If you want to turn your passion for skin into a career, you may be curious about the Esthetician License.
Interest in skincare has exploded over the last decade. Nine-step routines, retinols, lymphatic massage, and glass skin are some of the many trends taking the culture by storm and drawing interest of all ages.
How can you further your knowledge and transform an at-home practice into a fulfilling profession? We’re here to help!
What is an Esthetician License?
The study of esthetics covers the cosmetic treatment and implementation of skincare, hair removal, lash extensions, and makeup.
In Minnesota, an Esthetician License allows you to practice:
- Cleansing, stimulating, and massaging a person’s face, scalp, and body with or without cosmetic treatments
- The care and enhancement of a person’s skin, eyebrows, eyelashes, facial and body hair
- Basic exfoliation, manual and machine cleansing, and basic extractions
- Hair removal such as waxing, sugaring, tweezing, and depilatories
- Makeup application, lash and brow tinting, eyebrow shaping and trimming, and eyelash and eyebrow enhancements
An Esthetician License allows you to work in a spa, salon, or with your own business in the practice of basic skincare, facials, waxing, tinting, makeup and eyelash extensions.
How to get an Esthetician License
The state of MN requires 600 hours of education at a licensed cosmetology school in order to achieve your Esthetician License. [Source]
Along with the hour requirement, you will also need to practice and prove proficient in certain skills.
In an esthetician program, you will learn:
- Basic and advanced facials, treatments, exfoliation, and extractions
- Anatomy of the skin, face, body, and hair
- Facial and body waxing
- Lash and brow tinting
- Lash lifts and brow lamination
- Skin typing and personalized treatments
- Product knowledge and the chemistry of why they work
- Makeup customized for age, features, and occasions
- Eyelash extensions
- Skin condition management and disease prevention
- Client consultation and retention
- Business practices and MN laws & rules
At the end of your 600 hours of education, you will also be required to take both written and hands-on state board tests to prove your proficiency and obtain your license.
Advanced and Alternative Licenses
The Esthetician License covers all the basics of skincare. If you would like to expand your service offerings, you may need to get an additional or alternative license.
Advanced Practice (AP) Esthetician License
If you want to offer more complex services like microneedling, chemical peels, and dermaplaning, you need to acquire an additional license.
The Esthetician License covers everything pertaining to the stratum corneum – the outermost layer of the skin. In order to practice services that penetrate into the epidermis – inner layers of the skin – you need to have an Advanced Practice (AP) Esthetician License. [Source] [Source]
An AP Esthetician license is obtained with an additional 500 hours of education . You must have either an Esthetician or Cosmetology License in order to enroll into an AP Esthetician course and gain your license. [Source]
Cosmetic Injections
While you may see skin services and medical injections occurring in the same spa, they require vastly different licenses.
Injections such as Botox and fillers must be administered by a licensed medical professional and are not regulated under the MN Board of Cosmetology. [Source] If you are interested in performing cosmetic injections in a med spa, you will first need to obtain medical credentials such as an RN or NP license.
Permanent Makeup
Permanent makeup such as microblading, brow shading, and lip blushing fall under the Body Art License in Minnesota and is governed by the Department of Health instead of the MN Board of Cosmetology.
Those interested in providing these permanent beauty solutions must complete a 200 hour tattoo apprenticeship in order to receive their license.
Read to get started?
The first step in your esthetician journey is beginning you education at a licensed cosmetology school.
At the Atelier, we are proud to provide small class sizes, state of the art products, expert instruction, and modern techniques grounded in firm foundations to make sure each of our students feels prepared and excited for their future career.
Learn more about our Esthetician Program or contact us to set up a tour to see our campus.
We look forward to helping you start a fulfilling career in skincare!