If you love fashion and making people feel as though they look their best, you can consider a career as a personal appearance worker. Personal appearance workers are cosmetology professionals that focus in skin care, manicures, pedicures and makeup.

What Is a Personal Appearance Worker?

A personal appearance worker is a trained and licensed professional dedicated to the art of making their clients look and feel their best. Personal appearance workers are usually licensed cosmetologists and may focus in different fields with varying training requirements.

Makeup artists will usually be trained on-the-job and may either focus on spa and salon clients or on theatrical and performance makeup. Manicurists and pedicurists often either work for a manicure salon or with a hair salon. Personal appearance workers are usually licensed cosmetologists.[/caption]Skin care specialists come in two major forms: estheticians and aestheticians. Estheticians focus on salons and spas while aestheticians focus on medical clinics and other treatment clinics.

What Does a Personal Appearance Worker Do?

The job responsibilities of a personal appearance worker is based on the type of work they choose to do. Regardless of the type of work, however, the job of a personal appearance worker usually begins with discussing the client’s desires and figuring out the best way to meet them.

Makeup artists will use color palettes and a variety of makeup tools to shape and define their client’s face while manicurists and pedicurists will use specialized nail equipment to create perfect long-lasting finishes.

Skin care specialists work with many techniques, from basic scrubs to more advanced chemical peels. Skin care specialists may have set treatments that are offered to their clients or and they may see the same clients multiple times. Aestheticians may work with more advanced medical techniques such as laser resurfacing, tattoo removal and wrinkle treatment. A personal appearance worker may also advise their client on the things they can do to maintain or improve their appearance following the treatment. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, job opportunities for cosmetologists are growing.

How Do You Become a Personal Appearance Worker?

Personal appearance workers are usually licensed cosmetologists. A cosmetologist will need to be licensed by their state board and the requirements are often based on their individual state. Personal appearance workers can obtain degrees through community colleges, accredited cosmetology schools and universities. Many personal appearance workers are self-employed and even those that are not often work on their own schedules.

Aestheticians usually need medical training in addition to ordinary cosmetology training. Medical aestheticians can acquire a variety of specific certification for different treatments, such as a certification for laser treatments. However, there is no specific certification for being a medical aesthetician, according to Medical Aesthetics.

How Do You Advance as a Personal Appearance Worker?

Personal appearance workers have a great deal of mobility within their field. Makeup artists can move between salon makeup and luxury spa makeup or can move into theatrical makeup or television and movie makeup. Those working with nails can open their own salons and build up their own client base. Personal appearance workers that offer manicures and pedicures usually lease out space within hair salons rather than have their own office.

Many of those that work in skincare will eventually work on their own, either by creating their own offices or by leasing out a portion of space in another office. Those interested in expanding their work can gain additional certifications in more advanced skin procedures. Estheticians can pursue training in medical aesthetics if they are interested in breaking into a different industry. Medical aesthetics tends to pay much more and is growing significantly as an industry.