Behind the Scenes at Ben-Amun: The Glamourous Life

We often mention how Isaac’s aspiration for designing and crafting jewelry is to make the woman who is wearing it feel glamorous and beautiful. Luckily, I get to be surrounded by this gorgeous jewelry and glamour day in and day out, but last night takes the cake!

Glamour and empowerment unquestionably filled the air at Glamour Magazine’s 20th Annual Women of the Year Awards, honoring the year’s most amazing women who have shown true inner beauty through their selflessness and charity work.

The first OMG moment of the night was a surprise appearance by Janet Jackson who presented an award to Donatella Versace and thanked her for always being there for her family. From that point on (as if that wasn’t enough) there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. The stage at Carnegie Hall was a revolving door of inspirational stories, videos and speeches from remarkable women of all ages from all walks of life.

My view from the balcony as guests take their seats

I nearly fell out of my seat in the second balcony when they announced “please welcome Oprah Winfrey!” who presented an award to her friend Julia Roberts who advised that “behind every great woman, is a greater group of women” and while tucking her hair behind her ear said “never wear your hair like this, it never looks good.” Both of these statements I find to be groundbreaking and very true. Not surprisingly, I have been untucking my hair from behind my ear all morning and felt the need to call my mother on the way home, the leader of my family’s “great group of women" to tell her about my night.

Julia and Oprah going in for a big hug!

One of the most awe inspiring moments was the standing ovation received by Dr. Hawa Abdi and her two daughters who, 20 years ago, converted their family property near Mogadishu into a camp housing nearly 90,000 displaced Somalis in what is considered the most dangerous country in the world. When militants tried to seize the camp last May by taking Dr. Abdi hostage, she stood her ground and a week later, the defeated rebels left!

Dr. Abdi and her daughters

Although it may not seem like much, every little bit helps (as we were told time and time again last night) and we can all contribute to Dr. Abdi’s cause by feeding our glamour addiction and purchasing Glamour’s exclusive Women of the Year nail polish by L'Oréal Paris.

Love this shade of crimson, it goes perfectly with Ben-Amun's Pearl and Crystal Collection on ideeli today!

Although I was still in complete shock from having been in the same room with Cher, Stanley Tucci, Hilary Swank, Queen Rania, Kate Hudson and Fergie (in addition to the ones I’ve already mentioned!), I left feeling like I could take on the world – or at the very least that I could take to this blog to encourage you to “do something - anything” as Katie Spotz put it in her acceptance speech - even if it is as silly as purchasing a bottle of nail polish – for now. Who knows, maybe one of us will be nominated next year!