How to Start a Lash Studio in North Dakota

Who regulates lash studios in North Dakota

The licensing authority is the State Board of Cosmetology, administering Century Code chapter 43-11 as amended by House Bill 1126 effective January 1, 2026, but its role for lashes is definitional rather than categorical. The board licenses cosmetologists, estheticians, advanced estheticians and manicurists, and lash services ride inside the first two of those licenses because section 43-11-01 writes eyelash and eyebrow work into both definitions. There is no lash technician license, no lash endorsement, and no state mandated lash course or hour count anywhere in the chapter or the January 2026 rules, a cleaner position than states that gate extensions behind a specialty certificate a licensee must earn and post before her first client.

Two boundaries matter more than the absence. The first is the top of the scope: lash work that crosses into advanced esthetic procedures, devices or peels belongs to the advanced esthetician license covered in the esthetics guide, and ablative procedures are outside every license the board issues under section 43-11-01. The second is brow work that crosses into the skin: microblading and permanent makeup are cosmetic tattooing under the Department of Health and Human Services Body Art Code, not cosmetology, so a lash studio adding a brow tattoo chair adds a second regulator and a second premises license, covered in the microblading guide. Around the board sit the Secretary of State for the entity and trade name, the Tax Commissioner for the sales tax permit through ND TAP, Job Service North Dakota for unemployment insurance, Workforce Safety and Insurance for workers compensation, and your city for zoning and permits.

North Dakota lash studio at a glance

The licenses that carry lash work, step by step

Start with the text that places the work. Section 43-11-01 defines cosmetology to include manipulation and application of product to eyelashes and eyebrows, including extensions, design, treatment, tinting and lightening, alongside hair care, esthetics and manicuring, and it excludes natural hair braiding and threading from that definition. The same section defines esthetics to include the application of cosmetics, eyelashes or eyelash extensions, and the perming, laminating, tinting or lightening of eyebrows, eyelashes or other body hair. Read together, the two definitions mean the full lash menu, extensions, lifts, laminations, tints and brow work short of tattooing, is licensed work in North Dakota, and it belongs to whichever of the two licenses the artist holds. There is no third door: a certificate from a lash brand or a weekend course is training, not a license, and an unlicensed person may not charge for extensions because a supplier sold her a kit.

The esthetician license is the route most lash artists take. Section 43-11-16 sets the course at 600 hours in a board approved program, the applicant must be at least 16 and have completed at least a tenth grade education or its equivalent, and licensure follows the examinations under section 43-11-21 on payment of the $50 original licensure fee at section 43-11-28. The cosmetologist license runs 1,500 hours at the same $50 fee and adds hair care and manicuring, which is the better buy for an artist who expects the studio to grow into a full salon. Both licenses expire December 31 and renew at $50 on form SFN 61745, with a $50 penalty per license paid or postmarked late, and reinstatement follows the section 43-11-29 ladder: the late fee plus renewal within one year, the law, rules and regulations examination added before five years, and a fresh initial application after five years.

Two features of the new law belong in a lash artist's plan. Continuing education arrives with the 2028 renewal cycle: Administrative Code section 32-05-01-01 requires at least 4 hours of board approved continuing education annually for each licensee, starting the calendar year after the initial license issued, with the board free to name mandatory topics and at most one hour creditable to trade show attendance, and instructors owe 12 hours. And the registered apprenticeship route at section 43-11-16.1 reaches esthetics, run through the state office of apprenticeship with trainers licensed at least three consecutive years and a consumer notice posted in the establishment, though the statute prints no total hour figure for it in the sections the board publishes, so this guide prints the school route and leaves apprentice totals to the program paperwork.

The establishment license for your premises

A lash studio of your own takes the same premises license as a full salon: the establishment license, $150 originally and $100 on annual renewal, expiring December 31, under section 43-11-28. The application is form SFN 11795, the original must be notarized and submitted two weeks before the opening date, and the business name must already be registered with the Secretary of State as a trade name, an LLC, an LLP, or a corporation. Section 43-11-15 allows an establishment to be owned by any person authorized to do business in the state, and section 43-11-37 requires each new establishment to be inspected, with routine inspections afterward and a reinspection fee capped at $75.

Supervision is the step lash studio plans most often miss. Administrative Code section 32-03-01-07 requires every salon to be supervised by a master licensee present on the premises during business hours, and it assigns a salon providing only skin care to a master cosmetologist or a master esthetician, responsible for the operation, conduct and management of the salon. A lash studio is a skin care only premises in the rule's terms. The master esthetician license at section 43-11-26 requires at least 1,000 hours of practice as an esthetician under the direction and control of a master cosmetologist or master esthetician, so a newly licensed esthetician opening alone has a gap to close: hire a master, work under one until the documented hours exist, with salons required to provide documented hours for master applications on request, or structure the studio inside an existing salon whose supervision already covers the floor.

The establishment holder carries the renters by default, which matters to studios that sublet a second bed. The application states that the holder is responsible for the safety and sanitation of the entire premises, and that a renter without a valid, current independent licensee license leaves that space under the establishment license and its holder's sanitation responsibility. Establishment licenses expire December 31 under section 43-11-29.1, reinstate within one year on the late fee plus the renewal fee, and after twelve months the establishment reapplies with late penalties of $100 per year expired.

Forming your business: the LLC

Most North Dakota lash studios form a limited liability company under Century Code chapter 10-32.1, and formation is a single filing: Articles of Organization submitted to the Secretary of State through the FirstStop portal for $135. The articles name the company and its registered agent and office in the state.

The annual obligation runs on a fixed statewide date rather than an anniversary. The LLC annual report costs $50 and is due November 15, and a report filed after November 15 draws a $50 late fee.

Registering your studio name

North Dakota registers trading names at the state level as trade names under Century Code chapter 47-25, and the cosmetology board makes the filing a licensing step rather than a branding preference. The establishment application will not proceed on an unregistered name: the business name must be registered as a trade name, LLC, LLP, or corporation with the Secretary of State before the board licenses the premises under it.

The filing is cheap and long lived. Registration costs $25 through the FirstStop portal, the registration expires every five years, and renewal costs another $25, with cancellation priced at $10.

Getting your EIN

The Employer Identification Number is the federal tax identity for the business, issued free by the IRS. A studio with employees needs one before the first payroll, because federal withholding, the Job Service unemployment account, Workforce Safety and Insurance coverage, and new hire reporting all key off the business identity it anchors, and even a solo independent licensee uses it in place of a Social Security number on leases and wholesale accounts.

Sales tax: retail yes, services no

North Dakota's sales tax is a tax on retail sales, and the distinction runs in a lash studio's favor. The Office of State Tax Commissioner imposes sales tax on retail sales at a 5 percent state rate for most sales, plus city and county taxes where they apply, paid by the purchaser and collected by the seller.

The retail shelf is the other half of the rule, and lash studios build real revenue on it: aftercare serums, cleansers and retail kits sold to a client are taxable retail sales at the combined rate for the studio's location, which is why a studio with retail holds a sales and use tax permit, registers and files through ND TAP, and keeps product bought for resale separate from the adhesives and supplies consumed in the service. Use tax mirrors the rule on the way in, reaching beds, lamps, equipment and supplies bought without tax and used in the business.

Renting a lash room: the independent licensee

The rented room is where most North Dakota lash artists actually start, and the state licenses the arrangement directly. Section 43-11-01 defines an independent licensee as a licensed individual who maintains a separate license and practices esthetics, cosmetology, manicuring or advanced esthetics at a location within, but separate from, a cosmetology establishment, bound by the same provisions of the chapter as an establishment.

The rules add a freedom that suits lash work well: an independent licensee operates under a lease agreement and may render services within the establishment and at various temporary or offsite locations, subject to the board's rules for practice outside a licensed establishment under section 43-11-11, which is the provision bridal and event lash work rests on. The economics explain why the model dominates the trade in this state: $150 plus $100 a year buys the licensed independence, the host salon's establishment license covers the building, and the artist's own entity, name registration and tax filings run as the sections above describe.

Hiring lash artists: wages, unemployment and reporting

The North Dakota minimum wage is $7.25 an hour under section 34-06-22, unchanged since July 24, 2009 and equal to the federal rate, with a tipped cash wage of $4.86 an hour for employees who receive tips. Overtime runs at one and one half times the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek. Commission artists are employees when the studio controls their schedules, prices and clients, and the room rent section above explains the licensed marker that separates a genuine renter from a misclassified one: the renter holds an independent licensee license and runs her own business, and the employee does not.

The payroll number that surprises out of state owners is the unemployment insurance wage base. Job Service North Dakota sets the taxable wage base at 70 percent of the statewide average wage, which produces $46,600 per employee for 2026, among the highest bases in the country. The rate on that base starts low: a new non-construction employer pays 1.00 percent with a positive balance, before experience rating moves it within a published range of 0.07 percent to 9.67 percent.

One employment habit North Dakota forbids outright is the noncompete. Section 9-08-06 provides that a contract by which anyone is restrained from exercising a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void, and its only exceptions are a covenant tied to the sale of the goodwill of a business and covenants among partners, members or shareholders on a dissolution or ownership split. In a trade where the artist's book is the business, that statute is the retention plan's foundation: a departing artist takes her clients lawfully, so a studio keeps artists with better economics, better product, a fuller book and a brand clients ask for by name, not with a clause the state voids on sight.

The local layer: cities, zoning and premises

The state licenses the studio; the city decides where it can be. Zoning approval for a personal services use, any city business license your locality requires, building and signage permits, and occupancy inspections run through the city or county where the premises sit, on the local calendar rather than the board calendar. The local sales tax add-on that applies to your retail sales is also set locally, so the combined rate programmed into the register is a fact about your address. For a home studio, the zoning answer is usually the whole ballgame: the board licenses a residence based establishment on the same terms as a storefront, inspected on the same cycle, but the city decides whether a beauty business may operate at that address at all, and it decides before the board's two week application window should start.

Premises facts carry state licensing consequences as well. The establishment license attaches to the business at its address, the board charges $20 for a business name change, and ownership changes bring the establishment back through application and inspection under section 43-11-37, so a move, a second location or a buyout is a licensing event and not just a lease event. A lash studio planning a brow or permanent makeup chair should read the microblading guide before signing for the extra room, because that chair changes the premises license stack: the health department's body art establishment license joins the cosmetology establishment license, with its own plan review and inspection, and neither license covers the other's work.

Insurance for a North Dakota lash studio

Nothing in chapter 43-11 conditions the studio licenses on carrying liability insurance, so general and professional liability coverage is a business judgment rather than a licensing step, and it is a judgment lash studios should make carefully, because the work happens at the eye. Workers compensation is the regulated exception: North Dakota is a monopolistic state fund state, Workforce Safety and Insurance is the only lawful seller of workers compensation coverage, private carriers cannot write the policy, and the employer account must be opened before employees start. WSI coverage does not include employer liability protection, so the standard completion is a stop gap endorsement added to the general liability policy.

The voluntary stack around that core is general liability for the premises, professional liability written for lash services, where allergic reaction and eye injury claims concentrate and where a general beauty policy should be read for its lash wording before it is bought, and property coverage for beds, lamps and retail inventory. Owners who sublet a bed should require each independent licensee to carry her own professional liability policy and prove it at signing and renewal, because the establishment holder answers for sanitation across the whole premises and an uninsured renter's claim will arrive addressed to the studio. A licensed renter can also seek a Workforce Safety and Insurance determination of independent contractor status through its verification application, which runs one year at a time.

What it costs to open a North Dakota lash studio

The state level costs of opening are legible in North Dakota because nearly all of them sit in published schedules. On the licensing side: the $150 establishment license for your own premises, or $150 for the independent licensee license for a rented room, $50 for the esthetician or cosmetologist license itself, and renewals at $100 for the premises level license and $50 per person, all landing on December 31. On the formation side: $135 to file the Articles of Organization, $25 for a trade name registration if the studio trades under a name beyond its legal entity name, and nothing for the EIN or the sales tax permit application itself. Recurring state costs run on the calendar in the next section: the $50 LLC annual report each November 15, the December license renewals, the 4 hours of continuing education a year from the 2028 cycle, and the sales tax the register collects on retail sales only. Everything beyond the schedules, the bed, lighting, adhesives and first inventory, is market cost, priced locally and through your suppliers.

Renewal and filing calendar

The rhythm of a North Dakota lash studio year is two dates and a season: November 15 carries the company, December 31 carries every license in the room at once, and the quarterly payroll and sales tax filings run underneath both.

Official sources

• Century Code chapter 43-11: the cosmetology statute as amended by House Bill 1126, with the eyelash and eyebrow work placed in the cosmetology and esthetics definitions at section 43-11-01 and the 600 and 1,500 hour courses at section 43-11-16.
• State Board of Cosmetology: the establishment application SFN 11795, the independent licensee application SFN 60681, and the renewal form SFN 61745 with the $50 per license late penalty.
• Administrative Code chapter 32-05-01: licensee renewal and the continuing education requirement of 4 hours annually from the 2028 cycle.
• Secretary of State, limited liability companies: the $135 Articles of Organization fee, the $50 annual report and the November 15 deadline.
• Office of State Tax Commissioner, tax types: the 5 percent state sales tax on retail sales, use tax, and ND TAP registration.
• Job Service North Dakota, 2026 tax rate schedules: the $46,600 taxable wage base and the 1.00 percent new employer rate.
• IRS, apply for an EIN: the free federal application.

North Dakota lash studio FAQ