From celebrating Mandela Day to dining in Azzedine’s kitchen, this week of launches, lunches and beau new releases was a whirlwind of activity.

Dermalogica

Beginning with Dermalogica South Africa, the renound skincare brand shifted the ‘only skin-deep’ approach that the beauty industry is often taken to task for. To celebrate and commemorate Nelson Mandela’s birthday, a few of us local beauty industry insiders got together with Fite Dermalogica to do our bit to help make the world a better place. To honour the 67 years Madiba devoted to the cause, we each set aside 67 minutes to sing, dance, eat and indulge in some face-painting with some incredibly inspiring women at the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children in Mannenberg, on the Cape Flats.

Bionike

Next up: a Bionike media event at Cape Town’s always elegant Cape Grace Hotel, where we were treated to breakfast and an inside look at the sensitive skin friendly Italian beauty brand’s new makeup line. A makeup artist demonstrated the season’s latest looks, and I was particularly thrilled to learn that the products are free from alcohol, carbon black, preservatives, fragrances and – wait for it – gluten!

Fun fact: Unlike our favourite brand of sneakers, Bionike is in fact pronounced BY-O-KNEE-KAY. Huh!

While the focus of Bionike’s latest launch was their makeup line, I couldn’t help but ogle these skincare goodies.

Azzedine Alaïa

Fashion met fragrance at the slick Alaïa Paris fragrance launch, where members of SA’s beauty elite were instructed to dress in ‘black with a hint of nude and gold’ and head to Woodstock in Cape Town, where Roedebloem Studios formed a perfectly chic backdrop to the release of the first female fragrance by the sophisticated French fashion house. The highlight of the evening: A refined three-course feast featuring fine wines and comfortable conversation that designer Azzedine Alaïa himself would no doubt have approved of…

Have you been up to anything interesting BB’s? Tell us by commenting below…