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

Michigan has no lash license, and the point is statutory, not an oversight: MCL 339.1210(2) lists applying eyelashes among the skin care services of an esthetician, and subsection (2)(j) names eyelash services, including extensions and tinting, outright. A lash studio is therefore entered through the esthetician license, or the broader cosmetologist license, and housed under a cosmetology establishment or limited cosmetology establishment license.

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

The regulator: the Board of Cosmetology at LARA

A Michigan lash studio answers to the Board of Cosmetology, inside the Bureau of Professional Licensing at the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, known as LARA. Cosmetology is regulated under Article 12 of the Occupational Code, Act 299 of 1980, and licenses and renewals run through MiPLUS, the Michigan Professional Licensing User System. There is no separate lash board, no lash examination and no lash credential anywhere in Article 12, and the reason is worth understanding before money is spent on school or a lease, because it decides which license every artist in the studio must hold.

The point is statutory, not an oversight. Section 1210, MCL 339.1210, lists the skin care services that an esthetician or a cosmetologist may perform, and that list expressly includes applying eyelashes. Subsection (2)(j) goes further and names the modern menu outright: "Eyelash services, including extensions and tinting." The legislature wrote lashes into the esthetician's scope, so the lash artist's credential in Michigan is the esthetician license, or the broader cosmetologist license for an artist who also does hair. A short lash certification course, however good its training, is not a state credential and does not substitute for either license.

Michigan lash studio requirements at a glance

Practitioner licenses: the esthetician route in, and the cosmetologist route

The direct route is the esthetician license under MCL 339.1210. The training requirement is 400 hours in a licensed school of cosmetology, or 750 hours for an individual who begins training on or after July 1, 2024, under 2024 PA 78. The alternative route is an apprenticeship of not less than 6 months in a licensed cosmetology establishment where skin care services are rendered. The applicant must be at least 17 years old, hold an education equivalent to completion of the ninth grade, and pass an examination if one is available. The fee structure comes from the State License Fee Act: a $15 application processing fee plus a license fee of $24 per year, which on the two year cycle is $63 initial total and $48 to renew. Those rates are in effect for payments through September 30, 2027.

Two limits on that license shape the business from the start. First, the esthetician license is a limited license under MCL 339.1203a(3): it authorizes skin care services only, and nothing else. An esthetician may not cut hair, color hair or do nails on the strength of it, and a lash studio that grows into hair services needs cosmetologists on staff and the establishment scope to match. Second, skin care services are limited to the surface of the skin under MCL 339.1210(3), the stratum corneum limit, so the licensed menu is surface work: extensions, tinting, facials and the rest of the listed skin care services, performed on the surface of the skin rather than below it. The wider route in is the cosmetologist license, which carries the same skin care scope as part of a full cosmetology practice and suits an owner who wants one credential covering hair, skin and nails. Whichever route an artist takes, Article 12 licenses renew every 2 years on the biennial anniversary of the issue date under R 339.1003, renewed through MiPLUS, so each artist in the studio renews on their own anniversary rather than on a single statewide date.

The establishment credential: a cosmetology establishment, full or limited

The premises license a lash studio under MCL 339.1204 as a cosmetology establishment, or, where only specified services will be offered, as a limited cosmetology establishment licensed for those specified services only. The limited license fits a lashes only studio well: the premises are licensed for the services named, and a practitioner working there may not perform services the establishment is not licensed to provide. The fee is a $25 application processing fee plus $25 per year, which is $75 initial total and $50 to renew on the two year cycle, at the State License Fee Act rates in effect for payments through September 30, 2027.

The application is made by the owners or managers and includes the address and a drawing or diagram showing the required equipment and facilities and full partition and door separation from any adjacent dwelling or school. The premises must then pass a department inspection for sanitation and equipment standards before the studio trades under the license. The establishment license and each working cosmetologist's or practitioner's license must be displayed prominently, with an individual license allowed to be posted at the workstation. Plan the end of the license as carefully as the start: an establishment license is void on a sale or other transfer of the establishment, a sale or other transfer of ownership, or, except for a mobile salon, a change in location. A lash studio that moves across town does not carry its license with it; the owner submits a new application and obtains a new license for the new premises.

Forming your LLC with LARA

Most Michigan lash studio owners form a limited liability company so the debts and legal problems of the business stay with the business. An LLC is formed by filing Articles of Organization, Form 700, with the Corporations Division of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, for $50. A professional LLC files Form 701, also $50. Filing can be done online, and the company needs a resident agent and a registered office in Michigan, because that is where the state and process servers reach it.

The follow on duty is an annual statement of resident agent and registered office, due February 15 of each year, for $25. An LLC formed after September 30 does not have to file a statement on the immediately following February 15, so a company formed in the fall gets its first statement deadline in the second February after formation. There is no late fee for a standard LLC. The consequence of neglect is slower and stranger than owners expect: if an LLC fails to file annual statements for 2 consecutive years, the administrator sends a notice, and if all missing statements and fees are not filed within 60 days after that notice, the LLC is not in good standing. No certificate of good standing will issue, the company name becomes available for use by another entity, and the administrator accepts no filings from it except a certificate of restoration of good standing, which costs $50. The LLC is not dissolved, and it may keep operating and keep serving clients while it restores itself, but banks, landlords and licensing counterparties who ask for a certificate will find the gap. Adopt a written operating agreement even though it is never filed; it governs the money between members, and the statutory defaults are a poor substitute in a two owner business.

Trading under a name: the assumed name filings

Michigan calls a name other than the legal name an assumed name, and the filing route depends on the business form. A sole proprietor or a general partnership files a certificate of assumed name with the county clerk of each county where business is conducted or a location is maintained, under Act 101 of 1907. The fee is $6, the certificate runs 5 years, and a renewal certificate filed with the county clerk before expiration costs $4 and extends the name another 5 years. Letting the term lapse is treated as abandonment of the name.

An LLC files its certificate of assumed name with LARA instead, for $25. The certificate expires on December 31 of the fifth full calendar year after the filing year, and it can be extended for additional consecutive 5 year periods by a renewal certificate, also $25, filed within 90 days before expiration. A corporation pays $10 for its certificate of assumed name, with the same December 31 of the fifth full calendar year term. The filing only bites when the business trades under something different from its filed legal name, so a lash studio whose salon sign matches its Articles of Organization word for word needs no second filing, while a company formed under one name and marketed under another needs the certificate before the sign goes up.

Getting your EIN

Your Employer Identification Number is the one free, fast step in a Michigan opening. Apply on the IRS website and the number issues at no cost; every LLC and corporation needs one for banking and payroll, and a sole proprietor needs one once they have employees. Michigan paperwork keys off it: a business that has an EIN uses that number as its Treasury account number, the unemployment registration runs under it, and your bank and card processor will ask for it. Get it after the entity exists and before the first state tax registration, so the number is on hand when Form 518 or the online registration asks for it.

Sales tax: the service charge sits outside the tax, retail does not

Michigan charges a 6 percent state sales tax on retail sales of tangible personal property, and there is no city, local or county sales tax anywhere in the state, so the rate is 6 percent in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Marquette alike. The tax reaches retail transfers of tangible personal property. The service charge itself sits outside it, so the price of the lash service is not a taxable retail sale. What a client takes home is different: shampoo, cosmetics and other products the client takes home are taxable retail sales, and property that goes with the customer in connection with a service is considered a sale at retail. The business collects the 6 percent from the customer on those products and holds it for the state.

Register before the first retail sale, either through Michigan Treasury Online e-registration or on paper with Form 518, the Registration for Michigan Taxes. The online application is recognized within 15 minutes and processed within up to 48 hours, and a business with an EIN uses that number as its Treasury account number. The sales tax license runs January through December and renews annually, so a license taken out partway through the year still turns over at the calendar year boundary. Keep services and retail products itemized separately in the booking and point of sale system from day one, because the line between an untaxed service charge and a taxable take home product is drawn at the register, not in an accountant's office months later.

Renting chairs and rooms: no booth renter license in Michigan

Owners who plan to fill part of the studio with independent artists should know that Michigan has no booth renter license and no booth rental fee anywhere in Article 12 or the State License Fee Act schedule. A lash artist who rents space inside your licensed establishment works under the establishment license for the premises and under their own esthetician or cosmetologist license for the services. Michigan even defines the arrangement for suites: a room or suite inside a licensed cosmetology establishment, leased or rented from the owner of that establishment to offer cosmetology services, is a cosmetology suite, and the fuller structure is worked through in the Michigan salon suite guide.

The absence of a renter license does not settle the tax question. A renter you schedule, price and direct like an employee can still be treated as an employee for withholding and unemployment purposes, and your workers' compensation position covers your employees rather than your renters. Pair the rental with a written agreement, the renter's own booking and payment handling, and their own product stock, and keep the paperwork consistent with the independence it describes.

Hiring staff: withholding, unemployment, workers' compensation, and wages

The first hire triggers the employer stack, and Michigan folds much of it into one registration. Form 518, Registration for Michigan Taxes, registers a business for sales tax, use tax, income tax withholding, corporate income tax and unemployment insurance tax, and the Michigan Treasury Online e-registration replaces it online. The Unemployment Insurance Agency issues the unemployment account number, and its online e-registration can issue a new account number in as little as three days. An employer required to withhold federal tax must also deduct and withhold Michigan income tax at 4.25 percent. Unemployment tax is paid entirely by the employer.

A new non-construction employer pays 2.7 percent plus one third of its chargeable benefits component in year one, on the first $9,000 of each employee's wages for 2026 for employers in good standing, meaning all quarterly reports submitted, none missing or estimated, and no unpaid balance of $25 or more in tax, penalty or interest. Employers who do not meet those criteria are taxed on the first $9,500 instead. In year two the rate is 2.7 percent plus two thirds of the component, and from year three the full experience rated formula applies. Quarterly Wage and Tax reports are due even when the business has no employees or no wages to report, and late submission can bring penalties and interest. Account management runs in the new MiUI system; MiWAM, the Michigan Web Account Manager, was permanently retired on November 2, 2026.

Workers' compensation in Michigan is governed by the Worker's Disability Compensation Act of 1969. The act reaches private employers who regularly employ 3 or more employees at one time, and employers with fewer than 3 employees if at least one employee has been regularly employed 35 or more hours a week for 13 weeks or longer during the preceding 52 weeks. An employer under the act must secure payment of compensation through authorized self-insurance or a policy from an insurer authorized to transact workers' compensation insurance in Michigan, so coverage is bought from an authorized private insurer. The wage floor for 2026 is $13.73 an hour, with a tipped wage of $5.49 an hour provided the employee receives at least $8.24 in tips. On January 1, 2027 the full rate rises to $15.00 and the tipped rate to $6.30, so a payroll set up in late 2026 should be built with the January increase already in it.

The local layer, and the microblading line

The state licenses the studio; the local layer controls the premises it sits in. Zoning approval, building permits and occupancy sign off come from the city or township, and municipalities add their own business and signage rules on top of the state system. The partition and door separation the state application requires, between the studio and any dwelling or school, is worth confirming against the actual floor plan before the drawing is submitted, because a unit that shares an open plan with a residence will not pass on the state side either.

One service line must be drawn before the menu is printed. Microblading is not a skin care service and does not ride on the esthetician license or on the establishment license in this guide. It belongs to the body art facility framework run by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, under Part 131 of the Public Health Code, because the statutory definition of tattooing reaches an indelible mark made by insertion of pigment under the skin. A studio that wants brow work of that kind follows the Michigan microblading guide for the facility license, while lash extensions and tinting stay squarely inside esthetics, as the Michigan esthetics guide sets out. Keeping the two menus and the two regulators separate on paper protects both sides of the business.

Insurance and recurring costs

The licensing layers above do not condition a cosmetology license on a bond or an insurance filing, which makes Michigan simpler than states that build coverage into the application. The coverage duties that are legal duties rather than choices are workers' compensation for employers inside the act's thresholds, covered in the hiring section, and the tax registrations. Insurance enters through the lease and through prudence: landlords require general liability coverage with the landlord named as an additional insured before handing over keys, and a working lash studio carries professional liability for services and property coverage for the buildout, equipment and retail inventory.

Recurring state costs are predictable once the pattern is understood: practitioner and establishment renewals on the two year anniversary cycle through MiPLUS, the LLC annual statement every February 15 at $25, quarterly Wage and Tax reports even in a quarter with no wages, and the sales tax license renewing annually on the calendar year. The State License Fee Act rates quoted in this guide are the rates in effect for payments through September 30, 2027, and the statute sets lower rates for payments after that date, so a renewal priced today should not be assumed to price the same way after the change. Budget for the fee schedule as it stands when each payment falls due.

Your Michigan renewal calendar

• Every 2 years, on the biennial anniversary of the issue date: esthetician and cosmetologist licenses renew at $48 each through MiPLUS, and the cosmetology establishment license renews at $50, at the State License Fee Act rates in effect for payments through September 30, 2027
• Every year, by February 15: LLC annual statement filed with LARA, $25; an LLC formed after September 30 skips the immediately following February 15
• Every 5 years: an assumed name certificate renews, $4 at the county clerk for a sole proprietor or partnership, or $25 with LARA for an LLC, expiring December 31 of the fifth full calendar year after the filing year
• January through December: the sales tax license runs on the calendar year and renews annually
• Every quarter: Wage and Tax reports filed in MiUI, due even in a quarter with no wages
• January 1, 2027: the minimum wage rises to $15.00 and the tipped wage to $6.30; the 2026 rates are $13.73 and $5.49 with at least $8.24 in tips
• On any sale, transfer or change of location: the establishment license is void, mobile salons excepted, and a new license application is required

Official Michigan sources for this guide

• MCL 339.1210: the esthetician qualifications, the skin care services list including eyelash services at subsection (2)(j), and the surface of the skin limit in section 1210(3)
• MCL 339.1203a: limited licenses, including the esthetician license limited to skin care services only under subsection (3)
• MCL 339.1204: the cosmetology establishment and limited cosmetology establishment licenses, the application drawing, inspection, and the rule that the license is void on sale, transfer or change of location
• MCL 338.2225, State License Fee Act: the cosmetology fee rates in effect for payments through September 30, 2027, including the $15 application fee and $24 per year individual license fee and the $25 plus $25 per year establishment fees
• Administrative rules R 339.1001 to R 339.1005: R 339.1003, under which cosmetology licenses renew every 2 years on the biennial anniversary of the issue date
• MCL 339.1201: the definitions of cosmetology suite and cosmetology establishment, and the absence of any booth renter license in Article 12
• MDHHS, Body Art Facility Licensing: the body art facility framework that covers microblading, run by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
• Department of Treasury, Who Needs a Sales Tax License: the 6 percent state rate, the absence of local sales tax, and which service businesses must hold a sales tax license
• MCL 450.4207a: the good standing consequences of 2 consecutive missed LLC annual statements, the 60 day notice period, and restoration
• Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, minimum wage release: the January 1, 2026 minimum wage of $13.73, the tipped wage of $5.49 with at least $8.24 in tips, and the January 1, 2027 rise to $15.00 and $6.30

This guide is general information researched from official Michigan 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

Is there a lash license in Michigan?

No. Michigan has no separate lash license, examination or credential. MCL 339.1210(2) lists the skin care services an esthetician or a cosmetologist may perform, expressly including applying eyelashes and, at subsection (2)(j), eyelash services, including extensions and tinting. Lashes are covered by the esthetician license, or by the broader cosmetologist license.

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

Through the esthetician route, 400 hours in a licensed school of cosmetology, or 750 hours for an individual who begins training on or after July 1, 2024. The alternative is an apprenticeship of not less than 6 months where skin care services are rendered. The applicant must be 17, hold a ninth grade equivalent education, and pass an examination if one is available. The license costs $63 initial and $48 to renew.

What premises license does a Michigan lash studio need?

A lash studio licenses as a cosmetology establishment, or as a limited cosmetology establishment if only specified services will be offered. The fee is a $25 application fee plus $25 per year, $75 initial and $50 to renew. The application includes a drawing or diagram, the premises must show partition and door separation from any dwelling or school, and the department inspects before the license is used.

Are lash services subject to sales tax in Michigan?

The service charge itself sits outside the sales tax. Michigan charges 6 percent state sales tax on retail sales of tangible personal property, with no local sales tax, so products the client takes home, such as cleansers and aftercare, are taxable retail sales. Register through Michigan Treasury Online e-registration or paper Form 518; the sales tax license runs January through December and renews annually.

Does an esthetician license cover microblading in Michigan?

No. Microblading is not a skin care service and does not ride on the esthetician license. It belongs to the body art facility framework run by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services under Part 131 of the Public Health Code. Skin care services under the esthetician license are also limited to the surface of the skin by MCL 339.1210(3).

When does a Michigan esthetician license renew?

Every 2 years, on the biennial anniversary of the issue date under R 339.1003, renewed through MiPLUS. Renewal is $48, built from the $24 per year license fee. The State License Fee Act rates in this guide are in effect for payments through September 30, 2027.