skin-deep

okay, guys, here's my dilemma

right now: i use waxy deli-sheets and a label for each bar of soap. sometimes i over-wrap the deli sheets w/ tissue paper, and sometimes i tie them with ribbon.

deli sheets = 500 sheets @ 5.00, but i only use half a sheet per bar, so it's more like 1000 sheets @ 5.00 ---> $0.005 per bar. let's just say $0.01

tissue paper = 24 sheets for $2.69. can wrap about 15 bars from each sheet ---> $0.007 per bar. let's just say $0.01.

labels: planetlabel lt575-8 100 sheets @ 22.25, 8 labels per sheet. so $0.0278 cents per label, not including mess-ups. to allow for mess-ups, we'll say $0.05 per bar.

ink - i print them myself on my canon i550-- can buy individual cartridges for ~$12 at office max or staples, but have been buying knock-off cartridges in bulk from itrimming.com via ebay (like, 8 cartridges for $12 or something.) Not sure how many labels i get out of a cartridge, given the assorted colors i use, but the price is surely negligible.

if i use ribbon, it's generally poly satin ribbon i've bought on sale for about $0.50-0.99/10 meters (let's say $0.99). if i use about 14" per bar, i get 25 bars per 10-meter spool, which makes it about $0.04 cents per bar.

so, not figuring shipping for any of these things to me, the total cost, materials-wise, per fully-dressed bar of soap is still only about $0.11 per bar.

but it takes a long time for me to wrap the damn things, wrap them again, come up with fun copy for the labels, print and apply and then tie a pretty ribbon around them. pain in my butt! particularly right now when my time is in pretty high demand b/c of work and school. if i pay myself $5.00 labor for packaging and packaging takes about an hour for one 12-bar batch (i'm slow! b/c i measure all the papers and ribbons carefully!), the new total is about $0.56 per bar.

so i've been thinking about boxes. the ones i'm looking at are from For Craft's Sake (b/c i like the cut-out, so people can see/smell-- but i like that it's small and way to the side, so there's ample room for labels). for 100 boxes, i'd be paying about $0.30 per box, and i'd still need to do the label thing -- about $0.05 per bar. new total would be about $0.35 for materials, then. time required would be significantly less-- maybe halved? i'd still have to make up the labels and apply them to the boxes, but there would be no measuring and cutting of papers and ribbon. the new packaging cost per boxed bar would be about $0.47.

only about a ten-cent difference in packaging cost-per-bar, as you can see-- but it does add up, when you count the number of bars wrapped per month! i might be able to whittle the difference down if i really sped my bar-wrapping speed up (but like i said-- i'm slow and steady!), but probably not by much.

however, my real dilemma comes from this:

paper-wrapped bars: sooo pretty! i really like the way they look! adds to the "handmade" aesthetic. but a pain to wrap, and humidity and moisture can ruin the tissue paper.
boxed bars: nice-looking, and very uniform, but not really "pretty". a little less personal than hand-wrapped in pretty paper, but so much less time! so much easier.


what do you think? should i switch to boxes or stick with paper?
or should i generally do boxes, but offer to gift-wrap soaps for special orders?