Day in the Life of an Esthetician Student
I started beauty school in February 2025 online. For about three months, I learned the theory part-time from the comfort of my house. I set up an area with my products, mock products (for practicing), and along with my laptop. But in May, I began going in person and switched to full-time, going from 9:15 - 1:45 to 9:15 to 4:00. In person was completely different. Rather than only theory, I began doing clinical hours. I learned to wax, do facials, and do makeup.
Now, it’s been over a month of clinical hours. I’ve done 7 clients, makeup for my teacher, and waxing and facials for other students. I even did a last-minute lip wax for a client in the middle of one of the four tests we take during clinical hours. Now that I’ve been going in for a bit, I’ve gotten into a rhythm with my schedule.
Morning Routine 🌅
6:50 Wake Up Call
I love having enough time to catch up on notifications, emails, and texts. I pop on a YouTube video (my go-to is ending explained videos for horror movies) while I tweeze some hairs, cleanse my face, brush my teeth, and fix any unruly hairs.
Before I do my makeup, I make sure to put on my white scrubs (my favorite ones are the Grey’s Anatomy and Carhartt lines). I learned my lesson about my makeup & getting dressed after getting lipstick on my scrubs twice.
Usually, I make my lunch the night before, but I always have just enough time to do it in the morning, too. I make my black iced tea lemonade to take with me, and then I have my morning yogurt before I’m on my way. Thankfully, I chose a school not too far, so my morning commute is a nice walk for me (although the humid summer weather has been getting to me some days).
In-Person Clinical Hours 🧖🏽♀️
After about 250 hours, I was done with online theory classes, where we received our digital textbook, took quizzes and tests, and even went over practical exams. We went through the steps so well, we all knew how to do a facial before our first one. We covered anatomy, chemistry, safety guidelines for products and working in a salon, makeup application, waxing, and so much more!
I’ve always loved school, so taking notes and being focused was as easy as pie. I bought myself a physical copy of my textbook to read along. I took notes during class to create my study guide. I even created Quizlet flashcards and physical flashcards to study since there were so many topics to remember.
Once I started in person, it was a mixture of hands-on and theory. In the morning, we do short quizzes. After our first break, we start doing hands-on facials, makeup, and waxing. In my first week, I got a facial waxing client for her chin and upper lip.
For facials and waxing, we always set up: clean the bed, cart, steamer, and mag lamp. We fill up the steamer (always got to make sure it’s to the line) and then let it begin boiling and warming up. Put down the table paper.
Lay out our products in order, bring over any machines we’re going to use, two bowls of water, one mixing bowl (two if we’re doing a jelly mask), a spatula, brush, sponges, headband, eye pads, four by fours, and gloves. Of course, I got myself pink sponges and gloves.
On a typical day, we do facials or wax other students. Sometimes we get walk-in clients. We can also bring in our clients. We get pins for our first, fifth, and tenth clients. Plus, we get a pin for a 5-star review. For clients, it’s practically the same setup, except we also turn on some soft lamps for lighting, wrap a pillow in table paper, and fill up and turn on an aromatherapy light to fill the room with a calming lavender scent.
Lunch or Break Time 🍎
1:45 chicken salad time
I almost always bring my lunch from home, but I will go out to get my daily Dunkin drink. I either go with an iced green tea lemonade or the strawberry dragonfruit refresher with green tea. It’s the perfect pick-me-up for the middle of the day.
Wrapping Up the Day 🌇
For the last part of the day, we either do facials or waxing. When we do get a client, we usually get them after 2:30. This is the busiest time for us. At the end of the day, we clean up the treatment room and put away the wax. I pack up my stuff and put my supplies in my locker.
Post-school, I love to relax and reset. The first thing I do when I get home is shower and eat my dinner. Lately, I’ve been loving turkey chili and turkey meat sauce with veggie pasta. I play some Animal Crossing, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and more. I also do some work, since I’m still working part-time while I’m in school.
Of course, I pack my bag and make my lunch for the next day, since I love having everything together and ready in the morning, rather than scrambling. It lets the morning run easily. My biggest tip for anyone going to beauty school is to stay organized. It can feel like school is going by incredibly fast at times. Stay grounded and keep on top of everything.
