More Bubbles and Bubbly Fun

So remember how, back in October, Wisk HE brought me to my second home, New York City, for a little bubbles and bubbly shindig?  I had a blast with some amazing people and learned all about bubbles- when you need them, when you don’t.

So, today I’m on Google, searching for pictures of myself and my friend Katja for this way cool NYC Tweetup that we’re hosting on January 13th at the Roger Smith Hotel, and I come across this photo!

And I’m all … awwww … what a CUTE photo!

But then…then I came across this video.  And I’m giggling like a madwoman because here I am, looking like a total goober throughout the entire thing, and I didn’t even know it existed.

And, because I love you, my readers, I thought I would share my gooberness with you.  I’m especially fond of the 14 second mark, where I make a quick appearance just to drawl “bubbles”.  Tee hee!

By the way – my dress is from one of my favorite online stores – ModCloth, and the shoes are Steve Madden.  The crazy mad scientist lab coat was courtesy of Wisk HE.  I especially love that Nichelle from StyleMom immediately cinched hers up with a belt.  Only someone that fashionable could make a lab coat look good.  I’m just sayin’.

Reinventing Beauty {Video!}

Have I ever mentioned to you that I have no concept of time?  Really, I don’t.  It annoys the heck out of people – even people who have known and loved me since I was a child want to shake me over this ridiculous lack of time-consciousness.  I’ll say I’ll be right back and I show up 4 hours later – tell you I’ll call you in 10 minutes and call you in 10 days.  I’m not denying that it’s annoying.  I live in Erika world, on Erika time.  It’s not one of my more charming qualities.

Speaking of never doing things on time – this brings me back to why I’m here.  Remember back in September I went to NYC to attend this little thing called Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week?  Well, while I was there I was invited to the CVS Reinventing Beauty Lounge – a pop-up spa like experience where I was basically pampered by having my nails, makeup, and hair all done.  While I was there, I was able to hang out with both Robert Verdi and Nigel Barker.  If it sounds like heaven…well, that’s because it is.

The highlight of the event was having my makeup done by Cover Girl Makeup Artist Jake Bailey.  He explained all of the different Cover Girl products to me, and gave me a rather stunning makeover with all of the products.  My absolute favorite of the bunch, which I have now incorporated into my daily routine, is the Outlast Lipstain.  It looks and works much like a marker — just paint it on your lips and go!  Jake also showed me a technique using a lip brush to get a lighter color from the lipstain that just made me look like I had these fantastic, naturally flushed lips.  I also fell in love with the Simply Ageless Foundation – and I am very loyal to my Clinique foundation, so that was a big jump for me!

Not that you are at all surprised, but I also made this video of my experience at the CVS Reinventing Beauty Lounge – it’s a lot of fun, and a little of me being silly (imagine that!) so enjoy!

Bubbles and Bubbly {Video Recap}

If you’ve been keeping up with my escapades, you know that I returned to NYC for the second time in as many weeks. This time is was not to cover fashion, but to learn more about one of the things that enables me to take care of the clothing that I so thoughtfully invest in. Wisk and LaundryHE invited several of us social-media types to my adopted city to learn a bit about regular versus HE detergent.

Is this the part where I confess to you that I couldn’t even begin to guess the difference before Tuesday night? Now however, well, let’s just say you’re reading the random musings of a chick who is BUBBLE CERTIFIED. Oh yeah, no need to adjust your screen, you read that correctly.  The experts in effervescence gave me a major crash course in suds-ology.  I loved it.

All joking aside, I actually learned a lot about Wisk’s HE detergent at the event.  I heard the claims about HE creating fewer bubbles, and heard that too many suds can actually trap extra dirt and oils in your clothing and prevent them from getting clean — but it really clicked for the hands-on learner in me when I got to see it first hand.  I actually got to see the difference in the two detergents side by side, and had proof that HE got clothes just as clean with fewer suds, right there in my hands.

It was pretty cool.  I was kinda surprised at how much I learned!  Of course, I also learned all about Champagne from the sommelier who was on-hand.  Did you know that a good champagne should smell like toast or brioche?  Did you know that the better the champagne, the longer the taste will linger in your mouth?  Did you know that more pinhead-sized bubbles in your glass actually indicates a better champagne?  Now you do, and so do I!

Check out my video from the event below, and get an inside peek at the event.  You can also check out my Whrrl story for a better timeline.  Also, I wanted to let you know that you can enter to win a HE Washer and Dryer from Maytag and Wisk right now at LaundryHE.   Runners up will get a years supply of Wisk HE — so go check it out and enter!

“Wisk”ed Away to New York

Oh, things are so busy around the House of Chic.  (I just made that up, clearly it’s well past midnight and I’m still drinking coffee when the craziness hits the fan.)  I am so excited to be heading back up to NYC to spend Tuesday evening learning all about Bubbles!  Wisk has invited several bloggers up for a special event to learn about the inner workings of High Efficiency Laundry detergent – and I’ve gotta say that I’m pretty darn excited about it. As much as I’d just like to buy new clothes instead of washing and re-wearing the ones I already own, my limited budget prohibts such activites.  So…at the very least, it is extremely important for me to know the best way to take care of my clothing!

Naturally I’m really looking forward to it, as well as meeting some of the other bloggers.  Of course, before any of this can happen, I’ve got to get on a plane from my much beloved hometown of New Orleans to New York City.  And while that may sound like a simple little thing – it requires some form of goverment ID on my behalf.  Of course, as I discovered, there is one teensy, tinsy little problem.

My driver’s license expired a month and a half ago on my 27th birthday.  Oops.

So, first thing tomorrow morning, (oh wait, that would be in 5 hours) yours truly will be standing in line, waiting to get one of those eternally unflattering photos snapped for that little piece of plastic that tells the world that I passed a driving test at the tender age of 15.

Wonder if I should tell them that I drove into a ditch only 3 days later?

The good news is that I’m already packed!  Less than 48 total hours in NYC, and I’ve managed to narrow it down to 4 complete outfits, 5 pairs of shoes, 4 necklaces, 3 pairs of earrings, a blowdryer, curling iron, and flat iron.  Aren’t you proud?

I knew you would be.

Project Runway Party Video Recap!

My head is still spinning from covering Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and basically feeling like I had a full-time, real person’s job for roughly a week.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved every.single.second.  I am already making plans to return in February, to attend the final week in the tents at Bryant Park.  Not only did I have an amazing week at the tents, but I was fortunate to wrap up my week by covering the Project Runway Reception and Screening for Lifetime Moms.  I made the awesome video below for you, so you can feel like you were right there with me.

We were able to attend a reception at the Hearst Tower (where I totally had a “Confessions of a Shopaholic” moment when I was going up the escalator!) for Project Runway’s current season, after which we all piled into a lush executive theater to watch the 5th episode of this season!  You’ll find three of my favorite pictures below, but you can see all of my photos from the Project Runway Party in my Flickr stream.

These two were really, really nice!  I was originally standing to the left of both of them, and they insisted that I jump in the middle.   If you watched last week’s Project Runway, you saw Louise puncture her finger with the sewing machine — I asked her how she was doing, and she showed me that her fingers healed nicely.  She did share with me that she was so upset at the camera men when that happened, because there was one guy on each side of her, and both of them kept filming, neither of them made a move to help out.  Ahhh, the woes of reality TV.

Irina was the winner of the challenge in the Episode that we watched (where they used newspaper and she made that awesome coat with it!) and I had a great time chatting with her afterwards.  She was really nice — you can see her waving to me and my ubiquitous Flip Cam at the end of the video.

Then, of course, there was Althea Harper, whom I absoultely adored.  I talked to her mom for quite a while when Althea was on the red carpet being interviewed, and she and Althea both invited me to Althea’s Fashion Show the next night.  Unfortunately I coudln’t make it, but they were both so, so sweet – and I was really impressed with Althea in general.  We chatted about Tory Burch (I had just attended her show/presentation the day before), how it is to work for/with her, and about the fact that she designed what she was wearing.  She was so down to earth, it was like talking to an old friend!

I was so impressed with the entire cast of Project Runway Season 6 – they were all cheering each other on, supporting each other, applauding and squealing when Heidi told each of them that they were “safe”.  Watching that episode with them spoiled me, really, and just made me want to have a Project Runway party with all of them each week so that I could continue to feel the camradarie.

Think my mom will clap with me this week everytime we discover someone is “safe”?  It’s worth a try.