Cosmetics & Skincare
A skincare or cosmetics formula can carry a dozen ingredients: carrier oils, emulsifiers, preservatives, active ingredients, fragrance, each priced by weight and re-priced the moment a supplier changes their rate. Stocksmith tracks every one of them, rolls the real cost into every serum, lotion or balm you produce, and keeps your COGS ready before tax time arrives.
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| Item | On hand | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Lavender Body Butter 200ml | 412 | In stock |
| Amber glass jar, 200ml | 1,240 | In stock |
| Vitamin C Serum 30ml | 38 | Low |
| Shea butter, refined | 6.2 kg | In stock |
Cosmetic inventory software tracks the raw materials that go into a formula, the batches that turn them into finished product, and the cost that follows each unit through to the sale. That's a different job to a generic stock app, which starts counting at the point where a finished bottle already exists.
The difference matters because most of a cosmetics business's money sits in ingredients before a single unit is finished: carrier oils bought by the litre, preservatives measured in grams, active ingredients that cost more per gram than anything else in the formula. A tool that only counts finished SKUs can't tell you what any of that is worth, and it can't tell you what a 50ml jar actually costs to make.
Stocksmith works from a bill of materials per formula. Log a production batch and the oils, emulsifiers, preservatives and packaging come off stock in the exact quantities the formula calls for, while the finished units go on. The cost rolls up as it happens, so the number attached to the product is what you paid this quarter, not a figure you set when you first costed the recipe.
Raw materials, tracked precisely
A cosmetic formula rarely has fewer than 8 or 10 ingredients, and most of them are measured in grams or millilitres rather than whole units. Track them as vague line items on a spreadsheet and you lose the thing you actually need to know: how much of an active ingredient is left, and how many more batches it will make.
Stocksmith holds each raw material in its own unit: grams for powders and actives, millilitres or litres for oils and liquids, individual counts for jars, pumps and labels. Material costs are weighted averages of what you actually paid, so a supplier price change moves your cost without you doing the arithmetic by hand.
Reorder points sit on the materials, not just the finished goods. That's the level where a shortage actually stops a batch, not the one a finished-goods count will warn you about after the fact.
| Item | On hand | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Lavender Body Butter 200ml | 412 | In stock |
| Amber glass jar, 200ml | 1,240 | In stock |
| Vitamin C Serum 30ml | 38 | Low |
| Shea butter, refined | 6.2 kg | In stock |
Cost per unit & COGS
Most pricing advice tells you to check what comparable serums or lotions charge and land somewhere close. That's backwards. If you haven't costed the formula accurately, including the base, the actives, the packaging and the batch you lost to a failed emulsion, you're guessing, and the guess sets a price you're stuck living with for a season.
Every batch you log in Stocksmith automatically builds your cost of goods sold. Material usage is assigned to the batch from your real purchase history, so instead of reconstructing COGS from a year of supplier invoices, the number is ready when you need it.
Margins move with the batch, too. Raise an active ingredient's price and the cost per unit updates on every formula that uses it, not just the one you happen to remember to check.
Running cosmetics inventory on spreadsheets
With Stocksmith
It comes down to whether you need material lot tracking and automatic stock push-back to your sales channels. Pro ($24/month, or $20/month billed annually) and Studio ($49/month, $41/month annually) cover raw materials, formulas, costing and channel connections: enough for a single-line skincare or bath and body business getting its costs under control for the first time.
Indie ($99/month, $83/month annually) is where most growing cosmetics manufacturers land. It adds material lot tracking, useful for the batch and ingredient records that compliance work like FDA MoCRA calls for, plus automatic stock push-back to Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, Faire and Square. Business ($199/month, $166/month annually) adds the Amazon connection and hourly order imports.
See the full plan comparison →Yes. Materials and finished products are separate levels with their own units. Raw materials are held in grams, millilitres or litres, and packaging and finished units are counted individually. The bill of materials records how much of each ingredient a formula consumes, so logging a batch of 500 units deducts the right quantity of every material without you converting anything by hand.
Stocksmith rolls up the weighted-average cost of every ingredient in the formula's bill of materials, based on what you actually paid your suppliers rather than a number set once. Raise a supplier's price on an active ingredient and the cost per unit recalculates on every formula that uses it, so your margin reflects this quarter's prices, not last year's.
Yes, through material lot tracking, available on the Indie plan and above. Lot numbers go on a raw material when you receive it and carry through the production batch into finished units and the orders that shipped them, and a lot can also carry an expiry date. If a supplier issues a recall, you can see exactly which batches used that lot and where they went.
Orders import from each channel into a single inventory, so a Shopify sale and an Etsy order draw down the same finished stock. Import cadence is set by your plan: daily on Indie, hourly on Business and Growth. Automatic stock push-back to Shopify, WooCommerce, Etsy, Faire and Square is available on Indie and above; Amazon is order-import only and needs the Business plan.
A spreadsheet needs you to manually update every stock level and recalculate cost each time an ingredient price changes. Stocksmith updates raw material stock and cost per unit automatically as you log purchases, batches and sales, then generates COGS and inventory valuation reports from data you already have, instead of rebuilding a formula in a new tab every time a supplier invoice arrives.
Stocksmith isn't a compliance system, but material lot tracking gives you the batch and ingredient records that MoCRA and GMP documentation calls for: which lot went into which batch, and which orders shipped it. Our guide to MoCRA compliance for small cosmetic businesses covers facility registration, labelling and adverse event reporting in full.