Happy Birthday Fun Time!

Birthday Look 2012

Hello, Beauty Fans! Let's face it, gals, when you're over 45, as I am, birthdays can be a little daunting, bringing on crankiness, a maudlin attitude, and a rethinking of the whole 'No Plastic Surgery For Me' resolution.

So to make it all go down easier, I invite a few friends, find a new exciting bar, make sure everything I'm eating, drinking, and wearing on my face makes me smile, and try to look as fabulous as humanly possible.

Here's what I did with my look:

Hey, I EARNED these crow's feet!

Peekaboo Green Lids

So let me tell you what I wore on my face, and then we'll talk further about the festivities.

Face:

• Embryolisse Lait Créme Concentré
• Olay Wrinkle and Line Filler as primer
• skin79 Hot Pink Super+ Triple Function BB Cream
• Bare Minerals Mineral Veil
• Cinema Secrets Peach corrector for under eye circles
• Dermablend concealer in Sand

Wet n' Wild Color Icon Comfort Zone Palette

Eyes:

• Urban Decay Primer Potion
• Wet n' Wild Color Icon Comfort Zone eye shadow palette: Crease color on left, duochrome (yay!) definer on right, green eyelid color on outer edge of lid, and orange eyelid color on rest of lid. So if you don't own this one, go get it! I love it so!
• Ardell false eyelashes in #150 Demi. I love false eyelashes for vamping up a look. They are so old school and wonderfully challenging to put on. So feminine and romantic. This set is still a bit natural, and yet thick and dramatic.
• Urban Decay 24/7 glide on pencil in Perversion. The best black gel pencil eyeliner I've ever tried. I applied it to upper lash line and lower lash line, smoked it out a bit with a smudger brush, and put some more of the Wet n' Wild definer shades over it to blend it even more.

Cheeks:

• La Femme Blush in Coral on apples
• Milani XL Bronzer in Fake Tan 02A as contour under cheekbones and around forehead and temples
• NYX "butt" naked palette, the pink highlighter, on tops of cheeks

Lips:

• Ellis Faas Milky Lips in L204

And on to the food and drink!

Beef and Shrimp Crepes at Xoia

 
LUNCH:
I love, love, love Vietnamese food, and there are some great places here in my neighborhood of Silver Lake/Echo Park, on the East Side of Los Angeles. One of my favorites is Xoia. I had the Beef and Shrimp Crepes with Hoison-Peanut sauce. The sauce is so good, you almost want to bathe in it. The crepes are crispy savory eggy goodness, and inside the beef and shrimp are sweet and tender, and the sprouts and herbs crispy. So delicious!

A NIGHT OUT:
I love to know what's going on in L.A., so I subscribe to a variety of emails that keep me informed. They include Thrillist, UrbanDaddy, Daily Candy, and the Rundown on L.A. When a place appears in more than one of them, I know it's going to be cool.

The folks who own the Thirsty Crow in Silver Lake, a retro speakeasy-feeling joint that specializes in rye-based cocktails, have done it again with the Sassafras Saloon in Hollywood. This place has barrel-aged cocktails, and specializes in Southern-style comfort food and ambiance. It's roomy enough to have two stories of a Savannah row-house inside it, with Spanish moss hanging from the rafters, lots of cozy seating, and antique furnishings aplenty. So much fun.

Sassafras Saloon Interior, Hollywood, CA

The barrel-aged Sazerac, although lacking the key flavor of Herbsaint/Absinthe, is very good, as are all the barrel-aged cocktails. The food is all New Orleans-style and richly delicious, especially the cheesy grits with shrimp, the sweet potato fries, and the barbecue sliders.

I believe I saw actor Neil McDonough with a crew of friends roll in about halfway through the festivities. Thanks for joining on my birthday, Neil! Celebrity sighting—check!

Sassafras Cocktail Menu

Here's where you can find all this joy:

Map to Sassafras Saloon

And finally, to top off the evening, which was loads of fun with such wonderful friends, I got my birthday wish!

Dreams do come true!

Yay! Birthday depression averted! Makeup collection expanded! Joy and love increased! Happy Birthday to me!

I've been filming all my sample box openings, so I'm now behind on editing, of course. I've got my Sedona Lace Swatch Saturday 28 Neutral palette photos to edit, so lots to do this weekend! And lots of fun to come!

As always, please let me know what you think in the comments below. What did you do for your last birthday? What are you planning for your next? How do you like to do it up? Let me know!

Cheers!

<3BeautyJones