What insurance does a makeup artist need?

What Insurance Does a Makeup Artist Need?

Your work as a make-up artist brings the rewards that come from making customers look and feel great – whether it’s helping a bride dazzle on her wedding day, working with models on a fashion shoot, or helping clients recover their self-esteem with cosmetic camouflage – but it is not without risk.

That is where insurance comes in. It is there to help you work your magic with confidence, secure in the knowledge that you, your clients, and your business are protected should something go wrong.

Get the Right Cover: Understanding Business Insurance for Make-up Artists

Truly protecting your business, with effective insurance for make-up artists starts with an understanding of the risks you face, and the insurance covers you need to protect against them.

As with any business, that will depend to an extent on the nature of your work as a make-up artist – everything from your premises and your client base to the range of treatments and services you offer.

However, some of the most important make-up artist insurance covers to consider include:

Public Liability Insurance for Make-up Artists

This cover is designed to protect your business if a customer falls ill, is injured, or their property damaged as a result of using your services ‒ for instance, a cosmetic such as a lipstick or foundation might damage clothes or a slip, trip, or fall might leave a customer injured. Public liability insurance for make-up artists will help cover the cost of legal fees and compensation if a customer suffering injury or property damage makes a claim against you.

Make-up Artist Treatment Risk Insurance

Alongside that public liability cover, it is vitally important to consider cover to help cover legal costs and compensation in the event a customer is injured, or falls ill as a direct result of a treatment you administer. Provided you follow health and safety regulations, manage risk through patch testing for instance, and make sure all the treatments and services you provide are covered, this insurance will help protect you if a customer has an allergic reaction following your work, for example.

Products Liability Insurance for Make-up Artists

If you sell beauty products to customers, this is another cover you will need. It covers legal costs and compensation, but in this case can protect you in the event that you inadvertently sell defective or unsafe products.

Employers Liability Insurance

If you employ people in your make-up artist business, this insurance cover is a legal requirement. It can help to cover legal fees and compensation if an employee is injured or falls ill at work and makes a claim against you.

Property Insurance for Make-up Artists

Whether you work from home or at a dedicated premises, property insurance will help to cover costs and get you back up and running if the property or its contents are affected by serious incidents like fire or flood.

Make-up Artists’ Equipment Insurance

If you rely on specialist tools and equipment to do your job as a make-up artist, you may need this cover to protect you against unexpected costs if those tools are lost or stolen – including theft from vehicles if you provide a mobile service or travel to carry out specific jobs.

There is a range of other make-up artist insurance covers available, from business interruption to help replace lost income during a crisis to legal expenses insurance to help with the cost of legal disputes – for instance disagreement over the terms of a contract with a supplier. You can read a fuller list of available covers here.

In the current climate, and with the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, you may also want to consider taking out cover for human infectious diseases.

Make-up Artist Insurance and COVID-19

During the COVID-19 crisis, it is very important to operate your make-up artist business safely and in line with government COVID-19 Secure guidelines for ‘close contact’ business – which are available in detail here.

The latest guidance from insurers is that existing insurance arrangements will remain in force, provided government mandated steps to reduce infection risk have been followed, monitored and documented – though if you are in any doubt or have changed the way you work during or following lockdown, you should contact your insurance provider to check your insurance arrangements still meet your needs.

Further information on insurance for high street businesses during the pandemic is available here.