Your New Favorite Place — The Shop on Nemo by Cheryl Saban

A celebrity boutique that has gorgeous goodies we can actually afford and donates a portion of the proceeds to charity? Yes please!

Such is the case with The Shop on Nemo in West Hollywood, where, in an atelier setting, you’ll find lovely handcrafted gemstone jewelry, organic skincare products, decorative accessories, wall art, books and hand blown glass, all created, designed, produced and/or selected by the owner — author, artist, philanthropist Cheryl Saban, PhD.

Yes, Cheryl is the wife of prominent philanthropist and media mogul Haim Saban of Saban Entertainment, but she’s a celebrity in her own right — not for what she sings, stars in, models or tweets. She’s a rockstar, if you will, in the world of philanthropy, where she raises funds and awareness, mostly for women’s causes, among them the Women’s Self-Worth Foundation, which she founded to provide micro-financing programs to women in the U.S. and in Israel. She’s also served on the boards of the Westside Children’s Center, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and The Los Angeles Free Clinic, and she supports many other organizations such as CARE USA, Women for Women International, Women’s Funding Network and the Saban Center for Middle East Studies at the Brookings Institution, to name just a few.

The shop is her creative outlet — a brick and mortar location spin off of her successful Cheryl Saban Designs website. The atelier is located in a quaint little converted house on the tiny street called Nemo, just off Doheny near its intersection with Santa Monica, around the corner from the La Conversation cafe, known for its extraordinary baked goods. You’ve probably passed it a hundred times and weren’t even aware there was a street in that location.

At The Shop on Nemo you’ll find a lush array of jewelry, much of it made from gem stones, all of it beautiful and surprisingly reasonably priced, from as little as 25-cents for a polished stone for the children, to stunning necklaces, earrings and bracelets, starting at about $25.00. You will also find beautifully photographed gift books, most of them of special interest to women, all of them authored by Saban herself. I couldn’t resist picking up several for my mother, sister, niece and dear friend. There are also scrumptious selling bath and beauty products.

But perhaps most intriguing of all are the hand blown glass items that Saban creates herself. Paperweights, drinking glasses, vases, and more, Saban told me she attempts to make it to the glass blowing studio at least twice a week to express her creative and artistic side.

With all the philanthropic and creative work, it’s amazing that she finds time to tend the shop, but she says she tries to spend a few hours there every day it’s open. I couldn’t help but wonder how she fits it all in. She told me her secret is getting up at 5:30 every morning, and the fact that her four children are grown and out of the nest helps. Still, she must have mad time management skills, because I get up that early every morning and don’t accomplish a fraction of what she does.

But The Shop on Nemo inspires me to try a little harder to be a more giving person, which is a rare effect for a chic boutique in West Hollywood to have on a consumer. To be honest, I’m more inclined to feel overfed, overaged, under financed and under informed when shopping in that area. At Cheryl’s I can find beautiful and inspiring things for myself, my friends and family, and know that my purchases are helping countless others. I think I’ll shop there more often.

Your New Favorite Place — The Shop on Nemo by Cheryl Saban