Nomzamo Mbatha is a fashion darling of note.
While spotting her on the red carpet is a rare sight these days, when the self-proclaimed tom-boy rocks up she is always a vision.
When we chat with the multihyphenate film star, she is wearing a gold body-hugging number by Gert-Johan Coetzee, complemented by a flawless soft glam makeup look and without a hair out of place.
“I just love looking like myself,” she says. “Whenever I don't look like myself, I'm always having a problem.”
Nomzamo is the host of the Stella Artois dinners – one happened in New York, and the other was virtual on social media opposite her co-host Kat Sinivasan earlier this year. In October 2023, the duo took the reins once more to host a star-studded event at the heart of Johannesburg.
On why she took on the gig, the Shaka iLembe star says, “I think the partnership came about based on just the fundamentals that I guess we both share with the brand, which is connectivity. Anybody who knows me knows that I'm authentic in who I am and I love connecting with people. But also I'm a brand that is connected to the world as much as I am still homegrown and still connected to home. So how do you find that balance? You know, how do you connect those two worlds? And of course, I love the Stella brand.”
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Back home kwaMashu she’s has become ‘the Stella girl’ after being spotted enjoying the premium beer one time.
“I was busy with preparations for a traditional ceremony. And the thing is the uncles and my brothers and the whatnot, bayazi ukuthi ‘Nomzamo sicela iStella, ‘angithi uazi Zamo, iStella’. So that was that but I think for me it's really just the shared power of chic, elegant love for connectivity and an international brand that is able to exist in different corners of the world and make everyone feel seen.”
While her warm and bubbly nature is what keeps people hooked, Nomzamo says she also loves being a wallflower at big gatherings such as these and absorbing the environment.
“I love going to a dinner or an event that takes up space and each space, each room has an experiential element to it … So, to be able to kind of steal some of the things and see what we can bring back at home. What are the things that Americans do that could be different to South Africans? And so for me, I really love that. And also what I felt was different with us is that that big room felt very big [in New York], whereas our big room [in Joburg] felt so intimate.”
But, before we see the final look on the red carpet and on stage, the actor and producer has a detailed get-ready and unready routine in place.
“Exfoliate number one because skin has the skin. I'm in the business of skin!” she laughs.
Then, she says, “calling your favourite designer if you've searched online and you can't find anything that you want to get online. Call your favourite designer, call your stylist who's going to be the person that you're going to bounce off ideas to and say this is what I want. This is the mood board. What are your thoughts? Who can be able to execute this?”
- Make sure, make sure that you are wearing loose clothes so that when you eat, you don't have to hold the room;
- Make sure you've got comfortable shoes because you don't want to have an early day because you have uncomfortable shoes;
- And, of course, do not drink and drive.
Once the fashion is sorted she redirects her focus to beauty routine closer to the event.
“As the days go closer, you obviously want to do a facial the day before so that your face is nice and glowy and dewy. Your pores are nice and tight and, you know, intact and then on the day of you make sure that you're masking after you wash your face and put on serums.
“I like, I, every day I have like three serums but like on, on an event day I'll, I'll just get serum galore because I love a hydrated look … So it's that get the beauty look and then relax, relax.”
Nomzamo says her go-to is ashwagandha, which is a herb that boasts a number of benefits including stress management.
“I take my ashwagandha, which makes me relax and it takes away the stress and it takes away my anxiety because I never want to think about being in the, in the room full of so many people that you want to give a good experience to is that you start having anxiety.
“I never want to be nervous so that I can be able to give my best and, and radiate positivity so that everyone, if everyone sees that Nomzamo is having a good time, they start having a good time.”
But in her line of work, it’s a good time but not necessarily for a long time. After this late-night dinner party, she booked in for an early writers meeting in the morning and had an international flight scheduled the day after.
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Beauty first, she taked the day off with the goodies in her cosmetics bag stocked up by her friend, celebrity makeup artist Sir John
“He's given me this new melting thing, this melting gel from Fenty Beauty so I'm going try it and then I do my Micellar water from Neutrogena and, of course, scrub, scrub, scrub because I can't have anything happen to my skin. I always have to make sure that my skin is on point.”
As a night cap, a cup of Rooibos tea and another dose of ashwagandha is on the cards to help her sleep. “Most probably my roost tea might have a little bit of Moringa because I just want to continue to just stay the course for my intermittent fasting,” tipping us of to the secret behind her snatched figure.
While she’s often seen on elaborate, glamourous gowns for her public engagements, Nomzamo says her personal style is actually quite simple.
“My everyday personal style? Effortless. I love chic. I always think what is my old Italian woman living inside of me - what would she wear? And then when I have to be on stage I’d say glamorous, ‘she is the moment she is the centrepiece’. That's always the brief.”
