Tech Girl Explores Qua Bottle Lounge and Finds Some Fresh Beauty Essentials

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. Blacks 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 favorite 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) shared here: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSP8xm_gaK4) called, "New Media [insert colorful expletive.]" (The name tag would read, "Hi my name is Mari, I'm a New Media [colorful 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 makeup 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 makeup 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 ($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 color 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 ($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!

And I still recommend getting your geek on with fellow geeks at Door64! Find out more at http://Door64.com