Can I just say that the last few days have been the craziest yet most awesome time I’ve had recently? Not that you need me to tell you if you’ve ever been or are from New Orleans, but it is really one of the best cities in the world. It’s filled with culture, some of the most friendly people you will ever meet, and OMG the food!

Here’s all the cool (and CRAZY) things I did during my first time in New Orleans…

The second my American Airlines flight landed in MSY, I looked for the Airport Shuttle schedule. I’m a girl who spends hundreds on beauty products, clothes, and shoes, but I am el cheapo when it comes to spending money on certain things. So basically what I’m saying is spending close to $40 on a cab would drive me nuts. I don’t even take cabs much here in NYC…lol. The Airport Shuttle arrives every 20-30 mins (more often during huge events like Essence Music Fest) and is $20 one-way or $30 round-trip. I bought a one-way ticket since my departing flight was at 6:45 A.M. and I didn’t want to have to wake up earlier to catch the shuttle. So anyway, you buy the tickets either online or at the kiosk and you show your receipt to the driver. We had one of the most resourceful drivers who gave us the scoop on where to eat and how to travel around the city. Thankfully the French Quarter area much like NYC is very pedestrian so money spent on travel (unless you insist on taking cabs) was very minimal.

I arrived at the W hotel on Poydras which went from chic, quiet quarters on July 4th to full out celebrity hot spot by the next two days when everyone starting arriving for Essence Music Festival. I spotted quite a few celebrities in the lobby plus every day and night there was some sort of party going on. Speaking of…with as many people that the Essence Music Festival attracts to the city, I have to say the crowd was very cordial–you couldn’t pass by many people without anyone smiling or engaging you in conversation, male or female. Shortly after I checked in, my pal Lexi (of curlscoilsandkinks.com) also checked in. We went to our individual rooms to freshen up and were out on Bourbon St. rather quickly.

I have a love-hate (but mostly love) relationship with Bourbon St. which you’ll find out why in a few…lol. But Bourbon St./the French Quarter area is where you’ll find many well-recommended restaurants and of course if you’re 21+ you’ll also find large (hand grenades) and larger (fish bowls) alcoholic cocktails. You can legally drink out in the open in New Orleans—and even with that I still have to marvel on how calm the crowds were. Try that in NYC.

Then it was early to bed for us that night as we had a VERY early call time the next morning. Lexi and I were set to appear on WGNO’s “Good Morning New Orelans” with Rihanna’s hairstylist Ursula Stephen. Check out the video HERE.

I had a list of places to eat from my NOLA native friend Kim of FSL Cosmetics, but didn’t get a chance to get to them all. I also have a pretty weak stomach so I couldn’t really indulge too much (which was quite sad for a foodie like me). But I did get to go to…

Cafe du Monde: I had some incredible beignets with cafe au lait. Make sure you bring cash as they don’t take debit cards—most orders are less than $10 anyway. They were SO good. I got an order of three but could only eat one and 3/4…lol.

Mother’s: This place is always PACKED but Lexi and I managed to get breakfast at 7 A.M. after our “Good Day New Orleans” segment without too much of a line. I had a waffle, eggs, and sausage. It was okay. I didn’t have their signature po boy sandwich (this means another trip for me to get more eats), but I hear from a lot of people that this place is overrated.

Brennan’s Restaurant: Lexi and I stopped here just for their bananas foster, which are fried bananas dipped in brown sugar and served with ice cream. They cook it for you table side. These were really good.

Tropical Isle: This is one of the first things you see people (21+) with when you hit Bourbon St. They’re frozen drinks that are perfect for a hot NOLA night (my friend Kim warned me to “get ready to look like a treasure troll from the humidity”…lol). I found it to be a little too sweet and you don’t taste the alcohol, but it does tend to catch up with you eventually. Be sure to drink responsibly.

Herbsaint: I went here with a group. The food is okay but I had to be a little cautious since my tummy is a little weak. I had the gumbo, curried shrimp, dirty rice (YUM) and sampled a number of desserts. I wound up leaving food on my plate.

New Orleans Seafood & Hamburger Co.: You MUST get a 44 drink here (21+, drink responsibly please) especially during happy hour. I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a better cocktail in my life. It’s made with Bacardi – Light Rum, Dark Rum, Spiced Rum, Coco Rum, Orange Juice, Grapefruit Juice, Pineapple Juice, Sour Mix, and Grenadine and if I could hop on a plane now and get one I WOULD. I also LOVED the thin friend catfish platter. SO DELICIOUS.

Some other recommended places I’ll have to visit on my next trip:
Olivier’s
Pat O’Briens
Loretta’s Pralines and Aunt Sally’s Praline

Photo courtesy Collins Metu

We also headed over to the Carol’s Daughter pop-up shop on Decatur Street. The night I went by they were hosting an event sponsored by Hennessy that honored New Orleans business women including MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry who I chatted with briefly before I left.

I CANNOT wait to try the newly reformated Hair Milk collection as well as the Ocean Body Collection. Everything looked and smelled so good. Trina Braxton and Amanda Seales were also in the building.

We stopped by Curly Nikki‘s event with Mizani where literally hundreds of naturalistas lined up to have their photo taken with the mega blogger. We spoke with her for a bit and she was super sweet even standing in NOLA humidity for so long.

A group of us stopped by Lance Gross‘s birthday party hosted by Laz Alonso and Terrence J at the House of Blues. Really cool party with great music and some “interesting” on-stage “dance performances” #shade.

Cheryl Gerber/AP Images for P&G

I didn’t get to do much Essence Fest-related activities since my schedule was jam-packed with Motions Style Bar and eating (lol), but I made sure I stopped by the My Black is Beautiful booth to check out the goings-on. Guests received complementary makeup touch-ups from Cover Girl Queen Collection and celebrity makeup artist Ashunta Sheriff, skincare consultations from Olay, and chatted hair with reps from Pantene Relaxed and Natural.

Cheryl Gerber/AP Images for P&G

I got to chat briefly with My Black is Beautiful ambassador Bevy Smith who looked stunning in Cover Girl Queen Collection makeup and had her hair coiffed with Pantene products. Since MBIB has and always will be about positive female empowerment, I asked her how she felt about shows like “Basketball Wives” and she said they are very dangerous. AGREED. She also mentioned she loves the range of beauty that MBIB shows on their Facebook page. I LOVE Bevy as she’s a source of inspiration and dishes out great advice—if you aren’t already, make sure you follow her on Twitter and also like the MBIB Facebook page.

Cheryl Gerber/AP Images for P&G

I also got to chat with Essence Relationships Editor and author of A Belle in Brooklyn Demetria Lucas at the My Black is Beautiful booth. She shared that her book is being shopped as a movie (oohhh—I’d love to see that!).

Other celebs who stopped by (that I missed—waaaa) include Faith Evans, LeToya Luckett, The OMG Girlz, Eva Pigford, Cynthia Bailey, Toya Wright, the cast of WE TV’s “Braxton Family Values”, Tisha Campbell Martin, Coco Jones, Carl Thomas, Raheem Devaugh, Eric Roberson, and June Ambrose.

I only went to one concert during Essence Fest, but I used my press pass wisely to see an act I don’t recall ever seeing live before and went to see Eve in one of the Superlounges. I cannot begin to say how much I used to stan for this woman…lol. I LOVED her style, her music, everything so it was great to see her perform. She brought out this…well, you’ll have to see for yourself…

Any other pictures I took with my iPhone are gone because my cell phone was stolen and I didn’t have iCloud set up to save my pics. *sigh* Thankfully I was able to get a replacement device the very next morning and the only thing it cost me is the annoying part of retrieving all your old info. But at least I’m here and able to type about it because had a incident on Bourbon St. gone really left…well…I don’t even want to think about it.

So I had mentioned how crowded yet calm Bourbon St. was, right? Well, Saturday night seemed just as calm as the night before until me and my crew were walking down the street when the crowd started to run. From what, I still don’t know but all I saw was a massive crowd of people coming towards me and then I was trampled by an undetermined amount of people landing me somewhere in the dirty street with a shoe and my bag separated from me. I was luckily able to locate my items and the other members of my party (one of my pal’s lost her wallet and cell phone but luckily I found her phone and some Good Samaritans found her wallet). But it was a super scary experience that made me aware that I need to do a lot of “in case of” research to make sure I’m covered in any kind of situation :x

Oh, before I hit submit on this post—I need you to know my beauty faves for this trip:

Mally Beauty Perfect Prep Primer: Folks marveled at how I was able to keep makeup on my face in 1000% humidity and it was all because of this. Sure my face got oily, but after I matted myself down with either paper towels or blotting powder it was all good.

Mally Beauty Evercolor Face Defender: I loved this to finish my makeup because it gives a poreless look and feels like nothing on even with all your makeup.

More Mally Beauty…

You can see what else I brought in my beauty bag here.