Chocolate & Makeup & Beer? Oh Yes!

I participated in two Goose Island Beer, Vosges Chocolate and Benefit Cosmetics sponsored events as part of my affiliation with SoCal Lady Bloggers and Latina Lifestyle Bloggers. All opinions are 100% mine.

As a blogger, I get perks. Let’s not sugar-coat is. I get invited to events… and I blog about them. Some of them are pretty cool, some of them are so-so. These two that I attended two nights in a row, were all kinds of awesome!

On Wednesday evening, I attended a beer and chocolate tasting at Whole Foods Market in Venice, California. Despite the fact that most of the people there had heard of Goose Island Beer and Vosges Chocolate… I had no clue who they were. Bad me. I guess I’m not all that caught up on the finer things in life. Oh well… I am now. I’ve never been a beer drinker - wine is more my thing. But, I’m always up for trying new things and I have to say I was crazy surprised how much I am now a Goose Island fan.

Goose Island Beer is a craft beer from Chicago. We were really fortunate to have their beer sommelier, Suzanne, there to explain each beer we tasted. A sommelier is like a wine steward (someone who knows everything there is to know about beer).

We also had David Crosby, from Vosges Chocolate in Chicago, on hand to talk to us about the different kinds of chocolate we would be tasting with the beer.

Who knew that beer and chocolate would go so well together? Vosges new line of “Wild Ophelia” chocolates are amazing. We tried the Southern Hibiscus Peach, Smoked BBQ Potato Chips, Peanut Butter & Banana, and Beef Jerkey. I am partial to the Peach, while my kids (I might have brought home some samples) really liked the Beef Jerkey chocolate.

We tried several selections of Goose Island Beer: Sofie (my favorite), Matilda, Pepe Nero, and Pere Jaques. If you haven’t had chocolate and beer together, you are missing out. Just like wine can be paired with different tastes and foods, so can beer. Who knew? It’s actually quite an art and if you have the chance to go to a beer tasting, do it. You might be surprised.

On Thursday night, I decided that I hadn’t had enough beer and chocolate, so I headed down to Santa Monica to Benefit Cosmetics to attend another Goose Island event: Beer and Makeup… with some more chocolate thrown in.

So, continuing my complete lack of knowledge, I had never tried Benefit makeup before. Of course, I knew about them, but had never actually purchased any of their products. When you walk into the store, you are kind of overwhelmed by the amount of products they have and all the colors and business. It’s like an adult candy store and you kind of want to try it all, but don’t really know where to start.

There was definitely a full house. Suzanne from Goose Island was there to share some different kinds of beer than what we had tried the night before. My favorite tonight? The Madame Rose beer that has a very strong cherry flavor… OMG is was Yummy! Seriously, have I ever said that about a beer before? This is the fancy stuff… $20 a bottle, but worth every penny.

But this night wasn’t just about the beer and chocolate… we had all kinds of fun getting our make-up done.

Ana Lydia - Gracie - Melanie

And yes… I even had my makeup done too. Kat was amazing. I complained that nobody could ever find me a lipstick that worked well with my skin-tone and she was up to the challenge. She told me she would find me one on her first try… and she did! Woo Hoo! I finally have a lipstick that I love and can wear every day. And their lipsticks are phenomenal… more like a gloss than a sticky, yucky-tasting one.

So, I had two nights in a row of drinking beer and eating chocolate. That’s so unlike me. But it was incredibly fun… and I need to get out more!

Goose Island Beer provided me with samples of their beer. Vosges Chocolate provided me with samples of their Wild Ophelia chocolate bars. Benefit Cosmetics provided me with a Gift Card to their store… which I promptly used AND added to myself. All opinions and photos are mine alone.