The first annual industry report
The State of the UK Skincare Industry Report 2026
Nobody publishes what UK skincare professionals actually earn — the only official figure covers employed therapists and ignores the self-employed majority. But pay is just the start: nobody measures what treatments really cost region to region, which brands and devices dominate real treatment rooms, or how ready the workforce is for licensing. So we’re building the whole picture, and it starts with the survey below.
Anonymous, and reported only in aggregate
No names, no individual answers published, ever. Your email is optional, used only for the prize draw and to send you the report, and stored separately from your answers.
About 5 minutes
Quick taps, not essays. Employed, self-employed, renting a chair, still training, or stepped away — every answer makes the picture more honest.
£6,000 in prizes
Every completed survey enters the draw: £1,000 in cash and a £5,000 MSTA training voucher. Closes 30 September 2026.
You see it first
Everyone who takes part gets the full report before public release — including where your prices and earnings sit against the rest of the UK.
Prize draw terms and conditions. The report publishes this autumn, with first findings revealed live at Estiworld Live, 6–7 November 2026.
Not just a salary survey
What the 2026 report will cover
Earnings and income
Real figures for employed and self-employed professionals — by region, experience and route in.
Pricing by treatment
What a peel, microneedling session or advanced facial actually costs, treatment room to treatment room.
Brands and devices in real use
The peel systems, microneedling devices and retail ranges UK professionals actually run — not the marketed picture.
Demand and diaries
Who's fully booked, who has gaps, and how long it really takes to reach a paying client base.
Licensing readiness
How prepared the workforce is for the Government's licensing scheme — measured directly, for the first time.
What's holding the industry back
Confidence, clients, capital, premises — the blockers professionals name, and what training never covered.
Why we’re doing this
Most of this industry works alone. The typical UK skincare professional is self-employed — often a business of one — and her working life is invisible in the statistics. Employed skin roles get buried inside broader beauty data; self-employed earnings, prices and buying decisions have never been systematically collected at all.
We train skincare professionals — over 1,000 so far — and every year, thousands of questions land with our team: what could I actually earn? What should I charge? Which brands are clinics really using? Which treatments are worth adding? Right now, the honest answer is that nobody knows. What exists is marketing from brands with something to sell, official figures that miss the self-employed majority, or hearsay passed between treatment rooms. Every existing “skincare industry report” measures product sales, not the professionals.
Our mission with this report is simple: make the industry’s real numbers accessible to everyone in it — free, public, and updated every year.
The survey is anonymous industry research, not marketing: findings are published in aggregate with full methodology, including sample size, sample sources and question-level response counts. If you write about the industry and would like early access to the findings or custom cuts of the data, email info@mstauk.com.