To price a tube of lip gloss you add up its full cost first: the gloss base, pigments and tubes by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the label, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one tube 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 10 ml tube of lip gloss that costs $2.39 to make, a 78% margin after 3% fees means $12.59, rounded up to $13.00. The tube with its wand costs about as much as the gloss in it; a fancier tube moves the price more than any pigment. Boutiques pay about half of retail, so the retail price has to leave room for it. In the example below, a Nashville lip gloss maker prices its tubes for online sales and boutiques.
The short version
- Full cost = base, pigments and tubes a tube + your time + 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 tube and wand: they cost as much as the gloss.
- Set retail so half of it, the wholesale price, still leaves a margin.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack keeps gloss base, micas and tubes counted and costs every batch. More below.
What goes into a tube's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Base, pigments and tubes | The batch's cost ÷ tubes a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ tubes × your hourly rate |
| Label | Per tube |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the tubes you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
The maker's year is in lip gloss business plan, and what goes on the label in cosmetic labeling requirements.
An example: a 10 ml tube
Honeysuckle Lip Co., the made-up lip gloss maker in Nashville, Tennessee, I use in these examples, fills 50 tubes at a time:
| A batch of 50 tubes | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Gloss base | 1 lb | $25.00 |
| Mica and pigments | $12.00 | |
| Flavor oil | 0.05 lb | $2.00 |
| Vitamin E | 0.02 lb | $0.60 |
| Tubes with wands | 50 | $27.50 |
| A batch | $67.10 |
| A tube | Cost |
|---|---|
| Base, pigments and tubes, $67.10 ÷ 50 | $1.34 |
| Time, 75 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 50 | $0.50 |
| Label | $0.25 |
| Overhead | $0.30 |
| Full cost | $2.39 |
At a 78% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $2.39 ÷ 0.19 = $12.59, so $13.00. At $13.00 a tube, each leaves $10.22. It sells at $14.00, which leaves $11.19, because the tubes are a gift item. Boutiques pay $7.00, half of retail, which leaves $4.40 a tube. What MoCRA asks of a small cosmetics maker is in mocra small business.
Get the calculator
Download the lip gloss price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's supplies, amounts and costs, the tubes it makes, the hands-on minutes, the 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 one shade on paper. Twelve shades with different micas, tubes that went up a dime, and a gift set of three change what each tube really cost.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps gloss base, micas and tubes counted, and costs every batch.
Supplies in their units. Gloss base bought by the pound is used by the gram, and tubes and wands by the each.
Designs as recipes. Each shade 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 |
| Tubes refilled or thrown out | 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.