Mint Smells, but in an Aromatic Way: Fighting Germs With Thieves

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IT'S GENERALLY NOT the best idea to inhale deeply when you walk into a gym. If the air doesn't reek of various body odors, it's likely going to smell like chemical cleaners. But Jo Anna Hawthorne, spa manager at Mint Fitness (1724 California St. NW; 202-328-6468; Mintconditionyourself.com), was determined to breathe easier at work.

"Because of cold season, staff members were spraying Lysol everywhere. That bothers my senses," Hawthorne says. So, the essential oils expert decided it was time to introduce the club to a blend that could ward off germs while pleasing everyone's noses: cloves, cinnamon, rosemary, eucalyptus and lemon. The combo is called "Thieves" because that was reportedly what a band of bandits used during the bubonic plague to protect themselves while robbing the dead and dying.

While it's unclear whether Thieves can ward off H1N1 as powerfully, it sure does smell good. Exercisers can get a hint of it coming out of oil diffusers -- which look like mini alien orbs that glow and shoot off mist -- now placed strategically around the club, or they might sniff it when they hop on a just-cleaned machine. (Mint is also using a Thieves-based all-purpose cleaner.) If anyone becomes hooked on the aromas, they're in luck. Hawthorne hopes to be hawking a retail line of Thieves products within the next few weeks.