Lucky FABB West: The Highlights & the “Honestly”

Friends!  I have a confession to make.  I’m feeling positively overwhelmed.  See, my experience at Lucky FABB was so awesome and the whole weekend was such a whirlwind of events and fun, and I want to share it all with you!  But I know you’re not interested in a post that takes six hours to read, which is probably what would happen if I tried to cram everything I want into this one.  I’ve been trying to think about the best way to share it all with you and here’s what I came up with.  I’m going to do a little mini-series of posts where I recap different parts of the experience.

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Here’s how it’s going to go:

The Highlights & the “Honestly”
The Outfits
The Food
The Brands

At least I think that’s how we’re going to roll!  So, be on the lookout for more posts about FABB coming soon!  For today, though, let me share with you the absolute highlights of my trip plus a little something to make you laugh {or sigh}.

The Highlights

#5: Visiting a dry bar for the first time and being pampered!
My first activity after landing in L.A. and checking in at the fabulous SLS Beverly Hills Hotel was an event hosted by Wendy’s at the Blow Me Away Dry Bar on West 3rd St.  We had an opportunity to sample the new Asian Cashew Chicken Salad, as well as ordering from the “Styling Menu.”   Before I talk about my style though, can I just say that the artsy mama in me did a little happy dance when I saw the fun decor…they had mason jars filled with fresh ingredients found in the salad!  Love!

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I ordered the “Classic,” a simple blowout with long, loose curls.  It was so relaxing just having someone wash and dry my hair, and it was especially refreshing after just spending six hours on a plane!  I loved the finished look…and I kind of wish I could have brought my stylist home with me so she could do that for me every day.

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#4: Rooming with Katie, my fellow “New Voice of Beauty”
Everything is better with a friend, especially when you’re literally traveling to the other side of the country by yourself!  I had the opportunity to room with Katie, which was an absolute blast!  We ate pizza in our pajamas {even though they delivered the wrong kind!}, chased down the people serving hors d’oeuvres, and ordered chocolate mousse cups with pop rocks on top…because we were still on East Coast time and always hungry!  I also relied on Katie to help me make last minute outfit/shoe/accessory/makeup decisions and to tell me if I had too much makeup on since our bathroom had basically no lights in it.  The conference was awesome by itself, but sharing it with Katie made the whole time so much fun!

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#3: Seeing my name in the program!
So, Friday morning, when we checked in we all got folders with information about the schedule, the speakers, the brand sponsors, and more.  I knew the New Voices of Beauty were going to be a part of the Networking Brunch, but I still did a double take when I saw my name right there in the program.  It made me feel like kind of a big deal. 🙂

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#2: Participating in the Networking Brunch and sharing with other bloggers about how awesome it is to partner with Lucky Magazine and P&G Beauty!
The brunch on Saturday morning was such a fun time; not only were they playing our video for the other bloggers to see, we got a chance to interact with people one on one and talk with them about our experience as New Voices of Beauty this year.  We got to share about what it’s like working with a big national brand like P&G and share our tips for making sponsored posts resonate with readers and be interesting instead of just feeling like commercials.

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There was also a surprise interview with a video team from Lucky, where we got to talk about how we felt being chosen to represent P&G, why the brand is a good fit for our readers, and what the experience was like being a “celebrity” at FABB West.  I have no idea where or when that video might appear, but I’ll be sure to let you know if it’s posted somewhere you can go see it {unless I look and sound like a total dork, in which case I might not…}.

 

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#1: Meeting Eva Chen!!
By far, my absolute favorite moment was when Jamie, our amazing P&G contact introduced the four of us to the gorgeous, stylish, amazing Eva Chen.  If you don’t know, Eva is the editor-in-chief of Lucky magazine, and is the most approachable editor ever.  She’s very active on social media {you can follow her on twitter and Instagram at @evachen212} and actually cares about connecting with Lucky readers.  As down to earth as she is, though, I was still incredibly intimidated to meet her because she’s so glamorous and awesome!  She was very gracious, shaking each of our hands and congratulating us on our achievement.  Huge thanks to Jamie for the introduction and for pretty much making my year!  And huge thanks to YOU, friends, who voted {and voted and voted} for me and made this whole thing possible!

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Before I move on to my major fail, I have to mention one more highlight of the trip.  I didn’t list it above, because technically it had nothing to do with Lucky or FABB, but it was one of my absolute favorite things about my time in L.A.!  Back in January, when I went to CHA in Anaheim, I got to meet the sweet and creative Tori Grant of Lil’ Mrs. Tori in person and we immediately clicked.  After talking with her for five minutes, I felt like I’d known her forever.  When I found out I was going to be visiting CA again, Tori and I couldn’t wait to get together and catch up!  I had from about 1:00 until I had to head to the airport at 7:15, so Tori picked me up and we went shopping at The Grove!  We tried on {and bought} some things at Madewell, then spent some time at Starbucks…of course!!   I visited my first World Market and Anthro, and she visited TopShop for the first time.  We had a delicious dinner outside and bought ourselves some snazzy rings at Forever 21.  Oh, and fro yo at pinkberry!  The time went way too fast!  Tori, you need to get yourself to the East Coast soon, girlfriend!

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And now, the Honestly…

And now for my fail…although, I have to admit it’s far better than my last fail when the military thought I placed a bomb in Penn Station NY…  {If you missed that story you really have to read it}.

So. As you might expect, we got gift bags at the end of the conference.  They were really cute totes from Saturday by Kate Spade.  We had to be checked out of our room about five minutes after the brunch ended, so I hurriedly opened my suitcase, shoved the bag in, zipped it up, and headed down to the lobby.  Many hours and two plane rides later, when I opened my suitcase at home, I found a disaster.  Turns out, there were several cans of hairspray in there. One of them somehow got punctured.  Yep.  Hairspray everywhere.  All over the products, all over the papers, all over the bag, and all over my suitcase.  It. was. a. mess.  My bag itself is ruined, and so were some of the other things.  Others just had to get cleaned off.  I seriously wanted to kick myself for not thinking to look inside the goody bag and pull out or somehow protect things like that.  Sigh.  Live and learn, I guess.  I just thought I’d share that little Public Service Announcement with you…look before you pack!  Honestly.  In the meantime, that in no way takes away from the amazing experience I had…just thought you might get a laugh from it!

I want to say one more huge THANK YOU to all of you who voted in the contest back in November and December and helped make this whole experience a reality for me!  I told people all weekend long about my amazing community of readers and how they’re the best out there…thanks for being a part of that!

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3 Comments

  1. Awe:) I had such a fun time with you at The Grove!!! Seriously…Madewell, Anthro, Top Shop, World Market all in one day not to mention our trip to Starbucks and Pinkberry! We made the most of that afternoon! I am so glad you had some time to hang out!

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