Days 1 to 3: safety as the foundation
Day 1: cleaning, disinfecting and sterilizing, and the difference between reusable and single-use items on a facial or waxing tray. Day 2: hand hygiene, workstation setup, linens and product handling, written as your own checklist from the Board's health and safety rules and your course materials. Day 3: chemical and product safety, practiced on the label and safety data sheet of one product you know. Because safety is the largest block, open every later day with a ten-minute safety warm-up.
Days 4 to 6: consultation, skin analysis and facial services
Day 4: follow an intake form from the first question to the last and mark which answers could change, delay or rule out a service. Day 5: skin analysis vocabulary, meaning the terms for skin types and conditions, learned so that you can recognize them in a question without diagnosing anything. Day 6: facial services and product categories, where sequence words such as first, before and after often decide the answer. Write a numbered order for a basic facial and say aloud why each step has to precede the next.
Days 7 and 8: hair removal
Day 7 covers the temporary methods and what each one asks about the client and the body area before it starts. Day 8 puts the methods side by side: what each suits, what hygiene it demands, and what should make you stop. At 15, hair removal is the fourth-largest topic after safety, analysis and skin care in the outline, which is why it gets two sessions.
Days 9 and 10: lashes, brows and makeup
Day 9 is lashes and brows, Day 10 is makeup. Makeup has the smallest weight (3), but its hygiene questions overlap with safety, so study applicator handling, product contamination and color-theory vocabulary together. Lashes and brows (6) deserve a session of their own because the area around the eye raises the stakes for hygiene and for the choice to proceed.
Days 11 to 14: review, scenarios and a timed mock
Day 11: retry everything in your missed-answer log, tagging each miss as vocabulary, sequence, safety judgment or careless reading. Day 12: write five short scenarios yourself, each with a client observation and a cautious in-scope response, then swap the observation and see whether the response changes. Day 13: take a timed mock of 85 questions in 90 minutes, which is about a minute per question. Day 14: review the mock lightly and rest.
Adjusting the plan
With fewer days, merge Days 1 to 3 into two sessions and combine lashes, brows and makeup, but keep the daily safety warm-up. With more days, add a second pass through hair removal and a second mock. Fourteen days may not suit everyone, and a study plan cannot predict how you will do on the exam.
Study checklist
- Check the current outline and format on the Board's pages.
- Open each study day with a short safety warm-up.
- Write your own intake-to-service map for hair removal and facials.
- Keep a missed-answer log and retry it after two days.
- Complete one timed mock before the exam.
Original worked example · not an official exam question
Day 8 exercise: a client is booked for lower-leg waxing. During the intake check you notice that the skin on part of the lower leg looks broken. How would you reason about the service?
Answer: Do not perform the service on that area, explain the reason to the client, and consider whether a different area or a later visit is appropriate. If the cause is unclear, suggest that the client see a healthcare provider rather than guessing at it.
Reasoning: Questions in this area reward noticing the clue in the stem and choosing the cautious, in-scope action. Read the Board's Article 12 for the exact current rule text; this note is a study reading and the rule itself stays authoritative.
Sources and further reading
This guide summarizes the listed sources for study. Check current rules and product directions before a service. Report a correction