A lavish nip and tuck
● Thanks to the obsession with looking as Instagrammable as possible, the business of Botox has become a lucrative industry.
But the launch of what is euphemistically called an aesthetic centre isn’t something you’d expect me to cover for the pages of this column.
Well, in 2018 I attended the ribbon cuttings of two such beauty emporiums — Dr Anushka Reddy’s Featherbrooke Hotel & Spa in June and the Dr P Aesthetic Lifestyle Centre a month earlier.
The latter was a particularly lavish offering – but when you’re Portia Gumede, wife of business tycoon Robert Gumede, it should come as no surprise.
It was held at Hyde Park shopping centre, and it was clear no expense was spared for the Gavin Rajah-produced occasion, with the event venue transformed into an enchanted garden and guests dressed to the nines.
The night marked the last time I saw someone I will miss dearly on the social scene: our late environment minister, Edna Molewa, who proved she had the gift of the gab, entertaining us with a laugh-a-minute speech. The lavish feast was perhaps the most A-Lister worthy meal of the year: a seared chilli and black sesame salmon and sashimi starter; refreshing pineapple, orange and ginger foam palate cleanser; and a choice of either meltin-your-mouth beef fillet with red wine and port reduction, or parmesan-crumbed chicken breasts stuffed with mushroom, feta and thyme; with vegetables flecked with gold dust. Dessert was a light lemon mousse with white chocolate and coconut sphere, with ginger gel, and individual cheese spreads to tuck into.