Serenity and lovely scents at new spa

SHARON — Esthetician Kiera Ryan has opened Mountain Laurel Spa on Main Street in Sharon, with a soothing  environment that murmurs, “You’ve  left the city; you’re safely in the country now.”

The waiting room is a cool dove gray, the treatment room is cocoa hued, and the candlelit air is imbued with a rich, thick scent of lavender.

A resident of Stanfordville, N.Y., Ryan has lined her walls with photos of herself and her horse (she rides in Millbrook). On the shelves sit rows of blue glass bottles, not unlike what you might find at a country general store — although in fact those bottles contain a skin care line called Farmaesthetics. Made in Portsmouth, R.I., they are crafted purely from organic elements found in flowers, vegetables, herbs and essential oils. 

The creams, cleansers, and masks have been favorably featured in Town & Country and Harper’s Bazaar magazines. Farmaesthetics’s herbal skincare is what Mountain Laurel Spa uses exclusively for facial treatments, avoiding any chemicals with parabens or artificial fillers. 

At an open house at the new spa on Saturday, Sept. 17, it was Ryan’s mother Tammy, sanguine and sociable, the active and outgoing yang to her daughter’s quiet yin, who led guests on the tour. 

Ryan’s taciturn quality, her mother explained, makes her suited for such sensitive work. 

“She’s calming. She’s so skilled, and has such a good touch. She’s the kind of person you want treating you. No one wants someone hyper massaging them,” she said. 

As the daughter of a dairy farmer, Farmaesthetics appealed to her as well. 

“We wanted something that was local and natural. We went to Rhode Island and the girl who makes it taught us so much. It ended up just being ideal for the experience we wanted to create.”

The current menu at Mountain Laurel Spa features four different facials: Autumn’s Calming Chamomile Facial for restoring elasticity and brightening the skin; Winter Orange and Sweet Calendula Corrective Facial,  deep moisturizing that is described as “food for the face; Classical Rose Perfecting Facial, which uses grains for microdermabrasion, a procedure that polishes away dry, dead skin cells to promote fresh growth, and treats sun damage and black heads; and Sweet Milk and Lavender Buds, the most popular facial so far, a universal deep cleanse and brightening treatment. 

Full body scrubs and facial waxing are available, and a free-standing facial steamer by the treatment bed is used for clearing pores. The nourishing lavender milk is used for a complimentary hand treatment with every facial — which explains the soothing but distinctive fragrance of lavender that lingers. It may eventually become Ryan’s most potent form of advertising and a subtle signature. The hypothetical question between friends, after all, is so often, “Why do your hands smell so good?”