Real Beauty

Last week, Daniel asked me when my post pregnancy tummy would be flat again. Ouch! I would also love to know, since getting dressed in the mornings is a huge challenge at the moment. I do not fit into my normal winter wardrobe yet and all my maternity clothes are too big and too summery. It is a first world pain, I know, to complain with a cupboard full of clothes, but sometimes the self-image does not want to listen to reason. 

Maybe that is why I find the new Dove ad so inspiring. It went viral after being posted the first time in April 2013 and is now one of the most viewed online video ads ever. I do not want to give away the plot. Watch it. It makes a powerful point.

Image credit: Dove

Toast & Co in Graighall Park

What a weekend!! My birthday celebrations were unexpectedly huge, somewhat expectedly awesome, and therefore completely tiring. It was fabulous.

It started on Friday when my friend Celeste treated me to a manicure and pedicure at Toast & Co, a beautiful nail spa in Craighall Park. It is a stylish and sophisticated environment with huge comfy chairs, which also makes it very relaxed and laid back. The two of us chatted non-stop while the girls gave us luxurious treatments – I loved the hand message with the wax from a soy candle. They used OPI and ESSIE nail colours and Celeste’s purple toenails looked like candy :-)

For a post-pampering spot of shopping, Toast & Co offers a lovely array of handbags, shoes and jewellery. As if we needed any more indulgence after the treatments!

The salon was started in 2009 by two sisters, Karen and Julie Levell and their sister-in-law designed the beautiful interior. Since the opening, they have added waxing and facial treatments to their menu of offerings. This combination of the beauty treatments and their retail offering makes the shop definitely interesting and unique. 

Toast & Co

Hewstone 

54 Buckingham Avenue 

Craighall Park 

You can visit their website here or like their Facebook page.

Image credits: All photography by me

Bobbi Brown making me pretty

Still on yesterday’s subject of paint (and the on-going battle to cover the cracks!!), I went for a make-up session at a Bobbi Brown studio :-). The one I visited was in the Sandton City Edgars, but I see on their website that they now have five counters at different stores in Johannesburg. Their make-up artist, Gerard, was in town and he took on the task of teaching me how to make my eyes look beautiful.

I am not very good at doing my own make-up. I normally phone my friend Karlien who has the same complexion as me and who is a real girly-girl to ask what make-up I must buy. So, to go for a lesson was long overdue and amazing fun! Gerard started the lesson by first completing a personalised face chart that I took home. He then showed me how to use the foundation and concealer properly and how to fill in my eyebrows. Some bronzer, blush, eyeliner, mascara, eye shadow and a shiny lip-gloss later, and I was amazed at Gerard’s skill and the pretty face in the mirror.

Bobbi Brown’s career is one of those amazing entrepreneurial stories. She worked as a freelance makeup artist for ten years, earning coveted gigs with magazines like American Vogue. She began developing a lipstick and in 1991, her 10 lipsticks debuted at Bergdorf Goodman. Apparently she expected to sell 100 in a month, but she sold 100 within the first day!! After that success she expanded her collection, including revolutionising the face makeup market by creating yellow-based foundations. Just four years after the company was started, the cosmetics empire Estee Lauder bought the company with Bobbi herself retaining the creative control of her brand. 

I should have taken “before-and-after” photos, but take my word for it – I looked G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S!!!!

Visit their Facebook page or website for more information.

Image credits: All photography by me