1.
SUSTAINABILITY IS
NECESSARY
Sustainability has permeated every facet of
the spa industry, from the way ISPA
members operate their spas, to the
products they use, to their charitable
endeavors. According to the many ISPA
members Pulse talked to, this trend will
only continue to grow. Samantha Cooper,
spa director at Canyon Ranch Lenox, is
one of those members: “I believe that we
will continue to see guests and staff alike
who want to take care of themselves
holistically…we will continue to crave
clean products.”
“Clean” is a term that’s being used
more and more in the spa and beauty
industry to describe products that move
beyond simpler labels like “organic” or
“natural.” With so many product makers
attempting to cash in on the rising tide of
the clean beauty takeover, it pays to be
wary and do research before committing
to a product. Kate Morrison, spa director
at Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, notes that
today’s spa goer is better educated and
will likely notice if a spa’s products aren’t
as clean as they claim to be. A good
starting point for clean beauty products:
stay away “from ingredients you can’t
easily pronounce,” says Ashley Prange,
Founder of Au Naturale Cosmetics.
Mary Bemis, the founder and editorial
director of Insider’s Guide to Spas, has
noticed this trend in her own proprietary
research and sees it moving even deeper
towards, as she terms it, “regeneration.”
“It’s happening within resorts and within
beauty products, and spas are bringing
out their own clean and green lines,” says
Bemis, who also sees the growing
sustainable beauty trend as empowering
small, boutique product makers. “Spas are
looking to be unique…and the natural
trend is one of the reasons that indie
brands are growing.”
2.
DISCONNECT, DETOX,
RECONNECT
It seems as though the more advanced
technology becomes, the more people
seek out ways to escape it. The
movement towards purposeful use of
technology, mindfulness and digital detox
has been a growing spa trend for several
years, but it looks primed to become a
major theme of 2019. For more on the
role digital detox played in 2018, flip back
to page 36 in this issue of Pulse.
“More and more spaces are being
created within spas for quiet,” says Bemis.
While this trend is most visible as it
relates to digital detox, the general idea
of disconnecting from modern life and
reconnecting with the natural world has
(CONTINUED ON PAgE 46)
“Indie [product] brands are targeting
better; they’re not trying to flood the
market, and that works because spas
are looking to be unique.”
— MARY BEMIS, Founder & Editorial Director, Insider’s Guide to Spas
PRODUCT TRENDS OF 2019
CBD-oil-based products, already a growing force
in 2018, seem likely to come into their own in
2019 alongside growing acceptance of hemp and
cannabis. CBD products are providing so popular
at Ojai Valley Inn & Spa that Morrison is having
difficulty “keeping the retail on the shelf.”
Shaw Cote at Four Seasons Lana’i sees jewelry
and apparel as product categories to watch for
2019. Indeed, in a May 2018 ISPA Snapshot
Survey, 49 percent of respondents saw an
increase in year-over-year sales of jewelry, one of
the largest numbers in the survey. It’s likely to
continue increasing next year.
December 2018
■
PULSE
45