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A woman enjoys a facial from an esthetician

What is an Esthetician?

Estheticians are licensed skin care professionals. They often work in salons or day spas to provide high-quality, individualized skin care treatments to customers. Typically, estheticians focus on the skin care treatment of the face using natural skin therapies. When a customer visits an esthetician, they’re looking for a professional who can help their face look better without resorting to surgical procedures or prescription drugs. Facials are a common skin-care treatment that estheticians perform.

When a customer consults an esthetician, the esthetician will ask questions about the customer’s skin care needs, and then the esthetician will discuss potential solutions with the customer. The esthetician may perform simple face massages to help relax facial muscles and increase blood flow to the various tissues in the face. The esthetician may also discuss various skin care products to be used daily or during a facial that the esthetician performs.

Estheticians may also perform other services, such as waxing, threading, and bleaching on target areas. While most estheticians focus on the face, they can also perform waxing on other areas of the body.

Estheticians can also apply cosmetics to customers’ faces. In some ways, estheticians are similar to cosmetologists. However, the training and background of cosmetologists and estheticians is a little different. Estheticians typically have a richer education in skin and skin care products, whereas cosmetologists are primarily concerned with using makeup to enhance features.

Estheticians also help customers with their age spots and fine lines on the skin. Estheticians can apply chemical peels to customers to help reduce these unwanted facial marks.

One of the main roles of an esthetician is to have a thorough knowledge of skin care products and their uses. Not only will estheticians be using products on customers during consultations, but customers often want skin care product recommendations for daily use.

There are some serious skin care problems that estheticians can’t always treat. Modular acne, for instance, is a skin problem that typically requires medications prescribed by dermatologists to be fully treated. Estheticians can help recommend dermatologists and over-the-counter skin care products that won’t irritate the already-existing acne.

More and more, people are concerned with beauty. Therefore, beauty salons and day spas are making more and more money, which creates more jobs for cosmologists and estheticians. If you’re the kind of person who enjoys skin care, consider becoming an esthetician. Although there isn’t a lot of room for career growth among estheticians, it can be a fun field to work in. 

Last Updated: April 15, 2015