A professional cosmetology or beauty association a great way to grow your beauty business and connect with other professionals in the industry.

Joining a professional beauty association gives you access to fantastic perks, including conferences, online networking events and webinars, beauty discounts, and even liability insurance.

Here are the professional beauty associations we’re most excited about for this year…

In this blog:

PS. If you’re looking for even more ways to connect in the beauty industry, check out the best hair associations and the best hair shows of the year.

The Best Professional Beauty, Cosmetology, and Skincare Associations

Best Overall Beauty and Cosmetology Association: Professional Beauty Association (PBA)

PBA tops almost everyone’s list of beauty organizations because it’s just that good.

Known for throwing killer events, like its beauty shows, PBA has a diverse mix of members, including licensed beauty service professionals, manufacturers, salons, schools, cosmetology students, and distributors.

Membership levels vary, but depending on which you choose, you’ll get access to perks like:

  • Scholarship programs
  • A liability insurance program
  • Health, dental, and vision programs
  • Industry advocacy
  • Access to the latest research and trends in the beauty world

PBA also launched Business of One, an association membership for beauty solopreneurs looking to connect with others who run their business solo.

PBA x Schedulicity: Schedulicity is proud to partner with PBA — a beauty association committed to elevating and caring for cosmetologists, makeup artists, spa owners, and estheticians as much as we are.

Sign up for their Business of One Membership and gain access to resources and benefits designed to help you solve issues unique to running your own small business.

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Best Associations for Cosmetology Students: Beacon and International Association of Professional Makeup Artists

Beacon

Technically, Beacon is part of PBA, but!

We’re giving it a separate nod here because it’s such a brilliant opportunity for beauty school and cosmetology students.

If you’re just getting started in the beauty industry, we can’t stress this enough: Networking is everything.

Beacon gives you direct access to beauty business coaches, influencers, and renowned spa owners.

The program currently hosts weekly webinars with some of the biggest names in the business.

And if you decide which beauty event to attend (and you should go to at least one!), you’ll enjoy special workshops and activities just for Beacon members to connect with people who are starting out just like you.

International Association of Professional Makeup Artists

The International Association of Professional Makeup Artists is a beauty association that provides education and business development “for people working as, or studying to become, a professional makeup artist.”

Benefits include:

  • Discounts on makeup artist certifications
  • A listing in their professional directory
  • Discounts on various products and services
  • An official seal to add to marketing materials

Best Spa and Med Spa Associations: International Salon | Spa Business Management (ISBN) and International Spa Association (ISPA)

ISBN


If you own a spa, and especially if you own multiple spas, ISBN is the beauty association you need to join.

ISBN connects spa owners and their management teams to other multi-location and franchise businesses across the world. 

This is a crew with clout — collectively, members generate more than $10 billion in revenue per year.

There’s also an annual conference, plus added perks, like discounts on insurance programs, credit card transactions, and even overnight package delivery for skincare products.

ISPA

ISPA is “the pulse of the spa industry.”

So much so that their members-only magazine is called Pulse. It’s the go-to resource for expert insights, trends, tools and research, and it’s one of the many perks of being in ISPA.

Other benefits include a career center, resource library, courses at the ISPA Academy, and more.

Best Skincare Association for Estheticians: Associated Skin Care Professionals (ASCP)

ASCP bills itself as the association “for estheticians at every stage of the journey who are passionate about skin care”.

And it’s true!

Its combination of benefits and skincare programming offers something for everyone regardless of where they are in their esti careers.

In addition to networking perks, you get bimonthly issues of ASCP’s magazine, Skin Deep; on-demand webinars; liability insurance coverage, and marketing resources.

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Best Beauty Association for Online Community: Beauty Biz Club

Lori Crete is one of the best business minds we ever encountered –– and she’s one of the most successful skincare pros in the industry.

Beauty Biz Club is her personal beauty association and program. It’s designed with a specific focus on increasing revenue and profit.

And it works.

One licensed esthetician says she went from making $10,000 to $400,000 a year with Lori’s program.

Think of Beauty Biz Club as a training program for your business and your mindset with plenty of digital marketing strategies you can steal for your beauty business.

The best part? It’s all online.

Best Association for Dermatologists: American Acne and Rosacea Society (AARS)

If you’re a dermatologist or medical health professional working in the field of dermatology, AARS is a great business association to join.

With a particular emphasis on mentoring and networking, this is a great way to stay connected with other skincare professionals across the US.

On the hunt for an online scheduling app?

With an intuitive calendar, marketing tools, and payment processing, Schedulicity has everything you need to run your beauty business — all in one place!

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