TemplatesFacial
facial consent form
A facial looks like the safest thing on the menu, which is exactly why the screening gets skipped.
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- screening questions
- 8screening questions
- stop the appointment
- 4stop the appointment
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Facial consent and skin intake
Full name
Date of birth
Email
Phone
Have you taken isotretinoin (Accutane) in the last 6 months?
YesNo
Isotretinoin
Why this form, specifically
It asks what she is using at home, which is where nearly every facial complaint actually starts and it turns a fortnight of stinging, flaking skin and a cancelled rebook into a five-day pause on her retinoid.
Look before you download
The whole document, before you give us anything
Facial consent and skin intake
Your details
Full name
Date of birth
This is where your aftercare instructions go.
Phone
Health questions
Have you taken isotretinoin (Accutane) in the last 6 months?
Skin stays fragile for months after the last dose.
Do you use retinol, tretinoin or another retinoid on this area?
Including prescription creams and strong over-the-counter serums.
Have you had Botox or fillers in this area in the last 2 weeks?
This is the form you get
Not a sample, not a preview of a preview. Every question below is in your account ten minutes after you sign up, with the flags already set and the aftercare email already written.
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- No card needed
- Set up in 10 minutes
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The 8 answers that should stop you
A facial looks like the safest thing on the menu, which is exactly why the screening gets skipped. The risk here is rarely dramatic - it is a client whose barrier was already compromised by their own retinol, who leaves with a face that stings for a fortnight and blames the appointment rather than the routine.
Do not treat
4WhyThinned epidermis and near-absent sebum production. Extraction and exfoliation both act on a skin that cannot take them.
What goes wrong if you treat anywayTearing during extractions, prolonged erythema, and scarring.
What to doNo exfoliation, no extractions, no peels for six months. A gentle hydrating facial is defensible; nothing more.
The question that catches itHave you taken isotretinoin (Accutane) in the last 6 months?
WhyMassage and heat can migrate product before it has settled, and injection sites are open channels for a fortnight.
What goes wrong if you treat anywayProduct migration, an asymmetric result the injector gets blamed for, and infection risk at the sites.
What to doTwo weeks after Botox, two weeks after filler. Ask for the date, not the season.
The question that catches itHave you had Botox or fillers in this area in the last 2 weeks?
WhyHerpes simplex spreads readily across facial skin under manipulation, steam and heat.
What goes wrong if you treat anywayA widespread outbreak and, with shared equipment, a cross-contamination problem.
What to doAn active lesion is an absolute no. A history means warn, and consider antiviral cover arranged with their doctor.
The question that catches itDo you get cold sores?
WhyThe barrier is still rebuilding, however normal the skin looks.
What goes wrong if you treat anywaySensitivity, hyperpigmentation, and an undone result.
What to doWait a fortnight, longer for medium-depth work.
The question that catches itHave you had a peel, laser or microdermabrasion on this area in the last 2 weeks?
Proceed with caution
4WhyHome actives have already thinned the stratum corneum. A professional exfoliant stacks on top of a skin that is already mid-turnover.
What goes wrong if you treat anywayOver-exfoliation, a compromised barrier, and weeks of sensitivity and flaking.
What to doAsk them to stop actives five days before. If they have not, do a hydrating facial instead and say why.
The question that catches itDo you use retinol, tretinoin or another retinoid on this area?
WhyHeat, steam and massage are vasodilators. Rosacea in particular is a vascular condition that heat provokes directly.
What goes wrong if you treat anywayA flare that outlasts any benefit from the treatment.
What to doNo steam and no heat on rosacea. Work around eczema. Infected or cystic acne gets referred, not extracted.
The question that catches itDo you have eczema, psoriasis, rosacea or active breakouts on this area?
WhyProfessional products are more concentrated than retail, and botanical extracts are among the commonest sensitisers.
What goes wrong if you treat anywayContact dermatitis on the face, which takes days to settle and is highly visible.
What to doTake the list before you choose the products, not after. Patch test anything new behind the ear.
The question that catches itDo you have any allergies we should know about?
WhySkin is more reactive and prone to melasma. Several standard actives, notably high-percentage salicylic acid and retinoids, are avoided in pregnancy.
What goes wrong if you treat anywayPigmentation that is slow to resolve, and use of an ingredient the client would rather have avoided.
What to doSwitch to a pregnancy-safe protocol: lactic or mandelic acid, no retinoids, no high-strength salicylic. Say so out loud.
The question that catches itAre you pregnant or breastfeeding?
What you actually get
Nobody buys a consent form
They buy the fifteen minutes back at the start of an appointment. They buy the phone call they did not have to make, because the contraindication turned up two days early instead of two minutes late. They buy an insurer who pays out, because the patch test has a timestamp rather than a memory attached to it.
The form is the mechanism. What you are actually buying is the record it leaves behind.
That is the whole argument, and it is why the questions matter more than the software. A blank form builder hands you a canvas and calls it flexibility. This hands you the nine questions that a waxing client should be asked, in the wording that gets an honest answer, with the risky one already flagged in red.
What this saves you
Not what the form contains - what it gives you back. Every number below is arithmetic you can check on the calculator further down the page.
Before they sit down
not halfway through
A form that collects answers and does nothing with them has solved the wrong problem. A risky answer turns the submission red and names the reason at the top, at the only moment the information is worth anything.
12 hours
a year, back in your chair
A new client filling in a paper form in your treatment room costs ten to fifteen minutes of an appointment they already paid for. Send it with the booking confirmation and that time goes back into treating, at roughly twelve hours a year on twenty clients a week.
A defensible claim
instead of a disputed memory
Most professional policies in these trades condition cover on documented screening, and a patch test you can describe is not a patch test you can produce. A timestamped record is the difference between a claim your insurer defends and one they decline.
4 seconds
from signature to aftercare email
The aftercare for their treatment lands in their inbox before they have left the chair, written for that service and editable in your words. Clients who follow aftercare heal better, complain less and rebook more - and you did nothing.
Same week. One thing changed.
The left-hand column is most studios today. The right-hand one is the same week with the form sent at booking instead of handed over on arrival.
- She arrives, you hand her a clipboard, she fills it in while you wait
- Halfway through she mentions the retinol she uses nightly
- You improvise a gentler treatment and hope
- The form goes in a folder you will never open again
Nothing here is negligent. It is just undocumented.
- The form was done at home, the evening she booked
- You saw the retinol answer flagged in red two days ago
- You rescheduled by message, before either of you lost the slot
- It is on her record, searchable, next time she books
Same treatments, same clients, same you. Different record.
Contraindication checker
Can you treat a client who...?
Pick a treatment and a condition. The answer comes with the reason behind it, and the form question that catches it.
Pick a condition
Every answer here is the same rule set that ships inside the product's forms.
A facial looks like the safest thing on the menu, which is exactly why the screening gets skipped. Most facial complaints are a reaction to an active ingredient the client was already using at home.
Facial
What goes wrong without it
The story is almost never a burn.
It is a client who has been on tretinoin for three months, does not think of it as relevant because it is a prescription for acne rather than a skincare product, and books a brightening facial with an enzyme exfoliant. She leaves fine. Three days later her face is flaking, tight and red, she has cancelled her rebook, and she has posted about it. Nothing in that sequence was negligent. The whole thing turns on one question that was never asked, and on a form that had a box for 'skin type' but not for 'what are you using at home'.
What a facials consent form has to cover
The actual field list, and why each group is on this particular form.
Identity and contact
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Phone
The email field is doing double duty: it is where the aftercare goes, and aftercare is the single biggest lever on whether a facial client rebooks.
Skin history
- Skin type and main concern
- Current home routine
- Retinol, tretinoin or acids at home
- Prescription skin medication
- Previous professional treatments
- Products that have caused a reaction
Most facial complaints are not caused by anything in your treatment room. They are caused by a professional exfoliant stacking on top of a home routine nobody asked about.
Medical screening
- Isotretinoin in the last 6 months
- Botox or filler in the last 2 weeks
- Cold sore history or active lesion
- Eczema, rosacea or infected acne
- Peel, laser or needling in the last 2 weeks
- Known allergies including fragrance and essential oils
- Pregnant or breastfeeding
The injectables question is the one that gets skipped and the one that causes the awkward phone call, because massage and heat can move filler that has not settled.
Consent and permissions
- Consent statement and initials
- Photo and social media permission
- Extraction consent
- Signature with timestamp
Extractions deserve their own yes. They can bruise and mark, and a client who did not expect them is a client who thinks something went wrong.
Is a digital signature legally valid?
Exact time signed
IP address
Device and browser
The exact form they saw
Yes - the US ESIGN Act and the state UETA adoptions give it the same legal effect as ink. What makes it hold up is the evidence stored beside it, and a paper form in a drawer carries none of this.
Sign with your fingerDraw a signature with your mouse or trackpad
Where you stand legally
Facials fall squarely inside esthetician scope of practice in every US state, which is both the good news and the boundary. What is not inside scope is anything that penetrates below the epidermis, and states differ sharply on where they draw that line for peels, needling depth and any device that heats tissue. Several boards have taken action against estheticians for offering treatments that a plain reading of the menu made sound medical. The consent form is where you demonstrate you understood the boundary: a facial consent form that describes the treatment accurately, does not promise a medical outcome, and records that the client was told results vary is doing real work. The other consideration is product liability. Professional-strength products are more concentrated than retail, and botanical extracts are among the most common sensitisers in cosmetics. Recording the client's stated allergies before you choose the products, rather than after a reaction, is what separates a documented decision from an assumed one. This is general guidance, not legal advice.
Paper, PDF or digital?
Paper
Fine when you are small
- Signed before they arrive
- Flags contraindications
- Findable by name in seconds
- Proves when it was signed
- Sends aftercare automatically
- Costs nothing
Emailed PDF
Worst of both
- Signed before they arrive
- Flags contraindications
- Findable by name in seconds
- Proves when it was signed
- Sends aftercare automatically
- Costs nothing
Digital
Earns its place at scale
- Signed before they arrive
- Flags contraindications
- Findable by name in seconds
- Proves when it was signed
- Sends aftercare automatically
- Costs nothing
Three clients a week? Print it and staple it in a binder. That is genuinely fine, and software would be an expense with no return. Digital earns its place around ten to fifteen clients a week, when finding one form again matters more than the minutes it took to file it.
Questions people actually ask
Four things: identity with date of birth, a real home-routine section, medical screening that covers isotretinoin, injectables, cold sores and allergies, and separate consent for extractions and for photos. The home-routine section is the one most templates omit and the one that prevents the most problems.
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General guidance for professionals, not legal or medical advice. Check the rules that apply where you work.