SCENT SOMMELIER by Salud

We’re very excited to announce that Salud has been selected as an exhibitor at the 2009 Sunset Magazine Celebration Weekend in Menlo Park, California.  This event  is “where the pages of Sunset come to life!”   The weekend will be  filled with celebrity chefs, wine tasting, home and gardening tips, and Sunset’s incredible new Idea House.

Salud will feature our wine-inspired line of perfumes, including Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot and Syrah. We created these wine-inspired  fragrance blends by studying various wine varietals and picking out the individual notes, like fresh cut grass, grapefruit, red berries and tannins. While developing the aromas, we also acknowledged that a true wine conoisseur would never wear perfume while wine tasting, because of interference with the varietal’s bouquet. We believe that is what makes our wine perfumes so intriguing, as our blends actually enhance the nuances of both.

We hope to see you there!

When & Where:

Sunset Headquarters, 80 Willow Road, Menlo Park, California 94025
Date: June 6-7 2009  
Hours: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm

Salud Spa Bar is excited to support V-Day and diVa Tucson! … and to help play a part in ending violence against women.  We’re proud to introduce our newest scent:

diVa

a  flirty cocktail of night jasmine, pink martini and sparkling sea spray all on a base of powerful musk

This Spring, 50% of all proceeds from sales of our fabulous diVa scent purchased at SaludSpaBar.com will be donated in support of V-Day.  Beneficiaries include Ella Group and Las Familias. 

Click here to shop the scent and learn more about this important new fragrance.

V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works.  Each year V-Day increases awareness by focusing on a specific group of women in the world who are resisting violence with courage and vision. In 2009, V-Day’s Spotlight Campaign will highlight the atrocities being committed against the women and girls of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  To date, the V-Day movement has raised over $60 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it

Be sure to support the cause, and go see the production tomorrow - a one night performance of the Bilingual version of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues”.

where: TCC Leo Rich Theater, Tucson
when: Saturday, April 18, 2009

Purchase tickets at the Tucson Convention Center Ticket Office, www.ticketmaster.com or by phone 520-321-1000. 

Viva divas!

It’s spring and time to snap back into shape. Going to the gym can be such a chore, and only for so long can I listen to Lady Gaga and Beyonce on my iPod while pedaling in place. I need something challenging but fun, invigorating yet stress-reducing. What could it be? I simply looked inward, breathed an OM - and realized my answer… hot yoga!

Bikram, or “hot” yoga has become increasingly popular over the past few years. This yoga style is performed in a humidified studio, typically heated to a temperature of 105 degrees. The heat warms the body, increasing flexibility and eliminating toxins.

I arrived at the studio with a few other brave friends and within minutes was sweating out my stress, and feeling my muscles and joints cracking with pure delight.  The 90 minute class is over in a breeze and I am a new person, now officially addicted to bikram.

Throughout the class, our instructor chanted, “breathe, breathe…” and as I stretched I noticed the same phrase on a large, simple white sign at the back of the studio. Yoga is essentially all about breathing, and so as my body adjusts to this new regime, I will be sure to wear one of my favorite essential oils - Ylang Ylang, which aids in deep breathing and alleviates stress. 

Salud’s fragrance library includes an exquisite, very high quality Ylang Ylang oil (pronounced “ee-lang ee-lang” or “lang-lang”) This floral oil is native to tropical Asia, especially China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Madagascar.  It’s also used in many high quality and luxury perfumes and the oil is extracted from the yellow flowers of the tall tropical ylang ylang tree.   The oil is a pale yellow with a floral sweet, soft balsamic, warm spice scent. It’s beautiful on its own but we also like to blend it with jasmine, rose and tuberose for an even more seductive scent. Ylang ylang is an aphrodisiac, antidepressant, euphoric scent and benefits oily skin, increases circulation and alleviates stress-related disorders.

Ylang Ylang Flowers

As I relax tonight after an invigorating day of yoga, I’ll wind down with my favorite Salud “Relaxation Blend”… in an Organic Body Oil. Here’s the scent recipe that I hope you will relax and try… namaste…

YLANG YLANG + GINGER + VANILLA BEAN

Custom scent your home!  Salud now offers concentrated home fragrance oil on our website.  Just add a few drops to a simmering pot, light bulb fragrance ring, or to refresh potpourri.  It’s stronger than a reed diffuser, and the perfect way to quickly scent your home.  We also like to add a few drops to a cotton ball and place under the seat in the car - so refreshing.   Our favorite home simmering scents for spring are:

Creosote Blossom - smells just like monsoon season

Lemon Verbena + Fleur d’Lis -  perfect for the kitchen

Hermosa Beach + Kampai Rice Flower  - the ultimate “spring clean” scent

I’m intrigued by this new research out of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Do you ever stop to ponder the biology of a flower?  Where does the scent of a flower really come from? This article reveals new research on the origin of a flower’s scent. I also find it interesting since Salud has a new collection of wine-inspired fragrances;  the very source of their discovery is the grapevine.

Canadian researchers say they’ve determined the scent of grapevine flowers comes from pollen grains stored in the anthers, not just the petals.   University of British Columbia scientists from the school’s Wine Research Center and Michael Smith Laboratories were studying grapes used to produce Cabernet Sauvignon from British Columbia’s Okanagan region when they identified a gene that produces and regulates fragrance from the vines’ tiny clusters of green blossoms.  “This was a surprise in fundamental plant biology,” said Professor Joerg Bohlmann, who led the study. “This discovery gives us strong clues to the origin and evolution of fragrant flowers.” Scientists said they believe plants have evolved to produce perfume to attract specific types of pollinators while fending off herbivores and pathogens. “If you ask people where the perfume of a flower comes from, they’ll likely say the female parts or the petals,” said Bohlmann. “Cultivated grapevines are largely self-pollinated, so we believe the fragrance serves more as a defense mechanism to protect their male  reproductive tissues from predatory insects,” added Bohlmann, who noted further studies on other flowering species might turn up similar mechanisms. “It may be more prevalent than we think.”  The team also found that emission of perfume is light-dependent and is strongest at dawn, possibly to coincide with pollination and predation activities.  Source: University of British Columbia

Rose Test Garden, Portland OR

I’m so excited to see my alma mater in the NCAA Basketball Finals… Michigan State University! I’ve created a custom perfume in honor of Sparty and with hope that we win the big game on Monday.

This exciting blend has essences of green grass and spring flowers blooming under Beaumont Tower, white vanilla, and a warm base of red cedar.

To blend this custom perfume on our website, select these scents:

Sweet Pea + Vanilla Bean + Cedarwood

The sweet smell of Victory for MSU!

Someone asked me recently, “what was the first perfume you ever wore?”  Suddenly, childhood scent memories came flooding into my mind.  The smell of vinyl and my first record, Arena by Duran Duran.  Essences of synthetic, plastic-y fruit in a cornucopia of flavors from Strawberry Shortcake, Huckleberry Pie and the evil Purple Pieman.  Wafting glue from the hobby shop Space Shuttle Columbia  model kit as Dad helped me assemble the made-to-scale plastic fuselage.  And the crown jewel of all scents, my smelly sticker collection. 

My first perfume was a true ode to the 80’s - Camp Beverly Hills.  I loved the way the palm trees seemed to sway in the ocean breeze on the bottle, and the little silver chain hanging from the cap.  It was, like, so gnarley. 

Amazingly, I can’t remember anything about the essence. But, I am sure that if I got my hands on a bottle now, I’d definitely go back in time.