Beauty Therapist (Beautician) CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a qualified beauty therapist with five years in the treatment room: two years at a membership-based facial spa chain, then senior therapist at an independent day spa with an aesthetics clinic run by a nurse prescriber. The name, employers and college are made up. Keep the structure and replace the qualifications, treatments and numbers with your own.

"Beautician" is what many clients say, and some adverts still use it. In the UK, salons and spas mostly advertise for a beauty therapist, with levels in the job title (Level 2 therapist, Level 3 therapist, senior therapist) because the level tells them which treatments you are trained to do. Put your level under your name, and use "beautician" if the advert does.

• Beauty therapist: the usual UK title for skin, waxing, lash and brow, nail and massage work in salons, day spas, hotel spas and on cruise ships. Level 2 covers the core treatments; Level 3 adds massage, electrical facials and body treatments.
• Aesthetician or advanced skin therapist: used by aesthetics and skin clinics for therapists doing peels, microneedling, laser and IPL, usually with Level 4 qualifications. Use the advert's spelling.
• Esthetician or cosmetologist: US licence titles. Use them only if you are applying in the US, where each state licenses skin care workers and the document is a resume.

“The first thing I check is the qualification level and whether it covers our treatment menu. Then I look for treatments a day, retail percentage and rebooking. If someone writes "passionate about beauty" and no numbers, that CV is on the bottom of the pile.”

Most beautician CVs list duties: "performed facials and waxing", "provided excellent service", "maintained a clean workspace". Every therapist does that. Rewrite each line with how many, how much and how well. Seven rewrites using real spa work:

List 10 to 14 skills, treatments first, then products and systems, then the sales and people skills. A spa manager reads the treatments to see if you can cover the menu and reads the sales line to see if you will pay for your room.

Treatments (only the ones you do well and are qualified and insured for):

• Skin analysis and consultation, Fitzpatrick skin typing, contraindication screening, patch tests
• Facials: tailored, deep-cleansing, anti-ageing, acne, back facials, extractions, high frequency, steam, masks
• Chemical peels (superficial glycolic, lactic, salicylic, enzyme), microdermabrasion, dermaplaning, LED
• Waxing: face, body, Hollywood and Brazilian, hot and strip wax; sugaring or threading if you offer them
• Lash lifts, lash extensions, brow lamination, brow and lash tinting, brow shaping

Products, equipment and systems:

• Professional skincare lines you are trained on (Dermalogica, Image Skincare, Environ, Elemis, Decléor, SkinCeuticals and others); name your brand training
• Equipment: steamer, magnifying lamp, high frequency, microcurrent, microdermabrasion machines, LED panels, hydrodermabrasion devices
• Booking and till systems: Phorest, Fresha, Treatwell, Timely, Zenoti, Square Appointments
• Hygiene: hospital-grade disinfectants, autoclave use and logs, single-use items, COSHH and your local council's licence conditions

Sales and client skills (write them as results, not adjectives):

• Retail sales as a percentage of treatment takings (15% is average, 25%+ is strong)
• Rebooking rate and membership or course sales
• Consultation and home-care plans, upgrading a basic facial to a peel or add-on
• Time management: turning a room round in 10 minutes and staying on schedule with 8–10 clients

Use a personal statement once you have worked in a spa or salon for a year. Use a career objective if you have just finished college or are moving from retail beauty into treatments. Three lines: qualification, treatments and one or two numbers, then your availability.

Individual beauty therapists do not need a personal licence in most of the UK, so salons and spas judge you on your qualifications. The standard is a Level 2 Diploma in Beauty Therapy (waxing, facials, lash and brow tinting, manicure and pedicure), with Level 3 for massage, electrical and body treatments and Level 4 for advanced skin work such as laser, IPL and skin peels. Qualifications come from awarding bodies such as VTCT, City & Guilds, CIBTAC and ITEC, and apprenticeships follow the national standards first set by HABIA. Your insurer will ask for recognised qualifications before covering a treatment. Many London boroughs and some other councils license the premises for special treatments, and in Wales practitioners of some special procedures, such as electrolysis, need their own licence. Copy the exact titles from your certificates.

• Put your highest beauty therapy qualification first, with the level, awarding body and year, followed by a line saying your insurance is current. If you trained abroad, give the qualification name and what it covered.
• Brand training certificates (Dermalogica Expert, Image Skincare, Environ, Elemis and others) are worth one line each with the year. Spas that carry the line hire for them.
• Specialist certificates: lash extension, brow lamination, sugaring, spray tan and dermaplaning courses are private certificates, not regulated qualifications, and insurers often want a Level 2 or 3 underneath them. List them with the training company and year.
• Aesthetics clinic work: laser, IPL, microneedling and deeper peels need advanced training and specific insurance, injectables need a prescriber, and the government has announced plans to license non-surgical cosmetic treatments in England. Say exactly what you did and under whom.
• Advanced credentials such as a CIDESCO diploma or membership of a professional body such as BABTAC stand out at high-end and hotel spas. Only list one you hold.
• Education: list your college or academy with the qualification and level, then your GCSEs. A degree does not need explaining.

Spas take on new therapists all the time; the trade turns over fast and many owners prefer to train to their own protocol. What they worry about is whether you will sell retail, keep your rebooking up and still be there in a year. Your CV should answer those, even with no spa job on it.

1. 1Put your qualification status in the header: "Beauty Therapist, Level 2 Diploma in Beauty Therapy (July 2026)" or "Beauty therapy student, Level 3, final assessments June 2027."
2. 2Write a three-line career objective: your training, the treatments you are confident in and the ones you are still building, and your availability (evenings and Saturdays decide it).
3. 3Turn your college training salon into a job: clients per day on the salon floor, the treatments you did most, any client who asked for you again, any retail you sold.
4. 4Use every customer-facing job you have had, especially beauty retail, salon reception or nail bar reception: consultations a shift, sales per day, products learned, booking software used.
5. 5Offer a trade test: say on the CV or in the email that you are happy to do a practical (a facial or a wax) on a model at the interview. Most spas require it anyway.
6. 6Keep it to one page, no photo, PDF, and apply in person to independent salons on a weekday afternoon.

• One page. Spa managers read CVs between clients.
• Order: header with your title and qualification level, personal statement or career objective, qualifications and certificates, skills (treatments first), experience, education. New graduates: move education and training salon experience above other jobs.
• A clean layout with a touch of colour (the cvplex rose-gold template) suits salons and spas; use the plain ats-classic for spa chains, hotel groups and clinics whose applications go through applicant tracking software. Either way: no photo, no date of birth, single column, PDF.
• Name the spa type and size next to each employer: "membership spa, 12 rooms" or "aesthetics clinic with nurse prescriber". The manager will picture your day.

Words to mirror from the advert when they are true for you: beauty therapist, Level 2, Level 3, facials, chemical peels, dermaplaning, microdermabrasion, waxing, Hollywood, Brazilian, lash lift, brow lamination, skin analysis, consultation, retail sales, rebooking, membership, client retention, hygiene, patch tests, Dermalogica or the spa's brand, Phorest or Fresha or the spa's software, aesthetics clinic, laser, treatment room.