Girls night! Our Pampering Party

Ah girls night! A time for us ladies to get together with our closest girlfriends, crowd around good food, good music, and catch up! I really love any reason to get together with my friends, but I  especially can't wait to see them when I've had one of those 'longest days weeks ever' kind of moments. It's definitely the busy season…it's the summer season, wedding season, and baby shower season (am I right?!), so I've been traveling a ton. An awesome girls night with amazing girls was definitely in order...from left to right, this is Karissa, myself, Sarah, and Whitney. Alexandra is here too, but behind the camera. 

I called up my good friend Sarah...I can always count on her. I can also count on her to be organized when I'm feeling flustered so we put together a quick menu, a list of fun things to do for our girls night, and reached out to some friends! We invited Whitney who is a colleague of Sarah's and whom I'd met many times before and adored. She is sweet and savvy, the girl just knows how to make you smile. We also invited Karissa, who is the girlfriend of one of our mutual friends (who’s just as awesome) and she is the kind of girl you always want to be around because she’s just an amazing energy. And we also reached out to Alexandra, Sarah's neighbor who is a SUPER talented photographer (all of the photos you'll see today are works of her). She is the neighbor you wish you had because she bakes home made cookies for everyone in the building AND shares her basil plant with anyone who wishes to take some from her porch! I mean I've never even met my neighbors after three years yet alone share a love fern with them. Just an incredible group of girls and our night was set!

www.alexandrabrandlphotography.com

Arrived late having come from a meeting down town, having fought traffic….having moved my life square a bagillion times that day, it was SUCH a moment to arrive to smiling faces and a yummy spread of food! On the menu (and already set up on the table may I add): two kinds of red wines, hummus and chips, peppermint bark, home made pico de gallo, home made chocolate chip brownies, home made crusted zucchini rounds, and my STORE bought cheese platter…womp womp . Note to self: Blue cheese does NOT taste like GOAT cheese, nor does it even sound the same I don't know how that even happened to me.

We sat around the best food, had the best conversations, and then moved the party into the living room where we popped on some tunes and got lost in girly things. They say that when women get together that all they do is polish their nails, braid one another's hair, and talk about boys. Well they'd be right …...except for the braid part. Next time. Besides the smelly feet cheese and rosemary crackers... I also brought along with me the new... no light needed Sally Hansen® Miracle Gel™ polishes, and I brought along three colors; Pink Cadillaquer, Hydro Electric, and Purplexed. We sat around the table, dove into the colors and here is what we did!

The photo above is our model pose…how we would pose if we were hand models…which I mean, we totally could be! Posing, pampering, and giggelfests...I had so much fun with these ladies and I can't thank Alexandra enough for capturing these moments. You won't see her in any of the photos because she was the magic behind them! 

So I've been a long time lover of salon gel manicures. Being so busy, I don't have time to fuss over my nails, to have them chip or peel on me, or to even deal with the fuss of purchasing a UV light for home so that I could potentially do them myself. However this is a great way to get that salon look, at home, and the polishes were awesome not at all fussy. I'd suggest applying 2-3 nice thick, even coats of your chosen color onto your nail, wait a few minutes and then apply the top coat. The polishes dry pretty quickly, as we learned by doing the 'test', where you touch your nails together and if they don't stick they're ready. And they were ‘ready’ quicker than I'd expected them to be. 

The brush has got to be my favorite thing about the polishes aside from the vibrant colors. It's not too thick or thin, or too square (you know what I mean here, totally important), it takes the shape of your nail bed quickly, and applies the color evenly. If you choose a more transparent color like Pink Cadillaquer, I'd suggest making a 'double lined' kind of pattern on your nail with the color, to be sure that you cover your entire nail and that the polish is distributed evenly.

On Sarah is Purplexed, a deep purple, and Karissa is wearing Pink Cadillaquer, an all around favorite- a pastel pink rich in color.

Whitney and Alexandra have Hydro Electric on, a gorgeous hue of blue, and I used both Pink Cadillaquer and Purplexed to recreate my favorite cupcake pattern on my nails but of course! My reason…."sometimes you want to say hi with one color, and goodbye with another color!". I crack myself up! It's been a few days now since our pampering party/girls night and my nails have held up really nicely AND I get to say hello with one color and goodbye with another.

I highly recommend spending an evening with your friends, catching up, slowing down, having fun, and just remembering that the world may be moving quickly but we have people around us to keep us grounded. Amen for that! If you want to enter for a chance to win your very own set of these awesome polishes (I suggest you do, I mean..girls night!) simply enter the #PerfectPairSweeps <---- this is the hash tag you're going to want to use when you submit a photo of YOUR own #MiracleMani to enter to win, and you can submit that here. 

Please TAG me also when you enter so that I can see all of your pampering parties, what your nails look like, and can live vicariously through your girls night! I'm @Jess_Lizama on both Twitter and Instagram. I've also included all of our yummy recipes below so you can try them out at your next girls night or get together and let me know how it turns out!

Thus my goal for the rest of the year is to each month set aside time for myself, time with my friends, and time to reflect. We all need that sometimes and shouldn't feel guilty or unproductive when you do. I promise you'll tackle life so much more refreshed and relaxed the next day when you take a day to yourself. Big hugs to my Sarah, Whitney, Karissa, and Alexandra for spending the evening with me, talking all things life and love... like girls do, and let's do more of this ladies!

Please check out more of Alexandra's work here,she is a fantastic photographer and amazing at capturing moments. 

Have a great weekend and I hope you get a lil you time in really soon! 

xoxo- 

Jess

The noms:

 Chipotle Brownies (thanks to Sarah!):
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon chipotle powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 ounces peanut butter chocolate chips
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup sour cream
2/3 cup chocolate chunks

Heat oven to 325 degrees, butter and flour an 8x8 inch baking pan. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon, chipotle powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. 

In a medium saucepan bring 1 inch of water to a simmer. Add butter, peanut butter and semisweet chocolates to a metal bowl large enough to sit on top of the saucepan. Melt ingredients, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir until smooth. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Whisk on high until slightly thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour in the melted chocolate mixture and whisk on medium for 30 seconds. Add the flour mixture and whisk on low for 30 seconds. Add sour cream and whisk on medium for 30 seconds. Stir in chocolate chunks by hand. 

Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. 


*best ever- Zucchini Parmesan Crisps (thanks to Karissa):
2-3 medium zucchini
olive oil or coconut oil
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and coat a baking sheet with cooking spray or line with wax paper. Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch thick rounds. In a medium bowl, toss the zucchini into the oil and in a smaller bowl combine the cheese, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Dip each zucchini round into the cheese mixture, coating it evenly on both sides of it, and then press the coating onto the rounds for the mixture to stick. 

Place the rounds in a single layer on the baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until browned and crisp. 

Enjoy! 

Sally Hansen® Miracle Gel™ At Last! Gel without the light! 

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Sally Hansen®  via Mode Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Sally Hansen®.