Bath bombs have been exploding in popularity in recent years. They have a great profit margin – they’re cheap to make, and they sell for more than double the cost of production.
So, maybe you’ve decided to try and get in on this business model yourself!
Here’s how to make and sell bath bombs from home:
Read on to learn how to make bath bombs, what the licensing and labeling requirements are, how to sell and market them, how much you can make, and more!
1. Get an Inventory
The first thing you’ll need to do is get an inventory of product. There are two main avenues you could take to accomplish this:
- Make your own bath bombs (option A)
- Purchase from a wholesaler (option B)
Let’s take a closer look at each.
Make Your Own Bath Bombs (Option A)
Crafting your own DIY bath bombs is a simple process.
Not only do you get to have more control over the scents, colors, and shapes you want to use, but it’s also a lot more cost effective in the long run than buying wholesale.
In fact, the average bath bomb costs only $0.25 to make – and that can be even cheaper if you buy your ingredients in bulk!
A simple bath bomb recipe will contain the following ingredients:
- Baking soda
- Citric acid
- Epsom salt
- Water
- Essential oils (for scents)
- Regular oil (coconut, olive, jojoba, etc.)
- Food coloring
On top of that, you’ll also need a mold for each shape and size of bath bomb.
There’s lots of different recipes online that you can try out, and you’ll probably end up making a few trial batches while you’re perfecting your own!
Test Your Products
If you choose to make your own bath bombs, you’ll also need to factor in the time and cost of creating a few batches to test once you have your recipe nailed down.
This step requires a bit of patience and organization.
Basically, what you’re doing is testing your bath bombs over a period of time to look for the following:
- How long their scent lasts once it’s been made
- How well they hold up over time
- At what point they start significantly degrading in quality
All of these things will help you figure out an expiration date.
Generally speaking, bath bombs last an average of six months – but the rule of thumb is that the fresher they are, the better they’ll smell and the fizzier they’ll be.
So, while you don’t necessarily have to wait six months before you start selling your bath bombs, if you test for a week and notice a significant decrease in the scent or effectiveness of the product, you should probably look at tweaking your recipe.
Licensing and Labeling Regulations
This is where the downside to making your own bath bombs comes into play: the legalities.
Since you’re going to be selling them, you’re want to make sure you follow all the government regulations regarding them.
In the United States, bath bombs are considered cosmetics by the FDA and need to be regulated as such.
That means that you’ll need to use only FDA-approved colorants and follow the basic labeling guidelines, which include:
- Making the declaration conspicuous
- Using at least the minimum lettering sizes
- Listing the ingredients in descending order
It might seem like a lot at first, but once you get the process down, creating your own bath bombs can easily be the more fun and lucrative option for budding entrepreneurs.
Purchase Bath Bombs From a Wholesaler (Option B)
Of course, if you’re not that crafty or otherwise just want to skip most of those steps, you could always buy your bath bombs directly from a wholesaler.
They’re going to be more expensive up front – generally costing from $1.50 to $3.00 per bath bomb – but you’re saving yourself a lot of time.
Not to mention, wholesale bath bombs will take out a lot of the headache of figuring out the legalities of ingredients and so forth.
Most wholesalers will even offer custom labeling and even packaging, it just depends on which company you buy from.
2. Setup an Online Store
After you’ve figured out where to get your inventory from, the next step is to create a place to sell them online.
Just a quick note here – you could technically sell these in a brick and mortar store.
However, the overhead costs would be significantly higher, and you would need a much larger inventory stocked up, which would cost more up front.
That being said, if a brick and mortar store is your goal, it would still be worth it to start out smaller online, build up a customer base, and see if this is really what you want to do before you go all in and open up a store front.
There are two main ways you can sell your product online:
- Creating your own website and store
- Sell on an e-commerce site
Let’s break down each one.
Create your own website and store
Building your own website sounds like a daunting task – especially if you’re not very tech-savvy. Plus, you might have a common misconception that creating your own website is expensive.
While there is a bit of time investment involved, there are ways to create a website for free. The only real cost you might end up looking at is the cost of a personalized domain.
I personally prefer WordPress because not only can you build a professional-looking website very easily, which I show in the link above, but WordPress sites are geared a lot more towards helping you get free traffic from search engines like Google. Which means more visitors on your site, and more sales as a result.
Another option is to use a site-builder, like Wix.com, which makes it incredibly easy to build an attractive, functional website even if you don’t have any prior experience.
Plus, with sites like Wix, you can easily add on a store option which you can customize to fit your bath bomb-selling needs.
The main downfall to taking this route is that you’re going to spend a lot more time initially setting up your digital storefront. And, if you don’t go for the totally free option, you might need to invest a little bit of money as well.
For example, a year-long subscription to Wix with your own personalized domain and shop would cost you about $276 – although they frequently offer 50% off coupons for first time users.
But there are a few upsides to this method as well.
For one, it’ll be a lot easier to build and scale your brand. It’ll also be easier to integrate with your other social media outlets to help better establish your online presence.
On top of that, it gives you the ability to effortlessly grow and manage your email list.
Sell on an e-commerce site
If you don’t have the time to learn the ins and outs of website building, or you don’t want to spend the money up front, you could always start by selling on an e-commerce site.
The most popular third-party sites are:
- Etsy
- Shopify
- Amazon
Signing up for these sites is straightforward, free, and a lot less time consuming.
3. Market Your Homemade Bath Bombs
After you’ve set up your space to sell your product, the next (and arguably most important) step is marketing.
One of the first things you’ll want to do is establish a social media presence.
Not only will it improve brand recognition and keep you connected with your customer base, it’s also an easy way to market your product.
For example, Facebook advertising can be extremely beneficial for your company – if you know how to do it correctly. So, take a little bit of time and do some research on this subject.
Not to mention, there’s multiple different ways you can monetize a Facebook group, or any other social media site for that matter.
And if you’re extra motivated and don’t mind putting in a little extra work, you can even work on building up a local customer base by setting up shop at local farmer’s markets or vendor booths at a county fair.
Regardless of which methods you use, marketing is one of the most important aspects, so don’t rush through this step!
4. Sell Your Bath Bombs
If you’ve stocked up on a quality product, created a functional online shopping platform, and successfully marketed your product, this step should be a breeze.
As you start selling product, keep an inventory going of what you’ve sold, how much you have left, and the like.
Get the feel for when to reorder inventory (or make a new batch!) so that you’re always ready to ship the same day, but you’re not drowning in unsold product.
Take note of which products are selling well, which ones aren’t appealing to your customer base, and make any necessary changes.
If you’ve built an email list, use that to continue marketing to your customers.
Look for (and encourage) feedback and take any criticism as an opportunity to improve your product.
And always remember that you’re responsible for filing your own taxes, keeping track of how much you earn, and everything else on the “business” side of things.
Can You Really Make Money Selling Bath Bombs?
You can sell a bath bomb for $4.00-$10.00, but most people sell a standard 4oz one for around $6.00.
If you make them yourself, you’d spend anywhere from $0.25-$2.00 per bath bomb, depending on the intricacy of your design and the number of ingredients, oils, etc.
If you purchased them wholesale, you’d be spending anywhere from $1.50-$3.00 per bath bomb.
That means you can reasonably expect to profit $3.00-$5.75 per bath bomb.
So this is definitely a potentially good way to make money, and if you enjoy making your own bath bombs then it could also become quite a rewarding business.
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