Spa Guide: Multi-sensory Experiences at Nimbus Co Bondi

Nimbus Co Bondi – Australia’s original infrared sauna studio has gone through a full studio renewal – complete with bespoke multisensory experiences for a cellular-level sense of calm and relaxation.

“Release, balance, restore – that’s what we’ve always aimed to do, and with all of the change we’ve gone through over the past few years, we felt like this space deserved a rebirth,” says Neil O’Sullivan, co-founder of the multi-format wellness brand Nimbus Co. We’re sitting in the cavernous, sand-toned reception space of Nimbus Co’s Bondi studio – the building from which the brand was born back in 2016. 

As with all four of Nimbus Co studios, the recently refurbished space – designed in collaboration with Interior Design studio We Are Tribe – has been curated to reflect the aesthetic of the area, whilst maintaining the brand’s signature sense of calm. The feeling that overwhelms you as you step into and out of the studio is something the team refer to as “the Nimbus effect” – an intangible, deep sense of peace that seems to permeate your cells, and mute any worries that might have been muddying your mind. “The Nimbus effect” is one of the main reasons that Nimbus Co’s community keeps coming back, and it’s something that O’Sullivan and Nimbus Co co-founder Su Tuttle (also O’Sullivan’s life partner) wanted to amplify with the rebirth of the Bondi studio.

“One of the top three things our clients cite as reasons for visiting us – along with relaxation and getting a good sweat on – is that feeling you get from the moment you step into the studio to the one when you leave – vis-a-vis the Nimbus effect. We wanted to really drill down on the connection we all have with the senses, so that everything you touch, see, hear and smell while you’re here is carefully curated in order to really add to the overall effect,” O’Sullivan explains.

The renewed Bondi studio is the latest evolution of the brand: a further embodiment of their ethos to help people across Australia – and ultimately the world – put their health in their own hands. “Welcome your wellness” has been the Nimbus Co calling card since their inception, and though the brand started as an infrared sauna studio, they have since evolved into so much more. Alongside the four studios dotted across Australia’s east coast, Nimbus has also recently launched a line of complementary wellness products and an online platform housing practitioner insights, Nimbus Wellness.

“We want to create a circular economy of wellness so the Nimbus effect is accessible to the community no matter where they are in the world; whether it’s near a studio, on the go grabbing a product, connecting through an app or having our sauna machine in their own home. The studios might be the gateway, the tangible experience, but we also want to connect people to more information and opportunities to transform their wellness no matter what that journey looks like. We launched our eCommerce and digital content platform to give people access to knowledge from our own network of amazing practitioners – and you’ll find advice on there on everything from improving your fertility to what to eat for a winter detox to how to have better sex,” O’Sullivan explains. The brand now also boasts its own signature product range, the brainchild of O’Sullivan’s cofounder, Suzanne Tuttle, a qualified nutritionist in her own right, who as Creative Director, leads all product development. They’ve launched their own natural face oil and hydration supplement ‘Cloud Form’, to support post sauna wellness and rehydration, and the brand’s own sauna machine and sauna blanket are slated to launch over the next few weeks. 

Along with a full interior refit, the rebirth of the Bondi Studio has included the launch of Nimbus Co’s new soundscape series – designed to augment the wellness benefits of the infrared sauna and ice bath elements offered in the studio.  The 45 minute soundscapes have been curated in conjunction with artist Matthew Lesser into three categories: “Nurture Your Nature” (an ambient audio celebration of the tempo of the earth’s axis and how its tempo and frequency is attributed to the promotion of relaxation, stress reduction and mental flow states, “Womb Space” (which has been designed to mimic the frequency and hertz of a woman’s resting heartbeat – 70 to 74 bpm- with accompanying “flowing” sounds whose high-frequencies represent the blood flowing through the body) and “Connect To Country” (a soundscape that O’Sullivan describes as an ode to the beckoning vastness of the Australian outback and the silence it commands).

As with all Nimbus studios, the Bondi space also plays host to a team of highly qualified multi-disciplinary practitioners, and budding entrepreneurs, with many guests choosing to book a massage via The Calmm prior to their sauna session for maximum benefit.

“We’ve had practitioners in-house since we opened back in 2016, to us it makes sense because saunas and massage go hand-in-hand as a way to deepen the detoxification process. We also think it’s so important for people to get the opportunity to talk with experts about how they can improve their overall well-being – we’re not trying to be the answer to every health problem, but we want to be a first step or space towards better well being for everyone that sets foot in the studio, and even people who don’t,” says O’Sullivan.

You can book a session at Nimbus Bondi via nimbusco.com.au, and you can follow Nimbus on Instagram @thenimbusco. The Nimbus Co soundscapes can be found via the Nimbus Co Spotify, and you can shop Nimbus products via nimbus-wellness.com.