Design

Consol Glass Treats and Craft Ideas

I believe it's important to be consistent. And since I'm late with pretty much everything I ever do in life (which I'm not proud of, but am honest about), I felt it was only proper to wait 11 months to publish this blog post. It is about the day that Ads and I visited the Consol Glass shop in Woodmead, Johannesburg.

It was A Big Adventure in July 2014 when Ads visited with me and my parents in Joburg. As a Jozi native, I took it upon myself to make sure that in between bumming around the house in our pyjamas and playing with the cat, she got to see a good selection of the best (or maybe just my favourite?) things that the city has to offer.

Enter Consol.

The day I discovered the Consol Glass outlet, everything changed. I've never liked plastic for food (it smells funny. Why does it smell funny?). My heart rate went up when I stepped into that shop. The ceilings were as high as the sky, and they were stacked floor to ceiling with glass treasures, flirting with me to take them home and keep things in them. Or just keep.

The first time I visited Consol in Woodmead was in 2011. I went to buy a LOT of tiny bottles to use as salt shakers at one of my best friends' wedding. I'll cut to the chase and say that I left with a lot more than salt shaker bottles.

Recently my sister and her boyfriend visited and we paid the shop in Stellenbosch a visit. It did not disappoint, and after about half an hour in the shop (pro tip: leave your boyfriend at home) a great assortment of glassware was again hauled out and loaded into my boot, next to the R400 worth of cheese that we'd bought from the Simonsberg factory shop a block away (we are pigs and we're ok with that when it comes to cheese).

About a week later, through some kind of weird coincidence, a beautiful parcel tied up in navy blue grosgrain ribbon arrived at my home. It was a parcel from Consol, announcing the launch of that same store that I'd just visited! This both weirded me out and excited me. Inside it was a reusable glass Consol jar, with a selection of "ideas" cards inside it with suggestions for some creative uses for your Consol jars.
I've turned these into a PDF so that you can download and use them.

As a bit of a well-intentioned pleb in the kitchen, I'm sharing them here and hoping that you'll make these things and send us pictures (samantha@hellopretty.co.za. I'm likely to be impressed even if you nailed it).

If you want to visit the new Cape Town Consol store, I can highly recommend it (and you can stop at the Simonsberg factory shop on the way home). You can find it at:
      Rand Road,
      Stellenbosch,
      7600
      Phone 021 888 4000

And now if you'll excuse me I am going to go decant everything into glass.

What else do you use your Consol jars for? I'd love to profile some other creative uses.

Going to the Chapel

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Something big is coming...

Watch this space - it's going to be HUGE.

*Squeaks with excitement*

Frazer Parfum

Last week I was lucky enough to be Frazer Parfum's guest instagrammer, which meant I got to spend a whole morning in their store and factory, smelling beautiful things and lathering it all over me.

This super gorgeous and luxe brand is run by Tam and Jenny Frazer - sisters every bit as lovely as their products.

Founded in 2008, Frazer Parfum creates organic and natural perfume products, handcrafted while collaborating with local artists - the end result is to die for.

Tam spent some time explaining to me how she makes each scent, in all their various forms - a LOT of love and attention to detail goes into every tiny thing.

She also explained their Chapters Collection, which includes nine scents inspired by places that she's travelled to, including Corsica, Madagascar and India. They also have the African Collection - six scents inspired by raw materials on the continent.

My very favorite scent is African orange blossom - perfect for winter.

It uses a resin from Ethiopia called opoponax, which has a treacle note - it's used in many creative perfumes and gives a sweetness even though it's a resin. Resins are one of the rare ingredients that are both fresh and long lasting.

Even better news is Frazer Parfum does not use any synthetic molecules or chemicals and in no way are any of the raw materials tested on animals. The palette consists of rare absolutes, concretes and resins coupled with chemotyped essential oils, petals, woods, roots, grass and zest.

I love how you can get your favourite sent in so many forms - there's really no excuse not to smell delicious! I love to layer my coffee & orange blossom shea butter and solid perfume to get a truly luxe feel and scent. If you spot me on the streets of Cape Town sniffing at myself, you'll know why!

My favourite "vessel" is the parfum solide. The scent is captured in beeswax, and you can choose between an equally beautiful Protea porcelain egg and an African Blackwood compact. Because I'm the most clumsy human, I opted for an African Blackwood Compact. Perfect for keeping in your purse!

This Shea butter is the most luxurious feeling moisturizer I have ever put on my skin. It's an intense natural salve, that comes in a handmade porcelain or Tamboti wood container. I'm completely smitten with the beautiful fine porcelain.

Tammy is the granddaughter of Graham Wulff, inventor of Oil of Olay. Following in his footsteps single-handedly launched her personally handmade perfumes in eclectic retail environments in Europe, North America, UK, Ukraine, Oceania, Nigeria and South Africa.

She inherited her grandfather's beautiful albums of ladies in the factories in their pink lab coats - I immediately felt that my life would be incomplete without one just like it!