My Latest Mani: China Glaze Intelligence, Integrity & Courage from The Giver Collection

Back in December, I showed you my manicure with one of the colors from China Glaze's The Giver Collection for 2014, Release. At the time, I talked briefly about the impact that The Giver had on me. I also mentioned that I bought a second color from the collection: Intelligence, Integrity & Courage. I finally got around to wearing it all these months later!

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#ManiMonday: My Nail Polish Stash and Storage

Anyone who knows me knows that I have what one might call an obsession with nail polish. It's the one beauty product I never need to buy ... and the one I can never seem to say no to once I'm inside a Sephora or Ulta. I've amassed quite the collection over the years, and for a long time I had a vision of displaying all of my gorgeous polishes in racks like you see in nail salons. I've wanted to do this since I lived in New York, but never made it happen ... UNTIL NOW. I finally made the leap and displayed all of my nail polish just the way I always wanted!

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My Latest Mani: China Glaze Release from The Giver Collection

Are there any books that have had a profound, lasting impact on you? For me, it's The Giver by Lois Lowry. It came out when I was 13 years old, and I was immediately taken with the haunting, unique story of Jonah and his path to self discovery. When I heard that the movie was finally being made (and saw the trailer), I was filled with a sense of trepidation. (Thankfully, I ended up actually really loving the movie, but I was totally surprised by that.) But when I saw China Glaze's The Giver Collection -- and especially the color Release? All I felt was a sense of longing.

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Nail Polish Comparison Swatches: Essie Where's My Chauffeur? & China Glaze For Audrey

When I happened to put my bottles of China Glaze For Audrey and Essie Where's My Chauffeur? next to each other on my coffee table recently, one fact became extremely apparent. They're exact dupes of one another!

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12 Days of Favorite Nail Colors from Jamie and Katie: China Glaze Emerald Sparkle & Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle

Some people's beauty obsessions are obvious early in life. For my best friend, Katie Reed, and me, it was definitely nail polish. We've been in love with cool, bold colors since the early 90's -- we used to trade them back and forth while sitting in our high school hallways before class. For the next 12 days, we'll be bringing you some of our favorites in what we're calling 12 Days of Favorite Nail Colors.

Today we're all about green! Call it Christmas spirit if you will!

Jamie: My color today is China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. This is another color from 2009's Wizard of Ooh Ahz Collection, just like Ruby Pumps. And, just like Ruby Pumps, it holds a special place in my heart. I absolutely love the rich shade of emerald and the immense amount of shimmer packed into the formula. It applies fantastically -- one coat is enough to cover the nail, although I always go with two for a little bit more oomph. And it's just PERFECT for the holiday season!
Note: Unless you're lucky enough to find this color on eBay or in a beauty supply store, it's no longer available.

Katie: Years ago, Jamie and I were at Louis Boston, eying the beauty products, when I was stopped in my tracks by Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle. Creams aren't my favorite polishes, but this strongly pigmented shade sent my green-loving fingers reaching for my credit card. This polish can be a one-coater if you set your mind to it, but I used two just to make sure I had full coverage. I love that this color is actually forest green, instead of black which might look forest green in direct sunlight. Those types of lacquers are nice, but when you live in the northeast, there isn't a lot of direct sunlight to be had!
Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle is available at rescuebeauty.com.

12 Days of Favorite Nail Colors from Jamie and Katie: China Glaze Ruby Pumps & Zoya Adina

Some people's beauty obsessions are obvious early in life. For my best friend, Katie Reed, and me, it was definitely nail polish. We've been in love with cool, bold colors since the early 90's -- we used to trade them back and forth while sitting in our high school hallways before class. For the next 12 days, we'll be bringing you some of our favorites in what we're calling 12 Days of Favorite Nail Colors.

Jamie: Today's color is China Glaze Ruby Pumps. This is a classic and a coveted color from China Glaze. It was originally released with the limited-edition Wizard of Ooh Ahz collection back in 2001, and, after fans clambered for its re-release, China Glaze listened and put out the collection again in 2009. Ruby Pumps is just one of those colors that works its way into every girl's heart -- it's a perfect, gorgeous cherry red with tons of sparkle and a jelly finish. And, obviously, it's meant to emulate Dorothy's ruby slippers, which I think it does in spades. In short? It's perfect. And this is coming from someone who doesn't even wear red nail polish!
China Glaze Ruby Pumps retails for $6.50 at drugstore.com.

Katie: Today's color is Zoya Adina. Duochromes are all the rage these days, but when Adina was released in 2010, they were much less common. Zoya Adina is a really fun purple-based polish with a green shimmer in certain lights. I could stare at my nails all day long when wearing this, and I particularly like the combination of purple and green. It's shown here with three coats. Two might be enough for some, but I didn't totally get rid of the nail line until I added a third coat.
Zoya Adina retails for $8 at zoya.com.

China Glaze Summer Neons Collection Swatches

Nothing really says summer to me like bright nail polish. So the China Glaze Summer Neons Collection, which features -- you guessed it -- bright and bold neons -- seemed to be right up my alley. Below, three of the colors from the collection, along with my thoughts.


Ride The Waves is a deep blue. I don't really see much neon in this color, at least in the bottle -- and, to be honest, not really on the nail, either. It's attention-grabbing, to be sure, but it just looks like a dark blue to me. I've seen some swatches of it looking lighter than mine, but my bottle just didn't apply that lightly and the color didn't dry any lighter than it had applied.


I'm With The Lifeguard is a bright, shimmery lime green. It's unbelievably neon in the bottle and just as eye-popping on the nail. Seen here with three coats, as the first two were a bit streaky and uneven.


Sun-Kissed is an aptly named, eye-searing shimmering yellow. It's looking a bit more like a Big Bird hue here, but in person it's super bright and bold. I used two coats, but it could do with a third for full opacity.

Overall, I like the idea of this collection but these three polishes aren't my favorites. I had a lot of application issues and I found that the consistency varied from bottle to bottle -- with one, I might have only needed one coat, while with another, three coats still were thin and fairly sheer. These colors are unique, to be sure, but I don't know that they're must haves.

Two Bright Manicures This Week: Essie Ole Caliente and China Glaze Surfin' For Boys

What's better than one bright manicure for summer? TWO, of course! I'm really having a love affair with oranges and pinks lately, and these two manicures are no different. Behold...


Essie Ole Caliente, a dark creamy orange from Essie's Spring 2012 collection. This one had been sitting in my stash for quite awhile, and I have to admit I experienced some trepidation using it as oranges normally look terrible on my pale skin. But this orange has just enough red in it to look good on every skin tone, even my Casper-like white! I loved the application and it was glossy, opaque perfection in two coats. Plus it just looks perfect against the sand of the Atlantic City beach, don't you agree?

China Glaze Surfin' For Boys, from the new Summer Neons collection. I love this one in theory, and it's even brighter and cooler in sunlight (plus the shimmer really comes out). But I had major application issues and, even though I waited about 3 hours after applying before going to sleep, got lots of sheet marks. It is a very unique shade though, definitely neon and somewhere in the orange/coral/pink spectrum. I think it would look even better on toes.

What's on your nails right now? Let me know in the comments!

My Latest Mani: China Glaze Raspberry Festival

My mani right now is certainly an oldie but a goodie. I reached deep into my collection today and pulled out China Glaze Raspberry Festival, my favorite color from 2009's Summer Days Collection.

I've been in love with this color since it first came out. It's perfect on toes, it's perfect on tips, it's just perfect! As you might expect, it's a deep, juicy raspberry, made unique with tons of glass-flecked pink shimmer. I love that it's not quite pink and not quite red, and even seems to have a touch of orange in the formula. I know there were some questions about the formula back when it came out, but I've always found that it applies like a dream in only two coats -- not too thin, not too thick, but just right.

I think this color is absolutely perfect as summer is about to start. What's on your nails right now? Let me know in the comments!

My Recent Mani: Disney Princess Nails Inspired by Cinderella!

I am beyond excited about my current manicure. My family is off to Disney World tomorrow to celebrate my mom's birthday, and I simply had to do a manicure inspired by the Disney Princesses. And what better Disney Princess to choose than the most iconic one of all, Cinderella? My friend Daniella and I had been talking about her doing my nails for awhile (she's an incredible nail artist whose nails always look incredible) -- and, finally, we set a date.

Now, you might think choosing a design for a manicure like this would be easy. Well, you would be wrong! Daniella and I emailed, texted and IMed back and forth for days trying to decide on the perfect design. It was actually difficult to decide which character to do -- Belle, Ariel, Rapunzel and even Tinkerbell were thrown into the mix before we decided on Cinderella. One thing we didn't want was for the manicure to look cheesy -- so we immediately threw out the idea of painting faces or dresses on my nails.

Once we chose Cinderella as our muse, we finally settled upon this amazing design -- inspired by Cinderella's beautiful blue ballgown, of course! Daniella and I decided to do a modified French manicure using the blue for the dress as the tip and a thin-tipped white as the scalloped lace underneath, accented by lots of shimmer and sparkle! Here's how Daniella did the design:

1) We started with one coat of CND Teal Sparkle as the base. We liked that it added some shimmer but wouldn't overwhelm the overall design.

2) Daniella freehanded the French tips using one coat of China Glaze For Audrey. We tried mixing different blues with white first, but finally decided that this Tiffany box blue on its own would suffice.

3) The real fun began! Daniella very carefully outlined the blue and then drew scallops underneath using Mattese Elite White Nail Art Paint. We liked that this nail polish had a thin-tipped brush, making it much easier to do detailed art. The scallops represent the scalloped lace tiers underneath the ballgown.

4) Daniella filled in the space between the blue and white with Milani Art of Silver. Again, we just wanted to add dimension here and make the two colors stand out more against one another.

5) We finished with one coat of OPI Gone Gonzo!, a blue glitter from this year's Muppets Collection. This made For Audrey look more blue instead of teal. Daniella was careful to only use the small flecks of glitter in the polish instead of the big silver chunks.

6) For the grand finale, Daniella carefully picked out the big, square pieces of glitter from Deborah Lippmann Marquee Moon and placed them into the center of the nail tip.

I am so in love with this manicure and am completely indebted to Daniella for her artistic skill and willingness to spend almost two hours doing my nails! Now on to Disney World!

Mani of the Week: China Glaze Fast Track and butter LONDON Knackered

It's another two color week for me! Lately I'm all about the accent nail, least of all because it gets me through my millions of nail polish colors a heck of a lot quicker. This week, I decided to go for a ton of shine and shimmer, accomplished mainly with one of the colors from the China Glaze Colours from the Capitol Collection, Fast Track. I decided to complement it with butter LONDON Knackered, on an index finger and ring finger only.

I'm in love with Fast Track, a gorgeous nude-gold-khaki hybrid packed with tons of shimmer. It's a great option for people who want nude nails with a little more punch. Knackered is different from everything in my collection -- the purplish blue hue radiates with sparkles in every color of the rainbow, reminding me of twilight.

What's on your nails this week? Let me know in the comments!

Mani of the Week: China Glaze Colours from the Capitol's Foie Gras & Luxe and Lush

Oh, The Hunger Games. Why can't it be March 23 already so the movie would be out? In the meantime, I'm contenting myself with rereading the series over and over (and yes, I know that's redundant) and painting my nails with the 12 gorgeous colors from the China Glaze Colours from the Capitol Collection.

This week, I went for Foie Gras with Luxe and Lush layered on top. Foie Gras is a creamy dark chocolate brown with just a touch of plum undertone -- it slicked on easily and looked amazing after just one coat, although I put on two. Luxe and Lush is made up of shattered copper sequin particles that fall haphazardly onto the nail. I love the cut glass look and the fact that no two nails will look the same.

While I'm not totally sold on this week's mani, since I just don't know if the colors look fantastic on me, I do love the whole collection and these two hues in particular.

What's on your nails this week? Let me know in the comments!

Mani of the Week: China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Emerald Sparkle

I've said it once and I'll say it again. I'm a Jew and I love Christmas. Give me carols, give me lights, give me a friend's Christmas tree to decorate ... and, of course, give me tons of delicious Christmas cookies. (Side note: my dad's girlfriend makes the BEST Christmas tree sandwich cookies. She uses six sticks of butter in the batter. DECADENT.)

But I digress. In honor of Christmas finally being upon us this week, I simply had to do a red and green manicure! I chose China Glaze Ruby Pumps, from the highly acclaimed and much loved Wizard of Ooh Ahz Collection back in 2009, and China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, from the Sleigh Ride Collection in 2008. Yes, these are oldies but most definitely goodies! Ruby Pumps and Emerald Sparkle are two of my very favorite nail polish colors of all time -- I love the rich color, intense sparkle and slick jelly finish of each. And how absolutely perfect are they for the holiday season, especially together?

What's on your nails this week? Let me know in the comments!

Mani of the Week: China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

Do you ever feel like there are so many nail polishes, so little time? I definitely feel like that. Right now I've got at least 200 unused bottles in my stash, just waiting to be broken out and tested. And that's not counting the 200+ bottles I've already tried, approved and put into my color-coded bins for safekeeping!

I mention this because my influx of nail polishes has meant that, as much as I've been wanting to paint my nails with the gorgeousness that is China Glaze Emerald Sparkle for just about two years now, I never got around to it. I bought this polish back during the holiday season of 2008 when it was part of China Glaze's Sleigh Ride trio. I fell passionately, madly, deeply in love with this aptly named emerald green before I even had the bottle in my possession -- a love affair that quickly deepened once I held it in my hands.

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Beauty Giveaway: China Glaze Summer Days Collection

It's time for another beauty giveaway here on The Beauty of Life! And this is a great one, fellow beauty chicks ... because I'm giving away the China Glaze Summer Days Collection. This collection of six nail polishes is so unbelievably gorgeous, I honestly can't believe I'm willing to share. But one lucky winner will receive the entire collection, which is valued at $39! The polishes in this collection have a sparkly jelly finish and literally look like liquid jewelry on the nail. The colors include:

Watermelon Rind (deep juicy green)
Grape Juice (dark violet)
Strawberry Fields (luscious deep pink)
Raspberry Festival (crimson-like scarlet)
Cherry Pie (bright orange-red)
Orange Marmalade (vibrant orange)

Entering is easy. Simply enter your name and email address in the box below. The winner will be selected on Friday, July 24 and notified by email. It's that simple!



This giveaway is open to US residents only. Giveaway runs until Thursday, July 23 at midnight. One entry per person, email address and IP address. Multiple entries will be disqualified.

Wallet-Friendly Wednesdays: China Glaze Raspberry Festival

As soon as I saw China Glaze Raspberry Festival -- part of the Summer Days Collection -- had this gorgeous jelly finish, I just knew I had to try it immediately.

And here's what I can say. W-O-W. Nail polish with a jelly finish certainly isn't playing around! Not only is this polish one of the most gorgeous colors I've seen in quite some time, but it dries to a highly glossy, highly pigmented, unbelievably glittery, totally smooth finish that just has to be seen to be believed.

I decided to paint my toes with this color, because it's the perfect shade of -- you guessed it -- raspberry. It's this gorgeous shimmer-flecked berry that glistens in the light so beautifully. Two coats don't even require a topcoat, though I can't be parted with my Seche Vite, so the color came out all the more glossy.

And the best part? Two weeks later, my pedi is still totally intact without a single chip. I've never seen anything like it!

China Glaze Raspberry Festival retails for $2.68 at 8ty8beauty.com.

You'll Win Prizes with China Glaze Prize Winning Mare!

Well, maybe you won't win any prizes. But you really should -- because Prize Winning Mare, from the China Glaze Rodeo Diva Collection, will certainly make your nails stand out. Part of the two-set collection that China Glaze put out this fall -- Flannel Fixation and Hay Ride -- this color from the latter collection is seriously stunning.

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