If you’ve never been to a Skin Games event, here’s the honest version of what to expect: no gatekeeping, no separate line for “real” competitors, and no requirement that you’ve ever set foot on our stage before to belong in the room. Whether you’re walking in with a Student ticket to watch and learn, or building toward your first entry, this is what your first season actually looks like.
What every ticket gets you
However you come in, you’re not on the outside. Every ticket tier, Student, General, and Premiere, includes access to demo day, the full vendor fair, our panel speaker sessions, and the Spa Tank. That’s not a stripped-down “attendee” experience versus a “real” competitor one. It’s the same floor, the same education, the same room.
Where the tiers actually differ is in the extras. Student tickets are $99 and get you everything above. General runs $297. Premiere, at $499, adds the awards dinner and show, a swag bag valued at $500-plus, breakfast and coffee service. If you’re coming with someone (a business partner, an employee, a friend who just wants to see what you’ve been talking about all year), the Plus-One add-on is $399.
Early-bird pricing on all of this is live right now, with September 9 to 11, 2027, in Dallas as the date to build toward.
If you’re thinking about competing, not just attending
Here’s what nobody tells first-timers clearly enough: entering doesn’t require you to already be popular. It requires a case study.
Entry is $195 per category, and there are seven competition paths and twenty-plus categories to choose from, so you’re not forced into one lane. For the skincare categories specifically, that means an eight-week client case study: documented results, before-and-after photos, eight videos across the treatment window, and written documentation of your process. It’s real work, and it’s exactly the kind of work you’re probably already doing for your clients. The difference is that this time, you document it, and forty-plus credentialed judges see it.
You don’t need a title behind your name to enter. You need a client, eight weeks, and a willingness to write down what you already know how to do.
You don’t have to wait until September 2027 to start
If Dallas feels far off, it doesn’t have to be the first place you show up. The TSG Club is opening this fall, a free community for estheticians open to everyone, whether you’ve competed with us before or never entered at all. Past players and judges get in first starting in September; the public doors open in October or November. It’s a low-pressure way to start meeting the people you’ll eventually stand next to on the vendor floor, months before you ever book a flight.
The room is bigger than you think
Twenty-plus categories means the person next to you on the vendor floor might be a waxer, a sugarist, a lash artist, or someone competing in Compassion for the nonprofit work they do outside the treatment room entirely. “The Olympics of the skincare industry” doesn’t mean one narrow lane. It means this is where the whole profession shows up, and there’s a place in it for wherever you actually specialize.
Your first Skin Games doesn’t have to be your biggest one. It just has to be your first.
Lock in your early-bird ticket → · See what it takes to enter → · Register to compete →