Opening a Beauty Salon in Estonia: Premises, Health Certificate and Paperwork

Short answer. You do not need a licence (tegevusluba) to open a beauty salon in Estonia, and the Health Board (Terviseamet) does not inspect you before you open. You do not need an economic activity notice (majandustegevusteade) either - beauty and personal services are not on the list of activities that carry a notification duty. What you do need, before the first client walks in: premises that meet hygiene and safety requirements, a pre-employment health check for every staff member who works hands-on with clients, and their health certificates on file. Since 1 March 2026 there is one more: each beauty professional (iluteenindaja) must be able to prove their knowledge and skills with documents.

All of this stems from the 2025 reform. On 1 September 2025 the new Rahvatervishoiu seadus (Public Health Act) entered into force, replacing the 1995 law, and on 24 August 2025 the Minister of Social Affairs issued Regulation No 41, "Nõuded ilu- ja isikuteenuste osutamisele" (Requirements for the provision of beauty and personal services; Riigi Teataja act 126082025010). It replaces the old Regulation No 86 from 2000 - meaning the rules many salons have operated under for two decades have been rewritten.

Below is the practical version for a salon owner. The most accurate and always-current source is the Terviseamet page on beauty and personal services; the figures here are as of July 2026. This article is general information, not legal advice.

Who the rules apply to

Regulation No 41 defines "ilu- ja isikuteenused" (beauty and personal services) broadly:

• juuksuriteenus - hairdressing
• kosmeetikuteenus - cosmetology
• solaariumiteenus - tanning salon
• tätoveerimisteenus - tattooing
• püsimeigiteenus - permanent makeup
• kehaaugustamise teenus - body piercing
• küünetehniku teenus - nail technician
• ripsmetehniku teenus - lash technician
• kulmutehniku teenus - brow technician

The requirements bind legal entities, sole traders (FIE) and the individuals who perform the service themselves. A lash tech working alone from a home studio is not exempt just because she has no employees - as an iluteenindaja she is personally responsible.

Aesthetic non-surgical medical procedures fall outside the regulation - they follow the healthcare rules instead. More on that boundary below.

No licence - and no MTR notice either

The most common misconception is that a beauty salon needs a licence. It does not. Terviseamet states plainly that no Health Board permit or approval is required to open a salon.

The second misconception runs the other way: "but surely you have to file a notice in the MTR." You do not. Beauty and personal services are not among the activities that carry a notification or licensing duty - TTJA's official list of notice- and licence-bound activities (construction, trade, equipment work, media services and so on) simply has no entry for salons. In practice: register the company or sole trader in the commercial register, pick your EMTAK code, and you may start work in premises that meet the requirements.

A majandustegevusteade only comes into play if your activity steps outside the beauty service itself. For example:

• reselling disinfectants or other biocides to other professionals - that is wholesale, and it does require a notice;
• providing a healthcare service (therapeutic massage, physiotherapy, aesthetic medicine) - here a notice is not enough, you need a Terviseamet licence;
• selling alcohol or tobacco on the premises.

TTJA, which runs the register, is migrating notices and licences from the old MTR (mtr.ttja.ee) to a new system called Tarvik (tarvik.ttja.ee) in stages. If one of the obligations above does apply to you, check which portal currently serves your activity before filing.

The governing principle of the whole system: the state does not check you before you open. Compliance is your responsibility from day one. The inspection comes later, and after the fact.

Requirements for the premises

Terviseamet lists the following for salon premises:

• Appropriate size and layout for the service provided. A single lash bed and a full hairdressing salon are not the same thing.
• Hot and cold water supply and sewerage, including a toilet.
• Sufficient ventilation and lighting, in line with occupational health and safety requirements.
• Accessibility: people with disabilities must be able to move around and use the building unobstructed, and to get the relevant information. A new or rebuilt salon has to account for the special requirements that apply to the building itself.

What not to build your fit-out around: a set of very specific numbers circulates online (air exchange in litres per second per square metre, illuminance in lux, a UV intensity cap for sunbeds). Those come from coverage of the draft regulation, not the adopted text. If your renovation depends on an exact figure, request it from Terviseamet or read the regulation itself in Riigi Teataja. For a substantial rebuild you can also ask Terviseamet for a health-safety assessment (terviseohutuse hinnang).

In practice, premises and indoor climate (sisekliima) are among the biggest stumbling blocks in inspections. More on that below.

Health certificate (tervisetõend) for staff

Who needs one: every employee who provides beauty or personal services hands-on, in contact with clients.

Legal basis: the Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control Act (Nakkushaiguste ennetamise ja tõrje seadus), § 13 - the health check (tervisekontroll) must be completed before starting work, not during the first few months.

How often to repeat it: according to Terviseamet, the frequency depends on the company's risk assessment (ettevõtte riskihinnang). There is no universal fixed interval. If you have heard "every two years", that is not a confirmed rule under the current framework. Set the interval in your own risk assessment and stick to it.

Where to get it: it starts with filling in a health declaration (tervisedeklaratsioon) in the state health portal, followed by an appointment with a family nurse (pereõde), family doctor (perearst) or occupational health doctor (töötervishoiuarst).

What it costs: around 40-50 euros per person as a market benchmark (one private clinic charges roughly 45 euros). That is a provider's price, not a state tariff, and it varies.

Health certificates are the kind of thing that quietly expires. Keep each professional's certificate and its validity date in one place, and review them yourself before Terviseamet asks.

Knowledge and skills: the new requirement from 1 March 2026

This is the headline change for the individual professional. The Terviseamet page states the date explicitly: the requirements for a beauty professional's knowledge and skills apply from 01.03.2026. The rest of the regulation has applied alongside the Public Health Act since September 2025 - the knowledge-and-skills block was given a longer transition period precisely so that working professionals could get their proof in order.

An iluteenindaja must have demonstrable knowledge and skills in eight areas:

1. Hygiene and prevention of communicable diseases.
2. Skin conditions and other health states that may affect the service or rule it out entirely.
3. Asepsis and antisepsis.
4. Risk-based cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation of tools and instruments (decontamination).
5. Use of personal protective equipment appropriate to the service.
6. The possible health effects of the products, substances and chemicals used, and their safe handling.
7. Anatomy and function of the relevant body area or organ - the hand and nail for a nail tech, the eye area for a lash tech.
8. Service-specific indications and contraindications.

Tanning and cosmetology services carry extra requirements of their own (a cosmetologist, for instance, must be trained on a device before using it). Terviseamet also publishes a self-assessment questionnaire - a self-check, not an inspection.

Proof is documentary: a valid professional certificate (kutsetunnistus) is preferred, but training certificates (koolitustõendid), other certificates or any reliable evidence will do, on paper or in electronic form. The regulation does not demand a formal professional qualification, nor annual refresher training. If your team's training certificates currently live in WhatsApp threads and inboxes, now is the moment to collect them - 1 March 2026 has passed and inspectors may ask.

How often inspections actually happen: Terviseamet's 2024 figures

This is not a theoretical risk. Terviseamet's official annual review, "Ilu-, isiku- ja majutusteenuste terviseohutuse edendamine. 2024. aasta ülevaade", gives a concrete picture of risk-based supervision.

In 2024, 337 beauty salons were inspected. At the first inspection, 195 salons (58%) did not meet the requirements. The most common failure was hygiene: 118 salons, or 35% of everyone inspected. Premises failed in 42 salons and indoor climate in 37.

Focus areas in 2024:

The sector generated 286 enquiries in 2024, of which 15 were formal complaints - mostly about hygiene.

Read the table this way: close to 60% of nail technicians and more than half of lash technicians failed their first inspection. If your salon is average, the odds are against you. The consolation: according to the same review, the deficiencies found were fixed by the deadline set and the proceedings closed - a first-inspection finding is not yet a fine.

What happens if you fall short

Two things get constantly conflated online, and they are worth separating.

An ordinary hygiene, premises or paperwork failure is not a misdemeanour. The Public Health Act contains no separate offence for breaching the beauty-service requirements. Terviseamet supervises (§ 32 of the Act) and enforces through the Law Enforcement Act: a precept (ettekirjutus) with a deadline, a penalty payment (sunniraha) if you ignore it, and suspension of the service in the extreme. That is how most of the 2024 inspections ended - a precept, then remediation.

There is a misdemeanour fine, but its scope is narrow. Section 37 of the Public Health Act punishes only breaches of the § 19 prohibitions: providing tanning or tattooing services to a minor, and tattooing where the ink is injected into the eyeball.

• Natural person: up to 250 fine units (trahviühikut).
• Legal person: up to 80,000 euros.

From 1 January 2025 the fine unit rose from 4 to 8 euros, so 250 units works out to up to 2,000 euros for an individual. Section 38 names Terviseamet as the extrajudicial body (kohtuväline menetleja) for these misdemeanours.

The practical takeaway: a hygiene lapse costs you time and a precept; putting a minor on a sunbed can cost the company up to 80,000 euros. Age checks are not a formality.

Beauty service or healthcare service? Where the line runs

This trips up a lot of new owners, and the answer changes both your licensing and your VAT position at once.

• Ordinary relaxation massage (not prescribed by a doctor) is not a healthcare service (tervishoiuteenus). The masseur is not a healthcare worker in that case, no tegevusluba is needed, and the service is subject to VAT.
• Therapeutic massage (ravimassaaž, prescribed or indicated by a doctor) is a healthcare service: it requires a tegevusluba from Terviseamet and is VAT-exempt.
• Physiotherapy falls under the healthcare regime - a physiotherapist is a registered healthcare professional and a tegevusluba is required (see the Estonian Physiotherapists Association).

The general test was set out by Ants Nõmper, lawyer at the Ministry of Social Affairs, on the ministry's blog: if a service requires medical knowledge and its potential effect on the body is intense enough to cause medical complications, it must be classified as a healthcare service. And a healthcare service brings exactly what a beauty service does not: a mandatory licence.

The new act also gave Terviseamet its first real tools against libameditsiin (pseudo-medicine): powers to intervene in the advertising and sale of services and products that carry a direct health risk. And for the first time, the law bans tanning beds and tattooing for anyone under 18 (including eyeball tattoos). If you offer either, age verification is now a legal duty, not a courtesy - and the act expressly allows you to ask the client for identification.

Opening checklist

One caveat on paperwork: do not go hunting online for the exact names of mandatory logbooks or retention periods in years - no unambiguous public list of them exists. During supervision Terviseamet looks at both the documents and how the work is actually organised, so the practical rule is simple: anything you are required to do should be traceable in writing.

How to actually keep on top of this

Most failures come not from ignorance but from inattention: a certificate expired, a new hire started a shift before their health check, a training certificate lives on someone's phone. Which is why this information belongs where you already are every day - on the staff profile inside your booking system, not in a separate spreadsheet nobody opens.

In Tervita you can keep each professional's health certificate and its expiry date on their staff card, along with professional and training certificates, and the audit log records who changed what and when - useful both for supervision and for GDPR. If you are starting from scratch, see our guides to setting up online booking and choosing scheduling software.

Compliance is one half of opening a salon. The other half is keeping the calendar full and the chairs occupied - for that, we have a separate guide to reducing no-shows.

Create a free Tervita account and keep your team's records, certificates and bookings in one place from day one.