Just three months after he retired following 20 years as a U.S. Army Green Beret — spending most of his career with the 1st Special Forces Group Airborne at Joint Base Lewis McChord — Trent Breland and his wife, Katie, are now preparing to rebrand the Central Park Tanning and Wellness salon in downtown Centralia into the Luminous Lounge.
Katie is a career cosmetologist. Before Trent’s Army retirement, the Rochester couple opened the Salt Hair Lounge in Olympia in 2021. The self-described “salontrepreneurs” ventured into the small business world.
Since then, Salt Hair Lounge has seen success and has won more than 20 business awards, including best salon and waxing business. Katie was recently featured in this year’s Top 40 Under 40 by South Sound Business.
Getting into the salon and tanning world isn’t typically what retired Green Berets do. But given that he’s basically been with Katie since the pair were in high school together and they have been married for 17 years with two children, he already knew a lot about the industry thanks to her cosmetology background.
Their success with Salt Hair Lounge prompted the purchase of Central Park Tanning last year. Now that they’ve established roots in the area, they are rebranding the business.
While Katie was busy with clients at Salt Hair Lounge, Trent met with The Chronicle in Centralia on Thursday, June 6, to talk about the rebranding effort.
“We acquired it last October, and it’s been a tanning salon here for something like 30-plus years,” Trent said.
Scheduled for June 22, the “Luminous Launch” will debut the new Luminous Lounge and will be held from 1 to 6 p.m.
Central Park Tanning customers don’t have to worry — despite the name change, all the same services will be offered, according to Central Park Tanning receptionist Savanna Bolivar.
“We can help you decide how to get the best or quickest tan, and we try to make it very welcoming here. If you come in, you feel welcomed and you can learn more about tanning if you don’t know about it to prepare for trips or vacations,” Bolivar said.
While tanning and spray tanning will still be available, the business will begin to focus on light spectrum therapy, specifically red light therapy.
Red light therapy has been known to help improve skin health, reducing wrinkles, scars and acne, but recently it has shown it has pain relief applications as well, Trent said.
Through a process called photobiomodulation, red light can help regenerate cells, restore cell function and improve blood flow, helping the healing process and relieving pain.
“As people become more aware of some of the other options health wise, we’re going to keep leaning into that. We actually just got another red light full-body exposure and we really like the internal benefits it gives,” Trent said. “The FDA is taking a look at it and they’re seeing the (physical therapy) benefits as well.”
They also have added wellness cocoons that enclose the whole body with pure oxygen therapy and red light.
“We also have some of the best hybrid tanning systems as well, where it’s red light combined with traditional tanning lights,” Trent said.
Luminous Lounge will also be partnering with local master aesthetician Shonda Jensen of Studio 27, who will provide customers with spray tanning services during the Luminous Launch on June 22.
“She’ll be doing bookings and she’ll be operating right out of here for that event,” Trent said.
Other changes are being made inside, including fresh paint and upgraded lighting, and of course changing the signs.
“We’re trying to get everything done for the Luminous Launch,” Trent added.
Located in downtown Centralia at 217 N. Tower Ave., suite B, the soon-to-be Luminous Lounge is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and closed Sunday.
To learn more, visit http://www.luminouslounge.com/ or follow the Luminous Lounge on Facebook and Instagram at @luminouslounges.
