Soap Ingredient Cost Calculator

Cost the oils, lye, water, fragrance and colour in a soap batch, per batch and per bar.

The money in a bar of soap is mostly in the oils, but the fragrance, the colour and the delivery charge all add up, and each of them is easy to forget when a price is set from memory. This calculator totals every ingredient line for a batch, gives the cost per bar, and shows what share each line takes, so you can see which ingredient is worth buying differently.

At a glance

What you enter: Bars in the batch, Oils the batch uses, Oil price per ounce, Lye solution the batch uses, Lye price per ounce, Water the batch uses, Fragrance or essential oil, Fragrance price per ounce, Colourant cost for the batch, Delivery and tax on the order
What you get: Materials total for the batch, Ingredient cost per bar, Ingredient cost per bar before delivery, Oil share of the total, Fragrance share of the total, Delivery and tax share of the total, Batch weight from these lines
Formula shown: Yes, every step, right below your results.
Cost and privacy: Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.

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Bars in the batch bars

Oils the batch uses oz

Weight of oils, from the batch size calculator or your own recipe.

Oil price per ounce USD/oz

Divide a container price by the weight in the container. A 16 ounce bottle at 3.84 is 0.24 an ounce.

Lye solution the batch uses oz

The planning figure from the batch size calculator. The real weight comes from a lye calculator.

Lye price per ounce USD/oz

Water the batch uses oz

Fragrance or essential oil oz

A percentage of the oil weight. Your supplier's usage rate for that oil governs.

Fragrance price per ounce USD/oz

A pound of fragrance at 38.40 is 2.40 an ounce.

Colourant cost for the batch USD

Micronised pigment, clay or mica for this batch.

Delivery and tax on the order USD

Reset

Results are estimates for general information only, always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.

How to use the Soap Ingredient Cost Calculator

1 Enter Bars in the batch (bars)
2 Enter Oils the batch uses (oz), Weight of oils, from the batch size calculator or your own recipe.
3 Enter Oil price per ounce (USD/oz), Divide a container price by the weight in the container. A 16 ounce bottle at 3.84 is 0.24 an ounce.
4 Enter Lye solution the batch uses (oz), The planning figure from the batch size calculator. The real weight comes from a lye calculator.
5 Enter Lye price per ounce (USD/oz)
6 Enter Water the batch uses (oz)
7 Enter Fragrance or essential oil (oz), A percentage of the oil weight. Your supplier's usage rate for that oil governs.
8 Enter Fragrance price per ounce (USD/oz), A pound of fragrance at 38.40 is 2.40 an ounce.
9 Enter Colourant cost for the batch (USD), Micronised pigment, clay or mica for this batch.
10 Enter Delivery and tax on the order (USD)
11 Press Calculate. You get Materials total for the batch, Ingredient cost per bar, Ingredient cost per bar before delivery, Oil share of the total, Fragrance share of the total, Delivery and tax share of the total, Batch weight from these lines, and every intermediate step stays visible under "How is this calculated?"
12 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result, that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.

Worked examples

Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.

Eight bar olive and coconut batch

Twenty five ounces of oils at 0.24 an ounce, a 6 percent fragrance load and colourant for the batch.

You enter

Bars in the batch: 8
Oils the batch uses: 25 oz
Oil price per ounce: $0.24
Lye solution the batch uses: 9.50 oz
Lye price per ounce: $0.12
Water the batch uses: 8.75 oz
Fragrance or essential oil: 1.50 oz
Fragrance price per ounce: $2.40
Colourant cost for the batch: $0.60
Delivery and tax on the order: $9.00

You get

Materials total for the batch: $20.36
Ingredient cost per bar: $2.54
Ingredient cost per bar before delivery: $1.42
Oil share of the total: 29.5%
Fragrance share of the total: 17.7%
Delivery and tax share of the total: 44.2%
Batch weight from these lines: 44.75 oz

About 19.90 for the batch, which is 2.49 a bar with delivery included. Buying oil in a larger container is the quickest saving.

Open this example in the calculator →

Unscented and uncoloured batch

The same oils and batch size with no fragrance and no colour, for a plain bar.

You enter

Bars in the batch: 8
Oils the batch uses: 25 oz
Oil price per ounce: $0.24
Lye solution the batch uses: 9.50 oz
Lye price per ounce: $0.12
Water the batch uses: 8.75 oz
Fragrance or essential oil: 0 oz
Fragrance price per ounce: $2.40
Colourant cost for the batch: $0.00
Delivery and tax on the order: $9.00

You get

Materials total for the batch: $16.16
Ingredient cost per bar: $2.02
Ingredient cost per bar before delivery: $0.89
Oil share of the total: 37.1%
Fragrance share of the total: 0.0%
Delivery and tax share of the total: 55.7%
Batch weight from these lines: 43.25 oz

The same batch without fragrance or colour is about 1.43 a bar, mostly because delivery is spread over fewer lines.

Open this example in the calculator →

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Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to make a bar of soap?

For a small cold process bar, ingredients commonly land between 0.70 and 1.60 in materials, with the oils taking the largest share. Olive, coconut and palm or tallow blends are cheaper than a bar built on butters and speciality oils, and fragrance can add a fifth or more to the total. Enter your own prices above, because shipping on a small order can change the per bar cost by more than the recipe does.

Why is fragrance such a large part of the cost?

Because fragrance oil is expensive by weight compared with oils, and a 5 to 6 percent load is a real amount in a 4.5 ounce bar. At 2.40 an ounce, 1.5 ounces in a batch of eight bars adds about 0.45 to every bar. Your supplier publishes the usage rate for each oil and it is worth checking before you increase a load to make a bar smell stronger, because a higher rate costs money as well as carrying formulation risk.

Should delivery and tax be part of the cost per bar?

Yes. Freight is charged on heavy liquids and on the alkali, and both are materials that went into the bars. Splitting the delivery across the batch is the only way to compare two suppliers honestly, because a cheaper list price with a large minimum order and a long delivery can cost more per bar than a dearer local supplier. The tool shows the cost per bar with and without it so you can see how much of the unit cost is freight.

How do I work out the price per ounce of an oil?

Divide what you paid, including delivery and tax, by the weight in the container. A 16 ounce bottle that cost 3.84 is 0.24 an ounce, and the calculator converts that to 3.84 a pound for you. If your supplier quotes a price per pound, divide by 16 to get the ounce price before entering it, and if they quote per kilogram, divide the kilogram price by 35.274.

Do these figures replace a supplier invoice check?

No. They are planning estimates built from the prices you type, and they assume nothing is spilled and nothing is left in the pot. Compare the total against a real supplier order once, adjust the prices, and use the result to decide whether a recipe is worth making at the price you can sell it for. The batch size, lye and water figures here are planning numbers: the actual formulation belongs in a reliable lye calculator.

Terms used here

Short, plain-language definitions of the words this calculator uses.

Saponification The chemical reaction in which an alkali, either sodium hydroxide for bar soap or potassium hydroxide for liquid soap, reacts with fats and oils to form soap and glycerine.Every...

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