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How to Start a Lash Studio in Texas: Eyelash Extension Specialist License, Costs & Requirements

Texas is one of the clearest states in the country for lash work, because TDLR issues a dedicated Eyelash Extension Specialist license at 320 hours instead of burying lashes inside a general license. A lash studio still needs the full Texas setup around that license: an establishment license for the room, a company filing, tax accounts and local approval. Here is the whole picture, from official sources.

Researched from Texas state sources. Our guides are free. We may earn a commission when you use a partner service, at no additional cost to you.

Who licenses lash studios in Texas

Lash services in Texas are licensed by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), Barbering and Cosmetology program, under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1603. The program itself is the product of House Bill 1560 in the 87th Legislature, signed June 15, 2021, which consolidated barbering and cosmetology into one TDLR program. Your specialist licenses, your establishment license and your inspections all sit with that one agency at TDLR Barbering and Cosmetology.

Why this matters for a lash studio specifically: in many states, eyelash extensions have no dedicated license at all, and artists work under a cosmetology or esthetician license, or in a grey area nobody has clearly written down. Texas wrote it down. The dedicated specialist license gives a lash only business a direct, shorter route into legal operation, and it gives clients and landlords a clear answer when they ask what qualifies the artist. That clarity is a genuine business asset, and it is specific to how Texas structured its program.

Texas lash studio requirements at a glance

The 320 hour Eyelash Extension Specialist license

The license at the center of a Texas lash studio is the Eyelash Extension Specialist license: 320 hours of training at a licensed school, followed by TDLR examinations administered through PSI, on a two year term. Every artist applying lash extensions for paying clients in your studio needs their own license in force. A training certificate from a private course, on its own, is not the state license. Clients increasingly know the difference, and so do suite landlords and insurers.

Plan your service menu against the licenses your team holds, and check scope questions on TDLR rather than guessing. A specialist license is deliberately narrow: it qualifies the holder for the specialty it names. If your studio wants to grow into brows, skincare or other services over time, map each addition to the license that covers it before you sell it. Artists who want the wider menu from the start sometimes choose the esthetician route at 750 hours instead, trading a longer course for a broader scope. Neither route is wrong. The mistake is selling a service first and discovering the scope problem afterwards.

The owner rule helps solo artists and investors alike: the owner of the studio does not need a practitioner license. Every artist performing services does, and if you are the artist, that includes you. Most Texas lash studios are owner operated, which means the same person usually holds both the specialist license and the establishment license, in their own name, at the studio address.

The establishment license for a lash studio or a single room

The space needs a TDLR establishment license of its own. A lash studio typically fits the specialty establishment type at $78, and a single room or suite style setup fits the mini-establishment type at $70, with renewal fees matching the initial fees. Which type applies depends on how your space is set up, so confirm your setup against the TDLR establishment types before you apply.

The license is tied to the owner and the address. Rent a different room, move buildings, or take over another artist space, and the establishment paperwork has to reflect the change. Expect TDLR inspections as part of holding the license. For a business built on close contact work around clients eyes, your sanitation routines, product handling and room setup are not decoration. They are the substance of being licensed, and the studios that build them in from the first client keep both their clients and their license in good shape.

Forming your LLC with the Texas Secretary of State

Most new lash studio owners in Texas operate through a limited liability company, and the filing that creates one is the Certificate of Formation, Form 205, filed with the Texas Secretary of State for a $300 filing fee. Your company name has to include a limited liability company designator and has to be distinguishable from names already on file. The company needs a registered agent with a Texas street address, and a post office box does not qualify. You can reserve a name first for $40, which holds it for 120 days, if you want the name locked while you finish your lease and licensing paperwork.

Two Texas facts surprise owners moving here from other states. Texas has no general state business license, so your TDLR licenses are the state level permission that matters for a lash studio. And Texas LLCs file no annual report with the Secretary of State, which removes a yearly chore that catches owners out in other states.

Forming the company yourself on the Secretary of State site is the free route apart from the state fee itself. Formation services will do the filing for you for their own fee on top of the state fee. Either route ends at the same place, so choose based on how much paperwork you want to handle, and keep your filed certificate and your company agreement somewhere you can find them, because landlords, banks and suite operators will ask for them.

Registering your lash studio name with a DBA

If your lash studio will trade under any name other than the exact legal name of your company or yourself, Texas wants an assumed name certificate, the filing most people call a DBA. Where you file depends on your structure, and getting this wrong is a classic Texas trap. Filing entities such as LLCs and corporations file the Assumed Name Certificate, Form 503, for $25, with the Secretary of State. Sole proprietors and general partnerships file instead at the county clerk in each county where the business operates, at roughly $15 to $25 per county.

Practical version: a lash studio organized as an LLC with a different shop name files once with the state. A solo practitioner working as a sole proprietor files in their county, and files again in any second county they work in. File the DBA before you print signage, open a business bank account or sign merchant accounts under the shop name, because banks will ask to see it.

Getting your federal Employer Identification Number

Your EIN is the federal tax number for your lash studio, issued by the IRS. It is free, always, when you apply with the IRS directly. Any site charging you to obtain one is selling you a form you can complete yourself.

Texas sales tax, and the services and retail split that matters in beauty

A Texas sales tax permit from the Comptroller is free, and a lash studio that sells any retail product needs one before the first sale. The combined rate is the 6.25 percent state rate plus up to 2 percent local tax, for a maximum of 8.25 percent. The rule that shapes daily life in a Texas beauty business is the split: beauty services themselves are generally not taxable in Texas, but retail product sales are. The lash appointment your client books is a service. The take-home product she buys at the desk is a retail sale.

Build that split into your booking and point of sale setup from day one. Itemize services and products separately on every ticket so tax is collected only on the products, keep your product inventory records clean, and file at the frequency the Comptroller assigns you.

The Texas franchise tax and the report small businesses still file

Texas has no personal income tax, and its business level tax is the franchise tax, run by the Comptroller. For 2026 the no tax due threshold is $2,650,000 in total revenue, and the same threshold applies for 2027, so the large majority of independent lash studios owe no franchise tax. Above the threshold, the rate is 0.375 percent for retail and wholesale businesses and 0.75 percent for other businesses, with an EZ Computation option at 0.331 percent for qualifying entities with revenue up to $20 million.

The trap is the filing, not the tax. The old No Tax Due Report was discontinued for reports due on or after January 1, 2024. A business under the threshold still has to file, using a Public Information Report on Form 05-102 or an Ownership Information Report on Form 05-167, and the due date is May 15.

Hiring, booth rent, and the Texas employment rules

If you hire employees, register with the Texas Workforce Commission for unemployment tax. Texas charges that tax on a $9,000 wage base, and the new employer rate is 2.7 percent. Report every new hire within 20 days. The Texas minimum wage is $7.25, and Texas cities are preempted from setting a higher local minimum, so the state figure is the one that governs your payroll planning wherever in Texas you open.

Workers compensation is the Texas decision that differs from every other state. Texas is the one state where private employers may choose not to carry workers compensation coverage. Choosing not to subscribe is a real legal decision, not a default. Non-subscribers must file Form DWC-005 with the Division of Workers Compensation, post the required notices, and they give up common law defenses if an injured worker sues. For a lash studio with employees on their feet all day around water, chemicals and sharp tools, get advice on this choice rather than drifting into it.

The other classification decision is booth rent against employment. A genuine booth renter runs their own business inside your space: their own clients, their own prices, their own schedule, their own tax filings. An employee works under your direction, on your schedule, at your prices. Texas and federal tests look at how the relationship actually runs, not at what the agreement calls it. If you direct the work like an employer, paper that says contractor will not protect you.

City zoning, occupancy and the local layer

State licenses do not give you the right to operate in a particular building. Your city controls zoning and occupancy, so confirm that the address allows your type of business before you sign the lease, and expect a certificate of occupancy process, signage rules, and building and fire inspections that sit entirely outside TDLR. Your county handles the sole proprietor DBA filing described above. Confirm the local layer before you sign the lease, not after.

Renewal dates and filings to put on your calendar

Requirements change, and TDLR adjusted continuing education rules for renewals from September 1, 2025, so confirm the current renewal requirements for your license type on TDLR before you rely on any summary, including this one.

What the state charges, in one table

Beyond state charges, your opening costs are training, your room or studio rent and deposit, a treatment bed and lighting, initial lash product and consumables, booking software, insurance and your first months of marketing. Lash studios open leaner than full salons, which is part of their appeal, but lean is not the same as costless. Price a full set and a fill from your real time per client and your real room cost, because lash work sells your hours one appointment at a time and there is no retail shelf to rescue a price that was set too low.

Lash studio opening mistakes Texas artists repeat

The first is working from a private training certificate alone, without the TDLR Eyelash Extension Specialist license the state actually issues. The second is taking over a room and assuming the previous artist establishment license covers you. It is tied to that artist and does not transfer. The third is expanding the menu into services outside the specialist scope without adding the license that covers them. The fourth is ignoring the paperwork layer entirely: no DBA where one is needed, no sales tax permit before the first retail sale, and no May 15 information report because no tax was due. Small studios run on small margins for error, and every one of these is avoidable at setup.

Official Texas sources used for this guide

• Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Barbering and Cosmetology program, practitioner and establishment licensing, Occupations Code Chapter 1603.
• Texas Secretary of State, Form 205 Certificate of Formation instructions, LLC filing fee and registered agent rules.
• Texas Comptroller, franchise tax, including the no tax due threshold and the information reports that replaced the No Tax Due Report.
• Texas Comptroller, taxpayer resources, sales tax permits and rates.
• Texas Workforce Commission, employer registration, unemployment tax and new hire reporting.

State sources last reviewed: November 3, 2026. Fees, forms and rules change. Confirm the current version with the agency before you file.

Frequently asked questions

How many hours is the Texas eyelash extension license?

The Eyelash Extension Specialist license takes 320 hours of training at a licensed school, followed by TDLR examinations administered through PSI. The license runs on a two year term.

Is a private lash training certificate enough to work in Texas?

No. A certificate from a private training course is not a state license. To apply eyelash extensions for paying clients in Texas you need the TDLR practitioner license that covers the work, such as the Eyelash Extension Specialist license.

How much does it cost to license a lash studio premises in Texas?

TDLR charges $78 for a specialty establishment license and $70 for a mini-establishment license, which fits single room and suite style setups. Renewal fees match the initial fees. Confirm which type fits your space on TDLR before applying.

Can I open a lash studio inside a rented suite room in Texas?

Yes, that is a common Texas setup. The room still needs the right TDLR establishment licensing in your name at that address, typically the mini-establishment type for a single operator room, and you need your own practitioner license. See our Texas salon suite guide for how the mini-establishment license works.

Are lash extension services taxed in Texas?

Generally, no. Lash services are generally not taxable in Texas. Retail products you sell, such as aftercare products, are taxable at 6.25 percent state plus up to 2 percent local, a maximum of 8.25 percent. Itemize services and products separately.

Do I need an esthetician license to do lashes in Texas?

Texas offers a dedicated route: the Eyelash Extension Specialist license at 320 hours. Some artists choose the Esthetician license at 750 hours because they want the broader skincare scope as well. Either way, the license you hold has to cover the services you sell.