At Earthly Delights Day Spa in Madison, Miss., guests are welcome to relax and find their inner child through massage, energy work, soothing nail services, and other specialty body treatments. In keeping with the spa’s butterfly logo, owner Tami Rose says Earthly Delights strives to impart to clients the safe feeling of being cocooned and then emerging to become your most beautiful self. From planning the decor to executing important business choices, “the logo shapes every decision I make,” says Rose.

The spa was born after Hurricane Katrina damaged much of the coastal regions of Louisiana and Mississippi. Rose’s home in Jackson, Miss., was severely damaged when an oak tree fell through the roof. With so many homes destroyed by the hurricane, it was nearly impossible to get a contractor to work on the roof, which was allowing rain to pour down on the living room. “I fixed my home with my own two hands,” Rose says. The work eventually increased the value of the house so much that she was able to leverage it to build Earthly Delights Day Spa.

FINDING A PLACE TO CALL HOME Madison is located just north of Mississippi’s capital of Jackson, and is well known for its quality of life. Since opening in January 2007, Earthly Delights has been housed in the town’s new shopping center, Colony Crossing at Madison, which neighbors a Kroger grocery, the Hilton Garden hotel, and a variety of restaurants. “There are also a lot of women-centered businesses around us, including dress shops, a gift shop, and a shoe store,” Rose says.

Promoting peace and relaxation, especially in a busy area, is something Earthly Delights focuses on strongly. Rose adds small touches to make the spa feel more homey and inviting, including placing a handmade quilt on the wall in order to insulate the spa from the neighbors. A large portion of the spa’s 40 to 50 weekly clients come from the mall’s foot traffic.

The 1,500-square-foot day spa is decorated with antebellum antiques to represent “a simpler time.” There are antique armoires to hold laundry as well as a pair of mantlepieces from a house in Vicksburg that was built in 1848. Another relaxing feature of the spa’s decor are the 2’ x 4’ lights that have pictures of the sky, as if clients are looking up through their backyard trees at the Mississippi sky. The trees help clients relax, and sometimes they drift into sleep before the start of the treatments, says Rose. “We lost so much history on the coast that can never be replaced,” she explains. “I wanted to embrace that sense of nostalgia we sometimes wallow in here in the South and really take people back to a simpler time.”

EARTHLY COMFORT For the first six months of operations, nail services were not on the spa menu, which focused on skin care and massage. But after a while, “clients demanded nail services,” says Rose. Nail care now makes up about a third of the business.

Manicures start at $25 and pedicures at $50. Since Earthly Delights offers a la carte items with the treatments, pedicures can total as much as $200. Pedicures generally include 20 minutes of massage. Flavored foot treatments use different combinations of ingredients such as lavender, eucalyptus, spearmint, cranberry, and any chocolate combination imaginable, to awaken all of the client’s senses.

The most popular nail service is the Jelly Bath Pedicure, where the technician uses a product that turns the pedicure water into a jelly-like substance. Customers say the jelly, which keeps the water warmer longer, makes their feet feel like they’re moving through warm sand. “Clients feel like they are children again, playing in the sand,” Rose says. Gel nails are also a popular service.

There are five treatment rooms at Earthly Delights, one of which is specifically for couple’s treatments. The side-by-side pedicure stations are very popular for those who want to indulge in private treatments.

“It’s always a pleasure to serve a couple because most men are true hedonists at heart,” says Rose. “And once they realize how good spa services feel, they become very loyal.” In fact, about 40% of Earthly Delights’ clients are male guests.

Rose’s background in the healing arts — she’s a Reiki master — has inspired many spa treatments. She says she can tell a person’s entire medical history from his/her feet.

SUPPORTING A PROFESSIONAL STAFF Though Rose admits it is sometimes challenging to run a spa and recruit good people, her staff continues to help her every day. She views her staff as professionals rather than employees. “I told them it wasn’t just about the spa’s success, but their success as individuals,” she explains. “It made all the difference.”

Most of the spa’s customers hear about Earthly Delights by word-of-mouth, and the staff helps pass the message along. A blog on the salon’s website keeps clients up-to-date with Earthly Delights news. Some staff members also post messages and spa deals on their MySpace pages to generate more attention.

For now, Rose says she is focusing on making the spa be the best it can be. “Our catch phrase is ‘Earthly Delights: Your One Day Getaway,’ and people take us up on it all the time."

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