While watching television recently with Christopher Robin, we saw a commercial for a Manitou Springs perfume shop called Salus. It looked clean and elegant, and most surprising of all, it offered patrons the chance to make their own perfumes and add the fragrances to a wide variety of bath and body products.
CR and I looked at each other with our mouths open. "It’s The Scent of Hours!"
Which is, for those in the know, the name of the perfumery in Madame Mirabou’s School of Love (now also available for the Kindle, I just noticed!) which is the story of a woman who is searching for her place in life after a divorce. Her way of relating to the world has always been through scent, and each chapter begins with a recipe from her perfume journal. The shop she eventually opens is in Manitou Springs called the Scent of Hours.
Last Saturday, CR and I wandered over to Adam’s Cafe for lunch, and I remembered the ad. We stopped in, and it is gorgeous, well appointed and clean. A lovely place to go play, if you are in the area (or visiting), especially with a friend or sister or mother. I think I could spend a couple of days mixing scents and creating my own signature scent!
What’s funny is that I had never heard of such a shop, and it did not exist when I wrote the book. Now there is. You can visit in person, or on the Internet. Tell her I sent you.
PS. I’ll be talking about the book with Eloisa James at the Barnes and Noble Review site one week from today, January 24. Please stop by if you can. This is a great new thing they’re doing, and wouldn’t we all love to see it be successful?
For her bachlerotte party, my best friend went to a similiar store in Chicago 🙂
That is SOOOO cool and you know I have to go there, especially since I longed to visit Scent of Hours from the beginning!! I’m there first chance I get (with daughters, maybe), and I will alert all and sundry to the visit with Eloisa.
Well it just goes to show what a really lovely idea it was. And even in the same town. You must go and see if the scents are as glorious as the ones you painted for us in the book.
I used to go to a lot of wine dinners here in Melbourne. And I must tell you that the very best was one where a woman winemaker was the guest. She made the wine for the family vineyard in a very remote part of West Australia. Terrific wine I might add. For most of the year she lived the outback life, only leaving it to promote her wine here and overseas. She was one of the most gracious and lovely people I have ever met.
But what set this dinner apart, was the fact that we were each seated with 4 vials of red wine in front of us, and she guided and encouraged us to produce a blend particular to each of us individuals. Wonderful.
Oh, Christine, I’m swooning at that red wine mixer idea! Wow.