Healing scents

By Yun Suh-young

The British handmade cosmetics brand Lush is well known for their cute, bubble bath and body products that are more than just eye-candy. What is not well known is that they also run a spa.

The Lush Spa in Itaewon’s Gyeongridan-gil, which opened in January, is the largest spa store in the world run by the brand.

An interesting aspect about Lush Spa is that it uses scent as a holistic concept, as an experience to take home.

Its signature therapy, “Synaesthesia,” matches “scent” with feelings or values and customizes the massage therapy accordingly.

When you walk into the spa floor, you are met with a wall plastered with a blackboard full of words written in white chalk. These are the eleven words ― ambition, humor, confidence, relax, energized, enlightened, perspective, uninhibited, esteem, mind cleanser, peace ― customers choose from to select the type of therapy they want.

Essential oil bottles

Lined up below the blackboard is an array of colorful bottles with similar words written on them. There are 23 essential oil bottles with words written with on them such as detachment, laugh, zest, calm, muscle, good, acceptance, free, and focus to name a few.

The words on the bottles, however, do not overlap with the words on the blackboard.

What customers are asked to do is pick two words ― one from the board, one from the bottle ― to receive customized therapy.

Therapists will then mix the two aromas that match with the words and set the mood and tone of the therapy room to fit the word that the customer chose.

“According to the words customers choose, the massage technique or order changes as well as the color and scent of the rooms,” said Yoon Sol, a therapist at Lush Spa.

“The Kitchen,” the main area of Lush Spa

When customers pick the words, however, they can’t smell the scent in advance and thus don’t know what kind of scent they’ll encounter until they receive the therapy.

“Customers will choose a word that their heart tells them to. It can be a word that they feel that they need or pursue. Although they can’t smell the scent in advance, they won’t feel resistance to the aroma because it was what they chose and felt they needed,” said Yoon.

When the therapy is over, the therapist offers a tea that matches with the word the customer chose. There are 11 teas for the 11 words in the larger category.

“We hope the customers can bring home the experience that they have chosen through the words,” she said.

Lush Spa is a collaborative product of psychotherapists, aroma therapists, music, and product developers. Each treatment offers different music and atmosphere that the team came up with. The words on the board and the bottles contain values or lifestyle that the therapists thought modern day people needed. Through the treatment, the therapeutic team hoped that customers could awaken all of their senses and enjoy the experience.

Using Swedish massage as the basic method, the 80-minute Synaesthesia therapy offers a peculiar yet fantastical experience that makes you feel as if you’ve entered into and out of a different world.

Including Synaesthesia, there are a total of eight therapy programs offered at Lush Spa. All of the products and programs at the spa are globally standardized. There are two spa stores in Korea ― the other is in Apgujeong.

Address: Hoenamu-ro 42-gil 10, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Phone number: 02-790-7561

Opening hours: 10 a.m. – 10 p.m.