Plush Luxury Concept Store

Plush Luxury Concept Store
Specialising in Natural Hair Care, Beard Care, Natural Skincare, Beauty products, Perfumes and Accessories.
Address:  38 Melle Street, Johannesburg
Telephone: 074 777 3333
Operating Hours: 10am-5pm Weekdays and 10am-2pm Saturdays
Website: www.plushluxury.co.za - Registered and will be active soon (check Feb 2017)
Social Media: Can be found as PlushLuxury on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Johannesburg has a real gem for all fro rocking sisters (and gents) located in the heart of the city, Braamfontein, and continuing to grow and thrive whilst catering to your exceptional hair and beauty needs. I took a Saturday morning to visit specifically for this post and interview the co-founders to find out more about Plush Luxury.

Plush Luxury are a start up company but have been in existence officially since December 2014. They started as a perfumery with the ambition in being key players in the beauty and personal care space. After much research and development they embarked on their current business model,  partnering with local black owned brands as of October 2016. Plush is founded by 5 individuals with both professional and entrepreneurial backgrounds who have their chair person as a formidable and much respected woman. (can I just say that I let out a little sigh of relief upon hearing this is as it reinforced my, and I am sure many of you, so I will say OUR, belief in us as women who produce many a great thing and who can do these great things along side our much supportive brothers, or fellow black men - I will digress further in this post). The co-founders that I met with were Peter and Thandekile, charming gentlemen who were happy to indulge my many questions. What made Plush Luxury decide on stocking local natural hair care? Empowerment (my favorite word (o;). Plush Luxury see themselves as empowerment in action, they don't just speak about it but they are about it, offering the platform for black businesses to lead in the beauty and personal care space. Empowering black women to take over this market. They came to understand that the market had a need for high quality and accessible beauty and personal care products and at the same time, they saw black owned businesses that had the much needed products but were struggling to get the product to the people. Whilst selling perfumes they were also asked to source items like natural hair care and so decided on opening the flagship concept store and in so doing, help bridge the gap. Plush Luxury cater for the general market and are focused on the discerning/self aware black woman and man between the ages of 21 and 45.

Above: Fragrances are Plush's Flagship Product Line

I just had to delve a little deeper with these gentlemen to fully understand the whys of what they do or are doing for us black women. Is this store an example of men jumping on the band wagon and making money off women in the natural hair space - I thought about it and just had to ask it - I can happily respond with a big NO! As mentioned above the empowerment is the foundation upon which Plush Luxury are built upon and for them, their existence is about building others - building up black owned excellent businesses, they are a channel to market which encompasses opening doors to the market for black businesses especially those owned by women. 'This would just be like brothers supporting their sisters and at the same time needing the support of their sisters' as they would not be the business that they are today without their current partners (90% female owned brands) and their customers, YOU. 'The Plush Luxury ethos is about dominating Our space with Our brands with Our people - for us by us' as elaborated by Peter.

Above: Some of the brands you can find in store

Why should I or anyone shop at Plush Luxury? 'Because first and foremost we offer a personalised service. We are not trying to sell but are creating value in your life. Even if you don't purchase, you still  walk away with education, a smile and of course the full Plush experience' Peter explained. Did I see this...indeed. Customers came in more than once and I watched as Peter and Thandekile worked to make the ladies feel at home, they inquired about them as individuals, little intricate details of their personal lives, they got to know them a little and did those ladies leave with a smile - they certainly did.

 Above Left - Peter engaging with a customer  and Right -Thandekile ready to talk business

Plush Luxury Slogans:

• Be You
• Be Your Best Self
• Plush Loves You

'A purchase from Plush is an endorsement that you love yourself' continued Peter.

• Plush are customer focused
• Plush co-founders consider themselves a family and take this philosophy into the brand along side their partner brands and their extended family being the entire community in which they operate as a whole.
• Plush strive for excellence

SOME of the brands you can find at Plush Luxury Concept Store: (in no particular order):
> Corium Naturals - natural skin care products
> The Moisture Factory - natural hair care products
> Asili - natural skin and hair care products
> Natural Aura - natural hair care products
> Nubian Nature - natural skin and hair and beard care products
> Yivani Naturals - natural skin care products
> Zarona - natural hair care products
> Purpul Hair - natural hair care products

Above: Some of the brands you can find in store

They are committed to developing as many black excellent brands as they can as they not only stock products but strive to build the brands, give business advise etc and make the brands family, helping one another and in turn helping the family as a whole. Prospective brands are interviewed and due diligence is carried out on each one.

Above: Some of the brands you can find in store

Plush Luxury plan on opening in as many locations as feasible and want to develop a strong online presence (February will see more developments on this). Sounds great doesn't it, as I know alot of ladies do not like buying online.

Plush Luxury in one sentence - 'Plush Luxury is dedicated to providing accessibility to the highest quality locally produced/owned beauty and personal care products and luxury accessories'.

Thank you Peter and Thandekile for your time, I will keep watching and hope to do an update in the future.

Ladies - go on and pay them a visit. I purchased a few products and enjoyed my Plush Luxury experience (o: Oh and they do have a Loyalty system where you can accumulate points with every purchase and can exchange the points for discounts on future purchases. Nice one!
As always listen to your hair, and now you have a place to get some good hair care products to nurture your beautiful tresses.