This museum has also been nationally certified as a stress-relief museum.

No, really; Nippon Menard Cosmetics Co., Ltd presented its findings of museum spaces increasing visitors’ psychological well-being at the 14th Japanese Association of Health Psychology in November 2011. The Menard Art Museum in Komaki, Japan is, quite literally, your “happy place.” In the rowdy mental world of art history, we know at least one person who could have used one.

The founders of Menard Cosmetics, Nonogawa Daisuke and his wife, Mitsuko, opened the museum in October 1987 to showcase the art they’d been collecting for 20 years. Built in the same year, Menard Art Museum promises a zen environment in which to view works by James Ensor, Claude Monet, Van Gogh, and many others.

Nonogawa Mitsuko, who passed away the summer after the Museum opened, remains memorialized in a humble monument at its entrance. In dedication to the woman who loved collecting art more than anything, a phrase inscribed on the stone reads: "Interweaving the meaning of work and an aspiration for beauty is the ordinary clothing of the soul."

Clothing, cosmetics, oil on canvas (but not on the skin!)—this museum’s got it all.

Luckily for its therapeutic intentions, the Menard Museum remains a bit of a secret gem in Aichi Prefecture, where it continues to soothe visitors with its tranquil atmosphere. With the motto “seeking true beauty,” Menard Museum begins on the inside.

If getting up close and personal to master works by Japanese and Western artists has somehow failed to grant you the glowing skin of a Greek goddess or miraculously removed all of your warts, perhaps you’d like to try some Menard face masks on your way out.