We chat to Lyndall Mitchell, the founder of Aurora Spas, about her story and journey behind creating the ‘Best Luxury Day Spa’ according to the 2013 World Luxury Spa Awards.
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With sheer determination and a passion for her brand, Lyndall leads the way in the spa industry with her focus on client experiences and punching beyond expectations.
How did you start in the beauty and spa industry?
I grew up on an idyllic 60 hectare fruit farm in Queensland that was just a couple of doors down from a health retreat. I worked there part time through secondary school and then for five years after finishing school. Both home and work were incredible environments filled with healthy and happy people, I was intrigued by this.
In 1997 I opened Aurora Spa Retreat; I wanted to create an accessible urban retreat where clients could take time to truly relax and unwind. Over the past 15 years Aurora has evolved in many ways. We are now in two locations – Melbourne and the Gold Coast, and we have the Aurora Spa Rituals range which has been developed over the life of Aurora.
Aurora’s first home is above the stylish Prince Hotel in Melbourne. This year we opened our second spa at the beautiful Palazzo Versace in Main Beach at the northern tip of the Gold Coast.
Why did you decide to call it Aurora?
When I was out walking along a gorgeous leafy street one day with my husband, I was telling him about my vision to create an urban spa. At this point I looked up through the trees to a beautiful old mansion called Aurora. The name really resonated with me. I went home to see what the meaning of Aurora was. One of the meanings was “fully charged energy”. This was perfect as my vision was for all our clients to leave feeling relaxed, revitalised and recharged.
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What is Aurora’s point of difference?
From the moment you step into Aurora you begin to experience a retreat environment unlike any other. Your stress begins to melt away in the luxurious relaxation lounges. In the treatment room, by using spa strength, botanically active products and the most effective treatment techniques, the focus is on achieving maximum results. Whether that is to detox, relax or collect your thoughts for a few hours. Our treatments are designed to allow you to escape for a while, melt your stress away and leave you feeling refreshed and ready to take on the outside world!
We have created spaces that help clients to relax and unwind. We like to use colours and textures inspired by nature as we believe this helps clients to relax. Our décor is simple, luxurious and uncluttered.
What is Aurora’s philosophy? How does your lifestyle or your philosophy reflect through your spa?
At the heart of everything we do is a focus on natural beauty and wellness. Achieving the best results for our clients and providing a space where they can relax and unwind is what motivates the Aurora team. This is reflected in everything we do – from the environment of Aurora, to the ingredients used in our products, to the way our staff interact with clients through every moment of their experience with us.
Spa and wellness is an extension of the healthy living philosophy that forms the foundation of my life. I have a beautiful family, two daughters, and we live in an urban environment that we have evolved to be our urban farm. We have organic vegetable gardens that we harvest most of our vegetables from.
We live close to the beach so we love the weekends where we can walk everywhere. Having a healthy lifestyle has many elements; exercise is a part of it that I really enjoy. I love running along the beach, doing yoga and meditating, as well as having a massage and taking time out. For me it’s all about cultivating the mindfulness and gratitude to cherish every moment, I think that’s a great starting place to cultivating long lasting, happy, lives.
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You have your own line of spa products, what inspired you to develop them?
When I started Aurora 15 years ago I was hand mixing my own products as I wanted to create the best results for our clients. These spa strength, botanically active products were then further tried and tested throughout Aurora and we worked with specialists in the product field to bring our products to the retail market. The Aurora Spa Rituals range is stocked across all the Mecca Cosmetica stores. Mecca is a great partnership for us. The Mecca team are incredibly passionate about Aurora Spa Rituals and they work hard to educate their clients on all the Aurora Spa Rituals benefits and spa tips.
How important is it to have a presence online now?
Online is a very important part of our business, one that is growing day by day. We want to be able to provide the convenience that I think a lot more clients are looking for when they shop online.
We currently use Facebook and Pinterest. Social media is a great way for us to connect with our clients, hear their experiences and give them tips on how to get the best out of our products and create a spa experience at home.
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Where do you predict it going in the next five years?
I think the market will continue to grow and welcome the younger spa market. I think younger women are becoming more aware of the benefits of spa and quality spa products and this will grow the market along with the number of spas.
Any future plans you would like to share with us regarding Aurora or the spa range?
We will continue to expand our spa destinations in quality 5 star locations which compliment The Prince and Palazzo Versace. We also have new products launching in 2013 which are divine. All in all a very exciting 2013 ahead of us at Aurora!
For more information visit www.auroraspas.com.au or call (03) 9536 1130.