Scope check
Who may lawfully perform this, in this state?
Checked against the rule the state actually wrote down — quoted, cited, and linked at source. This compares a procedure against a published limit; it is not a judgement about what a treatment does to skin, and it is not legal advice.
Our scope corpus holds rules read at source for 51 states across 9 service categories. Coverage is uneven and we show you which you are in on every answer. Where we have not read a rule we say so — we never treat our silence as the state's permission.
Iowa · Chemical peel · Rule on record
We have read and cited this state's own rule for chemical peel. The verdict below rests on that text, linked at source so you can verify it.
IA gates on peel depth, which was not supplied.
⛔ CORRECTED. First encoded from a mirror as barring estheticians from peels entirely. The official rule states the opposite: "Additional certification is not required for licensed estheticians." The pre-2005 restriction applies to COSMETOLOGISTS and BARBERS, not estheticians.
- IA permits up to "Very superficial" for Esthetician. Supply the product's own depth designation — we will not infer depth from a percentage.
- Limited to removal of surface epidermal cells using only non-medical-strength cosmetic preparations, consistent with labelled instructions. Not intended to elicit viable epidermal or dermal wounding, injury or destruction.
The rule this rests on
Chemical exfoliation shall only be performed by a cosmetologist who was licensed prior to July 1, 2005, and is certified by the board to perform those services. Additional certification is not required for licensed estheticians. Chemical exfoliation procedures are limited to the removal of surface epidermal cells of the skin by using only non-medical-strength cosmetic preparations consistent with labeled instructions. This procedure is not intended to elicit viable epidermal or dermal wounding, injury, or destruction.
Iowa Admin. Code r. 481—940.5(3) · verified 2026-08-29 · read at source
Prior to providing laser or IPL hair removal, microdermabrasion or chemical peel services, the cosmetologist, esthetician, and electrologist shall complete a client health history of conditions related to the application for services and include it with the client’s records. A licensee who provides such services shall submit a report to the board within 30 days of any incident in which the service resulted in physical injury requiring medical attention.
Iowa Admin. Code r. 481—940.5(6) · verified 2026-08-29 · read at source
MedSpaRadar is regulatory monitoring and reference: it summarizes public laws, regulations and agency actions and links each to its source. It is not legal, medical, or compliance advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. A summary can lag its source or leave out detail, and monitoring itself can be interrupted — so an absence of alerts means nothing reached you, not that nothing happened. Read the cited source, check its effective date, and confirm any change to your operations or clinical practice with qualified health-law counsel and your medical director.
Where the corpus is deep, and where it isn’t
Read this before you rely on a quiet answer. A category with few states behind it is a category where we will more often tell you we don’t know — which is the correct answer, and not the same as a green light.
| Procedure | States with a rule on record |
|---|---|
| Injectable (neuromodulator, dermal filler) | 46 |
| Energy device (laser, IPL, RF, plasma, ultrasound) | 39 |
| Microneedling / collagen induction | 38 |
| Hair removal (laser / IPL) | 35 |
| Chemical peel | 34 |
| Micropigmentation / permanent makeup | 34 |
| Mechanical exfoliation (dermaplaning, microdermabrasion) | 33 |
| Sclerotherapy | 29 |
| Body contouring (cryolipolysis, RF, ultrasound) | 17 |
Every rule behind these answers is read at an official source and cited. The wider cited corpus — supervision, good-faith exams, ownership and CPOM, advertising — lives on the state pages, and how we decide what to publish is written down in the methodology.
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