Every skincare brand knows these numbers. We're the only one showing you ours.
This page is our open ledger — what it actually costs to make and sell our balm, updated as the real numbers change. Estimates are marked as estimates. If a number changes, this page changes.
What one jar costs us (2 oz, $34)
Balm made, jarred, and labeled by our small-batch partner, at our first-run volume of 100 units: $5.85. Shipping it to us: $0.31 per jar. Payment processing when you buy: about $1.29. Mailer and packing materials to ship it to you: about $0.75 (estimate). All in: about $8.20 per jar.
That leaves about $25.80 on a $34 jar — roughly a 76% gross margin. That sounds enormous. Keep reading.
What that margin has to pay for
Samples and research before jar No. 1 existed: $77.98 — supplier samples ($44.98), a competitor's balm we bought to study ($13), and tool research ($20). Store software: $39 a month. The Empty Jar Guarantee — every refunded jar is minus $34, for a full year after it arrives, no questions asked. Every jar that doesn't sell. And all the labor — whipping, checking, hand-numbering, packing, and answering every email — currently paid $0 an hour.
If every one of the first 100 jars sells, this business makes about $2,400. Before taxes. That's the honest economics of small skincare.
For comparison
A $12 drugstore lotion typically carries $1–1.50 of ingredients — an 8–10× markup. Ours is about 5.5×. We're not the heavily marked-up jar on the shelf; we're the one that shows you the math.
Our price promises
The price is the price — no fake sales, no discount theater, no countdown timers. If our costs drop at higher volume, the price drops with them. And if any number on this page is wrong or out of date, tell us and we'll fix it: hello@primordialskin.com.
Last updated July 24, 2026 · figures from our actual supplier quote and receipts