A limited-edition quarterly broadsheet from Insider’s Guide to Spas, devoted to the fundamentals of spa and its enduring lineage.
I have been quietly working on a new print project that is near and dear to me—something unhurried. Something tactile. Something that lives outside the scroll.
In an industry increasingly shaped by speed, scale, and spectacle, Hush: The Spa Culture Companion is our counterpoint—a small, intentional publication devoted to the inner life of spa culture: its rituals, its lineage, its makers, and its enduring bond with water and the practices of care that define the spa tradition.
The inaugural issue quietly debuted on February 1st at Premiere Spa & Wellness Talks during Premiere Beauty Anaheim, where it met its first readers.
Hush is not a trend report, nor catalog, nor marketing in disguise. It is not optimized by or for algorithms.
It is a new form of the classic broadsheet—designed to be unfolded, carried, and revisited. A place for thoughtful essays, quiet observations, and stories that don’t require urgency to matter. A reflective space for conversations lost on banners, feeds, or soundbites. A printed space for the quieter truths of this work we share.
Hush was born from a simple impulse: to create something tactile and enduring in an increasingly weightless world—something you can unfold, linger with, return to. A love letter to the deeper rhythms of spa.
We designed Hush to be slow reading. To be folded into a bag, left on a bedside table, slipped into a coat pocket for a flight.
In some ways, this project brings me back to where I began—publishing independent poetry reviews many years before spa journalism became my life’s work. In high school, I resurrected Detour, our long-lost literary review, and in college, I brought back Green Mountains Review, which continues to be well-regarded. Then I co-founded my own literary review called Avenue that went on to win awards.Those early publications gave me real-world experience of how words and time matter.
Hush carries something of that same spirit forward.
For close to 30 years—13 of those under the umbrella of Insider’s Guide to Spas—I have explored spa culture as a lineage rooted in water, ritual, craft, and care. Hush returns that editorial philosophy to print: a small, deliberate limited-edition broadsheet devoted to the inner life of spa culture—the practices, people, places, and sensibilities that give the industry its soul.
Inside the inaugural issue, you’ll find reflections on restoration, portraits of spa thinkers and builders, sensory rituals for everyday life, and a few unexpected cultural side paths that reveal how deeply spa is woven into history, design, and the human longing for balance.
Hush will be published quarterly—one issue each for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.
We designed Hush to be slow reading. To be folded into a bag, left on a bedside table, slipped into a coat pocket for a flight.
And also to be tucked into the back-of-house: pinned to a bulletin board in a staff room, set beside a cup of tea during a short break, rediscovered between appointments.
A small source of inspiration. A quiet reminder of why our work matters.
Mary Bemis
Mary Bemis is Founder & Editorial Director of InsidersGuidetoSpas.com. An advocate for all things spa, Mary forged a vocabulary for spa reportage that is widely used by those who cover the issues today. Recently honored as a Top 30 Influential Voice Transforming Wellness by Medika Life, Mary is an inaugural honoree of Folio’s Top Women in Media Award. Her spa media roots run deep—in 1997, she launched American Spa magazine, in 2007, she co-founded Organic Spa magazine, and in between serving on the ISPA and NYSPA Board of Directors, she was on the launch teams of Luxury SpaFinder and New Beauty magazines. Named a "Wonder Woman of Wellness" by American Spa magazine, Mary was honored by the International Spa Association with the distinguished ISPA Dedicated Contributor Award. She is a special advisor to the non-profit Global Wellness Day.
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