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Beauty therapist insurance

Join over 1,300 beauty therapists like you. Compare tailored insurance from trusted brands.

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Rated 4.7/5

Based on 39,755 reviews

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Claims paid in 24 hours

For 80% of settled claims

What's on this page

  • Why is insurance important?
  • What does it cover?
  • How much does it cost?
  • How do I choose insurance?
  • How do claims work?
  • FAQs
  • Helpful Articles

Why do you need beauty insurance?

Beauty therapy is all about the feel good factor, but what happens when things don’t go to plan? Treatment slip-ups, adverse reactions, theft of your equipment – incidents like these get in the way of your mission to make your clients happy, and the costs can mount up quickly. Insurance helps you get back on your feet again.

  • Protect yourself against big claims such as accidental injury, illness or property damage
  • Cover what you need, whether you’re a solo beautician or you work with a team
  • Peace of mind for you, your business, and your customers

Start your quote

What does beauty therapist insurance cover?

Beauty therapy insurance is designed to cover beauticians who don’t run a salon or rent a chair at a salon. Beyond that? You understand your beauty business best, so from employees to personal accidents, you pick what goes into your policy.

Beauty public liability insurance

In case someone gets injured or their property gets damaged as a result of your beauty therapy business.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • accidental injury you cause to someone else while you’re working as a beauty therapist, or afterwards, or due to a beauty product you’ve sold
  • accidental damage you cause to someone else’s property as a consequence of your work, or because of a product you’ve sold
  • damage or injury caused by your employee (remember, if you employ people, you must have employers’ liability insurance – it’s a legal requirement)

For example:

  • a client sues you because they’ve suffered an allergic reaction to a face cream you used on them during a beauty treatment
  • you sell someone a pot of eye serum but the glass is cracked, so they end up cutting their hand open
  • you’re visiting a client at their house to carry out a cosmetics consultation, and you accidentally drop your container full of makeup – this stains an expensive beige carpet, so the client is holding you responsible for the cost of a new one

What you’ll need additional cover for

  • your salon, if you have one (you need building insurance in the mix if you want to cover your business premises, so to make sure you get this, please select ‘beauty salon’ as your trade when you get a quote from us)
  • invasive beauty treatments such as chemical peels and permanent makeup

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case an employee gets sick or injured while working for you.

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • illness or injury experienced by a member of staff as a result of them being employed by your beauty business

**Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

For example:

  • your assistant suffers an allergic reaction or burns to the skin as a result of a chemical in a new beauty product you’re both sampling
  • your trainee beautician breaks their arm by falling down the stairs at a client’s house, so you’re being sued for damages

Tools insurance

In case something happens to your beautician tools.

What’s typically covered by tools insurance?

  • the specialist tools you use to carry out your work as a beautician (especially handheld tools and portable electronic tools), whether stored at your business premises, travelling to a beauty consultation, or at a client's home
  • theft of your beauty tools
  • accidental damage to your beauty tools

For example:

  • your manicure equipment is stolen in a break-in at your business premises
  • your acupuncture kit gets broken because you sit on it by accident when you’re on a train to see a client

Read more about tools insurance

Stock insurance

In case something happens to the beauty therapy items you keep in stock.

What’s typically covered by stock insurance?

  • loss, damage or theft of the products or materials you use to carry out your beauty therapy consultations
  • loss, damage or theft of beauty products you’re planning to sell to customers

For example:

  • you forget to bring your suitcase full of high-end cosmetics with you when you get off the bus, so you need to replace them all
  • the makeup brushes, face creams and spray tans you keep in your sales inventory are stolen from your business premises

Read more about stock insurance

Business and office equipment insurance

In case something happens to your business and office equipment.

What’s typically covered by business and office equipment insurance?

  • the equipment you use to run your beauty business (mainly operational equipment, not tools of the trade) – while stored at your business premises, travelling to a beauty consultation, or at a client's home
  • theft or accidental loss of your equipment
  • flood, fire, or accidental damage to your equipment

For example:

  • the laptop you use to manage your beauty bookings is stolen from your car while you’re visiting a client
  • you accidentally smash your glass product display unit when you drop it on the way to an industry event

Read more about business and office equipment insurance

Legal expenses insurance

In case you’re faced with legal costs in the day-to-day running of your business.

  • the cost of resolving tax and compliance disputes
  • the cost of resolving disputes with your employees
  • legal costs you’re liable for due to property damage, nuisance or trespass
  • support from experts over the phone – such as public relations guidance, and helplines for tax and legal advice to help you control the damage to your reputation

For example:

  • your company’s tax affairs are being investigated by HMRC and you need help fielding their enquiries
  • you’ve been selected at random for an audit and you need to pay an accountant to sort out your bookkeeping
  • you fired your trainee beautician on the grounds of inappropriate behaviour at an industry event, but they’re alleging unfair dismissal, so you have to engage a lawyer to defend your legal rights

Read more about legal expenses insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case you or anyone you've covered has an accident.

What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

  • claims due to injury or death – whether at work or outside of work – for anyone you’ve named in your policy
  • lost income, medical costs and hospitalisation benefit

For example:

  • you break your wrist by tripping over a client’s cat while you’re carrying out a massage appointment at their home, so you have to cancel all your upcoming bookings for the next month
  • you suffer a slipped disc at a yoga class at the weekend

Read more about personal accident insurance

How much does beauty therapist insurance cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £5.76 per month

Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.

Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes

Start your quote

How we work out example prices We take the highest price from the bottom 10 per cent of all our customers paying in monthly instalments (based on data from 1 July - 31 December 2020). Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.

Example quotes, real prices for beauticians

churchill insurance

£8.93 /month

£69.28 /year

A self employed beautician who rents a chair in a salon

  • 1-2 years' experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in Bournemouth
  • Public liability

    £1,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    Not included

  • Stock

    Not included

axa insurance

£23.22 /month

£206.41 /year

A small beauty therapist company who rent space in a high street salon specialising in skin and nail treatments

  • 4-5 years' experience
  • Limited company
  • 1 employee
  • Based in Nottingham
  • Public liability

    £1,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    £10,000,000

  • Stock

    £2,500

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 25/10/2022). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Public liability

£100

£2500

Employers' liability

No excess

No excess

Tools

£60

£500

Stock

£100

£500

Business and office equipment

£50

£750

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

  • Pick what goes into your policy

    Only pay for what you need

  • Get prices from a range of insurers

    Choose the best fit for you

  • Buy online in minutes

    Get your documents the same day

Start your quote

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How do I choose insurance?

Making sure you have the right type and level of business insurance can be the difference between getting a claim paid and having to cover the cost of an expensive accident yourself. Read our tips for guidance on what to consider when buying a policy.

Can I just cover my most expensive tools?

Make sure you cover the total cost of replacing all your tools or you’ll only get a proportion of your claim paid out if something happens to them. Learn about tool cover.

Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ people.

If you have people working for you, including bona fide subcontractors (BFSC), labour-only subcontractors (LOSC), part-timers, or full-time staff, employers’ liability insurance is required by law.

Read on for our simplified guide to the difference between labour-only subcontractors and bona fide subcontractors.

Will tools insurance cover all my equipment?

Depending on what you use to do your work, you may need other covers.

You may need more than tools insurance – for example, business equipment insurance if you have a work laptop, plant insurance if you use machinery.

Does beauty therapists insurance cover my work correctly?

Make sure you're picking the right cover to protect you properly. It's important to know that if you have another trade or job, you'll need additional cover. For example, do you need to consider massage insurance or hairdressing insurance?

Do I need cover for other types of work?

If you provide these services alongside your main work, make sure you’re covered:

Other Covers

Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

Think about the maximum possible loss your business could face in the event of a claim, and make sure you take legal fees and damages into consideration. You can choose from three levels of coverage – £1 million, £2 million, or up to £5 million.

Talk to an expert

Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am - 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am - 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am - 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am - 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am - 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am - 02.00pm

Call our team

0333 043 8527

Online

Contact us on our website whenever suits you

Phone

Call our insurance experts during office hours (calls are charged at a local rate)

FAQs

Find answers to common insurance questions

How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive. The figure below is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.

£39 million in claims paid out in 2022

Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2022

Example claim

Having beauty therapy insurance through Simply Business has saved beauticians thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Purnima saved more than £2,700

Purnima (not her real name) was dismayed when her employee cut into a customer’s foot during a pedicure. Luckily though, she’d taken out public liability insurance and employers' liability insurance. This meant her beauty business wasn’t as badly affected by the accident as it could have been.

  • Insurance payout

    £2,790.00

    Covering the cost of accidental injury

  • Purnima's costs

    £100

    The excess amount stated in Purnima's policy terms

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

  • Compare and buy in minutes

    Documents arrive today

  • Rated 4.7/5

    Based on 39,755 reviews

  • Here to help

    Help from UK-based experts

  • 24/7 claims

    Make a claim any time

Beauty therapists insurance FAQ

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about beauty therapists insurance. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

  • Beauty therapy insurance covers you against the cost of unexpected events at work. Accidents, injury, damage, theft – as a business owner, you could held responsible for the costs, so they can spell the end for any business.

    The most important thing to know is that if you employ people, you’re legally required to have employers’ liability insurance.

    For more information, check out our guide on assessing the risks in your business.

  • If you want to protect yourself against unexpected costs due to mistakes, accidents, and other incidents, the answer is “yes”.

    Got people working for you? Remember, you’re legally required to have employers’ liability cover.

    And because you come into contact with other people as a beauty therapist, public liability insurance is worth thinking about too. It steps in to cover the cost of accidental damage to somebody else’s property or accidental injury.

    If you rely on business equipment such as a phone or laptop – or tools of the trade such as professional makeup brushes – you might also want to look into business and office equipment insurance and tool cover.

    If you want to protect the beauty products and materials you keep in stock against loss, theft, and accidental damage, you can do that through stock insurance.

    If you’re interested in safeguarding your business and others from the financial difficulties that can follow on from injury and illness, that’s what personal accident insurance is for.

    Finally, do you want an extra layer of protection against the legal expenses you might have to pay as the owner of your business? You can take out legal expenses insurance.

    Remember, if you’re a mobile beautician who rents a chair in a beauty salon, you’ll need to select ‘mobile beautician (including renting a chair)’ as your trade when you get a quote from us.

  • If you employ people – whether they work alongside you as beauticians at your home or elsewhere – you must have employers’ liability insurance. This is required by law.

    Beyond that, it’s a matter of choice.

    Beauty therapy insurance covers you against the cost of unexpected events at work, including accidents, mistakes, and theft. As a business owner, you’re probably the person who has to bear these costs.

    Worried about the consequences of a client suffering an allergic reaction? Or losing the beauty tools and equipment you’ve invested in? And what if you accidentally injured somebody or damaged their belongings?

    There are various insurance options that could bring you peace of mind.

    Popular covers for beauticians who work from home include:

  • Yes. It’s important to make sure you have the right type and level of insurance for the different types of work you do. For example, if you’re a plumber, you may also do building work on certain jobs – you’ll need additional cover for this, but you can have it all on the one policy.

    When you start your quote, you’ll have the option to add another trade or profession to your policy. If you need to add a third trade, give us a call on 0333 043 8527 and one of our insurance experts will help you set up your policy in minutes.

  • This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

    If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

    There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions

Helpful articles for beauty therapists

Salon stylist giving a customer a consultation

24 Sep 2014 • 3-minute read

How to start a hair and beauty salon in the UK

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