5.1 Standard (Universal) Precautions

Standard Precautions (CDC language since 1996) and the older Universal Precautions label are taught together on the NIC National Esthetics Theory Examination as Scientific Concepts I.C. Illinois candidates must also map those national precautions onto 68 Ill. Adm. Code 1175.115 and 77 Ill. Adm. Code 690. The operational rule is simple: treat all blood and body fluids as potentially infectious, on every client, without waiting for a disclosed diagnosis of hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). You do not get a “this client looks healthy” exception.

Why “all blood” is the exam answer

Bloodborne pathogens do not announce themselves on an intake form. A client may not know their status, may decline to disclose it, or may carry a pathogen that is not the one you were thinking about. Standard (Universal) Precautions exist so your hand hygiene, personal protective equipment (PPE), sharps handling, draping, and product-dispensing habits stay the same whether the next face is a first-time student-clinic client or a long-term regular.

Illinois adds a second layer that national textbooks sometimes skip. No licensee shall be required or permitted to massage any surface of the skin or scalp where the skin is inflamed or where a skin infection or eruption is present (1175.115). Separately, no licensee shall be required or permitted to work upon a person suffering from a serious communicable disease as defined in 77 Ill. Adm. Code 690, and no owner or manager shall knowingly permit a person with such a disease to work on the premises. Precautions are for the unexpected nick. They are not permission to work on known inflamed, infected, erupting, or communicable-disease skin and “just glove up.”

If a closed lesion opens during a facial, you stop. That moment becomes a blood-exposure event (Section 5.2), not a reason to keep extracting “around it.”

Hand hygiene

Illinois is explicit: licensees shall observe thorough hand washing with soap and water or any equally effective cleansing solution or waterless hand sanitizer before and after serving each client (1175.115(b)(14)). Both moments count.

When soap and water beat sanitizer

On the NIC side, add the moments textbooks always list:

• After restroom use
• After coughing, sneezing, or touching your own face
• After removing gloves
• After handling soiled linens, implements, or waste
• Before handling clean tools or dispensing product
• After any blood or body-fluid contact

Soap and water are required when hands are visibly soiled or after a blood exposure. Waterless sanitizer is an allowed Illinois equivalent for routine before-and-after client washing when hands are not soiled; it is not a substitute for washing after blood, after bathroom use, or when product residue is visible. Jewelry that traps soil under a ring, long nails that tear gloves, and “I already gloved so I skipped the sink” are all exam traps.

PPE: gloves, eyes, and when the task changes the kit

PPE is selected for the task, not for the salon’s uniform. The Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for a chemical and the blood-risk of a procedure both drive the choice.

Gloves, splash goggles, and one pair per client

Gloves go on after hand hygiene and come off before you touch charts, phones, product lids, or clean-tool drawers. One pair per client, at minimum. If you leave the room, the gloves are contaminated. If they tear during extractions, they are discarded and replaced after you wash. Never wash and reuse disposable gloves.

Eye protection is the chemical-splash partner of gloves. A peel, a concentrated disinfectant, or a splash from a mixing bowl does not respect “I was being careful.” The OSHA Hazard Communication Standard (Section 5.3) expects you to read the SDS before you pour, not after the burn.

Sharps: lancets, blades, and Illinois dermaplaning

A sharp is any item that can puncture skin: lancets, dermaplaning blades, razors, and similar implements. Illinois dermaplaning is in scope only as a cosmetic service on the surface of the skin — the stratum corneum. Public Act 104-0134 confirmed that placement. The blade is still a single-use sharp. It is not a multi-use knife you wipe with disinfectant. After use — and immediately after a nick — it goes into a puncture-resistant sharps container, never into a regular trash bag, never into a towel, and never recapped by a two-handed scoop.

Microneedling, medical-depth blades, and any technique intended to affect living layers of the skin remain out of scope under IDFPR’s Statement on Prohibited Practices (04/06/2026) and 225 ILCS 410/3A-1. A dermaplaning blade used to shave the stratum corneum is not a license to scrape until you see pinpoint bleeding on purpose. Pinpoint bleeding means you have gone too far and you have a blood-exposure problem.

Client draping as protection (NIC II.A.1)

NIC Skin Care and Services lists draping among client-preparation skills (II.A.1). Draping is infection control, not only comfort. A clean drape:

• Protects the client’s clothing and uninvolved skin from product, wax, and splash
• Creates a barrier between the client and the facial chair
• Limits how far a chemical or a blood spot can travel
• Signals that linens are per-client, not all-day

Illinois 1175.115 requires clean or disposable esthetics sheets, gowns, and head coverings kept in a closed or covered space and used for each client, a disposable headrest cover or clean washable towel changed after each use, and soiled towels into a covered container. Draping with yesterday’s sheet, or tucking a soiled towel under the next client’s neck, fails both NIC preparation and Illinois sanitation.

Do not double-dip — product is a vehicle

1175.115(b)(9) requires creams, cosmetics, astringents, lotions, removers, waxes, moisturizers, masks, and oils to be dispensed from containers to prevent contamination of the unused portion. Any product that becomes contaminated shall be discarded after use on that particular client. Double-dipping a spatula, dipping gloved fingers into a bulk jar, or pouring unused product back is how bacteria, fungi, and blood-tinged serum seed the next face. Standard Precautions include the product, not only the hands.

Single-use items that contacted the client — cotton, gauze, wooden applicators, tissues — are disposed of after each use. If they contacted blood, they are waste in a lined, covered container, not items you “disinfect for later.”

Putting the room in order before the first touch

A precautions-compliant start looks like this:

1. Wash hands.
2. Disinfect the facial chair with a hospital-grade EPA-registered disinfectant (before and after the client, 1175.115(b)(7)).
3. Place a fresh drape, headrest cover, and tools from the clean-only drawer.
4. Review intake: inflamed, infected, erupting, or serious communicable-disease findings mean refuse and refer, not “I have gloves.”
5. Dispense product into a clean dish; never work from the bulk container on the skin.
6. Glove when the service can break skin or splash chemical.
7. If a lesion opens, stop and follow blood-exposure procedure.

Standard (Universal) Precautions are a habit, not a reaction. The Illinois exam will pair that habit with the refuse-service rules. Gloves do not legalize a facial on a weeping cold sore, and a current SDS does not legalize a living-layer peel.