TemplatesFacial
facial intake form
An intake form's job is different from a consent form's.
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- screening questions
- 8screening questions
- stop the appointment
- 4stop the appointment
- minutes to set up
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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 surfaces the tretinoin she wrote on line eleven at the moment it matters, instead of leaving it in a folder while you work from memory.
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.
- 14-day trial
- No card needed
- Set up in 10 minutes
- Cancel anytime
The 8 answers that should stop you
An intake form's job is different from a consent form's. Consent records a decision; intake gathers the information that makes the decision safe. The medical section is the same as the consent form's - what changes is the depth of the routine and history sections in front of it.
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.
Try the flag
Answer these as if you were the client
Answer honestly and nothing happens. Answer yes to the one that matters and watch what lands on your side.
What the client sees
Have you taken isotretinoin (Accutane) in the last 6 months?
Have you had Botox or fillers in this area in the last 2 weeks?
Do you use retinol, tretinoin or another retinoid on this area?
Do you have eczema, psoriasis, rosacea or active breakouts on this area?
What you see
Answer honestly and nothing happens. Answer yes to the one that matters and watch what lands on your side.
In your submissions list
Facial
What goes wrong without it
The failure here is quieter than a burn.
A studio collects beautiful intake forms - three pages, full routine, goals, lifestyle - and never reads them again. The information sits in a folder while the esthetician relies on memory and on what the client mentions on the day. Nine months later, the client who wrote 'tretinoin 0.05%' on line eleven of her intake has a reaction to an enzyme peel. The form contained the answer. Nobody surfaced it at the moment it mattered, which is the specific problem a paper intake form cannot solve and a digital one can.
What a facials intake form has to cover
The actual field list, and why each group is on this particular form.
Contact and referral
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Phone
- How did you hear about us
The referral field is the one non-clinical question worth keeping. It is the only marketing attribution a small studio ever gets, and it costs one line.
Skin profile
- Skin type
- Primary concern
- Secondary concerns
- How your skin behaves in summer and winter
- Sensitivity and reactions
- Sun exposure and SPF habits
Asking how skin behaves across seasons gets more useful answers than asking someone to self-classify as 'combination', which almost everybody says.
Current routine
- Morning products
- Evening products
- Actives: retinoids, acids, vitamin C
- Prescription treatments
- Supplements
- How long on the current routine
This section is the difference between an intake form and a contact form. It is also where the contraindication that matters usually surfaces.
Medical and lifestyle
- Isotretinoin history
- Recent injectables
- Cold sores
- Allergies
- Medication
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding
- Smoking, water intake, sleep
The lifestyle questions are not filler. They set realistic expectations, and a client who has said out loud that she sleeps five hours is a client who will accept that one facial is not a transformation.
Goals and consent
- What would you like to change
- Budget and frequency expectation
- Consent statement and signature
- Photo permission
Asking about frequency before the treatment rather than after it is what turns a single facial into a course, without a sales conversation.
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
An intake form is not a consent form and does not substitute for one. It is common, and defensible, to combine them into a single signed document, but the signature has to attach to a consent statement rather than only to a list of answers. Where studios get this wrong is by collecting a rich intake form with no consent wording and no signature block, then treating it as the record. If a complaint arrives, that document proves you gathered information and proves nothing about what the client agreed to. Keep both functions, on one page if you like, and make sure the signature sits under language that says the client understood the treatment, its risks and its normal effects. Retention follows the same rule as any client record: several years, and longer if your state board says so. 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
Intake gathers information; consent records a decision. Most studios combine them, which is fine, provided the signature sits under actual consent wording rather than under a list of answers.
Your form is written. Come and get it.
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General guidance for professionals, not legal or medical advice. Check the rules that apply where you work.