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beauty:
overview
 Beauty and the geek
M. K. Johnson, self-confessed tech
girl, explores Qua Bottle Lounge
in downtown Austin, Texas and finds
some Fresh beauty essentials
Kewal Hausmann works on the author
MY HUSBAND, and fellow geek, hit
the superbly comfortable and laid J. Black’s lounge for the
Door64 networking event and were told that the lounge had already
hit capacity and it was ‘one in one out,’ or we could
go into recently opened ‘The Ranch’ next door. So we tried
the Ranch, which was very nice and very welcoming to all the Door64
overflow visitors, but it was just too loud to do any networking
besides the nodding and waving everyone else was doing. After a
few minutes we headed back down the steps to the street to check
out the line at J. Black’s again.
Though we were able to get in this time, J. Black’s
was even louder and far more cramped. Even when we saw people we
knew, we had to shout just to say hello. I managed to see some of
the artwork I’d wanted to see by one of my favourite local
artists, Fe De Rico, on display in the lounge, but it was even tough
to see that through the throng of people.
In the spirit of networking effectively, I had
briefly thought to add a little levity to my name tag by choosing
a catchy title to go with my “apple” flair sticker
that designated my ‘web’ (new media, web publishing, etc.)
designation—in keeping with the link
(thanks to ProBlogger) called ‘New Media [insert colourful
expletive].’ (The name tag would read, ‘Hi, my name is
Mari, I’m a New Media [colourful expletive]!’) My husband
thought that might not be nearly as amusing to everyone else as
it was to me. I bet I would have given away a lot more business
cards though.
Still, we couldn’t take screaming greetings
at people for more than a few minutes so we made our excuses and
left. But we had already paid for parking so we decided to salvage
the evening by trying out Qua Bottle Lounge which we’d been
meaning to go to for ages. Local radio station 101X and Sephora
Beauty were holding an event with Qua’s Gossip Happy Hour and
after striking out at our networking event, I was definitely
in the mood for something different. So a few minutes (and few blocks)
later, we walked into Qua Bottle Lounge where they had a sampling
of goodies and appetizers laid out from Mars Restaurant & Bar.
Off to the left we were immediately greeted by Wendy, the Color
Lead at Sephora and Anthony, another wonderful make-up artist from
Austin’s Arboretum location. (Wendy was also filling
in as guest DJ for Deb at 101x’s morning show, The MorningX,
which I can’t start the day without.) An offer to touch up
my make-up was too good to pass up, so I took a seat in one of Qua’s
practically luxurious booths that had been set as a mini-Sephora
boutique, and had a fresh touch-up by make-up artist extraordinaire
and Fresh Area Selling Specialist, Kewal Hausmann.
Kewal used Fresh Island Reverie Face Palette
(US$55) on me, which took me from tired and sad looking to perky,
and well, fresh—in seconds flat. Fresh makes outstanding
products, but this palette is one of the most usable colour products
I’ve seen them come out with to date. The pigment concentration
is rich but the texture blends beautifully so you get exactly the
depth you want, no more, no less.
In case that wasn’t enough to get excited
about I also a got sneak peak (well, a sneak-sniff actually) at
Fresh’s newest ultra-sensual fragrance, Cannabis Rose (US$75),
which not only features the titillating cannabis accord, but also
dark chocolate, pomegranate and oolong tea with its alluring rose
heart.
So an evening that started out all work and no
play (well, maybe some play) was destined to be decadent. And now
I’m off to Sephora to get my own palette and a few more goodies
to go with it! •
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Fresh Island Reverie Face Palette (US$55)
Fresh Cannabis Rose eau de parfum (US$75)
An offer to touch up
my make-up was too good to pass up, so I took a seat in one of Qua’s
practically luxurious booths that had been set as a mini-Sephora
boutique, and had a fresh touch-up by make-up artist extraordinaire
and Fresh Area Selling Specialist, Kewal Hausmann
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