How to Start a Lash Studio in Maine

Who regulates lash studios in Maine

Lash studios answer to the Barbering and Cosmetology Licensing Program, administered by the Director of the Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation inside the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, under Title 32, chapter 126. The program does not issue a lash credential, and the honest reading of the chapter is definitional: lash services are lawful in Maine when performed by a licensee whose practice definition includes them, inside a licensed establishment. The two definitions that include them are aesthetics and cosmetology, both in section 14202. Everything else in the studio's regulatory life is the standard chapter 126 apparatus: the Level 1 and Level 2 establishment licenses, the October 31 renewal, the $20 fees set in OPOR Rule Chapter 10, and the program's enforcement of unlicensed practice.

The boundaries matter as much as the coverage. The practice of aesthetics excludes diagnosis or treatment of dermatological conditions, so lash work that drifts toward treating eye or skin conditions leaves the license behind. Brow and lash tinting are inside the aesthetics definition in terms, which separates Maine from states where tinting is restricted or prohibited for estheticians. And micropigmentation, the semi permanent brow work clients often ask a lash studio to add, is not in chapter 126 at all: it is licensed by the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Maine microblading guide covers that separate license. A studio menu should be built service by service against the definitions, because the chapter rewards the owner who checks and penalizes the one who assumes.

Maine lash studio at a glance

The licenses that cover lashes, step by step

The aesthetician license under section 14228 is the route built for a lash studio. The school route is 600 hours in a school licensed under the chapter, completed in not less than 3 months. The trainee route is up to 1,000 hours distributed over at least 6 months, with the specific coursework hours, up to a maximum of 600, set by rule: an unusual structure, because the statute fixes the total program envelope while the program's rules apportion the training. What the license covers is defined by the practice of aesthetics: applying makeup or eyelashes to any person, trimming or tinting eyebrows and eyelashes, and the wider skin care services, with diagnosis and treatment of dermatological conditions excluded. Extensions, lifts performed as part of the aesthetics practice, and lash and brow tinting all sit inside that definition, which is as clear a statutory home as any state gives lash work without a dedicated credential.

The cosmetologist license under section 14226 is the wider route: 1,500 school hours in not less than 9 months or 2,500 trainee hours over at least 18 months, covering applying makeup or eyelashes inside a scope that also runs to hair and nails. Either license is earned the same way once training ends, by passing the approved examination administered by the state's testing vendor, Prov, at sites in Auburn, Bangor and Presque Isle or remotely, with the examination charge paid to the vendor. An applicant who qualifies for the examination may hold a temporary license under section 14230 for six months, not renewable, working under the direct supervision of a qualified supervisor in a licensed establishment. Both licenses cost $20 for a one year term, renew every October 31, carry the $50 late fee from November 1 and a new application after 90 days, and are posted conspicuously where the work is done.

The negative space in the chapter is what this guide exists to mark. A nail technician's license does not include eyelash services, and a hair designer's license, which expressly excludes aesthetic skin care, does not either. A studio that hires across categories, a nail tech who wants to add a lash bed, a hair designer who wants brow work, is really hiring a second license, earned through the aesthetician or cosmetologist route. There is also no shortcut through the exemptions: the activities exempted by section 14203(1-A) are hair braiding, threading, retail cosmetics application while selling the products, and spray tanning, and none of them reaches lash extensions. Threading deserves a word of its own, because a brow studio can lawfully offer threading with no license at all while the lash bed beside it requires the full aesthetician credential, and a menu that prices the two side by side should be licensed for the bed, not the thread.

The Level 1 establishment license for your studio

The studio itself holds a Level 1 establishment license under section 14224, because a lash studio is premises where aesthetics is practiced, and the chapter requires an establishment license wherever one of the five licensed practices is performed. The Level 1 licensee is the owner, who may hold a practice license, employ licensees, and lease space or a room to Level 2 establishment owners. The license costs $20 for a one year term, renews October 31, and authorizes the establishment only at the location printed on it, an establishment being any premises or part of a building where a licensed activity is practiced. A lash room rented inside an existing salon still runs on the two tier system: the salon's Level 1 license above, the artist's Level 2 license below, and the suite guide covers the room rental model in full.

The change rules are the same 10 day clocks as everywhere in the chapter. A change of ownership requires the new owner to apply for licensure with notice to the Director within 10 calendar days, the old license valid for 30 calendar days from the transaction. A change of location is reported within 10 calendar days and reissued for the new location with no new application and no fee. On the death of a co-owner named on the license, notice within 30 days gets a reissue for the remaining period, and the license stays valid 60 calendar days after the death of the named person. Because a lash studio's value sits in its book of recurring fills, a purchase agreement should treat those dates as closing conditions rather than paperwork to catch up later.

Forming your business: the LLC

A Maine lash studio typically forms a limited liability company under the Maine Limited Liability Company Act, Title 31, chapter 21: the Certificate of Formation, Form MLLC-6, filed on paper with the Division of Corporations in the Secretary of State's office at $175, naming the company and its registered agent. There is no online formation filing. The annual report, Form MLLC-13, costs $85 and falls between January 1 and June 1 each year, the first in the year after formation, under section 1665; a $50 late penalty follows the window and continued failure leads to administrative dissolution. Keep the entity in good standing, because the Level 1 license, the room lease and the studio's accounts all presume a company the state still recognizes.

Registering your studio name

The assumed name filing depends on the entity. An LLC trading under a studio name other than its legal name files a Statement of Intention to Do Business Under an Assumed Name, Form ASUM-5, with the Secretary of State before trading under it, at $125 for a for profit entity, one statement per name, with no renewal term, so it stands until the company terminates it. A sole proprietor lash artist deposits a sworn certificate with the clerk of the city or town where the studio sits, under Title 31, chapter 1, at a fee the municipality sets, and files nothing with the state. The name on the brand, the booking platform and the storefront should be a name one of those two filings actually covers.

Getting your EIN

The Employer Identification Number is the business's federal tax identity, issued free by the IRS. A studio with employed artists needs one before the first payroll, since Maine withholding and unemployment reporting key off it, and a solo artist's LLC will be asked for one by the bank and the landlord. Apply on the IRS site and keep the legal name identical across the EIN record, the Secretary of State filings and the establishment application.

Sales tax: services untaxed, retail taxed at 5.5 percent

Maine Revenue Services taxes retail sales of tangible personal property at 5.5 percent, one statewide rate with no local add on. Lash services are outside the base: the department's Business Guide to Sales, Use, and Service Provider Tax enumerates the taxable categories and personal services are not among them, so full sets, fills, lifts and tints ring up untaxed. Aftercare kits, cleansers and retail product sold to take home are retail sales at 5.5 percent, and the studio registers with Maine Revenue Services as a retailer for that stream. Adhesives, lashes and disposables the studio consumes are its own supply purchases, kept apart from resale stock in the bookkeeping. The service provider tax never reached personal services and was repealed effective January 1, 2026, so the ticket itself carries no transaction tax of either kind.

Renting a lash room: the Level 2 establishment license

The lash artist who rents a room in a salon or a suite building is a Level 2 establishment licensee under section 14224: a licensee leasing space under a written agreement inside a licensed Level 1 establishment, providing services separate and apart from the owner. The statute declares that she is not an employee of the Level 1 licensee and subjects her to licensure, fees and compliance in the same manner as the owner, at $20 a year renewing October 31. She must hold the full aesthetician or cosmetologist license first, because trainees and temporary license holders are not eligible for a Level 2 license. For the host, verify both of the renter's licenses and keep them with the written lease. For the artist, the Level 2 license is the state's own recognition that the room is her business, which is the posture her lease, insurance and tax filings should match.

Hiring lash artists: wages, unemployment and withholding

Employed artists work under Maine's wage floor of $15.10 an hour from January 1, 2026, with the service employee wage of $7.55 available where the artist earns more than $191 a month in tips and the studio can show at least $15.10 an hour from wage and tips combined at week's end. An artist whose book, prices and hours the studio controls is an employee on a commission split just as on an hourly wage; the independent shape is the Level 2 license. Hiring triggers unemployment reporting through the Department of Labor's ReEmployME system on the first $12,000 of each employee's wages per year, under Schedule A for 2026, with a new employer combined rate of 2.54 percent, the 2.23 percent base plus the 0.14 percent and 0.17 percent assessments on the state's 2026 UC-1 form. Maine Revenue Services processes those returns and runs income tax withholding on Form 941ME, quarterly, and new hire reports go in as artists start.

The local layer: towns, zoning and premises

Zoning, occupancy, signage and any local business registration belong to the city or town, and Portland adds its own ordinances, including a local minimum wage above the state's, on top of the state framework. The premises rule with teeth for lash work is the establishment definition: licensed practice belongs inside a licensed establishment, and the exceptions in section 14203(2) for practice outside one are a closed list, clients' residences, hospitals and nursing homes, hotels and special events, which covers a bridal party booking without licensing a home studio or a regular circuit of house calls. The artist who wants mobility as a business model looks at the mobile establishment license, $20 a year, built for a vehicle or structure that serves as an establishment at a number of sites.

Insurance for a Maine lash studio

Chapter 126 does not condition the studio's licenses on insurance, so coverage is a business judgment, and for lash work it is a pointed one: the service happens at the client's eyes with adhesives and chemicals, which is exactly the exposure professional liability exists for. The working stack is general liability for the premises, professional liability written to cover eyelash services expressly, and property coverage for beds, lights and retail stock. Room renters carry their own professional liability naming the establishment, because the Level 2 structure makes the renter separately responsible while her client lies on a bed inside your licensed premises. A studio with employees carries workers' compensation through Maine's private market.

Renewal and filing calendar

The studio year is an October 31 when every license renews together, a spring LLC report, and quarterly payroll filings between them.

Official sources

• Title 32, section 14224: Level 1 and Level 2 establishments, location rules, change of ownership and location.
• Barbering and Cosmetology Licensing Program, laws and rules: OPOR's page for chapter 126, whose section 14202 definitions place eyelash application inside aesthetics and cosmetology.
• OPOR testing information: the testing vendor and the Auburn, Bangor and Presque Isle testing sites.
• Title 31, section 1665: the LLC annual report and its January 1 to June 1 window.
• Title 31, section 1510: assumed and fictitious names for limited liability companies.
• Secretary of State: Form MLLC-6 at $175, Form MLLC-13 at $85 and Form ASUM-5 at $125 on the Division of Corporations forms pages.
• Maine Revenue Services: the Business Guide to Sales, Use, and Service Provider Tax and the published 5.5 percent rate.
• Maine Department of Labor: the $15.10 minimum wage release and the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation's Schedule A and $12,000 wage base.
• IRS, apply for an EIN: the free federal application.

Maine lash studio FAQ