To price a bath bomb you add up its full cost first: the baking soda, citric acid, oils and fragrance by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the shrink wrap and label, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one bath bomb costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For a 6-ounce bath bomb that costs $2.69 to make, a 55% margin after 3% fees means $6.40, rounded up to $6.50. Citric acid and fragrance are most of the cost, and a humid day that cracks or puffs a batch costs the whole batch. Wholesale to shops is a different price, set so it still covers the full cost with something left. In the example below, a Texas bath bomb maker prices for the holiday markets.
The short version
- Full cost = supplies a bath bomb + your time + wrap and label + overhead.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
- Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
- Count the bombs that crack or puff in the mold.
- Price gift sets on their own; the box changes the cost.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack keeps baking soda, citric acid and fragrance counted and costs every batch. More below.
What goes into a bath bomb's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Supplies | The batch's cost ÷ bath bombs a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ bath bombs × your hourly rate |
| Wrap and label | Per bath bomb |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the bath bombs you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
What a bath bomb business looks like over a year is in bath bomb business plan, and wrapping them in how to package bath bombs for sale.
An example: a 6-ounce bath bomb
Bluebonnet Bath Co., a made-up bath bomb maker in Austin, Texas, presses 24 six-ounce bombs a batch:
| Supply | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Baking soda | 6 lb | $4.80 |
| Citric acid | 3 lb | $7.50 |
| Cornstarch | 1 lb | $1.00 |
| Epsom salt | 1 lb | $1.00 |
| Oils | 0.5 lb | $1.50 |
| Fragrance oil | 2 oz | $4.00 |
| Colorant | $1.50 | |
| A batch | $21.30 |
| A bath bomb | Cost |
|---|---|
| Supplies, $21.30 ÷ 24 | $0.89 |
| Time, 90 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 24 | $1.25 |
| Wrap and label | $0.30 |
| Overhead | $0.25 |
| Full cost | $2.69 |
At a 55% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $2.69 ÷ 0.42 = $6.40, so $6.50. At $6.50 a bomb, each leaves $3.62. It had been asking $6, which leaves $3.13, and moved to $6.50 for the holiday season. A boutique asked for bombs at $4.00, which leaves $1.19 each, enough for an order of five dozen. About one batch in ten cracks on a humid day; spread over the rest, that's about 10 cents a bomb in lost supplies. The first steps are in starting a bath bomb business.
Get the calculator
Download the bath bomb price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's supplies, amounts and costs, the bath bombs it makes, the hands-on minutes, the wrap and label and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave 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 prices a bomb on paper. A month of humid days and a new citric acid price change what the bombs on the shelf really cost.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps baking soda, citric acid and fragrance counted, and costs every batch.
Supplies in their units. Baking soda bought by the 50-pound bag is used by the pound, and fragrance bought by the bottle is weighed by the ounce.
Designs as recipes. Each bath bomb is a recipe of its supplies, so a batch takes them off stock and is costed from what they cost, and good and rejected pieces are recorded.
Reordering. Supplies come up on a reorder list in days of cover, worked out from how fast they're used.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Supplies on hand | Count the shelf | Stock in its own units |
| What a batch cost | Prices you type | Costed from what you paid |
| Batches that crack | Not counted | Good and rejected on each batch |
| When to reorder | When it's low | Reorder list in days of cover |
Recipes, units, costing and reorder lists 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.