Oregon Laws, Rules, and Regulations
This domain tests the legal frame around practicing esthetics in Oregon: who may be licensed, what esthetics legally covers, and where client safety becomes a legal duty rather than a preference. Questions are usually scenario-based - a client, a condition, a request - and ask what the licensee must do.
Who regulates the work
Oregon issues esthetician licenses through the Oregon Health Licensing Office (HLO), which administers the cosmetology professions under ORS 690; the working standards sit in OAR chapter 817. Distinguish statute from rule: ORS sets the legislative authority, OAR sets the operational requirement an inspector checks.
Scope of practice
Esthetics is cosmetic care of the skin and its appendages - cleansing, exfoliation, masks, massage, makeup, waxing, and eyelash services - to improve appearance. Diagnosing or treating disease, laser and IPL devices, injectables, and prescriptive products belong to medical licensees. Seeing a suspicious lesion creates a referral obligation, not a treatment opportunity.
Rules that show up on exams
- Keep the license current and available at the workstation.
- Clean and disinfect implements as the rules require; single-use items are never reused.
- Do not treat skin with visible infection, open lesions, or infestation.
- Maintain sanitary premises, covered waste, and sharps containers.
- Obtain and retain client records and consent; follow the minor-consent rule.
Worked example
A client arrives with a tingling cold sore and asks for a lip wax. Herpes simplex is contagious, and waxing can spread virus to adjacent skin and to your hands. Because you may not treat infected skin and you owe every client a sanitary service, you decline the lip wax, explain why, and reschedule once the lesion resolves.
Traps
Equating disinfection with sterilization; assuming salon policy can relax a Board rule; describing a rash as a diagnosis; treating rules as suggestions rather than minimum standards.