Aesthetician resume examples by experience level

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Use this example

In short, an aesthetician resume is a one to two page document that names your state license, the tier of that license, and the treatment depths and devices that tier allows you to use.

That last part is where most applicants lose the job. However, a medical spa or a dermatology practice is not hiring a skin care professional in the abstract. Instead, they are holding a device schedule with holes in it: a laser room that sits empty two days a week, a peel list a physician assistant is absorbing, and a resurfacing waitlist. That is why the resume that says plainly which of those rooms you may legally work in wins over the resume that describes a love of skin health.

One note on spelling. Also, this page uses "aesthetician" for the job. However, most state boards, including Washington's, spell the license "esthetician", and the two words describe the same work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes the occupation as skincare specialists and has no separate profile under either spelling, so every federal figure here is published under that name.

Resume guide for an aesthetician resume

Therefore, this guide and the corresponding aesthetician resume example will cover:

• First, how to write an aesthetician resume, section by section
• Then, why your license tier belongs above your experience, not below it
• Also, three adaptable summaries: newly licensed, practicing and lead
• In addition, what a device block looks like and where the physician authority starts
• Finally, what the job market looks like and what you can expect to earn

How to write an aesthetician resume

Overall, six sections: contact header, summary, license and device authority, treatment experience, education, and skills. In general, one page for your first five years, two once you carry a device schedule and train other people on it.

The order matters. License comes before experience because it is a gate rather than an achievement. A practice that needs a laser operator cannot hire an experienced facialist for that room, however good the rest of the file reads.

Run the finished file through the ATS resume checker before you submit it. Medical spa groups and dermatology practices run applications through a parser before a human opens them.

Choosing the best resume format for an aesthetician resume

Reverse chronological. One page for your first five years, two once you have carried a device schedule, trained other licensees, or built a service the practice still runs.

However, functional and skills-based formats fail here for a specific reason. The reader is checking continuity of licensure and of supervised device time: which license, since when, which platforms, under whose authority, and for how long. A format that hides the timeline reads as a timeline worth hiding, and in a regulated trade that is an expensive impression to give.

Include your contact information

To begin with, put the license number in the header. Practices verify it with the board anyway, and the file that lets them do it in ten seconds moves ahead of the one that does not. Also, use a plain email address; the handle you use on social media is not the name that belongs on a credentialing form.

Make use of a summary

Specifically, four lines: license and tier, years in the treatment room, the depth and device range you work at, and one number of your own.

Newly licensed aesthetician with a Washington esthetician license and the 750 hours of board-approved training that license requires. Completed 1,140 services in the first year at a seven-room day spa, mostly facials, superficial exfoliation, extractions and waxing, with no adverse event reported and no session rescheduled for a preparation error. Trained on over-the-counter LED and ultrasonic devices and enrolled in the master esthetician program.

Aesthetician with six years in the treatment room, holding both a Washington esthetician license and a Washington master esthetician license, which clears me for medium depth peels and for laser, intense pulsed light and radio frequency work under physician authority. Run about 26 services a week across a day spa and a dermatology practice, and wrote the device log the practice now completes for every prescriptive device session. Retail attached to 34 percent of my own services last year.

Lead master aesthetician with 14 years in skin care and 5 running the clinical aesthetics side of a physician-led practice, where I own device scheduling, the delegation record and the training of four licensed aestheticians. Took the practice from two device platforms to five and from 11 to 29 device sessions a week while keeping every prescriptive session inside the delegating physician's written authority. Hold Washington esthetician and master esthetician licenses and teach the device unit at a board-approved school.

Right vs wrong: the same aesthetician summary, twice

In practice, a manager can put the left column on a schedule tomorrow. The right column, on the other hand, cannot, and a practice manager reading thirty files is building a schedule.

Outline your aesthetician experience

Employer, city, setting and dates, then three to five bullets. For example, each bullet names a service type or a platform and carries a count.

Lead Master Aesthetician, Meridian Point Dermatology and Laser, Bellevue, WA, January 2021 to Present
Run the clinical aesthetics side of a physician-led practice: five device platforms, four licensed aestheticians and about 29 device sessions a week.
Grew the device schedule from two platforms and 11 sessions a week to five platforms and 29, without a single prescriptive session run outside the delegating physician's written authority.
Built the device log now used on every prescriptive session, recording platform, settings, operator license number and the authority the session was run under.
Train and sign off every new aesthetician before first device use, including the over-the-counter and prescriptive distinction the board draws.
Teach the device unit at a board-approved esthetics school, 40 contact hours a year.

Name the device tier your license actually covers

The most useful line on an aesthetician resume states which treatment depths and which devices your license tier allows, because in several states those two things are set in statute and the practice cannot schedule around them.

Washington is the clearest published example. Specifically, under RCW 18.16.020, esthetics is the care of the skin including "superficial and light peels, or by any device, except laser". Master esthetics includes everything esthetics allows, plus "the performance of medium depth peels and the use of medical devices for care of the skin and permanent hair reduction", and the statute lists those devices as including "lasers, light, radio frequency, plasma, intense pulsed light, and ultrasound" (RCW 18.16.020, retrieved 17 September 2026).

The Washington State Department of Licensing draws the second line on FDA device classification rather than on the device name. Over-the-counter devices may be used by both estheticians and master estheticians. In addition, prescriptive devices may be used only by master estheticians, and only under the authority of a licensed physician, who may delegate their use to a trained and licensed professional (Washington State Department of Licensing, retrieved 17 September 2026).

How to write your own scope lines

Washington is one state. In fact, not every state has a master tier at all, and the states that do draw the peel and device lines in their own words. Therefore, do not copy Washington's language onto a resume you are sending to Ohio; instead, go to your own board, find the scope section, and write your line in its vocabulary.

Licensed to perform: superficial, light and medium depth chemical exfoliation; extractions; dermaplaning; body waxing; lash and brow services
Devices operated, over-the-counter: LED, ultrasonic, microcurrent, high frequency, vacuum-assisted extraction
Devices operated under physician authority: 1064 nm and 755 nm laser hair reduction, intense pulsed light, monopolar radio frequency, microneedling with radio frequency
Delegation: all prescriptive device sessions run under the delegating physician's written authority, logged by platform, settings and operator license number

Four lines, because they answer four different questions. First, what you may do to skin without a device. Then, what you may run on your own license. Finally, what you may run only with a physician behind you. And whether you keep the record that proves the difference.

Indeed, the wage consequence is visible in the federal data. Skincare specialists working in offices of physicians had a median of $24.81 an hour in May 2025, against $21.10 an hour in personal care services, $21.75 in traveler accommodation and $20.15 in health and personal care retailers (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 wage data, published 27 August 2026). For instance, offices of physicians is the highest-paid industry line on the profile and the smallest, at 6 percent of employment. In short, the tier is what gets you into it.

One warning. Above all, do not write "laser certified" unless you can name the license that permits it. In other words, a manufacturer's training certificate is evidence of training on a platform; it is not scope, and in a state that reserves laser work to a higher tier it is a reason not to call you back.

Build a snapshot of your key skills

Specifically, ten to fourteen entries in three groups: treatments, devices, and the operational side of a treatment room.

Treatments: Chemical exfoliation to medium depth, Extractions, Dermaplaning, Body waxing, Lash and brow services, Post-procedure care
Devices and platforms: Laser hair reduction, Intense pulsed light, Radio frequency, Microneedling with radio frequency, LED, Ultrasonic and microcurrent
Treatment room operations: Device logging and delegation records, Implement and linen protocol to board sequence, Inventory and par levels, Retail by service line, Room turnover timing
Systems: Boulevard, Zenoti, Mindbody, electronic patient record charting in a physician-led practice

Keep the device list honest. After all, a manager who puts you on a platform you have only watched finds out within one session.

List your education and licenses

License first with its number, tier and board, then the hours and the school, then continuing education and product or platform certifications.

Master Esthetician License, Washington State Department of Licensing, #MM60228471, 450 board-approved hours, issued 2015
Esthetician License, Washington State Department of Licensing, #MA60219834, 750 board-approved hours, issued 2012
Lakeshore Academy of Esthetics, Renton, WA. Esthetics program 2011 to 2012; master esthetics program 2014 to 2015.
Continuing education: Laser and light safety for licensed operators (2024). Bloodborne pathogens, annual. CPR and first aid, American Red Cross (2026).
Platform training: manufacturer certification on two laser platforms and one radio frequency platform, each with the physician's sign-off on file.

Choose the right layout and design

Similarly, single column, plain type at 11 or 12 point, clear section headings, no photograph. This is a visual trade and the temptation to design the resume is strong, but a two-column template with a headshot and a skills wheel is what a practice applicant system parses into nonsense.

Aesthetician job market and outlook

In summary, a small, growing occupation concentrated in personal care services and heavily self-employed.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, skincare specialists, May 2025 wage data and 2025 to 2035 projections, published 27 August 2026.

Where the jobs sit:

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, skincare specialists, May 2025.

In fact, nearly three in ten skincare specialists are self-employed. As a result, a room rental history is work history, and it should be written the same way an employed role is: the setting, the dates, the service mix and the counts.

What salary you can expect as an aesthetician

Overall, the median annual wage for skincare specialists was $45,330 in May 2025, which is $21.79 an hour (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, published 27 August 2026).

Meanwhile, the industry spread around that median runs from $20.15 an hour in health and personal care retailers to $24.81 in offices of physicians, a difference of $4.66 an hour on the same occupation (BLS, May 2025). At the same time, retail counters and personal care services hold most of the employment and are the two lowest-paid lines on the profile.

Three things move an aesthetician's pay inside that band, and all three are documentable on a resume: the license tier, where a state has one; the setting, since the federal data says plainly which settings pay more; and commission and retail, usually a percentage of service revenue plus a percentage of product, which a manager will discuss against your own numbers rather than an industry average. That is why the summary carries a retail figure written as your own result, not as a benchmark.

In addition, tips are a real part of the total in day spa and salon settings. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act a tipped employee is one who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips, and employers, including managers and supervisors, may not keep tips from a tip pool (U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, Fact Sheet #15, retrieved 17 September 2026). State rules on the cash wage vary widely, so ask how the house handles it before you accept a number.

Key takeaways for an aesthetician resume

1. First, lead with the license, its number, its tier and the board that issued it.
2. Next, give a device block: what your license allows, and what a physician's delegation allows.
3. Name the board every time you state an hours figure, because hours are set state by state.
4. Then put a count in every experience bullet: services a year, sessions a week, platforms run.
5. Keep manufacturer platform training separate from scope, and list it last.
6. Say whether your continuing education and CPR are current, and keep the file single column.

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Pair it with a matching aesthetician cover letter.