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The women of Johannesburg redefined beauty on their own terms and reaffirmed the spirit of sisterhood last weekend at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand.
The product variety at the event demonstrated why this remains one of the most highly anticipated beauty events in Mzansi.
The Beauty Playground alternates between Johannesburg and Cape Town, and residents await its biennial return to their respective cities. When it does arrive, it’s an anxiety-inducing battle for tickets, with this year’s batch reportedly selling out in under an hour.
Self-love, big smiles and a unique kind of FOMO
It’s easy to assume that the goodie bag is the biggest attraction to the Clicks Beauty Playground, but by the time the event ends, it’s clear that the definition of beauty on display here goes much deeper than what you may have thought upon your arrival in the morning.
The Playgirl queue was long and our feet were sore, but their activity called "the recorded phone call" added a level to beauty that was more than skin deep.
The instruction from the Playgirls was simple: just do what she says. And her instruction in her recording was to say something good that you love about yourself. For most of us, it is easy to identify the things we love about those closest to us, but very seldom do we actively utter kind words to ourselves.
This for me was an important aspect to include in a pro-women event given everything that is happening in our country currently.
It’s critical to encourage women to extend grace to themselves and to remind them that being surrounded by beauty products should never supersede our responsibility to exercise self-love.
Adorning one of the four walls of the Garnier stall was the question, "what does the soft life mean to you?" Women plastered their descriptions across all four walls, and some of the responses painted a picture of intelligent, level-headed women who, with or without makeup, were capable of conquering the world.
"For me it means working and reaping the rewards of your work without being emotionally dented," one woman said.
"It means self-care, self-love and giving yourself everything in the world," another woman wrote.
However, the event was a different kind of FOMO for my nail technician Caitlyn Noah from the Kiss Cafe.
Since she was working, she was unable to experience and enjoy the event freely like other guests. I teased her about how she missed the event while she was actually in attendance.
But when I left, I had a new appreciation for promo girls who spend the full two days mostly on their feet while we, the guests, fully immerse ourselves in these experiences.
Some of the guests abandoned the stalls for a few minutes to sing along to R&B star Elaine and lose themselves in her performance. I wasn't mad at this because after all that walking, nothing can rejuvenate your energy like the power of live music.
Levelling up
Previously, guests had to manually fill in their own forms after each visit to the stalls of the brands that were present. This was very tedious given the number of stalls and the amount of walking the event entails.
However, there was none of that this year because the promo ladies were scanning the tags to register guests’ stall visits.
Migrating the event from the Sandton Convention Centre to Gallagher was a much welcome move because between the number of legs moving around the different stalls to the stage positioning and snakes of queues, it’s easy to feel claustrophobic. A bigger venue means more ventilation and room to breathe instead of feeling stifled and cramped.
Mind you, the Beauty Playground takes place in the scorching October sun, so the last thing anyone needs is to feel trapped in a stuffy and overheated building.
Unfortunately, I missed the masterclasses as slots were allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
For media and creators covering the event, a pre-booking option would be a valuable addition in future, because some of the insights at these sessions help to deepen the final review.
The 2024 goodie bag had been so big and heavy that carrying it was a complete nightmare, but this year the goodies were separated into two smaller bags, making them much easier to carry.
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