Your license says what you may do. Your policy says what it will pay for. They are not the same list.
We cover estheticians whether you are employed, renting a booth or on your own. Read the excluded procedure schedule first: it decides whether the treatment you actually perform is insured.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What esthetician businesses actually need.
Professional liability
Injury caused by a treatment: burns, scarring, reactions, pigmentation, nerve injury.
Without it — The whole exposure of the job, and the one general liability does not reach at all.
General liability
Slips, falls and damage to a client’s property in the treatment room or the waiting area.
Without it — Required by every salon lease, booth rental agreement and suite operator before you work.
Abuse and molestation
Allegations arising from hands-on treatment in a private room.
Without it — Excluded from general liability and rarely included by default on a cheap online policy.
Products liability
Reactions to products you applied, and to anything you retail.
Without it — Selling skincare puts you in the chain of supply for it, separately from applying it.
Business personal property
Your equipment — the laser, the steamer, the table, the stock — including at a rented booth.
Without it — A salon’s policy covers the salon’s property, not the equipment you brought and own.
Business cyber
Client records, before-and-after photographs and the booking system.
Without it — Treatment records with photographs are among the most sensitive data a small business holds.
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
A chemical peel or laser treatment burns a client
Covered by Professional liability
General liability answers a slip in the lobby, never a treatment injury. And check the depth: deep peels are commonly excluded unless performed under physician supervision.
Most common
A reaction to a product or a treatment nobody patch-tested
Covered by Professional liability
The defense turns on the consultation record. An intake form with contraindications and a signed consent is what makes this defensible; memory is not.
Common
A treatment you performed turns out to be off your schedule
Covered by Nothing — this is the exclusion
The excluded procedure list is where these claims die. Adding a service to the menu without checking the endorsement is the single commonest way an insured esthetician is uninsured.
Less common, severe
A client alleges inappropriate touching during a treatment
Covered by Abuse and molestation
Excluded from general liability, and hands-on work behind a closed door is exactly the circumstance. Career-ending to defend without coverage.
Common
A client slips, or their belongings are damaged
Covered by General liability
The one most people already have, and the only one a salon landlord or booth agreement usually requires, which is why it is often the only one people have.
“His repsonse times and willingness to communicate on my behalf have been unmatched…”
What our esthetician clients ask us.
Which procedures are typically excluded from an esthetician policy?
More than most people expect, and the list is longer for an esthetician than for a cosmetic nurse. Around twenty named procedures come off a typical schedule, and injection-based treatments account for most of them.
What gets denied that has nothing to do with the procedure?
Three things, and they are the ones almost nobody reads for. First, work performed by a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant who is not actually named on the policy. The medical director being real is not the same as the medical director being a named insured, and the exclusion is written on the name. Second, any warranty or guarantee of how well a treatment works, expressly or by implication, including one made through advertising or social media.
I rent a booth. Am I covered by the salon’s policy?
Almost certainly not, and this is the commonest gap in the trade. A salon’s policy insures the salon: its premises, its property and its employees. As a booth renter you are an independent business, so their professional liability does not extend to your treatments, their property coverage does not extend to your equipment, and their general liability answers for the building rather than for you.
Is a cheap online policy enough?
It depends entirely on what you actually perform, which is the honest answer rather than a sales one. For facials, waxing, brows and standard skincare, an inexpensive membership-style policy is often genuinely fine and we will tell you so.
How do I find out what my own policy excludes?
Look for an endorsement with "excluded procedures" or "cosmetic procedures exclusion" in the title, and read the list rather than the policy summary, because the declarations page will not tell you, and the certificate certainly will not. Every carrier writes a different schedule and the same carrier writes different schedules for different license types, so a colleague’s answer is not yours.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.