THESE ARE THE BEST-SELLING NAIL POLISH COLORS OF 2014

COURTESY ELLE



Photo: Courtesy ELLE

You know when you walk into your favorite department store and are immediately inundated with hundreds of beauty products to choose from? It's an overwhelming feeling.


Thankfully, Rank & Style came along and simplified shopping with their daily lists of the top ten products in basically every category. And the best part? These lists are created scientifically. They're not based on personal opinion, but on real data from magazines, blogs, department stores, and social media, all of which help to rank products by popularity, quality, and buzz.

From now until January, we'll be bringing you the top five products in various beauty categories. Last week, we shared the top selling fragrances of 2014. Today, we're revealing this year's five best-selling nail polishes. So there's no reason to use the same old light pink shade you've been wearing all year! Instead, try one of these shades on for size.

5 FOODS THAT FIGHT AGING

From the editors of WomansDay.com, eat the right cheese, nuts, and more to reverse the aging process.




These natural remedies help your skin and teeth defy time. And they may be in your diet already! Here's what they are and how they fight aging.

1) Oatmeal
Non-processed (read: not instant) versions of this breakfast favorite are packed with amino acids and vitamin E, which nourish your skin, combat sun damage and counteract aging free radicals.

IF THE LOW-FAT DIET IS A LIE, WHAT THE HELL SHOULD WE EAT?

For decades the low-fat, high-carb diet was gospel. Now science is singing a very different tune. So what's a woman to believe?


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You name it—Rebecca Newell has tried it: Carb Cycling, the Ketogenic Diet, the 21-Day Sugar Detox, Dr. Oz's 3-Day Detox Cleanse (13 times), the Alkaline Diet, Intermittent Fasting, and something she called the "small food" diet, when for 30 days she tried (and failed) to give up any food smaller than a quarter.

For 15 years, though, before she found herself changing diets as if they were socks, the 41-year-old college administrator had followed one plan: the low-fat diet. She chose big bowls of pasta over steak, had a pantry full of low-fat salad dressings, and steered well clear of avocados. (She even tried a gummy-bear diet; her husband would drive her to the movie theater to indulge in the pick-and-mix no-fat candy.) And it worked—sort of: Newell, who is 5'6", would drop 40, even 50, pounds, then gain it all back again. "Odd years were my fat years," she says. "I'd lose on the even year and gain on the odd." To accommodate the swings, Newell kept clothes from sizes 4 to 14 in the attic.


She's the first to admit that her obsessive, try-anything-once approach is extreme. You might even call it unhealthy. But for Newell—and to varying degrees millions of other American women—the serial diets are a desperate response to the debunking of the low-fat dogma. "The low-fat thing was so ingrained in my brain that it was really hard to move away from it. I couldn't believe it was better to eat a steak than a bagel," she says. "At this point there isn't any expert I can trust. I have to figure this out for myself."

WHY YOU SHOULD RINSE YOUR HAIR WITH CHAMPAGNE

And other holiday-inspired at home hair treatments by Kyle White of Oscar Blandi Salon.


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One of our favorite hair salons, Oscar Blandi, is offering exclusive treatments that celebrate all things Yuletide, with rinses that smell like the candy canes you've been eating by the handful and treatments that make your hair shine like the champagne you've been guzzling sipping at all your holiday parties. And beyond just being wonderfully winter-y, each treatment works magic for your hair, promising more volume and envy-worthy shine in addition to those "I rinsed my hair with champagne" bragging rights.


One blistery December Saturday, I experienced the treatments first hand with hair magician Kyle White, and all I can say is, my hair has NEVER looked better. The champagne brightened my blonde locks, the candy cane clarifying treatment tingled and got rid of my pesky product buildup, and the eggnog was a great conditioning mask and treatment (and it smelled so delicious I wanted to eat it). I'd recommend them to anyone—but if you can't make it to the salon in time for a hair pick-me-up, here are the ingredients and directions to try these treatments at home.

HOW TO SMELL LIKE A QUEEN

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Photo: Getty Images

Here's something that might not dawn on you as you spritz your wrists with your favorite eau of the moment before dashing off to work: Hundreds of years ago those notes of ambergris, bergamot or agarwood in your Dolce & Gabbana and Tom Ford were so precious they were reserved for royalty. Now, that ought to make you feel even more special and alluring than they already do. Catherine de Medici wore a fresh citrus and bergamot scent created especially for her in 1533 by the famed Florentine pharmacy Santa Maria Novella. Now, of course, you can find these rare and highly prized scents in your local Sephora. That's mostly thanks to developments in technology that allow for thecreation of synthetic scents that last longer and often (but not always) cost less than their natural counterparts. Still, the history that links fragrance to royalty is fascinating. So we tapped the savant behind perfume blog Kafkaesque (the author wishes to remain anonymous) to break down the most highly prized scents in history.

HOW TO NAIL IT, MANICURE-WISE, THIS NEW YEAR'S EVE

Count down to 2015 wearing the LBD of manicures—a bejeweled nail designed by Miss Pop that’s sleek, chic, and totally versatile. Switch up the colors to match your New Year’s Eve outfit, or let your fingertips be the focal point of an understated look. Here's how to do it.

HOW TO CURL YOUR HAIR WITH 3 DIFFERENT STYLING TOOLS

Maybe you're traveling without sufficient room in your suitcase, or perhaps you've never felt the need to invest in more than one heating tool. Whatever your reason to consolidate, NYC-based stylist Lizzy Weinberg shows us how to curl no matter the device you have on hand—whether a curling wand, an old-school clamp curling iron, or a flat iron.