How to Choose A Professional Skincare Line

If you are an Esthetician (or even just a lover of professional skincare), this is for you! Find out how to select a professional skincare line. This is a guide for Estheticians to use in the treatment room and and even for determining what products to sell retail.

pink girly skincare products sitting on dresser

Before you pick a skincare line…

Consider what you need in a professional skincare line, first and foremost. Your needs will determine where to start. For example, if you already have a line from a brand you love that addresses a skin condition (say, dry skin), then you may be inclined to buy another line from the same brand that addresses a different concern. This sounds easy enough and the appeal is cohesiveness and boasting a “full product suite”.

Start With One Goal, Not One-Size-Fits-All

While it may seem easier to carry many lines under the same brand of skincare, there are pro’s and cons. Often the easiest thing isn’t the most effective thing.

I recommend you select one to two lines of products for each skin concern that you offer treatments for. And occasionally integrating stand-out/ hero products that you KNOW will work well with the others.

I believe in customizing an experience and providing options for clients. And that simply (in my experience) isn’t possible when you have only one line from one brand. Why? Because there is no a one-size-fits-all in this industry.

Here are some considerations before you pick a professional skincare line to either use in your treatment room or carry for retail:

How to Choose a Professional Skincare Line

1) Does the professional skincare line align with your business mission?

2) Is clinical research backing the products or ingredients?

3) Have other professionals seen results from this product line?

4) What are the costs associated with using these products in a service?

5) Are you qualified or trained in the protocols for this line?

Let’s dive into these considerations one by one.

Brand Alignment for professionals

Making sure a skincare brand is aligned with the business mission you have as a beauty professional is very important. Maybe you identify with the “vegan” brand value. Perhaps then you wouldn’t want to carry a line of skincare that tests on animals or contains animal byproducts in any way. It would be vital to the integrity of your business that you ensure alignment of your products and brand values.

Taking another example, maybe your spa is all about a luxury experience and a high-end price to reflect that. In this case, you may not want to retail products that could be found at the drugstore. Not to say drugstore products can’t be effective or helpful. But carrying a product line that doesn’t give a luxury experience doesn’t align well with a high-end spa.

Lastly, say you have a business that caters to those with specialized services, more aggressively targeting skin conditions. If you are specializing in chemical peels, dermaplaning, microneedling, or other advanced treatments/modalities, hear me on this. You wouldn’t use products for those specialized services that are not meant for those specific procedures.

This type of alignment has more to do with proper after-care or take-home products that would follow procedures like this. For not only professional liability reasons but also for the most optimal results and client experience, alignment of products and service goals here is important.

Research & Efficacy of a professional skincare line

Any product line that makes big claims should have research or trials associated with it. Especially for products that contain high percentages of active ingredients! Research that speaks to the efficacy of a product line and the safety of use are huge factors you’ll want to keep in mind.

I encourage looking into testing and trials that have been done on a certain professional skincare line or the company in general before you buy. And double check studies on skincare you already use because you never know what new info might come up. Let this information guide you to the most potent ingredients and the most effective formulas.

Although not all spas are focused on long-term results or skin transformations, the effectiveness of a product formulation is still super important to consider. Nobody wants to come to a professional for a service that promises a result that hasn’t been proven attainable before with the products the professional uses…right? This seems like a simple concept but I’m always amazed at how often it’s overlooked.

What Do Other Professionals Say?

While you are closely looking at the studies and results, think about who is endorsing these lines. Research reports can say one thing, but use over time by estheticians who are down and dirty in the treatment room can say something totally different. I don’t know about you, but I tend to trust those who actually use the products on a variety of different people on a daily basis to tell me the real deal.

Will the products work for all ages? Are they pregnancy safe? Will they affect all Fitzpatrick skin types the same way? Contraindications? Are the products tested AND recommended by Dermatologists or other trusted industry professionals?

All of these questions have to do with the efficacy of the claims each product or line is making. They also have to do with being able to answer any question a client might have about what the products you carry and use can do for their skin. This is vital because we have a duty as professionals to have an answer to “but will this work for me?”.

The Cost Of Doing Business

Another hugely important part of selecting a product line is the cost analysis of using it in a service. Consider how much it costs you to get the product (usually from a local rep), how much of it you use in a facial, and the cost of that service.

Also, think about whether you will use a certain product line often enough to justify the cost. If you specialize in acne, it makes sense to carry a couple of lines and hero products for that skin condition. But if you rarely see sensitive/dry skin clients, you may not find that it makes sense to carry a whole suite of products for that skin concern when you’ll hardly use them.

My advice is to see which services make up the largest percentage of bookings you get and focus more on the products associated with those services. Along with that same thinking, carry retail products that make sense for the majority of your clientele.

Knowing The Protocol

Lastly and in my opinion, most importantly… do you know how to use the product line? Fortunately, many clinical and professional skincare companies don’t allow you to put in an order for a product line if you haven’t been trained or certified in its protocol. But there are many off-brand lines that claim to have the same ingredients and results as the gate-kept pro lines, which can be dangerous in the wrong hands.

Make sure you know where your products are coming from (that they are not copycats or counterfeit), and that they come with INSTRUCTIONS. The more literature, tutorials, and protocol demos you can get your hands on, the better. It all comes back to being prepared and prioritizing safety for our clients and ourselves.

Whatever you decide to go with, the biggest thing to remember is that nothing is set in stone. You can use this list of recommendations to guide you, and still end up with a line you aren’t crazy about. And THAT’S OKAY! This journey of finding the products that work best for your clientele is a marathon, not a sprint. Do consider these ideas when you shop for product lines to carry, but don’t get caught up and overthink them.

I can’t wait to see what you pick. Tag me on Instagram and let me know what you are going to use in your treatment room. I hope these tips were helpful for you!

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