TemplatesFacial consultation
facial consultation form
A consultation is where you decide whether to treat at all, so the screening questions carry more weight here than anywhere else.
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- screening questions
- 8screening questions
- stop the appointment
- 4stop the appointment
- minutes to set up
- 10minutes to set up
- a month to start
- $8a month to start
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 puts what is realistic in writing, signed, before session one so session four is a progress conversation rather than a refund request.
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
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The 8 answers that should stop you
A consultation is where you decide whether to treat at all, so the screening questions carry more weight here than anywhere else. Everything you find out at the consultation is something you do not have to find out mid-treatment.
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 consultation
What goes wrong without it
The consultation that goes wrong is the one where nobody wrote down what was promised.
A client comes in with textural acne scarring, is sold a course of six treatments, and understands - genuinely, not unreasonably - that her skin will be smooth at the end of it. At session five it is meaningfully better and not smooth. She asks for a refund on the basis that she was told it would work. The esthetician remembers explaining that scarring improves rather than resolves. The client remembers being told it would work. There is no record of either conversation, and there is no way to settle it that leaves both parties intact.
What a facial consultations consultation form has to cover
The actual field list, and why each group is on this particular form.
Client and history
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Phone
- Previous professional treatments
Previous treatments is the field that tells you whether you are talking to someone who has had six courses of peels or someone who has never had a facial.
Skin analysis
- Fitzpatrick type
- Observed skin type
- Hydration and barrier condition
- Congestion and texture
- Pigmentation observations
- Sensitivity and redness
- Under magnification notes
These are the practitioner's observations rather than the client's answers, which is what makes a consultation form a professional record rather than a questionnaire.
Client goals
- Primary concern in the client's own words
- What they have already tried
- Timeline and any event
- Budget expectation
- Willingness to change home routine
Recording the concern in the client's own words is the trick. 'Dull' and 'tired-looking' mean different things and lead to different plans.
Recommendation
- Treatment plan and sequence
- Number of sessions and interval
- Home care recommended
- What is realistic and what is not
- Client agreement to the plan
- Signature with timestamp
The 'what is not realistic' line is the most valuable one on the form. A client who has signed something saying acne scarring improves rather than disappears is a client who will not be disappointed at session four.
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
The consultation is where scope-of-practice risk is highest, because it is the appointment where a client describes a medical concern and hopes you will address it. Diagnosing a skin condition, or recommending a course of treatment for one, is outside esthetician scope in every US state, and the line is crossed with language more often than with technique. 'That looks like rosacea, we can treat that' is a diagnosis. 'I am not able to diagnose, and that is worth having a dermatologist look at' is a referral. Your consultation form should have a referral field for exactly this reason, because a documented referral is a completed professional duty rather than a lost sale. The second point is the treatment plan itself: recording what is realistic, in writing, signed, is the single most effective protection against a dissatisfaction complaint at session four of six. Not legal advice - your board's scope rules govern.
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
An intake form is what the client tells you. A consultation form adds what you observed and what you recommended. The observations and the plan are what make it a professional record.
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.