A manicurist license from TDLR authorizes nail care services: manicures, pedicures, artificial nail application (acrylic, gel, and dip powder systems), nail art, and basic hand and foot treatments. At 600 training hours, it is the shortest school-based path to a practitioner license in the Barbering and Cosmetology program.
Requirements at a glance:
- 600 hours at a TDLR-licensed school, then the written and practical exams
- $50 application fee and $50 renewal every 2 years
- 4 hours of CE per renewal cycle — the same shared course all barbering and cosmetology subtypes take (2 hours if you have held your license 15+ years)
Nail professionals work under some of the program's most enforcement-heavy rules: foot spa cleaning records, implement disinfection between clients, and the outright ban on methyl methacrylate (MMA) liquid monomer under 16 TAC §83.112 — where possession alone is a violation. These topics are exactly what the mandatory sanitation hour of your CE covers.
If you also hold an esthetician license, the combined esthetician/manicurist license merges both scopes into one $50 renewal and one CE requirement.
What it means for your renewal
Your renewal is biennial and the CE must be done before you submit it. The sanitation content is not busywork for manicurists — foot spa records and disinfection failures show up again and again in TDLR's recent enforcement orders, at penalties in the thousands.
The manicurist CE course from OnlineTexasCE — TDLR-Approved Provider #2273 — is $22.95 with no final exam, reported to TDLR within 24 hours.
Authority: Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1603