2750 Shirley

Hi,
I am going work in Italy as a Beauty Therapist and would like know if I need a licence to work in my own salon. I am at present licenced to work in London, UK with the Westminster Council. Would this be sufficient for Italy?

Would I require a licence to operate a small salon from our prospective home in the Lucca area?

Would I also be able to retail cosmetics at the above establishment?

If anyone could help with these enquiries I would be very gratefull.

Thanks, Shirley:confused:

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Introduce Yourself - Piacere Conoscerti

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 02/27/2006 - 16:27

Hi Shirley
Yes you will need to show the Italians your qualifications and have permission to work as a beauty therapist. Some people we know had to jump through loads of hoops even though she had an 'international' qualification it didn't seem to count here. However every region is different...even every commune... It might be worth checking up with the Italian Embassy in London. You could probably retail on the sly....??? if it was just to your customers??!!:rolleyes:

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/28/2006 - 05:41

i am not a specialist in this field but suggest if you are a ember of a proffesional body you check with them... there are eu rules regarding the fact that qualifications in one member country are transferable to another... its a difficult process depending i guess on your profession and the local competition...

all stores here require different licences to sell different products and i would think selling cosmetics from what i have seen is much more difficult here... there will be very strict guidlines on what you can sell and if it is licensed as a product here... this is generally not for any altruistic reason but a way of protecting the italian market and the producers within.... you will most probably find also that prices are set and are not discountable...

i guess what i am saying is it will be difficult and providing you are in no hurry perseverance and the support of your uk proffesional body might well eventually pay off

the previous post i would say is correct, although i do not agree with the last line, if you are in the process of applying to do things legally and are found to be jumping the gun so to speak you will stand virtually no chance of getting registered

the other thing which apart from managing to get your qualification recognised is registering with the chamber of commerce, having your premises checked for hygiene. and if new there will also be rules on disabled access and toilet facilities. have you thought of or is it practical to do visits at others homes.

finally there are lots of beauty therapists, all seem to be very busy, again if you get the qualification recognised it might very well be easier to start off working for one of them, learn the italian ropes and then set up on your own

then befor you even start work find an accountant as you will need to register for IVA(VAT) , it starts from the word go here for independant workers