Legal Question in Health Care Law in California

What you are doing is technically illegal without a cosmetology license. The chances of you getting in legal trouble just for doing family and friends, however, is very very small. If you are doing more than painting nails though, such as trimming nails or cuticles, etc., i.e. giving a full mani or pedi, you need to be super careful about hygiene. A lot of the reason for the cosmetology license requirement is to make sure people are trained on the risks of skin diseases being transmitted during the manicure and pedicure process. It is very rare but sometimes even life threatening diseases can be transmitted that way, particularly antibiotic resistant skin infections. So I would personally advise my teenager not to do any nail work other than painting, until they take the classes for and get the cosmetology license and have all the proper equipment or work for a shop.