rack | A hold until ready |
| What a shop's bars earn | Worked out once | Margin by customer |
Recipes, batches and true cost 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.