The Sims 4 Spa Day Refresh: Everything We Know So Far!

The Sims 4 Spa Day refresh is happening! The Sims team recently announced they’ll be revamping or “refreshing” an old pack for the first time in Sims history.

I’m happy to see they’re improving previous packs – and some of them seriously need help (ahem…Dine Out).

Spa Day is one of those packs that sounds great in theory, but I rarely use it because it just doesn’t offer the game play I wanted or expected. Will this refresh change that – or just add more shallow game play that no one wants?

Well, I watched the Sims developer live stream today so you don’t have to. Here are all the new changes they announced coming to the pack soon:

• Fingernails and Toenails
• Manicures and Pedicures
• New Wellness Aspirations
• New High Maintenance Trait
• Making Money with Wellness
• Facial Masks
• Yoga & Meditation for Children
• New Massage Chairs and Object Recolors
• New Cucumber Quick Meals

Now, let’s take a look at everything we learned about these new features in the live stream today. Some of them are really cool.

UPDATE: Check out my after the refresh Spa Day review to see how the changes stacked up!

Fingernails & Toenails

For the first time in the history of The Sims, we’ll have nails added to CAS. Several sets of nails are coming to base game, and spa day gets some even fancier nail designs.

I was happy to see the team worked with a custom content creator to make the spa day nails. They really do look lovely!

I was also glad to see there are some more natural nails available for my less flashy Sims. Not everyone wants to walk around in a full set of acrylics.

Manicures & Pedicures

In addition to nails, the game pack refresh features new game play in the form of manicures and pedicures. Your Sims can get their nails done at the spa. But best of all, they can give manicures and pedicures to other Sims for money.

This means there’s a real possibility of running your very own nail salon or spa business!

You can choose the nail type, colors, patterns, and finish for your nails when you get a manicure. They’re the same as the designs found in CAS, but there’s one big difference.

If you give a Sim nails in CAS, they stay perfect forever. But if your Sim gets a manicure through game play, the nails degrade over time and you’ll have to get them touched up. I really like that they made this so realistic. 

3 New Wellness Aspirations

A completely new wellness aspiration category is coming to the game, plus THREE new aspirations:

• Zen Guru – This Sim wants to share their mastery of Wellness with the world, and train a successor to pass on their knowledge.
• Inner Peace – This Sim is on a quest to achieve Inner Peace. Although true harmony is sometimes ephemeral, what’s important is developing tools to help mitigate negative emotions.
• Self-Care Specialist – This Sim wants to make it big with monetizing Wellness activities like offering Manicures or Tending the Massage Table at a Spa.

I’m always happy to get more aspirations for my Sims, and I was pleasantly surprised that they included three instead of just one.

A Sim Guru on the live stream noted that these aspiration would be more “open-ended” instead of being as linear as previous aspirations. I’m not exactly sure what this means, but I’ll look forward to trying these out when the refresh is here.

It was also said on the stream that the Sims team plans to put a new focus on aspirations in future packs. I hope they really do try to make them more engaging and less like mini-tutorials.

New High Maintenance Trait

The pack is also getting a new trait called High Maintenance.

These Sims require extra work to keep in good condition. Their problems sometimes appear trivial, and may even appear out of the blue. These struggles can be remedied through mindful habits, which puts them in a state of catharsis.

It appears that Sims with this trait will need to meditate or do yoga a lot – or they’ll get a negative buff. They will need a lot more “care” – in the form of spa treatments, of course.

Making Money with Wellness

Your Sims can finally earn money as a yoga instructor, masseuse, meditation leader, or nail artist.

All you have to do is place your yoga mats, meditation stools, massage chairs, or mani/pedi chairs in the world – anywhere in the world! Then, your Sim can “tend” the mats, stools, and chairs to earn money when a customer Sim comes for services.

This makes it so easy to create your own wellness business! Focus only on yoga or meditation, or start a nail salon, or create a spa that includes them all.

Sims can teach private or public yoga and meditation classes, and they can offer their services for free if they want, too. The pack also keeps the functionality of allowing your Sims to be participants in the yoga classes if you don’t want to teach.

Some more cool features:

• Promote your Yoga class on Simstagram to help you get more customers.
• Gain Fame if you have the Get Famous expansion installed.
• If Sims aren’t happy with your service or they’re your enemy, they may not pay you for services rendered.

I especially like the last one, as we can always use more negative reactions and consequences.

Facial Masks

Sims can now purchase facial masks from the special mini-fridge at the Spa. Some masks have unique benefits, and the animal mask can be used by children.

If you leave masks on too long, your Sim may get a rash or infection. (Again, I like that there are some negative consequences.) But if you leave them on just long enough, your Sim will feel the benefits of that particular mask.

And of course, the masks all give different buffs depending on the type of mask used.

Yoga & Meditation for Children

Children can now perform both yoga and meditation (and the animations are adorable).

Yoga builds motor skill and meditation builds mental skill for children. Both yoga and meditation increase emotional control if you have the Parenthood pack.

I also noticed in the live stream that children were able to lead yoga and meditation classes. I guess you could have some child labor in your Spas?

New Massage Chairs & Recolors

New massage chairs and recolors of existing Spa Day objects will be added with the refresh. This includes new yoga mat recolors and updates to original colors so they actually match the other content in the pack.

Honestly, I think I’m most excited for the towel recolors. No more white towels in all my Sims houses because the few other colors never matched anything!

I’m really happy they recolored the objects and tried to make them match. This is always an annoyance of mine when things don’t match in the packs. Why do they do that!? I hope future pack refreshes get the same treatment.

Cucumber Quick Meals

And finally, we have two new cucumber quick meals:

• Cucumber Slices
• Cucumber Power Sip

This is probably the least impressive new feature, but it is new so I had to include it.

The cucumber slices are just that – a bowl of cucumber slices. Yum. The cucumber power sip is a sparkling water/energy drink or something. It gives your Sim a focused moodlet when you drink it.

Both of these items can be found in the spa refrigerator. I’m not sure if Sims can use these at home or if they will be exclusive to the spa.

Conclusion

Although I am happy to see the Sims team going back and trying to fix some mistakes from the past, focusing on this game pack does little to improve the issues with core game play.

I would really like to seem them putting this energy into creating more meaningful game play for the base game – things like whims, memories, relationships, traits, autonomy, and lore. And maybe they are working on these things behind the scenes – at least I’m hoping they are since they’ve been asking the community for feedback.

In the mean time, I won’t turn my nose up at improvement – even if I feel there are other areas of the game that need improvement more urgently than this pack. I’m still looking forward to this refresh, and I hope they continue down this path of improvement.

If you own Spa Day already, the refresh is free for you. It’s coming September 7^th. Are you looking forward to this update or do you think it’s too little too late? Leave a comment down below and let us know!