Your nail consultation form,
question by question.

What should a nail consultation form include?

A nail consultation form should say who the client is, ask about any allergy or reaction to gel, acrylic, nail glue or acetone, ask about nail and skin conditions such as a fungal infection or broken skin around the nails, and ask about health conditions that change how you work, such as diabetes or poor circulation. It should end with their consent and a signature with the date. Check the final wording with your insurer.

We make Covered Beauty, which has a ready-made nail services form, so we’ve said where it fits. Nothing here is legal or medical advice. Your insurer’s rules and the product manufacturer’s instructions come first.

Who is the form about?

Start with who the client is, so the signed form stands on its own as a record: their full name, date of birth, address, phone number and email.

Every ready-made form in Covered Beauty asks for the client’s full name, date of birth and home address. Their phone number and email are already on their client record.

Doing nails for teenagers? BABTAC’s 2016 guide said the insurance it offered members needed written consent from a parent for anyone under 16, so check what your own policy says.

What health questions should you ask before a nail treatment?

Our ready-made nail services form asks three, each a yes or no:

• Any known allergy to nail products (acrylic, gel, acetone)?
• Any nail or skin condition, fungal infection, or broken skin around the nails?
• Are you pregnant or breastfeeding?

You might add questions like these, with room for details:

• Have you had a reaction to gel, acrylic or nail glue before, such as itching, redness or swelling on your fingers, face or eyelids?
• Do you use gel or acrylic kits at home?
• Do you have diabetes, poor circulation or less feeling in your hands or feet?
• Do you work with your hands a lot, or swim, garden or play sport often?
• Is there anything else about your health we should know?

BABTAC’s 2016 guide says diabetes can cause poor circulation, loss of feeling and problems with healing, so it asks for manicures and pedicures to be done gently, with care over the water temperature and no cutting or nipping. The lifestyle question tells you which product and length will last, and what aftercare to give.

Why ask about gel and acrylic allergies?

In 2018 the British Association of Dermatologists warned that (meth)acrylates, the key ingredients in acrylic nails, gel nails and gel polish, were causing a contact allergy epidemic in the UK and Ireland. In an audit of 13 UK and Irish dermatology units during 2017, 2.4% of the people patch tested there were allergic to at least one of them.

It says a reaction can show as nails loosening, or a red, itchy rash anywhere the nails have touched, including the eyelids, face and neck, and very rarely as breathing problems. It also warned about gel kits used at home, where the product may not cure properly. That’s why it’s worth asking about home kits on your form.

BABTAC’s guide adds that once a client is allergic, they stay allergic, though someone allergic to gel isn’t necessarily allergic to liquid and powder, or the other way round.

The national occupational standard for UV cured nail services lists an allergic reaction among the things to watch for. It has you apply the product leaving a free margin from the skin, and cure it with a lamp of the right wavelength for the right time. It isn’t law, but qualifications are built on standards like it.

Do nail clients need a patch test?

BABTAC’s Good Practice Guide, from 2016, is the trade body’s guidance for its members. Its list of treatments that need a patch test doesn’t include nail treatments. Follow the product manufacturer’s instructions and your insurer’s rules, which may ask for more.

Recording it in Covered Beauty

• The nail services form asks about allergies to acrylic, gel and acetone, but not about a patch test.
• If you test, add a yes or no question such as “Have you had a patch test for our gel, with no reaction?”
• Any question you add that mentions a patch test is asked fresh at every visit, never carried over from last time.
• Write the date, the product and the result in the client’s notes.

How should the form handle aftercare and consent?

Our nail services form ends with a tick to confirm their answers are accurate and they consent to the treatment. Then they type their name to sign, and the date goes alongside.

It doesn’t have an aftercare tick, so add one if you give aftercare advice, such as how to look after gel or acrylic and when to come back for infills or a removal.

If you post photos of your work, ask for that separately, with its own tick that starts unticked, and say where the photos will go. Our nail form doesn’t have a photo tick, so add one if you need it.

Every form also shows the client a short note about their health information and asks for a separate tick giving their explicit consent to it being used. Why that matters is in our guide to consent forms and UK GDPR.

How often should clients fill it in again?

BABTAC suggests reviewing a client’s personal details and medical history every six months.

In Covered Beauty, when the form comes with a booking and the client filled in the same form in the last 6 months, they see their previous answers and confirm nothing has changed, then sign again. That suits regulars back every few weeks for infills. If something has changed, they fill in the whole form afresh. Patch test questions never carry over: any question that mentions a patch test is asked again every time. Edit a form and clients fill in the new version next time.

Forms sent as a private link or handed over on your tablet are always filled in fresh, so whoever holds the device never sees another client’s earlier answers.

How long should you keep nail consultation forms?

BABTAC’s 2016 guide tells its members to keep record cards for seven years, and says a claim will be denied without them. Your insurer’s policy comes first, so check what it asks for.

A consultation form holds health information, which UK GDPR protects more strictly. What that means for you, from explicit consent to a client asking you to delete their form, is in consent forms and GDPR: a guide for UK beauty salons.

Covered Beauty keeps signed forms for 7 years from the appointment, or from the day it was signed for a form filled in without a booking, while your account is open. If you ever leave, our terms give you 30 days after your account ends to export your data, so keep your own copy for as long as your insurer asks.

How do you do it from your phone?

Paper record cards work, but they go missing, they need locking away and the client fills them in once they’re already at your desk. Covered Beauty gives you three ways to have it done before you start:

• With their booking. Link the form to your nail treatments and it goes out with the confirmation, with a reminder 48 hours before if it isn’t done.
• A private link. Email it, or copy it into WhatsApp or a text. It works for 14 days and only for that client.
• On your phone or tablet. Set a kiosk PIN, then use Hand to client. It shows only their forms until someone from your team enters the PIN.

Whichever way, the signed form lands on the client’s record, ready to print or download as a PDF. See how online consultation forms work.

Try the ready-made nail form free for a week, with no card needed. Forms are on both plans, from £9 a month. For deposits, infills and bringing regulars back, read booking software for nail technicians.

Sources

Each page was read on 22 October 2026. Our own form questions are quoted as Covered Beauty’s ready-made forms ask them on the day this guide was published.

• BABTAC Good Practice Guide 2016 (PDF)
• British Association of Dermatologists: warning about artificial nail allergy (2018)
• National Occupational Standard SKABN3: Provide UV cured nail product services