Is my pricing unreasonable

[businessfromhome]

im going to start selling home made shampoo made from natural ingredients, 120ml for £15 from home. My reasoning is that people will pay that much for a gift for a friend. It costs me £2.50 a bottle to make before I go into any other costs but before you jump on my case Im not a mass producer who can afford to flog a bottle of shampoo for a fiver. Companies sell thousands of those, Ill only get to sell a few because that is what I can afford. I live in a touristy village. i put a fake postcode in to mumsnet as i wasnt comfortable answering, sorry! other people are selling things like vegetables and eggs and jam from honesty boxes. there are a few craft shops but I wouldnt make anything as theyd want to make a big profit and i wouldnt make anything. that being said I know things are only worth what people will pay so just to get opinions, how much would you honestly pay for what I am selling

That’s a lot of money to charge, and you have to be careful with any claims made on the label. Just wondering if you are aware of the legalities around selling such stuff? Each ‘recipe’ will need to be cosmetically assessed by a suitably qualified chemist, once you get certification as safe, you need to register your product on the government’s Cosmetic safety portal.

I can get 250ml of Olaplex Shampoo for £26 (or less with a discount code) and that has actual scientific benefits to repair damaged hair.

Its a no from me, unfortunately.

www.gov.uk/guidance/making-cosmetic-products-available-to-consumers-in-great-britain

And

www.ctpa.org.uk/faqs

I assume you've looked at all that kind of info too?

How much did you have to pay for the liability insurance, product testing etc ?

£2.50 for ingredients- that’s a lot, what’s in it?
£4.50 for packaging.
it’s just not a viable business model, far too expensive. You could buy a luxury brand for that price.
I wouldn’t personally buy home made toiletries because they haven’t been dermatologically tested.

I dont even want to think about how much ive spent, hundreds and hundreds.

You're expecting to make a massive profit!

£7 is more realistic and even then it's pushing it.

Im just going to have to accept the loss, its going to take too long to make it all back, I can only sell a few at a time 😂

Keep the recipe and call it luxury hand wash. Then the testing costs won’t go to waste.

To legally sell, they have to be assessed by a cosmetic safety assessor, who is a specialised chemist. They are only ‘passed’ if deemed safe, UK has some of the most stringent rules when it comes to selling home made products which are designed for use on the skin.

im not sure id be able to as ive got it registered down as shampoo. do you really think that would work? id have to get new labels

Where are you planning on selling?

from my house

You might get higher prices at markets and fayres especially at Christmas if you package as a gift.

A local company to me charges £16 for about 250ml of shower gel. That’s pricey but the smell is divine, a bottle lasts ages and so I do buy it. I wouldn’t pay that for half the quantity.

That's more expensive than olaplex!

I would not spend that for 120ml I'm afraid.

For that price I'd want at least 250ml and it would also have to be amazing.

even if i sold it for £7.50 at a fare, then there would be fuel costs and im not guaranteed to sell much if anything, id make fuck all. and anything i did make would go towards the fortune i spent on things like product testing. i wish id thought about this more but i just jumped at it, enthusiastic that I could sell it for so much but thats probably already apparent. i dont know what to do with all these bottles now 😂

ive wasted so much money 😂

Did you not do any research before you spent all that money?!

I think shampoo is one of those holy grail items that is individual to each person. I would never gift a bottle and any bottle I received would probably be repurposed as body wash.

I would pay £15 for 120ml, but only if I believed there was a chance it could do something miraculous for my hair. I think as a minimum you’d need endorsements from people with big social media followings to sell at any quantity, sorry.

Body washes and hand washes are a lot less personal and much easier to gift - particularly if they are either divinely scented, beautifully packaged or have excellent eco credentials.

I wouldn't buy it. I just wouldn't even consider paying that much for shampoo.

Have you done your full costings? How much does each finished bottle actually cost you to produce?

I have an online business and pricing is hard! I've just done my tax return and my profit this year was only 26%. It is normal to not make lots back on your products.

I did. I was just a bit too hopeful 😂

Have you sold anything yet? Give it a go and see what happens. Do you have a local market near you? Christmas markets are fun, stalls are usually between 10- 25 quid where I am.

I know you said a bottle costs you 2.50 but I meant including packaging, your time, marketing etc

Repackage it as luxury hand wash, keep the formula and the testing won’t be wasted