SONYA DAKAR’S SUMMER ROOFTOP PARTY

I try to never miss an event at the Sonya Dakar Skin Clinic, which is in her beautiful iconic building in Beverly Hills.  (It’s the former home of Arista Records.)  Her annual rooftop soiree is one of the highlights of summer.  (And of any season in which she has a party up there!)

This year, the weather really cooperated, with beautiful ocean breezes all day.  And I love that several of us, (including adorable Veep of the company, Mimi Dakar Berry, and moi,) were rocking white or cream lace dresses and skirts.  It added a special air of camaraderie to the proceedings.

This Beauty Day featured all kinds of services, along with delicious healthful snacks, (all of which I’ll get to in a sec,) but I must go out of order to tell you about my shocking highlight of the day.  It was a wonderful crafts table, courtesy of Little Junebugs.  We each received a blank beige Sonya Dakar tote, and they provided initial stencils and all my favorite colors of acrylic paints, and we got to sit there and paint our initial, and whatever else we liked, on our bag.  (For the less artistic, or more pampered, guests, there was the uber-pleasant Courtney Collins on-site to paint theirs for them.)   Painting and drawing are actually now finally getting their due as acknowledged stress-reducers, and I could have sat there all day and kept painting!  But I was happy with my creation, so I moved along to the chow.  (You know how much I love an activity when I put it ahead of food!!!)

So now, let’s get back to the start of the my Beauty Day at Sonya Dakar’s.  It began with a manicure courtesy of Priv, which is a services app.  On their display were little bottles of their own line of polishes, which are perfect for travel, but I didn’t notice them until almost the end of my mani, so the lady in charge told me to take some and try them out at home.  I can’t wait!  But I’m hoping the other-brand colors I chose that day stay on for awhile because I’m in love with them!

Later on, I had my brows done by Alison from the same company, even though she told me mine were already good!  It was a pleasure to hear some honesty from a beautician.  Many tell you what you’ve been doing wrong, so that you’ll “need” them, so this was a breath of fresh air.

In-between those two services, I received the one I needed most–Sonya Dakar’s signature facial!  The aesthetician who worked on my face, Renata, was incredibly kind and caring, which I really appreciated.  She’s absolutely beautiful, too, with gorgeous skin herself, so I could trust that she would know exactly what to do for my very tired skin.  If you choose your own facial at Sonya’s, I recommend you ask for Renata. (Unless you’re lucky enough to get Sonya herself, of course!)

Inside the on-premises hair salon, (that I’ll tell you about in-depth in the Fall,) were a couple of hairstylists creating all kinds of braids, courtesy of Nine Zero One Too, (which is also written as “901too.”)  I could not believe how many different braid designs they came up with!  Abreanna did mine.  I requested a fishtail one because I’ve been fascinated with them for awhile, (but mainly because I’m not a fan of the kielbasa-sausage-around-the-head look!,) and it came out really cute.  I’m more of a leave-the-house-for-services kind of gal, (as opposed to the “in” thing of having a stranger come to my home, via an app) so I can’t wait to go to this place and try another of their many services, hair and otherwise.  (I think my pale bod is aching to be spray-tanned right about now.)

When I was finally looking all spiffed-out, that’s when I painted my canvas bag.  While my artwork was drying, I finally got to chow down a bit.  The healthful, organic snacks were provided by Beaming, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it all!  I usually turn my nose up at food like this, but their two salads were delish!  I could have eaten way more than I did.  (I realized later that I never even tried their giant falafel! My bad, to myself!) And their vegan chocolate chip cookies were the most moist ones I’ve ever had!  Really, it was all so yummy that I actually considered eating healthfully from now on!  (But then it was National Ice Cream Day two days later, so I snapped back to my senses.)

All day, I drank only water, of course, but the other guests were all enjoying Hoxie’s bottled wine spritzers.  They did look very inviting, especially on a summer’s day, but since I abhor the taste of alcohol, (and citrus and ginger, all of which are in there,) I, sadly, could not participate.  But I loved meeting their rep;  she could not have been nicer from the get-go.

We each left with a gift bag, the highlight of which was a Sonya Dakar Beauty Box, (picture at the top,) which was actually being launched that day!  It contains five of the famous products from her clarifying/detox line. Since I had just made sure to take Sonya’s Detox Face Wash with me to San Francisco the week-end before the fete, you know that I’ll be looking forward to trying out my new cache of her miracle workers!

And there you have it—the perfect way to throw a beauty event! I wish they all would be this easy-breezy!