chemistryman Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I'm really pleased today because I got a quote for fragrances that is going to cut my fragrance costs by half. I have a lot of competition from HP and CP makers so I need to get my costs down if I'm going to offer a commercial product. This should do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyJo Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 which supplier sells for half what the others do ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chemistryman Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) International Fragrances & Flavours. Big multinational, 30 countries. I would bet that's where many of the soap essentials suppliers on the Net buy their fragrances. Fragrance has been costing me almost as much as raw materials. (I tend to be quite heavy on it, 5% usually) Edited January 31, 2012 by chemistryman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chemistryman Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 But I had better mention that when you buy fragrances OEM, you get the raw materials as it were. I would imagine that all these specialist suppliers you find on the Net use the raw materials in blending all these combinations that sell for a lot more. However for me, if I want an orange soap, orange f.o. does that just fine ... or lime, or mango, or red berries. Those are the kinds of soap I make. More exotic, well, I'll leave that to the experts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8-GRAN-ONES Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 so...you are getting the raw materials, and then mixing up the fragrances yourself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chemistryman Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 No, the fragrances are fine as they are. Just that I use simple fragrances, not all those wonderful combinations you find advertised. I like BB's "blackberry cybilla" for example, but it's more than twice the price of "red berries" which IMO is just as good. For each $1 I was spending on fats and NaOH, I was spending 80c on fragrance - too much. How much of the cost of your bars is fragrance? I'm curious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck_35550 Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 (edited) For me, the real trick is to find oils that I can use for soap and candles. Preferably no acceleration or heavy discoloration to interfere with whatever application I'm attempting. (Is that one of them there Haiku thing?). So the selections are few but not necessarily expensive. The main consideration is whether I trust the distributor to provide quality or hit and miss junk. I have quite a few oils that are total trash IMHO and those people don't get repeat business. Soaping and quality fos and eos are a must IMHO. Candles really require nice complex blends for the customer to enjoy the beginning middle and end notes. Plain janes are ok for mixing but you still have the same result. Yes, its about 1/3 of my cost per batch (1 oz pp or less if instructed) so the better the quality the less you use and the better result. HTHSteve Edited February 2, 2012 by chuck_35550 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TallTayl Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 @chemistryman - you can get good pricing on great premixed blended FO's by buying in the 5 kilo range from any of the major fragrance retailers. If you have a business license and can make a $5k per annum minimum Agilex has some of the best complex, great selling FO's I've used. JESozio is another place to try for an account. I have had them mix fragrances for me. Check into Liberty Naturals, EOUniversity and other bigger names for bigger quantities. Even buying 5 lbs at a time from proven e-tailers will keep your costs in check. Unless you're selling 1000+ bars a day like a good friend of mine, I can't see buying single note fragrances direct from the manufacturer in quantity.Quality FO's don't require as much, thereby saving you $ on your per bar material cost. Are you using about 1 oz fragrance PPO? Trying to make your own blends from single note FO's can work out if you have a talent for blending what your market. segment favors. Otherwise you're stuck holding a lot of single note fragrances that don't sell which is no savings.Just looked at a batch report from today of my own CP and found that fragrance is only running about 26.6% of my total materials (including shipping of raw materials to my workshop) with a total materials per bar cost of well under $1 for 5 oz vegetable based including shea, olive and cocoa butter and packaging. This is buying proven fragrances from popular e-tailers at small 1 lb quantities. If you're running at 80% FO cost, either your base oils are pennies per lb or you're not shopping at the right fragrance retailers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chemistryman Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 (edited) Interesting post, thanks.First, I do not live in the USA so would have to pay expensive shipping and import costs from there. However a friend did bring some over. Taking the blackberry as an example:BB's blackberry cybilla: 16 oz = 454g and the cost is $17.12 plus shipping, add say $1.88 for shipping.I use 100g per 2Kg batch, so at $19 per 454g = $4.18 for the fragrance.Using my recipe and converting from peso to dollars, I get: 100g avocado oil, $0.83 500g coconut oil, $1.71 600g shortening, $1.79 250g soybean, $0.60 250g sunflower, $0.75NaOH 1/4Kg $0.50Total . . . . . . . $6.18$6.18 for all ingredients except for the fragrance, then add $4.18 for the fragrance?! It represents 40% of the cost of the soap And even ordering 5 pounds from BB reduces the cost only 10% which is clearly not enough. But if I source 'red berries' instead, the soap smells actually slightly nicer, and my cost is now $2 for the fragrance, representing 23% of the total cost Edited February 2, 2012 by chemistryman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.