36 Hours in New York City

New York City is one my absolute favorite places to visit. My husband and I have taken a few trips there, I’ve been a few times for work, and I hope to take my kids one day when they are older.

Every time I visit I wish I had a bit more time to spend in a new place I stumbled upon. Last time, it was West Village/SoHo, so when I realized I had a few hours of free time last Tuesday, that is where I headed.

I was in New York City to host an event with Birchbox at their still pretty new store in SoHo! I had hoped to visit when I was in the city back in May, but they hadn’t opened yet. So when the opportunity came up to both collaborate with them AND visit the store, I couldn’t pass it up!

My time in NYC was short, so I needed to work with all the energy I could possibly muster to make the most of the trip.

I arrived late Monday evening, and after a few hotel room issues finally settled in for the night around 1:30am. 5:30am came early the next morning, but I was so excited about what the day held that I was instantly awake.

I worked on a project with Birchbox that morning, had lunch with a few of the girls, and then had a couple hours of free time to kill in the afternoon.

I popped back in to my hotel room, did a quick change, and then headed straight for the Birchbox store in SoHo. I wanted to see it and “take it all in” before having to be “on” later that evening for the styling event.

The store is definitely worth checking out. It’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be, and the makeup and beauty products is seemingly endless. It’s clean and well organized, but there is still a lot to take in!

After building my own Birchbox, and wandering through every inch of the place, I walked a few blocks over to the Bite Lip Lab to make another lipstick color.

I so enjoyed doing that last time I was in NYC, and made a pretty bold orange-y red, so I thought it would be fun to make more of an everyday pink color.

Bridget, one of the store employees and managers I believe, actually remembered me from many months ago! It was nice to catch up and work with her again on a new shade.

Afterwards, I picked up Chipotle, ordered an Uber because I wanted to see what that was like, and returned to my hotel to freshen up.

The styling event was held at the store, and we offered donuts and apple cider from Doughnuttery. I only managed to snag 2 tiny donuts, and that is now a huge life regret. They were so delicious and I will definitely seek them out next time I’m in NYC.

I created 3 hair tutorials for Birchbox to be featured at the event. My favorite is the textured and twisted fishtail. The inspiration for it came from this photo that has been circulating Pinterest for a few weeks.

It was so fun to meet some readers and get to do live demo’s on a few of the girls! I miss working behind the chair, so it’s truly a pleasure to be able to get my hands in some hair again.

I left at just about the crack of dawn the next morning, being driven out to the airport by a man with an alarming amount of road rage for 6:00am, and slept the entire flight home.

It was really fun to have a little change up from the usual schedule for a couple days, but I was ready to get home by Wednesday morning.

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• Hairstyles