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How to Start a Lash Studio in Georgia: Licenses, Costs & Requirements

Georgia answers the lash question inside another license. Eyelash extensions are written into the statutory definition of an esthetician, so your artists license as estheticians or master cosmetologists, your studio licenses as a salon, and the certificate courses the industry sells are training, not permission. This guide walks through the two licenses that cover lash work, the Salon/Shop license for the space, and the business filings behind them.

Researched from Georgia state sources. Our guides are free. We may earn a commission when you use a partner service, at no additional cost to you.

Who licenses lash work in Georgia

Start with the fact that shapes this whole guide: Georgia has no lash license. There is no eyelash technician category in O.C.G.A. Chapter 43-10, no lash permit at the Secretary of State, and no lash endorsement on any existing license. Instead, the statute places eyelash extensions inside a license Georgia already has. The definition of an esthetician in Section 43-10-1 covers, among its listed practices, dyeing eyelashes or eyebrows and applying eyelash extensions. Whoever regulates estheticians regulates lashes, and that is the Georgia State Board of Cosmetology and Barbers, administered by the Professional Licensing Boards Division of the Secretary of State.

That one placement decision drives your whole business plan. Your lash artists need an esthetician or master cosmetologist license before they touch a client. Your studio needs the board's Salon/Shop establishment license, because lash services are cosmetology services performed in a facility the board licenses and inspects. And the weekend certificate courses the industry runs on are training, valuable training, but they are not a legal credential in Georgia. The rest of this guide builds the studio on what the statute actually requires.

Georgia lash studio requirements at a glance

The two licenses that cover lash extensions

The direct route is the esthetician license. Its scope in Section 43-10-1 runs to cosmetic skin care: massaging the face, neck, décolletage, and arms; trimming, tweezing, shaping, and threading eyebrows; dyeing eyelashes or eyebrows and applying eyelash extensions; and waxing, cleansing, and beautifying the face, neck, arms, and hands. The course is 1,000 credit hours at a board approved school over at least nine months, split by Rule 240-16-.02 into 250 hours of theory and 750 hours of supervised service work, or a 2,000 hour apprenticeship in a licensed salon. Applicants must be at least 17, hold a high school diploma or equivalent, and pass written and practical examinations. The exam application is $30, and the license renews for $45 by August 31 of odd years.

The wider route is the master cosmetologist license, whose scope expressly includes performing the services of an esthetician. At 1,500 credit hours it is the longer course, but it lets the same artist cover hair and skin services too, which matters in a hybrid studio. Master cosmetologists renew for $50 by March 31 of even years, a completely different cycle from the estheticians on the same team.

Both licenses require five hours of continuing education at renewal, three of them in a health and safety course, starting at the second renewal, and both are available by endorsement at $75 for artists licensed in another state. What neither route allows is a shortcut: no one may apply eyelash extensions for compensation in Georgia on the strength of a private course certificate alone, and the next section explains where that line sits.

The Salon/Shop license for your studio

The studio itself needs the board's Salon/Shop license, the single establishment license for premises where cosmetology services are practiced. The application is $75, and the board's how-to guide sets the order of operations: the studio may not perform services until the license is active. You do not need an esthetician license yourself to own the studio. The license belongs to the business and the address, and it renews for $75 by June 30 of odd years.

The change fees matter to a growing studio. A change of name or address costs $45, a change of ownership $75, and a studio that moves files a change of location application before opening at the new address. A late renewal within six months costs $200, and reinstatement after that costs $300.

Chapter 240-4 of the board's rules sets the physical standard, and lash studios feel two parts of it most. The space must be a permanent and definite location, separated from living or other commercial space by tight, floor to ceiling walls, with toilet and lavatory facilities on the premises or within 300 feet in the same building. That rules out the casual arrangements lash artists sometimes start with: a spare bedroom with a lash bed is not a licensed facility unless it meets the same rules, and an unlicensed home setup is the most common enforcement problem in this trade. Inspectors may enter during business hours, the facility license posts within fifteen feet of the entrance, and each artist's license posts in an open, public area.

Why a lash certificate is not a license

Lash extension training in Georgia is a private market. Brands and academies run one to four day courses, issue certificates, and teach genuinely useful technique, and none of it is issued, approved, or recognized by the State Board of Cosmetology and Barbers as a license to practice. The board's licenses are the esthetician and master cosmetologist licenses, earned through the hour based courses or apprenticeships in Section 43-10-9 and the state examinations. A certificate can sit on top of a license as specialty training. It cannot stand in for one.

Draw the line the way the statute does. Applying eyelash extensions, the semi-permanent, individually bonded service, is esthetics practice and requires the license. Strip lashes and individual flare lashes applied as part of a makeup application sit in a different place, because the cosmetologist definition carves out the application of cosmetics that are marketed to individuals and commercially available. A makeup artist gluing on strip lashes for a wedding is not practicing esthetics; the same person offering bonded extension sets for pay is. Staff your studio on that line, verify every artist's license in the Secretary of State's lookup before their first client, and keep the certificates for what they are: proof of training, filed behind the licenses.

Forming your LLC with the Georgia Secretary of State

Most Georgia beauty businesses organize as a limited liability company, and Georgia makes the filing simple. To form the LLC, file Articles of Organization with the Corporations Division of the Secretary of State, online through the eCorp system. Under the Corporations Division fee schedule effective September 6, 2025, the filing fee is $100 plus a $10 service charge, $110 in total, and the same $110 applies whether you file online or on paper. Older guides still quote $100 or $105; the September 2025 schedule replaced both numbers. Your Articles name the LLC, give its address, and name a registered agent with a Georgia street address who accepts legal papers on the business's behalf.

The filing owners miss is the annual registration. Every Georgia LLC files one with the Secretary of State each year between January 1 and April 1, starting the year after formation. The statutory fee is $50 plus the $10 service charge, $60 in total, and filing after April 1 adds a $25 late penalty. Let it lapse and the Secretary of State can administratively dissolve the LLC, which strips away the liability protection the entity exists to provide. Put the January to April window on your calendar the day you form, not the first spring it surprises you.

An LLC is not the only route. A sole proprietor files nothing with the Corporations Division, but also gets no separation between business and personal debts and claims. A corporation files Articles of Incorporation at the same $110 total and owes the same $60 annual registration. Whatever you choose, the entity does not change the licensing in this guide. The board licenses, the county trade name filing, and the tax accounts below are the same for an LLC, a corporation, and a sole proprietor.

Registering your trade name with the Clerk of Superior Court

Georgia handles business names at the county courthouse, not at the state level. If you do business under a name that does not disclose who owns the business, a storefront name, a brand, or an LLC trading under a shorter name, O.C.G.A. Section 10-1-490 requires you to register that trade name with the Clerk of Superior Court in the county where the business is chiefly carried on. File before you start doing business under the name. The registration statement is verified by affidavit and lists the names and addresses of the owners and the nature of the business being carried on.

Two steps catch people out. First, the filing is not complete until you publish notice of it in the newspaper in which the sheriff's advertisements are printed, once a week for two weeks. Second, there is no statewide fee: the charge is the clerk's fee prescribed by O.C.G.A. Section 15-6-77, so it is set county by county. Wayne County, as one published example, charges $163 to register a trade name. Ask your own clerk for the current schedule before you go in. You file once; a new and amended statement is required only when ownership changes.

A trade name registration does not create your entity and does not give you trademark rights in the name. It is a public disclosure filing, and your bank will usually ask for the filed statement when you open the business account, so complete it before you sign a lease or print signage under the name.

Getting your federal Employer Identification Number

Your Employer Identification Number, or EIN, is the federal tax ID for the business, issued by the IRS. Apply directly on the IRS website and it is free; any site charging you for an EIN is selling you a form you can file yourself in minutes. You need the number before your first hire, and in practice sooner: most banks require one to open a business account for an LLC, and the Department of Revenue and the Department of Labor both want it when you register your tax accounts. Apply right after your entity filing so it never becomes the bottleneck.

Georgia sales tax: services are not taxed, retail products are

Georgia taxes the retail sale of tangible personal property, and the Department of Revenue states the rule plainly: the tax falls on retail sales of goods and a short list of specific services, and most services are exempt. Lash extensions, lifts, and tints are services, and they are not on that taxable list, so you do not charge sales tax on service tickets. The tax lives at your retail shelf: shampoo, conditioner, styling products, and anything else a client pays for and takes home are taxable retail sales.

Register with the Department of Revenue before your first retail sale. Registration runs through the Georgia Tax Center, the Department's online portal, which issues your sales and use tax number and your Certificate of Registration as a dealer. The state rate is 4 percent, and county and city taxes stack on top of it, so the rate you charge is the combined rate for your location from the Department's published rate chart. Inside Atlanta, in Fulton County, that combined rate is 8.9 percent. Charging another county's rate is a common and expensive mistake, because the combined rate follows the place of the sale.

One more rule matters to service businesses. On the products you use up while providing services, your adhesives, lash trays, and eye pads consumed during appointments, you are the end user, and sales or use tax is due on those purchases. Buy your retail inventory under your dealer registration and collect the tax when you sell it; pay the tax on what the business consumes itself. Keep services and products on separate lines in your point of sale, file your returns on the schedule the Department assigns, and remit what you collected. That money was never yours.

Hiring staff: unemployment tax, new hires, wages and classification

Hiring your first employee opens accounts with two agencies. With the Georgia Department of Labor, a business becomes liable for unemployment insurance once it pays $1,500 in wages in a calendar quarter or employs at least one person in each of 20 different weeks in a year, and it establishes its UI tax account with the Employer Status Report, Form DOL-1N. New employers are assigned a beginning rate of 2.70 percent, charged only on the first $9,500 of each employee's wages per year, until the Department computes an experience based rate from your own history. Quarterly tax and wage reports, Form DOL-4N, are due April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. Separately, register for Georgia income tax withholding through the Georgia Tax Center and have each employee complete Form G-4.

Report every new hire, rehire, and return to work to the Georgia New Hire Reporting Program within 10 days, as O.C.G.A. Section 19-11-9.2 requires. On wages, do not plan around Georgia's $5.15 state minimum wage: the state law covers only employers of six or more employees and excludes employment subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act when the federal rate is higher, so nearly every Georgia beauty business must pay at least the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Workers' compensation insurance becomes mandatory once you regularly employ three or more people. Part-time staff count toward the three, and so do LLC members and corporate officers.

Then there is classification. Georgia has no salon specific statute that blesses booth rental, so a chair renter is an independent contractor only if the relationship actually works like one: the renter sets their own prices and hours, books and collects payment from their own clients, holds their own license and insurance, and pays you rent for the space rather than working to a schedule and price list you control. The more the arrangement looks like employment, the more likely the Department of Labor and the IRS are to call it employment, with back payroll taxes to match. Get the rental agreement in writing before the first client sits down.

The local layer: occupational tax certificates, zoning and Atlanta

Georgia issues no general state business license. The license that lets you operate day to day is local: an occupational tax certificate, called a business license or a business tax certificate in many jurisdictions, issued by your city when the business sits inside city limits or by your county when it does not. Fees and formulas are set locally, commonly from some mix of business type, employee count, and gross receipts, and renewal dates are local too. Zoning has to allow a personal services business at your address before you sign the lease, and buildout work can need building, plumbing, and electrical permits plus a certificate of occupancy. Do the local checks in that order: zoning for the address, the certificate, then buildout permits.

Metro Atlanta stacks the layers highest. A business inside Atlanta needs the city's business license on top of the county process, and the metro area is split across Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett counties, so the county of your actual street address controls your county filings and your combined sales tax rate. Two storefronts a few miles apart can answer to different county offices at different rates. Confirm zoning and the certificate for the exact address before you commit to a space.

Insurance and the costs that keep coming back

Plan on three policies at a minimum. General liability covers injuries in the space, like a client slipping on a wet floor. Professional liability covers claims arising from the services themselves: an adhesive reaction at the eye, a corneal scratch claim, or a client who says a lift damaged her natural lashes. Property coverage protects your equipment, furniture, and retail stock, and business interruption coverage can carry the business if a fire or flood closes you for a month. Workers' compensation, covered above, is legally required once you regularly employ three or more people and is priced separately.

Premiums vary by city, services, and claims history, so get quotes from brokers who write beauty industry policies and compare the exclusions, not just the price. Then add the recurring state stack to the same budget: practitioner renewals on their staggered dates, the establishment renewal, the $60 LLC annual registration every spring, and your local certificate renewal. None is large on its own. Together they are a real line in the budget, and calendaring them in advance is how owners avoid late renewal fees and reinstatement charges.

Dates to put on your calendar

• August 31, odd years: esthetician renewals, $45, with five hours of continuing education complete.
• March 31, even years: master cosmetologist renewals, $50, for artists who license at the master level.
• June 30, odd years: Salon/Shop license renewal, $75.
• January 1 to April 1, every year: LLC annual registration with the Secretary of State, $60 total.
• April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31: quarterly unemployment tax and wage reports to the Department of Labor, if you have employees.
• Within 10 days of each hire: new hire report to the Georgia New Hire Reporting Program.
• On the Department of Revenue's schedule: sales and use tax returns for your retail product sales.
• Every year: renew your city or county occupational tax certificate on the local schedule.

Official Georgia sources for this guide

• Georgia State Board of Cosmetology and Barbers: applications, renewals, how-to guides and board news
• Board fee schedule (GSBCB Rev 03/22): every board fee and renewal date in this guide
• O.C.G.A. Section 43-10-9: training hours, apprenticeships and examinations for each license
• Board rules, Chapter 240-4: facility requirements, license posting and health and safety rules
• Corporations Division filing fees (effective September 6, 2025): Articles of Organization and annual registration fees
• Department of Revenue, What is Subject to Sales and Use Tax?: the services versus retail split
• Department of Labor, File Tax and Wage Reports: unemployment tax accounts, the $9,500 wage base and quarterly due dates
• State Board of Workers' Compensation, insurance FAQs: the three employee threshold for coverage

This guide is general information researched from official Georgia sources, not legal or tax advice. Requirements, fees and forms change; verify the current rules with the agencies linked above before you file, sign or spend.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need a license to do lash extensions in Georgia?

Yes. Georgia has no separate lash license, but applying eyelash extensions is written into the esthetician definition in O.C.G.A. Section 43-10-1, so the work requires an esthetician license or a master cosmetologist license, whose scope includes esthetician services. A certificate from a private lash course is training only and does not authorize anyone to charge for lash services.

How many hours of school does a Georgia lash artist need?

It depends on the license. The esthetician course is 1,000 credit hours over at least nine months, or a 2,000 hour apprenticeship. The master cosmetologist course is 1,500 credit hours, or a 3,000 hour apprenticeship. Both routes end with written and practical examinations and a $30 application fee to the board, and both licenses carry continuing education at renewal.

Does a lash studio need a Salon/Shop license in Georgia?

Yes. A lash studio is a facility where cosmetology services are practiced, so it needs the board's Salon/Shop license: $75 to apply, $75 to renew by June 30 of odd years, and no services until the license is active. The space must meet the facility rules in Chapter 240-4, including a permanent location separated by floor to ceiling walls from living or other commercial space.

Can I do lashes from home in Georgia?

Only inside the same licensing framework. Georgia allows a salon or shop in a home if it meets the board's facility rules, holds a Salon/Shop license, and operates in a permanent space separated from the living area, and your local zoning and home occupation rules still apply. An unlicensed lash bed in a spare room is the arrangement the board disciplines, because both the practitioner license and the facility license are missing.

Are lash services subject to sales tax in Georgia?

No. Georgia taxes retail sales of tangible personal property and a short list of specific services, and lash services are not on that list, so extensions, lifts, and tints carry no sales tax. Retail products are taxable: lash shampoo and aftercare a client takes home are charged the 4 percent state rate plus county and city taxes. Register through the Georgia Tax Center before your first retail sale.

Can a makeup artist apply lashes without a license in Georgia?

Strip lashes and flare lashes applied as makeup are a different case from extensions. The cosmetologist definition excludes the application of cosmetics marketed to individuals and commercially available, which is where temporary lashes applied with a makeup service sit. Bonded, semi-permanent eyelash extensions are esthetics practice under Section 43-10-1 and require an esthetician or master cosmetologist license, whoever applies them.