Prella Guide
Esthetician Pricing Guide: Menus, Packages, Add-Ons, and Retail
Here's what your cosmetology program didn't teach you: pricing is a strategy, not a calculation. The number you put on your menu sends a signal about your positioning, filters the clients who book you, and determines whether you can build a financially sustainable practice. Get the signal right and clients who are a good fit self-select. Get it wrong and you either chase clients who want a discount or price yourself into an empty book.
This guide covers the full pricing picture — service menu structure, add-on pricing, packages, retail, and what to do when it's time to raise prices.
Menu structure first
Your pricing only makes sense in the context of your menu. Before you assign a number to anything, build the menu architecture.
A clean solo esthetician menu has three layers:
Layer 1: Core services. Three to five facial treatments that make up the majority of your bookings. Each should be distinct — not just the same facial with different names. Differentiate by skin concern, by technique, by duration, or by outcome.
Layer 2: Add-ons. Four to seven individual add-ons clients can choose to bolt onto any core service. These should be fast (15–20 minutes max), protocol-independent (they can be added to any facial on your menu), and priced to reflect their time cost.
Layer 3: Specialty services. Chemical peels, LED protocols, anything that stands alone as a treatment rather than a customization. These can be booked independently or combined with a core service.
What to leave off the menu: Anything you're not confident executing consistently. Anything that requires equipment you don't own yet. Services that take longer than 90 minutes if you're booking back-to-back. Keep the menu tight until you're at full capacity.
Service pricing by treatment type
These are 2025 baselines for a mid-cost-of-living market (Columbus, Phoenix, Kansas City, Charlotte). Apply the multiplier for your city — see the city-by-city pricing guide for your specific market.
Core facials:
- Signature Facial (60 min): $120–130
- Hydrating Facial (60 min): $135–145
- Anti-Aging Facial (60 min): $155–170
- Express Facial (30 min): $70–85
- Back Facial (45–60 min): $90–110
Chemical peels:
- Lactic or mandelic peel (45 min): $125–140
- Medium-depth peel series (per session): $130–160
- Peel + facial combination: $175–210
Specialty treatments:
- Microcurrent facial (60–75 min): $175–220
- LED light therapy (standalone, 45 min): $90–115
- Dermaplaning (standalone, 30 min): $80–95
Add-ons (bolt onto any service):
| Add-on | Time added | Mid-market price | Effective $/hr added |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dermaplaning | 15–20 min | $40–50 | $120–200 |
| Microcurrent sculpt | 20 min | $35–45 | $105–135 |
| LED light boost | 10–15 min | $25–35 | $100–210 |
| Gua sha massage | 15 min | $25–35 | $100–140 |
| High frequency | 10–15 min | $20–30 | $80–180 |
| Eye rescue | 10–15 min | $20–30 | $80–180 |
| Lip renewal | 10 min | $15–25 | $90–150 |
The add-on numbers above are ranges because add-on pricing has more market variance than core services. Check what other solo estheticians (not chain spas) charge for the same add-ons in your city and price accordingly.
Prella's Studio Starter tool applies cost-of-living adjustments to all of these numbers automatically when you enter your city.
Package pricing: when it works and when it doesn't
Packages are a useful retention tool but they're often structured incorrectly. The common mistakes:
Mistake one: discounting too deeply. A package shouldn't save the client more than 10–15% off single-session pricing. If you're discounting 20% or more, you're trading revenue for the illusion of loyalty. Clients who buy packages because of the discount are price-sensitive clients — they're not the ones you want to over-index on.
Mistake two: selling peel packages before you know what the client's skin needs. Treatment outcomes vary. A package of six glycolic peels sounds appealing to a client who hasn't had their first peel yet. If their skin reacts strongly, you've committed them to five more. Sell packages after the first treatment.
A sensible package structure:
- Series of 3 signature facials: 10% off single price → ~$330–345 for a $120 facial (saves $30)
- Series of 6 facials: 12% off → $634–648 (saves $86)
- Peel series (4 treatments): $480–530 depending on peel type (vs. $500–560 à la carte)
Collect payment upfront or at the time of each appointment — don't carry outstanding package balances. Square and most booking software handle this cleanly.
Retail: the other revenue stream most estheticians underuse
Professional skincare retail margins run 40–50%. That means a $52 SPF moisturizer at 40% margin adds $20.80 to your gross on a transaction you were already processing.
Retail doesn't require a display wall. It requires two things: product knowledge deep enough that your recommendation feels personal, and the habit of mentioning two or three take-home products at every checkout.
A minimum viable retail shelf for a facial-focused practice:
- A broad-spectrum SPF (you should be recommending this after every treatment)
- A daily moisturizer appropriate for two or three skin types you see most
- A vitamin C serum or brightening product
- An eye cream if you offer eye treatments
Four products. Priced at $40–75 each depending on the line. A client who buys one product per three appointments increases your average monthly revenue per client by $13–25, all at 40%+ margin.
The most effective retail recommendation sounds like this: "Your skin is going to love that serum for the next 48 hours. Once it starts looking for backup hydration — probably around day three — a vitamin C in the morning will keep the brightness going. I have the one I use in clients' protocols right here." That's a recommendation grounded in the treatment they just had. It's not a sales pitch.
Raising prices: how to do it without losing good clients
You will need to raise prices. Inflation, rising product costs, suite rental increases, and business growth all make price increases necessary.
The formula: raise prices 8–15% once a year, give active clients 30 days notice, and don't apologize.
The math on waiting: A $10 price increase across 18 clients/week is $720/year in additional gross revenue. Waiting 12 months to raise prices costs you that $720. Do it before you feel ready.
"Starting [date], my updated pricing is: [list]. I appreciate your continued trust and I'm looking forward to our next appointment."
One short paragraph, no explanation of why you're raising prices (clients don't need to understand your COGS), no apology, no "I hope you understand." The clients who leave over a $10–15 price increase were marginal clients. The clients who stay — and most of them will — are the ones who value what you do.
For new clients booking after the effective date, the new pricing is just your pricing. No explanation needed.
Estheticians who don't raise prices become resentful. Resentful estheticians do worse work. Raise prices before you feel like you have to.
The pricing audit you should do right now
If you've been open for more than six months, run this audit:
- Calculate your average ticket (total revenue ÷ total appointments last month).
- Calculate your gross contribution per appointment (average ticket minus product cost, disposables, pro-rated suite and laundry cost).
- Divide your target monthly net income by gross contribution per appointment to get the number of appointments you need.
- Compare that to how many you're currently booking.
If the gap between what you need and what you're booking is more than 20%, you have two levers: book more clients, or raise your ticket. Raising your ticket is usually faster and requires less infrastructure.
The pricing decision most estheticians avoid is the one that matters most. Not "what's my opening price" — that's answered by market and cost-of-delivery — but "what's my pricing strategy at full capacity?"
Your cosmetology program taught you technique. Technique gets clients. Pricing keeps you in business.
Use Prella to model your pricing — enter your services and city, and it calculates market-adjusted prices alongside your actual startup and operating costs so you can see the full picture.