There is something so simple and perfect about having dinner and cocktails with your girlfriends. Dinner in the lower east side last night could have not been more convenient. A quick skip across the Wiliamsburg bridge and in 15 minutes, I was securely seated at Inotecha, chatting fashion week over a glass of prosecco. After dinner we moved to Thor at the Hotel on Rivington for more girl talk - honestly, how could my night get better (although discovering this red stairwell was pretty incredible)?

Necklaces: Forever 21, Twittabling and a Falling Whistle

White tee: Old Navy

Flare black pants: Lane Bryant (no longer available)

Snakeskin peep toe platform pumps: Avenue (no longer available)

Photo by Kristin Booker

(Editor's note: Style IT's Associate Editor, Lesley Forrester, played Girl About Town this week to view Lord & Taylor's massive overhaul of their beauty floor. Follow her electric pink hard hat as she guides you through the most state of the art beauty counters you can ever dare to experience. For more of Lesley's fierceness, join her at LesleyKat.)

Lord & Taylor invited a handful of lucky beauty ducks to get a preview of the renovations taking place on the first and second floors of their 5th Ave. store. We were all issued adorable pink hard hats and taken back into the thick of the construction zone. Our guide mapped out where a few different beauty brands will be located including Chanel, Shishedo and Bobbi Brown. He also told us about the Phillips lighting technology throughout the entire floor that is 92% complexion right lighting. We then toured a few brands that were already complete, including Clinique, Lancome and Estee Lauder. These three brands each introduced technology that doesn't exist anywhere else right now.

Clinique has updated the little slider bars. (if you have been to a counter, you know what I'm talking about!) They now have a touch-screen computer system that allows you to specify your skin needs and then prints you out a little ticket listing all of the products tailored to those needs. They have also set up differnt stations that allow you to play with products and browse without a sales associate. Hands on, baby!

Estée lauder has created the Foundation Fitting Room that allows you to test colors in different lighting situations, such as office (florescent), day (daylight), night (low light), etc... It was designed to help you find your perfect foundation match.

Lancôme has created their very first mascara bar. It allows you to try out every formula that they carry.

Each brand boutique has been designed with brand collaboration to really make each one a unique experience. All in all, this is a face lift that Lord & Taylor needed and they are truly delivering. One of the most impressive facts is that they are doing all of this in 9 months!

As beauty becomes more and more linked to technology, it is important for retailers and brands to keep up with the consumer and deliver unique and customized experiences. We can customize everything from our ringtones to our shoes nowadays, why not our makeup!?

Want more fun stuff? They had tons of brand reps and artist on hand to tell us about new an exciting products to be released in the next few months. Some of the highlights were:

Clarisonic: holy cow I NEED an opal in my life.

Mario Badescu: baby's FIRST facial!

Bobbi Brown: metallic cream eyeshadows, for the win! 
Coach: new "Poppy" fragrance, young, delicious, possibly on my vanity soon.
Theiry Muggler: new "Womanity" fragrance has notes of fig and caviar plus totally fabulous package design.
Fusion Beauty: I can't even begin to tell you the amazing beauty technology they are coming up with. It's BANANAS!
Laura Mercier: Eye serum + secret concealer + secret powder = WIN!

We all had a fantastic time and cannot WAIT to come back to see the project completed in the fall!

@fashionpulse tweeted & twitpic'd: "@lesleykat getting exfoliated @clinique & @lordandtaylor"