More LA Scentsation – and a Giveaway of your very own!

OMG!   I don’t even know where to start.  Well..  let me just start with an update – remember my little Chicken Little Butt?  I’d dug the hole below the compost and…well, you know how I thought it was going to end.  Apparently El O is the Butt Whisperer – I left a sick, tiny chick and came home to a pretty decent-sized young chicken.  She is now only about 20% smaller than her sisteren and she is running around, eating and pooping like a chicken should!  She says to tell all of you hello and thanks for your well wishes!  On to LA!!!

Neela Vermeire goodies

So!  LA.  OMG!  I know, I need to get on with it.  Well, where to start…omg!  we were soSOSO thrilled to have so many great perfumers and distributors participate in this Event.  Wanna know just how much work goes into making an Event like this work?  A whole lot.  Here’s March and Patty, working like fiends to get the goodie bags loaded up …and I mean LOADED!   We nearly fainted when we opened the box of Strange Invisible Perfumes !!!  Lyric Rain. Moon Garden! Epic Gardenia, each one more beautiful than the one before……. my dad had a saying….it involves defecation or losing your eyesight.  I now know just what that saying means! LOL!  There was barely room to fit all the goodies in the bags we had!  Thanks to the incredible Tom, who provided us with cool canvas bags – we filled those things UP!!!!!  Btw – Tom is indispensable when it comes to BH and points West.  He helped Frank navigate through some really rough stretches of  traffic.  You do NOT want to get on the wrong side of the Beverly Hills Cops!  He also kept a goodly number of us from acquiring $250 tickets for walking against the light.  LA is fierce!!!  Mean Streets, baby.  MEAN!

courtesy Jeffrey Dame/Hypoluxe

THE BUS!!!  We piled on the Bus and Frank took us to SCENT BAR!  The gorgeous and exciting Portia kept us regaled with lots of hysterical stories and …well, I am just madly in love with her !!!  She kept us in stitches until we got to Scent Bar where we …well…it was magical.  Seriously.  Franco and his incredible Team of Fabulousness treated us like royalty!  Portia (gawd, just HOW did you hold up for the day – and in those heels?) MC’d the Event …  Portia and I sampled and reviewed Amouage Opus VII right there in Scent Bar!  Thanks to Christopher Chong and Amouage for making that happen!

courtesy Jeffrey Dame/Hypoluxe

Then it was on to Beautyhabit!  Wow…talk about a HAUL!  Beautyhabit is in Westlake Village which might as well be on the moon, from a freeway perspective.  We caught traffic…and it looked grim…except Portia kept us going with banter and fabulous giveaways,  and soon enough, we pulled into the lovely parking lot of..Beautyhabit, where  the beauties Teresa and Paula and their gorgeous, delightful crew made us swoony with welcome!

Lunch was exquisite, courtesy of Chef Vazquez of Rock Chef Rolls.  Portia won Chef in a drawing but I think Paula made her give him back (sadface).  Damn shame – the man can COOK!  And he’s pretty easy on the eyes, too!  Paula weighs less than my handbag.  I just don’t understand it!  I would be bigger than Chef’s foodtruck!  sigh.

beautyhabit lunch

aisles of fabulousness

As fabulous as lunch was (and it was!  I dream about that salad)….let me just tell you….nothing compares to walking into Beautyhabit’s brick-and-mortar store.  March and I just stood there, gobsmacked.  I mean it.  For a full 45 seconds, we couldn’t move, just stood there, clutching each other like we’d hit Lotto!  It’s a beauty/perfume junkie’s Paradise!  I could bore you with words…but I’d rather show you.  When it came time to leave I had to scour every inch of the store, to make sure we didn’t leave anybody behind.  Folks were clinging to the shelves, whimpering, begging for just a few more minutes….yah.  Fuggesdaboutit!  GET ON THE BUS!

I have so much more to tell you, including yapperage about the charming and gorgeous Brent Leonesio of Smell Bent, who took time to COME ON THE FREAKIN’ BUS! because Frank couldn’t find a parking space anywhere near Brent’s stand.     We had to cut it short, alas – and now we wish we hadn’t because it was a whole lot more fun than Beverly Hills, though…whatchagonnado, eh?  Next time it’s Smell Bent!  But for now,  Brent is having an online Garage Sale now – get thee to it!

Okay!  One last thing before I get to the giveaway – I noticed that a lot of you are concerned about having to be an extrovert to enjoy this type of Event.  Naw!  That’s why we have Portia!  And The Posse Gals!  You can choose to ramble on with friends new and old..or you can just relax and quietly observe the Crazy as it unfolds.   We do ‘ask’ after folks, to make sure they are feeling comfy – and several of our guests made it clear that they were just hanging back, having a good

Paula lovin’ Portia!

time just hanging back.  So don’t worry about that.  It works anyway you want it to – until you try to abscond with The Chef.  Then it gets a little dicey!  But in the end….see?  All smooches!!!

So!  To our giveaway (‘finally! lawd, but that girl do go on, don’t she?’)….the elegant Jeffrey Dame of Hypoluxe wants those of you who couldn’t make it to the Scentsation to have a bit of fun, too!  So he has kindly offered up sample vials of his fabulous new scent Grand Cuir by Parfums Retro.  If you recall this is the one I am in love with, that smells like cold cream and leather and a whole lotta fabulous!  The first 50 people who request a sample at sendmeasample@grandcuir.com will get one!  Isn’t that lovely?  I think so.  And when you smell Grand Cuir I think you will, too!  It’s a little bit of the LA Scentsation, coming to your mailbox!  Don’t forget to give Jeffrey your mailing info!

Portia w/Jeffrey Dame