It’s hard to believe I’ve only been home from NYC for about a week. The amount of things we packed into that 4 day trip still boggles my mind. Between the parties, expo, training sessions, meeting fellow bloggers, and exploring NYC, I would swear that I was there for 10 days. It feels like I should have been there for 10 days to do all the stuff I did!
Heavenly Spa
The first night we were in NYC, we had invitations to two very swanky parties. The first party was the Avery SocialLuxe Lounge, hosted by Avery. Other sponsors were on-site, including Ghirardelli, with their yummy new chocolate squares that kept tempting me! This party featured spa services by Aveda. You could get a chair massage, hair services, makeup consultations, or manicures. I took my free glass of champagne and made my way to the chair massage first. It was WONDERFUL. He massaged my back, my arms, my hands, and even my scalp. After messing up my hair, he used some serum to smooth everything back in place and I felt like a million bucks. Next I headed over to the manicure station to see what kind of trouble I could find. To my friend Jackie’s surprise, I let that lady paint my nails blue. It was a totally rocking OPI color and looked great on my nails.
While the spa services were great, I should mention the bag of swag they gave us. When we checked in, they pulled out this huge bag of stuff. I was slight shocked to start digging through it and finding things like SkullCandy headphones, etc. I knew there would be some swag at these events, but I didn’t expect expensive swag. I was starting to feel like a princess and I was only at my first ball!
Glamour Girls
Jackie and Laura posing for fun!
After we were done at the SocialLuxe Lounge, we jumped into a cab for our next party. This one was sponsored by AOL. I wasn’t expecting to be shocked, but this party had a whole different vibe. We were escorted upstairs in a private elevator to the event. The lights were dimmed and the floors were dark and sleek. There were numerous couches to lounge on and I was able to talk with many fellow bloggers by hanging out on the couch. But the high point here was the service. There were many fine looking men walking around that party, with trays of cocktails and food in hand. They descended on us and made sure our glasses were never empty and our plates were always full. I later found out that the fine looking men were models and I must say, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU AOL. Well done…Well done!
Beside the food and drink, AOL had some other cool stuff going on. Former Top Chef contestant Marcus Samuelsson was on hand to demonstrate how our dinner was prepared. Honestly, by the time they got to dinner, I was so stuffed from all the drinks and appetizers, I couldn’t really enjoy the chicken he prepared. It looked wonderful, but my tummy said no way! Another cool thing was the chance to have our pictures taken by a professional photographer. They had a box of props and let us put on swanky accessories to compliment the outfits we had worn that evening. You can see Jackie and I hamming it up in the photo above.
As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed free AOL bags. They were lovely bags and had some free goodies in them, like shampoo and lotion from Aveda. Aveda products are always a big hit with me and the bag is really pretty. I can see myself using it for something in the future. At about this point, we also noticed what looked like one of those machine in the mall where you step inside with a friend and take your picture. We were close, but this machine actually let us record a 30 second video. There were instructions inside and we had fun working on our interview skills. You can see us being goofy in the clip below:
Only the Beginning
Believe it or not, these parties were only the beginning of our awesome adventure. BlogHer ’10 didn’t actually start until the next day, and we had already been pampered beyond belief. I’ll have more tales soon about what we encountered over the next two days. And along the way, I’ll have a give-a-way or two, so make sure you stay tuned for your chance to hear about the rest of the trip and win some prizes too!
Cheers,
