Lets start from the beginning, Hey Im Jenessa your Younique Presenter! :) If you have been living under a rock then you wouldn't know the fact that I sell makeup with the all natural makeup company Younique for two years now. Every August they host an annual convention in a different city. The first year I joined the middle of July and it was too late to attend that years convention. The next year, I had just had a baby and wasn't about to haul him and myself to Chicago. But when they announced last year the Convention was in St. Louis I knew I wanted to go so I committed and bought a ticket a year in advance!
Fast forward to August 3-6, 2016. Convention had arrived. I arranged for babysitters, a flight, a room, and I was packed and ready to go! I was soooo excited and nervous. Plus it was my first time traveling alone.
I made it safely, without getting mugged, raped, or kidnapped. I would call that a win! I met up with Petra who is on my cute little team, we grabbed lunch at a yummy little Bistro that was in our hotel, PS we stayed at the Hilton Ballpark and it was great!
She is legit from Mexico and I was darker then her haha
our view
We finally met up with the rest of our crew which was a big deal, and let me tell you why. (even if you dont care haha) I have literally made good friends with these girls over Facebook and 3 of them live out of the state. Petra and I live in Utah. Corina and Kirstyn live in Cali. And Jenna lives in Texas. I had met Corina only one time once before for breakfast but the other two I had never met. But the crazy thing is, I talk to these ladies at least 4-7 times if not more a week. Almost everyday. So to finally meet them in person and get to hug them is so neat.
We headed over to the Convention Center, where majority of our time would be spent. We got registered checked out the building and mingled. The convention didn't start technically till the next day (Thursday).
That night we had scheduled a Dinner Boat Cruise that we were all SOOO excited for. We decided to walk to the pier to take in St. Louis while we could.
So these boats were a little bit ghetto, but I was fine with it. We were getting buffet food! So we get seated and we picked the table closest to the buffet table. (Cause we were hungry and dont judge okay!) Well the chef announces they will do it table by table... starting with the upper deck. We were not on the upper deck. We were on the lower deck. So we were annoyed but its cool, its fine. But keep in mind the cruise started at seven, half of us hadn't eaten all day, so we were starving. By the time the upper deck finishes with all the tables its 8:00 PM. So we are starting to get hangry. Then we realize we are literally going to be THE last table to be allowed to grab food. The panic and hunger has most def set in. By the time we are three tables away its 8:30 and we are not even trying to be nice and pleasant. We are most definitely hangry and withering away, and biting off anyone's head that speaks to us hahah.
Okay okay, we finally get our food and guess what? Its TERRIBLE hahaha (I can definitely laugh about it now but in that moment I really wanted to punch someone in the crotch). Like even the fruit which you cant mess up was mushy like it was rotten. The meatballs tasted like dog feces, the ravioli was hard on the edges. It was just awful. So by that point we were almost crying from laughing/sadness. And I said "Well at least this one piece of broccoli is cut to perfection" just making a joke and trying to find the good out of a terrible situation.
But thats not all folks. This terrible cruise went till 10 pm. And there was ZERO entertainment. We literally sat there while this boat went in circles. It was the dinner cruise from hell haha
We went back to our hotel room that night and made up for it by laughing and staying up till 2 am. I literally made instant best friends with these girls and we all felt SO comfortable around each other!
The next morning we met up with some girls who were a part of a different team but we were friends with. We sat around the pool and ate breakfast. When one of the girls brought these amazing homemade cupcakes. And I am not the girl that can just turn down homemade cupcakes!
It was our first official day of Convention, so of course we got all beautified and headed out! And because our job description is to take ALL the selfies, we did just that! Our cute leader Corina surprised us with some swag with our business names.
We walked into the dome and I was floored by how amazing everything looked and the atmosphere was contagious! We were so pumped cause that morning they were going to release the new products for fall launch.
Well they did announce new products but they decided to announce some every day. But the first set did NOT disappoint. All new skin care line, including an absolutely incredible detoxyfying mask. (Maybe in the future I will tell you guys more about all the new products)
Plus they announced they would be giving us ALL the products that night for FREE! I was so excited! After that we broke off into classes which I wasn't thrilled for I will be honest. But they actually ended up being SO so good!
Makeup 101
Mastering a Consultation
After classes on Thursday we had our opening night party which was a private concert by ONE REPUBLIC!! We were so flipping excited!
I hauled butt to get amazing seats and we got front row. BUT they had a dancing section and then a VIP section. So we decided to ditch the seats and stand in the dancing area. So we made friends with some of the workers that were blocking off the VIP section, and they said that after the first 2-3 songs they would let us go in the VIP section, which was like FEET away from the stage.
So the concert started and I must say One Republic is even more amazing in person. They perfomed so good! They interacted good with the crowd and were so so amazing. So once the staff let us go in the VIP section we like rushed in and got so close, but people were pissed! But we all got over it haha
After the show we took a few pictures with some top level presenters who are kinda a big deal in the Younique world. We also got our free product! whoot whoot!
So at our hotel there is a rooftop bar that is known to be amazing, so we went up to there and checked out the incredible view, took pics and then went back to our room for another 2 am chat and laughs.
The next day (Friday) we had an amazing Key Note Speaker who did this race that basically killed her and she was so amazing and inspirational. Then they announced the next new products, some new lip liners and... LIQUID LIPSTICK!! And once again they were going to give us one of the shades!
Then we broke off for a full day of classes!
That night we were so excited to just go back to our room and chill and eat pizza cause we were going NON stop since we arrived. So I originally just wanted to take a picture with the pizza, but then it turned into an impromptu model sesh with pizza, dollar bills, and duck face. Random? yes. Hilarious? ABSOLUTELY
We wanted to just be lazy that night and stay in our room but we had a LBD get together with our upline, so reluctantly we got ready. But once we did we were feeling pretty dang good about ourselves. We grabbed our first Uber, and made "an appearance" haha probably stayed less then an hour and then headed back to the room for more of our craziness!
We decided that that night would be perfect to test out the new skin care line. So we all did masks and YOU guys!! I can't wait for this product to come out. Its one of the coolest masks I have ever used!
The next morning was Saturday. We all were starting to feel the effects of sleep deprivation and we all felt hungover haha. But we grabbed some fresh donuts that seemed to help a bit. Then we had a breakout session in the big dome. Today was the Younique Foundation day. So the "Younique Foundation" is a foundation made to help women who have been sexually abused and they come to a retreat to help them heal and cope. Its an incredible foundation. Well they announced that they are doing a breakoff from that called 'Defend Innocence' where it is bringing awareness to parents and children that we can fight child sexual abuse if we talk openly and honestly about the topic. So in order to bring awareness we broke a world record. Like a legit world record of the most selfies taken simultaneously. And we used the hashtag #startdefending so people would see it and ask questions.
So then they announced our last and final new products. Which was a TWO brand new eye palettes, and YES we were getting one! Then they brought the main lady of 'The Younique Foundation' out again and she was talking about how this month of August she really wanted to focus on bringing awareness so this months Customer Kudos was three new makeup products made special for the Foundation and a bracelet. And guess what? We were getting the whole kit! By this point I had a few tears in my eyes. I was just so overwhelmed by how amazing this company is and how blessed I am to be apart of it! Then they said they had one more surprise for us. I didn't know if my emotions could handle it at this point. The year before when they started the mission of the Foundation we used the song 'Fight Song' by Rachel Platten as our song for the year. Well then this year we did another one of her songs called 'Stand by You'. They played a message from her saying how grateful she was that we used her song and blah blah blah. But then the main lady of the Foundation goes "But I can't want to see your guys faces when you realize...that I have someone special...here to preform... 'Fight Song'. Yes we were all like "Wait, really? No. It couldn't be.." then she yells "RACHEL PLATTEN!"
So at this point the hot mess train has come barreling in and I just loose it. I start sobbing. You guys its hard to explain the emotions if you aren't there but we were all just crying. I unfortunately could not keep it together. Story of my life.
After I collected myself and Rachel was done performing we broke off into classes for the last day.
After classes were over we rushed back to the hotel because that night was Gala night. Where you get all gussied up and there is an awards ceremony and our founders give there last few speeches and we say our goodbyes. Melanie (one of the founders) gave an amazing speech on her wishes for each of us. One of the things that stood out was being #obssesivelygrateful in all things. She talked about how she struggled with many years of infertility and how through that she learned to become grateful later on. It hit home as you can imagine! I couldn't believe how amazing this trip was.
Now let me sum up the trip in a few sentences if I can. I made the most amazing friendships with the girls I stayed with. It was easy to be myself around them and they accepted me easily and whole hardheartedly. I found out that I work for an absolutely INCREDIBLE company, and I feel so blessed to be apart of it. They care about the presenters and thats what drives them to do what they do. I had the time of my life, and I seriously walked away a different person. I love what I do, I love who I do it with, and I love who I do it for!
