My Reed Diffuser Base Costs ₹400 per kg and My Fragrance Oil Costs ₹1,500 per kg — How Do I Calculate the Liquid Cost of a 120 ml Diffuser at 20% Fragrance Load?

The calculation, step by step

Your prices are per kilogram, so the calculation has to run in grams. That is also the right way to make the product: CSI's base pages, like most, state the fragrance load as a share of the total blend, and weighing is the only way to hit that share exactly. The one thing you must supply that is not on your invoices is the density of your blend — the grams that 120 ml of it weighs. Until you weigh it, this page uses 1.00 g/ml as a labelled example and shows what happens at 0.95 and 1.05.

The 20% in your question is the subject of the load pillar how much fragrance oil to add to 100 ml of base, and the step after this calculation — pricing and selling — is in the business pillar how to start a profitable reed diffuser business in India.

The last line is the shortcut worth remembering: at 20%, your blend costs ₹620.00 per kilogram, so any fill is simply its grams × ₹0.62. Notice how the two halves compare. The oil is a fifth of the liquid by weight but 48% of its cost; the base is four-fifths of the weight and 52% of the cost. With your prices the two lines are close — which means a change to either one moves the total noticeably.

What moves the answer: density, fill, load, freight

The fill matters as much as the density. A "120 ml" bottle is usually not filled to the brim; CSI's own 120 ml Gold bottle publishes no fill line, so 120 ml is your figure, and if you actually fill 110 ml your liquid is ₹68.20. Each 5 points of load costs ₹6.60 at your prices — small, because your oil is cheap relative to most. And if your per-kg prices are ex-works, add freight: an example ₹30 per kg on each adds ₹3.60 a bottle. Check whether your two prices include GST and delivery before you compare them with anyone else's.

From liquid cost to the cost of a bottle

The liquid is only part of the diffuser. Add the bottle and the reeds — here CSI's 120 ml Gold bottle at ₹106.20 and 8 black fibre reeds at ₹8.00 each — and your 120 ml diffuser carries ₹244.60 in materials before label, box, labour, courier and GST. With your liquid prices, the glass and reeds (₹170.20) cost more than twice the liquid.

And the liquid's real job is time. If your bottle loses an example 3.0 g a day — a number for the arithmetic, not a measurement of any base — 120 g lasts 40 days and the liquid costs ₹1.86 per day of use. Your own figure comes from weighing the bottle, with its reeds, on a fixed schedule. Comparing loads on room throw, liquid use and cost per day and the full 100 ml cost sheet build on this.

The same bottle with CSI's prices — honestly compared

CSI does not sell base by the kilogram. Lift Base — whose page names floral, citrus, green and fruity families — is ₹1,099.00 per 500 ml, ₹2.20 per ml, which at an example 1.00 g/ml is ₹2,198.00 per kg: about 5.5 times your ₹400. CSI's cheapest fragrance oil at its 1 kg size is Citrus Lemon at ₹2,832.00 per kg; Eucalyptus Spearmint, a green note for the same base, is ₹3,068.00 — both above your ₹1,500. We will not pretend otherwise.

On price alone, your materials win, and by a wide margin on the base. What the table cannot tell you is whether the two liquids are the same product. A per-kg price says nothing about clarity with your oil, how quickly the liquid travels up the reeds, how strong the room smells, or how long the bottle lasts — and CSI publishes no such data for its own bases either, so we cannot claim ours does better. If your ₹400 base passes your clarity hold and your blind room test and the bottle lasts as long as you want, it is the right base for your product. If it does not, the comparison that matters is cost per day of fragrance, not cost per kilogram. Cheap base, weak throw: does a better base pay? is the post for that question, and comparing base prices per kg with density and yield covers comparing quotes.

If you want to check your base: a two-by-two swap

Keep everything yours except the base: your ₹1,500 oil, your bottles, your fill, your room. Two bottles in your base are the control; two in Lift Base are the test. If you have no 120 ml bottles to spare, CSI's are listed below.

The decision rule: what to do with the number

The section hub starting a reed diffuser business with ₹10,000 shows a first purchase, pricing a 120 ml diffuser at ₹799 shows how this liquid cost fits a selling price, and the pillar how to start a profitable reed diffuser business in India covers the whole business. A 22% formula costed per 120 ml bottle and calculating a 120 ml formula at 20% by weight are this page's formulation siblings; the load pillar is how much fragrance oil to add to 100 ml of base.

The CSI products in this comparison

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