Come Wine With Us (CWWU) is a series of fun, themed get togethers that always involve vino and run by PR Sybil Doms. Last month’s event was called Beauty, Bubbly and Baking and took place in the V&A market on the wharf. Sybil was kind enough to invite myself and blogger bestie Karisa to join in the fun but had we bought tickets it would’ve cost R280 per person.

To kick off the morning, I was given a glass of Van Loveren bubbly (always a good start) and got to listen to Alexa Pretorius, the brand’s sales and operations controller, tell us a little bit about how it was made.

We then got to watch a cake baking demo by Beate Strydom and Anel Hoogenhout from The Birdcage, a gift shop, tea bar and speciality cake company in Stellenbosch. They used a lot of NOMU products and I was impressed with the Decadent Hot Chocolate and Vanilla Paste. The chocolate comes in chip form, so you can use it to create a super indulgent hot drink or bake chocolate chip cookies among other things. The vanilla paste tastes out of this world thanks to real vanilla seeds and can be used in pretty much anything – from crème brulee and panna cotta to biscuits and icing.

After the ‘bubbly’ and ‘baking’ element, we moved to a different room where we got to sit at flower-bedecked tables laden with an array of delish tea time treats. This included red velvet cake and these yumtastical little sesame seed cheese puff things that nobody else in my area got to try ‘cos I devoured every one of them. We also had our bubbly topped up throughout which was great. I liked that the event wasn’t a ‘here’s your welcome glass and then we’ll switch you over to water’ kinda deal.

Anyway, while enjoying the spread, we got to take in the ‘beauty’ bit; a demo on how to create three key make-up looks from Shiseido. I’m a huge fan of the brands make-up, particularly their lip colours and foundations and review their lovely new Light and Perfect foundation just last week. (FYI, ex-Fairlady beauty ed Candice from In My Bag is crazy about it.)

At this point I kind of thought everything was done and dusted, but nope, there was one more speaker, Dr Nox Makunga from Phenology boutique florist, who’d arranged the flowers on the day. I hate to say this, but inwardly, I groaned. (A talk on flowers? God. I can barely keep a cactus alive. How on earth is this going to be interesting? Can someone top up my glass please…) But get this; chica turned out to be the most vibrant and charismatic speaker I’d heard in ages. Her passion for all things flora was utterly infectious and the way she delivered her knowledge was so ‘punchy’ that Karisa and I ended up hanging on to her every word. (‘Do you know what this?! *shaking a spray of blooms* This is a sex organ!’)

After the event, guests got to take home a goodie bag that included a bottle of Christina Van Loveren MCC, a cupcake from The Birdcage, some very generous Shiseido samples and a voucher for a complimentary Shisiedo make-over and a bottle of that awesome NOMU Vanilla Paste. In all, this was a fun, spoilicious morning out.

Win! Win! Win!
CWWU is giving away a small Shiseido hamper. To win it, simply like CWWU’s Facebook page and follow them on twitter @CWWU1 then drop me a mail on glossycomps@gmail.com with ‘CWWU comp’ as the subject. The competition closes at COB on Wednesday and I’ll announce a winner on Thursday. Good luck girls!

For more info on CWWU, visit Sybil and co on Facebook. The next event taking place later this month hasn’t been officially announced yet but I see it’s going to be an evening one and, as always, will involve lots and lots of wine.

Love, love

Leigh

P.S. My camera didn’t play the game that day in that a lot of my piccies came out blurry thanks to a smudge of icing on my lens. (I know, I know, I’m a moron.) Thus, many of the piccies in my collages were ripped from CWWU’s Facebook album and were shot by photographer Bernard Bruwer.