Who: Girlfriends, moms and daughters, makeup and cocktail junkies
What: Ten bucks will get you a manicure, cocktail, hors d’oeuvres, and prizes.
When: Thursday, July 10
Where: Envy Nightclub, 400 First Ave. N.
Why: At other places, ten bucks just gets you a cocktail.
Thing to Know: Eat beforehand, and treat this as dessert.
Downtown Minneapolis nightclub Envy opened its doors earlier than usual to host Manicures and Martinis, an event mostly geared toward women. As a result of combining these two ideas for a party, the environment became a bit silly, and now I’m convinced that cosmetics are the new party drug. Suddenly women were fanning their outstretched fingers. There would be a laugh heard from here and there as women found they could not shake hands in introduction for fear of smudging their wet paint. Wet nail polish will turn a woman into a paranoid fool in her own house, much less a party. But the ladies didn’t let it get too distracting: Many held lengthy conversations while nonchalantly flailing their arms.
Manicurists from Twigg’s Salonspa provided their services, having fought a hailstorm on the way in from Wayzata. In addition to painting nails, they offered makeup touchups as well. One implement proved to be a perfect counterpart to the wet nails: a recreational cosmetic known as the Lip Plumper. So along with seizing, outstretched fingers, there were plump, tingling lips as well. Surely an outsider would have thought we were all on something besides wet lacquer and NIACIN, the vitamin that pulls collagen up into your lip wrinkles.
Alisun Abbott was a lovely hostess, bobbing in and out of the crowd in an adorable black and white pin-up-girl-esque dress. Abbott’s mother, Denise, made an appearance, and Alisun was nice enough to introduce us. Although all we could do was simply display our fresh manicures instead of shaking hands hello, and we could barely say hello as our lip plumpers had just reached full effect. The summer clothing was out en force; everyone seemed to be wearing an airy, brightly colored, floral or otherwise bold patterned dress. Courtney Smallbeck, owner of clothing store Drama, brought even more summer clothing and jewelry available for purchase. Dresses were flowing back and forth throughout the evening as women picked them off the rack to bring to the restroom-turned-dressing room.
For $10, each guest could get a manicure from the ladies at Twigg’s, a drink ticket for a martini, and there were sample size bottles of shampoo on all of the tables, free for the taking. I searched Envy’s martini menu online before heading over and saw a list of twenty sweet cocktails. When I arrived at Envy, I was told I had a choice of four martinis: a pomegranate, a cherry, a triple espresso, or a classic vodka martini, an odd choice of words as a classic martini is made with gin. One lady commented on her pomegranate martini saying with a grimace, “I thought I was drinking corn syrup.” She put the drink back on the bar and exchanged it for something less sweet.
I took a break to use the restroom and noticed a bright, blinking contraption hanging on the wall near the bank of sinks. I took a closer look and found it was a breathalizer test. Could I kill the Pac-Man ghosts while testing my blood alcohol level? It really looked like a game. But I digress. I found my way back to the party and saw three tightly balled up napkins laying in the middle of the floor. I looked to a woman nearby, pointed at the napkins and said, “Well, things are getting crazy now!”
If the name Twigg's Salonspa is ringing familiar, you may remember it from television. Shauna Raisch is the owner of Twigg’s Salonspa, and she made her reality show debut (it’s just a matter of time for all of us) on Split Ends this past May. She made a particularly memorable appearance in which she stormed out of a salon screaming, “Gucci does not do daycare!” Gucci is the name of her diminutive underarm dog. Raisch made an appearance with her salon staff at the party this evening; surprisingly, she was sans Gucci. Hope the little pup is okay.
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