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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Beauty Bash Trip, Part 2: QVC

The end of our trip was the highlight, and the whole point of even going on the trip. The QVC Beauty Bash. After our day in Amish country, we headed to our hotel in the burbs, near the QVC headquarters. Unfortunately, our GPS had no idea where our hotel was, but it was able to find QVC, so we stopped there first. They were already closed, but we snapped this pic of the sign.
Since we looked like a couple of crazy people who were peeking in the windows, a QVC employee came out to talk to us and kindly gave us directions to our hotel. At the hotel, the woman at the front desk handed us these delicious frosted cookies by Cheryl & Co (seriously, they were so good that I ordered some for my grandma for Mother's Day. Yum!) and she told us that there was a special gift waiting for us in our room. We rushed in, and this is what we found (that's the yellow frosted cookie on top):
Inside the box was all this free stuff! We hadn't even officially gone to the beauty bash, and already we were getting free swag! Awesome!

The next morning, the hotel had a free breakfast for all the beauty bashers (which wasn't even supposed to be included in our package, they just threw that in extra) and we got to sit and talk with all the other women who were attending. Most of them lived within a couple of hours driving distance and had been before, so they gave us some inside scoop. Then, the hotel manager came in to greet all of us and started talking about all the vendors that were staying at the hotel too. Then she started gossiping and talking about random funny stories from the vendors...I think she even outed one of them by mistake, but I'm not 100% sure that I heard her correctly.
After breakfast, we drove back over to QVC to have our studio tour. The tour is about an hour long and takes you through the studio and product rooms. We got to see Jill Bauer presenting some clothing. She's much smaller than she looks on tv.

After the tour, we browsed through their onsite store and bought a few things. We got checked in and were handed a big tote bag and a list of vendors so they could check off your list as you collected your free stuff (no double-dipping!). They let us in to a big warehouse that had rows and rows of booths set up for each vendor. There was music playing and lights and beauty products at every turn. It was great!
We met some of the vendors that actually appear on-air at QVC and even saw some of the models (who are like Nicole Richie-skinny). Here's Mom with Holly Mordini, the Smashbox rep. Holly is probably 6 feet tall, and Mom is only 5'1".

Here's Maureen from Tarte. She's in her early 30's and started this company on her own. She is sooooo pretty in person. She's like a glam version of the chick that played Anne Shirley (Megan Follows) in the Anne of Green Gables movies.



Here's Laura Geller. So sweet and funny. Everyone kept wanting pictures with her and she would do all these faux model poses and laugh. She's thinner and better looking in person too.


Here's Carrie, one of the QVC models, trying to go incognito with no makeup, glasses, hat, and her starbucks. Too bad she was in a room full of rabid QVC watchers, because we all spotted her right away. She was very sweet too and took pictures with everyone. We caught her laughing at something that someone said.

The only host we saw was Jill Bauer, who came into the Bash to do some extra prize giveways (we didn't win). We didn't take a picture of her, and I have no idea why. We saw lots of other models and on-air vendors, but we must have gotten tired of taking pictures or something. By the end of the day, our bags probably weighed about 60 pounds. We got so much stuff. Here it is all laid out, almost covering the entire bed.


I've sorted through most of it, but only started using a few things. So far, there are several products that I really like and would buy. I'll do a post on those later. Really, there is so much stuff that its going to take me a while to use it all. There are some things that I've set aside that I know I won't use or somehow got doubles of. I'm sure I can find a few friends who might be interested in it!

6 comments:

NIKOL said...

I love how you know all the QVC host names. I don't even recognize ONE of those people. Of course, I hardly ever watch QVC. For me, it's all about the website. Obviously, I don't know what I'm missing. You got some sweet stuff! Fun!!

Kristina P. said...

I love that you know all these people. I only know the crazy QVC people, from The Soup! That looks like some amazing loot!

Madison! said...

DIBS! I call dibs on the doubles!!

Kris said...

The only stuff I ever watch on there are the beauty shows. I couldn't give a crap about Denim & Co or any of that other stuff. I do check out the website often though. My Mom watches A LOT of QVC and is the one that got me hooked. I used to have it on non-stop when my twins were newborn because I was up at all hours and they could cry through the dialogue and I could still follow what was on screen.

rychelle said...

what a great trip!

your mom is adorable.

Lisa said...

I am sooo jealous. My secret fantasy job is to be an on air host. I think it would be fun for a few days. I can't wait for you to post about the products. I love the mascara you turned me on to. I just got the philosophy tsv from last week and am excite to try the new eye cream.