If you want to price a facial properly, start with one number: what a 60-minute facial actually costs you to deliver. That is your floor. Your price sits above it, and how far above depends on the result the client gets and where that facial sits on your treatment menu.

Most facialists price the other way round. They look at what the salon down the road charges, take a few pounds off and hope the maths works out. Kat Martyn built her own skin clinic, The Face Tonic, to fully booked and found it wasn't as profitable as it looked. The change came when she started focusing on pricing. This is the method, in the order she would want you to do it.

How to charge more for facials

You charge more for facials by changing what the price is based on. Three things move it:

• Price from value. The client is paying for a skin concern solved, your training and the experience. Your time is only part of that.
• Build a tiered treatment menu. An express, a signature and an advanced facial give clients a reason to choose up.
• Sell add-ons at the consultation. LED, dermaplaning or a peel, recommended for a reason, lift the average ticket without touching your base price.

If you already know your prices are too low and the problem is telling clients, read how to raise your prices without losing clients. This page is about setting the price in the first place.

Step 1: Work out your cost floor

Your cost floor is the least a facial can cost the client before you are paying to work. Four things go in it. The figures below are a worked example only, so swap in your own.

Two things in that table catch people out. Your own pay goes in as a cost, because if you leave it out you have priced the facial at zero profit margin and called it a wage. And the clean-down time counts. A 60-minute facial takes up more than 60 minutes of your day.

Adding a margin on top of this floor is called cost-plus pricing. It is a sensible minimum, and it is where a lot of UK trade guidance stops. Step 2 is how you decide where above that minimum your price should sit.

Step 2: Use value-based pricing for facials

Value-based pricing means setting the price on what the facial does for the client. For a facial, that is mostly three things:

• The concern it solves. A facial built around acne, pigmentation or sensitivity solves a problem the client may have spent years and a lot of money on.
• The expertise behind it. Your skin training, your skincare knowledge and your ability to read a skin and change the plan as it improves.
• The client experience. The consultation, the room, the aftercare advice, the follow-up message. This is where premium pricing is earned.

Kat knew The Face Tonic was more than a side project the day she helped a client clear their acne. That is the value a concern-led facial sells, and it is worth more to the client than an hour on a couch.

How to put it into practice:

• Name facials by the result. "Clear Skin Facial" tells the client what they are buying. "Signature 60" makes them compare minutes and pounds.
• Check the gap above your floor. If your floor is £58 and your price is £60, you have no room for a bad week, a price rise in your products or a course of training.
• Stop checking the salon down the road. Their costs, skills and clients are different from yours. If you have been reading American guides written for estheticians, the method still works, but the prices and the tax rules do not apply here.

Step 3: Build your facial treatment menu

A good treatment menu helps the client choose and nudges them towards the facial that suits their skin. For most solo facialists, three tiers and a course are enough.

Price the express facial per minute. Setting up the room, the consultation and the clean-down take the same time whether the facial is 30 minutes or 60. If the express earns less per hour than the signature, your diary fills with your least profitable treatment.

Keep the service menu short. A spa menu with fifteen facials makes the client do the work of choosing, and a confused client picks the cheapest one. Three tiers that are clearly different from each other are easier to sell and easier to price.

Step 4: Price add-ons without discounting the facial

Add-ons are where most facialists give money away. An LED session thrown in free, or dermaplaning at a price that barely covers the blade, trains clients to expect extras for nothing.

• Price each add-on on its own floor. Product, time and overheads, the same as in Step 1. Ten extra minutes is ten minutes of your day.
• Recommend it at the consultation, for a reason. "Your skin is congested along the jawline, so I'd add a peel today" is advice. "Do you want to add anything?" at the end of the treatment is a pitch, and it feels like one.
• Never discount the base facial to make room for an add-on. If a client wants both, they pay for both.

Selling add-ons and upselling without feeling pushy is a skill of its own. It is covered in detail in how to make more money from the clients you already have.

Step 5: Price packages and courses of facials

Packages work best for treatments with a clear end point, such as a course of peels for pigmentation or a set of advanced facials for acne.

• Take payment up front. That is the point of a package for your business. It secures the client's commitment and smooths your cash flow.
• Add value before you cut the price. A homecare product or a free review appointment protects your pricing better than a 20% discount does.
• Put the terms in writing. How long the package is valid, what happens if a session is missed, and your cancellation policy. The UK side of that is in salon cancellations, no-shows and the last-minute gap.

The consultation is where the price is earned

A client who understands what her skin needs and why your facial treats it is not comparing your price with anyone else's. That is the consultation's job. Look at her skin, ask what she has tried, explain the plan, and tell her what she should expect after one facial and after six.

When a client books a facial with no consultation, the only thing she has to go on is the price, so that is what she compares.

Do I need to charge VAT on facials?

Only if you are VAT registered. In the UK you must register once your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, according to GOV.UK's VAT registration guidance. The standard rate is 20% (GOV.UK VAT rates).

If you are getting close to the threshold, price for it now. Adding 20% to every facial overnight is far harder than building it in gradually. This is general information, so speak to your accountant about your own position.

Fully booked but not making money? Look at your prices first

If your diary is full and your bank balance does not show it, more clients will not fix it. Check these in order:

1. Is every facial above its cost floor? If not, the busier you get, the more you lose.
2. What is your average ticket? Total takings divided by appointments. If it is close to your cheapest facial, your menu and your add-ons are not doing their job.
3. Are no-shows eating your margin? Deposits and a clear policy fix that, see salon cancellations and no-shows.
4. Are clients coming back? A pricing fix on top of a retention problem leaks. Start with rebooking and retention.

That is the exact place Adele at The Beauté Spot started, and she went "from burnt out & undercharging to consistent £5K+ months working less" (client results).

Put a date in the diary to review your facial pricing once a year, in 2026 and every year after. Costs move every year, and a price list that never changes is a pay cut you never chose.

"Charge properly, without the wobble."

Kat Martyn, mentor.katmartyn.co.uk