Beloved New York-based Kiehl’s Since 1851 has officially opened the doors to its first full-service spa – Spa 1851 – just in time for its 160th birthday. Fans of this skin-care line will now be able to enjoy treatments performed exclusively with Kiehl’s products in a two-story, 3,000-square-foot site in New York’s Upper East Side.
"Hard-core Kiehl's users can come to where their facials and massages use their favorite products," says Chris Salgardo, president of Kiehl’s USA, according to the NY Daily News.
A conventional Kiehl’s store is located on the ground floor, while the spa occupies the second floor. And the interior of the spa is far from boring – it’s decorated with antique touches from the Kiehl’s archives, such as beakers, vintage books, mortars and pestles. Inspired by the company’s original store at 13th St. and Third Ave., the spa is complete with reclaimed hardwood floors and a tin ceiling. Also, a skeleton named Mr. Bones is used as an unofficial mascot and spends its time in the retail store downstairs.
"I didn't want the place to feel cold or too zen-like, like other spas where it's all white, it's not comfortable," Salgardo says, according to The NY Daily News. “Every time I come in here, I get the chills. This is exactly what Kiehl would have envisioned this spa as looking like. The whimsy, the fun — but still keeping the traditions of an apothecary."
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Spa services include massages, facials and a barbershop, and there are three full-treatment rooms – two with showers – and two male grooming stations. Also, staying true to its apothecary history, each spa session begins with a personal consultation, which then leads into highly-customized treatments.
Five masseuses and estheticians, or “technicians,” work full time, along with master barber Mark Sinnis and professional groomer Soul Lee, who specializes in eyebrows.
"I just feel so honored to work here, it's like a dream," says DJ Morales, 33, both an esthetician and a masseuse, according to the NY Daily News. "I'm so excited to treat the new clients and really specialize a regimen for them."
