I was delighted to recently receive an invitation to a special dinner just for Austin bloggers hosted by Birchbox.  Last night, we gathered at West 6th restaurant Arro for a wonderful evening of dinner and drinks.  The girls of Birchbox treated a curated list of their favorite ATX bloggers & editors –their words, not mine. 🙂  …and yes, I was beyond flattered to hear that!–  to a wonderful evening of dining and networking.  I’m thrilled to have met & made live connections with some of my local social media pals, especially the girls from naturallycurly.com and wardrobe stylist Cristina Facundo (& Sara, her sister and local PR maven).  Additionally, I was proud to see that I was included in the company of Austin-based lifestyle blogging queen, Camille Styles.

Our NYC-based hostesses pulled out all the stops:  we were served a welcome cocktail (or in my case, a fun mocktail), passed apps, charcuterie board, salad, and choice of entree & dessert.  I must mention that locally-owned French-casual favorite Arro never disappoints, so their choice of venue definitely solidified the fabulousity of our evening.  The place settings were personalized, the tablescape was adorned with cheerful floral arrangements, and obvi we were all giddy for the goody bags…filled with our own Birchbox, of course!

If the same amount of detail & attention goes into each Birchbox as they put into this dinner, then I’m certainly impressed!  In fact, I learned they have a huge testing culture, making sure every product that makes it into a Birchbox is tried & approved.  Oh, and if you’ve never heard of the concept, it’s pretty innovative:  for $10/month, you get monthly deliveries of personalized beauty, grooming, and lifestyle samples, tailored to your own profile.  You get exposure to try cult brands, up-and-coming lines, and their beauty bestsellers.  I could see their subscription service working really well for new moms, college girls, and transplants to a new city –it takes TIME to find the good beauty stores & trusted make-up artists, y’all!  For now, I’m inspired to go through my cosmetics bag and update it for Fall/Winter 2014 with the fresh fun products found inside my new Birchbox!