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.
South Dakota · 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.
SD gates on peel depth, which was not supplied.
⛔ SOUTH DAKOTA STATES THE CEILING HISTOLOGICALLY, WHICH IS WHY THIS RULE IS A DEPTH LIMIT AND NOT A CONCENTRATION ONE. Esthetics affirmatively includes EXFOLIATING for the noninvasive care of the skin — so a peel is within the license — but noninvasive is defined as confined to the NONLIVING CELLS OF THE STRATUM CORNEUM OF THE EPIDERMIS, the practices must be in a SUPERFICIAL MODE and not for the treatment of medical disorders, and LIVING CELLS MAY NEVER BE ALTERED, CUT, OR DAMAGED. That is the very-superficial class and nothing deeper, whatever the agent or its percentage. Supply the product’s own depth designation; this rule will not infer depth from a concentration.
- SD permits up to "Very superficial" for Esthetician. Supply the product's own depth designation — we will not infer depth from a percentage.
- Confined to the nonliving cells of the stratum corneum of the epidermis; living cells may never be altered, cut, or damaged.
The rule this rests on
A person is engaged in the practice of esthetics if that person, for compensation, a fee, or any valuable consideration, engages in beautifying, massaging, cleansing, exfoliating, stimulating, or applying oils, creams, cosmetic preparations, make-up, facial treatments, body treatments, body wraps, antiseptics, scrubs, clays, lotions, masks, waxes, or other preparations for the noninvasive care of the skin. For purposes of this subdivision, noninvasive means confined to the nonliving cells of the stratum corneum of the epidermis. Such practices shall be in a superficial mode and not for the treatment of medical disorders, and living cells may never be altered, cut, or damaged.
S.D. Codified Laws §36-15-2.2(1) (esthetics — depth confined to the stratum corneum) · verified 2026-09-03 · 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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