LA Recap Part I: Friends, Food and Fun with JulieG and Chalkboard Nails

I’m back from what turned out to be a nail blogger’s DREAM vacation to Los Angeles! I’m still pinching myself. As some of you know, I headed to LA to do another Jesse’s Girl/Rite Aid in-store appearance with JulieG. These events are getting more fun and less stressful as I get a few under my belt. In fact, I’m probably more excited to meet you guys than you are to meet me! And the trip was made even more exciting with the addition of Chalkboard Nails, my partner in nail crime.

So I thought I’d do a few posts about the trip. There will be nails of some sort in all of them, I promise. :D In this one I’ll cover the actual event and my Real Housewives celebrity moment (GAH!). The next post will be all about my tour of the OPI Headquarters (so amazing!), and in the last one I’ll share about our visit to The Painted Nail and all the mind-blowing stuff in the works from Katie Cazorla. I wanted to take her home with me in my suitcase because I love her that much.

PART I: RITE AID EVENT AND LISA VANDERPUMP

I arrived Friday evening and Julie and I grabbed dinner at Via Alloro in Beverly Hills. We went there the last time we were in LA. Great food and so fun to sit outside and take it all in. If you follow her vlog, Julie is seriously EXACTLY that sweet girl in person. After dinner we went to the makeshift bar in the hotel (the real bar is getting remodeled) and waited for Sarah to arrive. Sarah roped us into playing Heads Up. Have you played it? So hilarious! Later Sarah did some nail art for us for the event the next day. YUP! Chalkboard Nails did my nails. Woot.

Here’s Julie’s vlog (from her Vlogging Channel) that covers Friday night so you can see all of the shenanigans in real time. LOL. She also shows the nails Sarah did for her (beautiful, of course!) Sarah and I start to make our appearance around the 8 min mark.

We woke up the next day and headed to breakfast at The Griddle Cafe. Soooo many people said we had to try it. I’m so glad we did. Seriously, when we were done, we all stared at each other and said it was the single best breakfast of our lifetime. You must go if you go to LA. But go early. The line gets long fast! I didn’t get a good pic of our food. (The pancake image is via Flickr user Chris Hei)

Then we went to Rite Aid. Oh my goodness. The line was already long! People had been waiting for a few hours already. Julie has been vlogging for over seven years and has a ton of loyal fans. There were a few there to see Sarah and me too. :)

Julie, bless her heart, chatted with every single person as they came through the line.

Sarah and I were set up behind her doing nail art. Nail It! Magazine came by and took some pics too. It was such a great day. I miss doing other people’s nails and it was awesome to get to meet some of you in person. Here’s Sarah in action.

This was a crazy surprise. Jesse’s Girl provided gift bags to the first 50 visitors. I look in the bag and there’s my digits! My nails are on the package for their new matte topcoat. I had no idea! How cool is that?

After the event, we had reservations for dinner at Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurant, PUMP. I’m an unapologetic Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Fan. LOL. The ambiance in the restaurant is so incredibly cool. I’ve never seen anything like it. You may have seen the next pics on Instagram. Imagine my surprise when Lisa, Ken and Giggy walk in and they set them up just one table away from us (behind velvet ropes of course). Gah! It was so exciting!! I’m such a tourist! I tried to get a look at Lisa’s nails but it was dark. I’m certain they were fabulous.

And here’s our “group” shot with Lisa (in the red dress behind us). LOL. We made the waiter take it from the other side of the table so we could get her in the pic (I have no shame). What an awesome night!

Okay, so I’ll leave you with a nail pic. This pic is actually from the next day. I’m sporting the leopard print Sarah did for me the night before. Sarah created a gorgeous gray shade with Presto Gel and gray glitter. She got a zillion compliments on it. The hand at the top is our friend from China Glaze that met us for breakfast the next morning (shhhh…the rose gold on her border nails is coming soon and will be VERY limited edition!)

So there’s Part I. Part II is coming soon so stay tuned. Special thanks again to Jesse’s Girl Cosmetics for making this wonderful meet-up possible. You can purchase JulieG and Jesse’s Girl Cosmetics at Rite Aid Stores nationwide and at www.jessesgirlcosmetics.com.