Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New Year, or Kung Hei Fat Choi! Next weekend, the streets of Chinatown in NYC will be filled with celebration and dancing dragons. To welcome the Year of the Dragon, I'm wearing "Jade is the New Black" from OPI's spring 2010 "Hong Kong" collection.

Jade is an important and significant stone in Chinese culture that "symbolizes beauty, nobility, perfection, constancy, power, and immortality" (source:  http://chineseculture.about.com/cs/history/a/JadeCulture_2.htm). In reading about jade while writing this post, I am amazed at the role it played in ancient history - Taoist alchemists actually ate jade elixirs in hopes of becoming immortal (source: http://www.chinafacttours.com/facts/art/chinese-jade.html). Do check out the article, it's fascinating. And I thought jade was just a good luck charm!

While "Jade is the New Black" was one of the stand-out polishes of the Hong Kong collection, I picked this polish up only recently when I found it marked down at Ricky's for $3.99 (win). I'm not a green nail polish fanatic, but "Jade is the New Black" has completely won me over. It came as a bit of a surprise to me when I found this polish to have a bit of a jelly-like consistency when it looks so creamy in person and in photos! I'd say the texture falls between the sorbet polishes from the OPI Texas collection and a true cream. Whatever it is, I am in love - the final look is smooth and shiny.

Next Sunday is the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown. According to About.com, "the parade usually winds throughout Chinatown along Mott, Canal, and Bayard streets, and along East Broadway" between 11:30AM and 4PM.

Chinese characters source: About.com.