Pretty in Pink Champagne

The next time you’re getting your hair done and hear the sound of a cork popping, don’t get too excited. It doesn’t necessarily mean that a flute of bubbly is on its way. And don’t worry that your stylist has a problem, either. Chances are she’s part of a trend brewing in salons and spas, where beauty-tenders are using wine and spirits in the quest for skin and hair that glow.

The B2V salon in West Hollywood spikes hair conditioner with Kahlua coffee liqueur. The Pasadena hand and foot spa Can Can Parleur swirls rose sparkling wine and rose petals into a pedicure. Guys are going for the Corona Beer Face Lift at the spa at the Esperanza Resort in Mexico’s Cabo San Lucas, where the $166 facial (no, it has nothing to do with a drunk plastic surgeon) allegedly tightens the pores. Up the coast in Del Mar, the Spa at L’Auberge recently debuted “vinotherapy.” The treatments involve body wraps, scrubs and massages that employ oil-rich Chardonnay grapes, which, according to spa director Jeannette Handson, deliver beauty-boosting, antioxidant effects.

Transdermal drinking is a rage up and down the coast. In Temecula, when the new spa at the South Coast Winery Resort opens later this year, treatments will incorporate grapes from the on-site vineyard and conclude with a glass of the local vino. Yountville’s Villagio Inn and Spa offers a clay wrap mixed with crushed Napa Valley grape seeds.

For years we’ve mixed delectable beauty cocktails of avocados and olive oil--or bananas, milk and almonds--in the pursuit of shinier hair and smoother skin. Booze and beauty seemed destined to collide. And they’re a powerful duo, I discovered.

At the Can Can Parleur, I opted for the Vive le Rose, an $85 pedicure that lets you sink into a plump chair while everything south of your knees is slathered, massaged, exfoliated and swathed in warm towels as the technician pours a silk-wrapped bottle of inexpensive bubbly into a bath of rose petals, rose essential oil and warmed river rocks. I can’t say the sparkling wine softened my calloused heels, but it soothed my attitude. The nail polish was almost beside the point.

Next it was my hair’s turn. At B2V, co-owner Kim Vo mixed a hefty shot of Kahlua and 4 ounces of cream into a cup of thick hair conditioner, which he slathered onto my head. Then I sat under a warm dryer for 20 minutes to allow the brew to penetrate. The result: shiny, smooth hair with a rather intoxicating aroma. I was ready to accessorize with a swizzle stick and a maraschino cherry.

When he’s not beautifying reality TV volunteers on “Extreme Makeover” or selling his Protonics hair products on the Home Shopping Network, Vo is crafting new treatments.

“We were trying to find a new vinegar rinse,” he says. “We tried vodka, but it was a bit too hard-core. It was like we should be in some AA meeting.”

The Kahlua, however, has a pleasing scent and the proper acidity--and it makes the perfect mixer to milk, a key ingredient in the $45 conditioning treatment. Vo says that once the hair cuticle is open, the conditioner can penetrate the hair.

Does anyone at B2V actually drink the liqueur? “The employees,” Vo says. “It’s great in coffee.” He means before it’s applied to a client’s head.

Inspired experimentation has been behind many beauty breakthroughs. Layla Fayyad, owner of Visage de Layla in Westwood, created her new White Grape Wine Peel based on childhood memories of her mother, who used to pluck grapes from the vines in their Tehran backyard and spread the crushed pulp onto a gauze face mask. The fruit acids would exfoliate and freshen her complexion. Now Fayyad works with a chemist who helps refine her signature products.

At her salon, my $125 three-part facial included a coating of grape pulp that had been transformed into an odorless, clear gel to gently peel away dead skin. The acids tingled but didn’t burn or sting. After an hour of pampering, I was more relaxed than I would have been with an intoxicant.

Invoking wine or alcohol in beauty treatments is groundbreaking within the usually rigid conventions of the spa experience. Studio City’s LushSpa, with its double-entendre name, tweaks the notion of a spa as a place to cleanse the body and spirit. With a menu of treatments named for cocktails (the Screwdriver facial, the Merlot massage), it comes off as more fancy sorority house than temple. As you enter the two-story faux-Victorian manse, a hostess offers you a complimentary drink. Why, thank you!

Dozens of bachelorette, birthday and bridal fetes have been staged at the spa. It also offers laser hair removal, Botox and all manner of skin treatments. “Our unofficial motto is ‘detox, Botox, then retox,’ ” says co-founder Kim Sudhalter, who was once asked to leave a local day spa for making too much noise with her friends. Hence, LushSpa was born as a place to have fun.

On Saturdays and Sundays, the spa offers something special: The Hangover Remedy. No, they don’t make you slurp raw eggs or drink black coffee. You get a $55 steam-cleaning and moisturizing facial with extra emphasis on your eyes. During my visit, I listened to French ballads (motto No. 2: “No fluffy flute music”) as the technician performed a nice circulation-boosting massage around my stiff neck, head and the dark circles around my eyes. She didn’t lecture me about my skin or lifestyle. That beat two aspirin and going back to bed.