San Francisco based skincare brand Tatcha has deep roots in Japan - with key ingredients sourced from the country coupled with a distinctly Japanese aesthetic. The Indigo Calming Ritual from Tatcha is a multi-sensory night-time practice that encompasses sight, smell, taste, touch and sound; the latter of which was created in an elemental partnership between Syn and this premiere brand.
Rituals are culturally an important part of Japanese beauty culture, and as such, we sought to bring an authenticity to this experience, whilst using an innovative new technology (the 'PlantWave' device) to push the boundaries of the sonic experience. This exploration took us all over Japan - to an Indigo Farm in Shikoku and Mugwort plants in Saitama’s national forest - working with a pocket-size device called Plant Wave to extract MIDI data from the plant leaves and bring their voices to life in an 8-minute soundtrack. The soundtrack, part of Tatcha’s Five Senses Ritual was a first of its kind experience on many levels: From the integration of sound waves from ingredients found in Tatcha’s Indigo line in a music soundscape - along with recordings waterfalls, streams, the shoreline itself, vocals and a variety of bamboo flutes - to create a multi-sensory immersive process for the ritual it was designed to accompany.
Tatcha CEO Vicky Tsai and 30 participants then underwent EEG neuroscience testing in a lab in Austin, Texas to determine the relaxation effect of the ritual. The results of this testing were overwhelmingly positive, showing a + 21% increase in relaxation and a - 17% reduction in stress levels.
This was followed up by a successful PR campaign, including features in 'Muse By Clio' and 'LBB', as well as workshop/presentation opportunities to share the project with both new and existing clients. Since the launch of this project, we have been engaged with subsequent briefs directly inspired by this innovative approach - including further opportunities to explore the healing impact of sound with Tatcha.
