To price a 1-ounce bottle of beard oil you add up its full cost first: the carrier oils, essential oils and bottles by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the label and box, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one bottle 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 1-ounce bottle that costs $3.22 to make, a 82% margin after 3% fees means $21.44, rounded up to $22.00. The dropper bottle and box together cost more than the oil, and argan is the dearest carrier oil. Barbershops pay half of retail, so the retail price has to leave room for it. In the example below, a Colorado personal care maker prices its beard oil for markets, online and barbershops.
The short version
- Full cost = oils and bottles a bottle + your time + label and box + 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 bottle, dropper and box: they cost more than the oil.
- Sell it to soften and condition; a claim to grow hair makes it a drug.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack keeps carrier oils, essential oils and bottles counted and costs every batch. More below.
What goes into a bottle's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Oils and bottles | The batch's cost ÷ bottles a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ bottles × your hourly rate |
| Label and box | Per bottle |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the bottles you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
The business behind these bottles is in beard oil business plan, and what goes on the label in cosmetic labeling requirements.
An example: a 1-ounce bottle
Juniper & Ash, the made-up personal care maker in Boulder, Colorado, I use in these examples, fills 48 bottles at a time:
| A batch of 48 bottles | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Jojoba oil | 1.5 lb | $24.00 |
| Argan oil | 0.5 lb | $16.00 |
| Sweet almond oil | 1 lb | $5.60 |
| Cedarwood and sandalwood oils | 0.09 lb | $7.20 |
| Dropper bottles | 48 | $31.20 |
| A batch | $84.00 |
| A bottle | Cost |
|---|---|
| Oils and bottles, $84.00 ÷ 48 | $1.75 |
| Time, 96 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 48 | $0.67 |
| Label and box | $0.60 |
| Overhead | $0.20 |
| Full cost | $3.22 |
At a 82% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $3.22 ÷ 0.15 = $21.44, so $22.00. At $22.00 a bottle, each leaves $18.12. The first markets charged $18.00, which leaves $14.24. Barbershops pay $11.00, half of retail, which leaves $7.45 a bottle, and they reorder by the case. How long a bottle keeps is in beard oil shelf life.
Get the calculator
Download the beard oil price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's supplies, amounts and costs, the bottles it makes, the hands-on minutes, the label and box 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 one scent. Four scents with different essential oils, argan that jumped in price, and gift sets with a balm and a comb change what each bottle really cost.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps carrier oils, essential oils and bottles counted, and costs every batch.
Supplies in their units. Oils bought by the pound are used by the ounce, and bottles and droppers by the each.
Designs as recipes. Each scent 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 |
| Bottles that leaked or broke | 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.