Phoebe Morrison will offer libido coaching at the new store and event space on Whyalla Street. Photo: Holly, The Boudoir Queen Canberra.
If I told you to picture the owner of a new sex shop coming to Fyshwick in 2026, who would you picture? Male or female? Under or over 40? And are they opening the business for profit or because their life’s purpose is to ensure women are having an incredible time in bed?
Phoebe Morrison is 32. She’s a mum of two, a former public servant (of course she is) and she’s obsessed with ensuring women feel safe and very very satisfied in their sex lives. She’s probably the opposite of what you pictured.
Phoebe launched online event and ‘spicy self care’ business The Salon CBR from her four-bedroom home in Bungendore last July. She’d thought about the business idea relentlessly while on maternity leave, and when she was made redundant on her first day back at her department, “I couldn’t have asked for a bigger sign from the universe”.
The Salon CBR hosts events for “confidence, connection and creativity” and sells pleasure guides, sexy homewares and libido coaching. ‘The Bloom’ and ‘Glow’ are the most popular self care products and local women are loving the events, from Sexy Trivia to Yoga for Pelvic and Sexual Health.
“Toys have come a long way in terms of materials and aesthetic,” Phoebe says of the best-selling ‘Bloom’. Photo: Phoebe Morrison.
The bricks and mortar version of The Salon CBR will come to life on Whyalla Street, Fyshwick, in the new year – and Phoebe promises a sensual and private experience in-store.
If you want to understand the aesthetic of the new sex shop, just listen to this: Phoebe turned up with a horse float to the liquidation sale of iconic Canberra venue Parlour Wine Room when it went bust in late October.
The Salon CBR kicked off with Sexy Trivia in November, and there are already 20+ events in the works for 2026. Photo: Stuart Steenbergen.
She scored leather and velvet couches, side tables, lamps, armchairs and sconces “for an absolute steal”. The Salon CBR will be all about delicious details and luxury finishes: think Prince and The Weekend on the stereo, musky-scented candles and sheer curtains. She wants women to take their time while shopping and “leave awkward at the door”.
She’s blunt about the fact The Salon CBR will be a retail store and event space for women. In fact, if men want to visit they’ll need to be escorted by a woman.
Gina chose to arm wrestle the topless waiter at Sexy Trivia Night. Because she could. Photo: Stuart Steenbergen.
“If men want to come in with their female partners for date nights or to ask about how something works, that’s great. You want to come in and buy something for your partner? Totally,” Phoebe says.
“But we surveyed Canberra women and asked them directly about what they wanted their shopping experience to be like. There was a big focus on being uncomfortable shopping around men. So we took that on board.”
Sexy homewares. like these mugs, will be among the items on offer at the new store, along with a line of Canberra-made perfumes. Photo: Phoebe Morrison.
When I ask exactly how she had the courage to tell her family, friends and her partner that she wanted to launch a business focusing on female pleasure, Phoebe smiles.
She says she arrived at a place where she had “no choice” – it was a dream she had been quietly denying herself for about a decade. It was either launch The Salon CBR or “quite literally go crazy”.
She remembers, at 21, sitting on the edge of her bed and thinking about what the world would be like if society levelled up its focus on female pleasure.
The young mum wants her brand to feel like “that connection women get in the toilets of a nightclub”. Photo: Stuart Steenbergen.
“Sometimes I’d play this game of ‘what if’ – like ‘what if Germany had won the war?’ or ‘what if we had 10 moons’,” she laughs.
“And I remember thinking, what if everything flipped and the world was a matriarchy? I was thinking about how everything about sex is so male-centred. Everything. And then porn reinforces that.
“And a few years later, I was thinking about sex education in schools. There’s no mention of foreplay. They talk about penetrative sex and male ejaculation and they’re doing a better job now of talking about consent.
“But where is the conversation about pleasure? It doesn’t exist.”
The Salon CBR opens on Whyalla Street, Fyshwick, in March 2026. You can shop online in the meantime.
