Yes, and for an esthetician the supplies line adds up faster than almost any other write-off. Everything you consume delivering services is deductible. The two distinctions worth learning: supplies you use versus product you resell, and business product versus the things you use on yourself.
Wax, lash trays, and backbar product are supplies
Consumables used in your services are classic deductible supplies: wax and strips, skincare and facial product used on clients, lash trays and adhesive, disposables like gloves, spatulas, sheets, and applicators, sanitation and disinfection product, towels and linens, and the small tools that wear out and get replaced. So are the recurring costs around them, like laundering towels and restocking your backbar.
Durable tools and equipment count too, though bigger items live in a different category than consumables. A facial steamer, mag lamp, wax warmer, or treatment bed is equipment; most such purchases can still be expensed in the year you buy them when each item costs $2,500 or less under the de minimis safe harbor, so keep invoices itemized per piece. Licenses, liability insurance, and booth or suite rent are deductible as well, on their own lines.
Line 22 supplies versus resale inventory
On Schedule C, consumable supplies used in services go on Line 22. Product you buy to resell to clients, retail skincare, aftercare kits, serums you mark up, is different: it is a cost of goods sold, matched against the retail sales it produces. Small businesses have simplified options for handling inventory, but the principle holds: the wax you use on a client is a supply when you buy it, while the serum sitting on your retail shelf becomes a deduction as it sells.
Why care about the split? Because mixing them distorts both numbers. Deducting a large retail order as supplies overstates expenses in a stocking-up year and understates them later, and returns that show big supply costs against little service revenue draw questions. Separating a backbar order from a retail order at purchase time, even just by tagging the receipt, keeps the books truthful. Remember retail sales themselves are taxable business income, and most states also expect you to collect sales tax on them, which is a registration issue separate from your income tax return.
Products you use on yourself do not count
The line the IRS holds is personal versus business. Product used on clients is deductible; product used on you is not, even though looking the part is real marketing pressure in this industry. Your own skincare routine, makeup you wear to work, and treatments you receive are personal expenses. When one order mixes both, deduct only the business share and note how you split it.
Keep it defensible with boring habits: buy backbar and business supplies from a business account, keep supplier invoices, and store personal purchases on a separate order or receipt. An esthetician whose books show clean, dated supplier invoices behind every supply deduction has nothing to fear from the question; one whose supply line is reconstructed from memory in April is donating deductions or inviting scrutiny, usually both.