Prella Guide
How Much to Charge for a Facial: A City-by-City Pricing Guide
Here's what your cosmetology program didn't teach you: there is no universal right price for a facial. The number on your menu isn't about what facials are "worth" in some abstract sense — it's about what your specific market will support, what your costs actually are, and what price creates the positioning you want for your practice.
A $165 signature facial is perfectly calibrated in San Francisco. The same price in Tulsa is $40 above market and will cost you bookings. An $85 facial makes sense in some rural markets and represents a $40 undercharge in the same Austin zip code where everyone else is charging $125.
Here's how to find your number.
Start with cost-of-living, not competitors
Most estheticians price by looking at what nearby salons charge and setting their price somewhere in that range. That's better than guessing, but it misses the underlying driver of what the market will actually bear.
The real variable is local median household income. Higher-income markets have clients with larger beauty budgets, higher tolerance for premium pricing, and less price sensitivity. Lower-income markets have more price-sensitive clients but also less competition at the premium end.
A practical framework: start with a national baseline price for your service type, then apply a cost-of-living multiplier based on your city.
National baseline prices (2025):
- Signature 60-min facial: $120
- Hydrating facial: $135
- Anti-aging facial: $155
- Chemical peel: $130
- Add-ons (dermaplaning, LED, microcurrent): $25–40 depending on service
Cost-of-living multipliers by tier:
- High-cost markets (San Francisco, NYC, Seattle, Boston, LA, DC metro): 1.3–1.45×
- Upper-middle markets (Austin, Denver, Chicago, Nashville, Portland, Miami): 1.1–1.2×
- Median markets (Columbus, Kansas City, Charlotte, Phoenix, Salt Lake City): 0.95–1.05×
- Lower-cost markets (most of rural Midwest and South, smaller cities): 0.8–0.9×
Applied across service types:
| Market tier | Signature facial | Hydrating facial | Anti-aging facial | Chemical peel |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High-cost (SF, NYC, Seattle, DC) | $156–174 | $176–196 | $202–225 | $169–189 |
| Upper-mid (Austin, Denver, Nashville) | $132–144 | $149–162 | $171–186 | $143–156 |
| Median (Columbus, Phoenix, KC, Charlotte) | $114–126 | $128–142 | $147–163 | $124–137 |
| Lower-cost (rural Midwest, South) | $96–108 | $108–122 | $124–140 | $104–117 |
These aren't exact — they're a starting framework. Your specific neighborhood and clientele matter too. A suite in an affluent suburb charges differently than the same suite two miles away in a mixed-income area.
Prella's Studio Starter tool applies this cost-of-living logic automatically when you enter your city. It adjusts every service price to your local market so you're not guessing.
Your cost-to-deliver sets your floor, not your ceiling
People price by looking at competitors. They should price by looking at their own cost structure first.
Every facial has a cost to deliver. Add up:
- Product cost (cleanser, toner, serum, moisturizer, mask, SPF): typically $12–20 per treatment
- Disposables (wipes, fan brushes, cotton rounds, gloves, face cradle cover, headband): $3–5
- Laundry (sheet set, face towels — amortized): $1–2
- Suite cost (weekly rent divided by number of treatments): depends on your volume
At 18 clients/week with a $350/week suite, your suite cost per treatment is $19.44. Add $17 in product and $4 in disposables and you're at $40.44 in hard costs per facial.
If you charge $125, your gross contribution per facial is $84.56. At 18 facials/week, that's $1,522/week before insurance, software, continuing ed, and taxes.
That math works. But watch what happens when you underprice. At $85, your gross contribution is $44.56/facial — nearly half. You'd need to see 34 clients per week to earn the same gross contribution as 18 clients at $125. Nobody should be seeing 34 facial clients a week without a team.
The underpricing math: 18 clients/week × $125 = $1,522/week gross contribution. To match that at $85/facial you'd need 34 clients/week — an unsustainable pace for one person. Price correctly from day one.
Your floor is cost-of-delivery. Your price is market rate. The gap between them is what you're building a business on.
Why most new estheticians underprice
Three patterns explain almost every underpriced esthetician I've seen launch:
Pattern one: They're comparing themselves to chain spas and nail salons with $59 express facials. Those are loss leaders with upsell architecture, high-volume throughput models, and a different cost structure entirely. You're a solo professional in a private suite. Different product.
Pattern two: They're waiting to prove themselves before charging what they're worth. This is the most common one, and it's backwards. Low prices attract clients who chose you because you were cheap. Those clients have high price sensitivity and won't stick around when you raise prices to market rate. High prices attract clients who chose you because of your positioning, your reviews, and your menu. Those clients rebook.
Pattern three: They rounded down to a "nice" number and left money on the table. $120 rounds to $115. $135 rounds to $130. Don't round down. Round to a psychologically clean number at or above your calculation.
Add-on pricing: where the average ticket actually grows
Your base facial price is important, but your average ticket grows through add-ons. The key is that add-ons need to be priced against their time cost, not just their product cost.
Dermaplaning adds 15–20 minutes to the appointment. At $35, you're adding $35 for 20 minutes of additional time — that's $105/hour for that additional time block. It should be priced higher: $40–50 depending on your market.
A microcurrent sculpt add-on adds 20 minutes. At $30, same issue. Price it at $35–45.
LED boost is faster — 10–15 minutes with almost no product cost. The $25 standard pricing is fine, and some markets support $30–35.
Think of it this way: if your base facial prices out to $125–135/hour of your time, your add-ons should price out to at least $100–120/hour of additional time. Price them anything below that and you're effectively discounting your hourly rate when clients take add-ons.
The broader picture — full menu pricing strategy, packages, and retail — is covered in the esthetician pricing guide.
Setting prices when you're brand new vs. established
If you're opening your first solo studio, start at the market rate for your area. Don't start low to "earn your clients." Your first clients will come from personal referrals and word of mouth — people who trust you because they know you, not because you're the cheapest option on Google.
If you've been working at a salon and you're going independent, your existing clients already know your value. Price at or above what your previous employer charged. Clients who followed you from the salon are following you because of you — they'll pay market rate for independent service.
If you've been undercharging and you need to raise prices: do it cleanly. Send a brief, professional note to active clients (the ones who've booked in the last 90 days), give them 30 days notice, and don't apologize for the change. "Starting [date], my pricing will reflect the following updated menu. I'm grateful for your continued trust." That's the whole message. No explanation needed.
Your cosmetology program told you pricing was about what you thought your work was worth. It's not. It's about what your market supports, what your costs require, and what kind of client you want to attract.
An esthetician who charges $165 in San Francisco and $105 in Columbus is priced correctly in both markets. One who charges $85 everywhere is probably leaving $40–60 per treatment on the table.
Use Prella to calculate your market-adjusted pricing — enter your city and your service menu, and it runs the cost-of-living math for you.