Daily Winter Makeup Routine

I love everything about make up; wearing it, doing it, and shopping for it. For me makeup isn't about covering anything up or hiding things I don't like about myself, it's all about enhancing my natural features. I've always been told that my skin is nice, but I never really believed it until I started doing my makeup and seeing what other people saw by taking the time to really look at myself and realize it.

My makeup routine (how much I wear, what colors I use, etc.) changes with the seasons, but most of the products and brands stay the same. I think that winter is one of my favorite seasons for makeup because there's a lot more you can do and play around with dark colors. I really like this look and it's fairly easy and fast to do especially in the mornings before school.

Before

After

First, I start out by pumping my foundation onto the back of my hand and applying it with a beauty sponge. Then I take an under-eye concealer and put it in a triangular shape to cover my under-eye circles and highlight. I love using a sponge to blend liquid products for a lighter coverage look. 

Next, I take a yellow toned highlight to set my under-eye concealer and highlight the bridge of the nose and chin. Since this is the makeup I wear everyday, I like to do a subtle highlight, so that's why I opt for a yellow toned one instead of a typical pink shimmer. After I'm done highlighting I like to do a little contouring in the hollows of the cheeks and sides of the nose.

Highlighting and contouring are nothing without adding blush, so I like to do a little bit on the apples of my cheeks. After that, to make sure all of the powder is blended, there are no harsh lines, and my foundation is set, I go over my entire face with some translucent powder.

Eyebrows are probably my favorite part of the face to do. I like to start out by using a brush to tame the hairs, then I use some pomade to fill them in, and I finish off with brow gel on a wand.

Now for the eyes. I like to keep it simple on my eyes daily, which means a little mascara and liner. I have pretty short lashes so any mascara helps to enhance my eyes. For liner I suck at doing wings so I usually don't try, especially when I have to go to school. I just stick with a thin line and it does the trick.

For the lips I really like to do matte shades. Since its the winter I like a darker nude lip so I like to mix a nude brown and a neutral pink.

Here are all the products I used:

1: Real Techniques Sponge

2: e.l.f.  Small Tapered Brush

3: Luxie Beauty Rose Gold Angled Face Brush

4: e.l.f. Blush Brush

5: e.l.f. Powder Brush

6: Benefit Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow! Liquid Foundation in Hazelnut

7: e.l.f. Sheer High Definition Powder

8: Ulta Contour Kit

9: Maybelline Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser

10: Nyx Powder Blush

11: Starlooks Luxe Longwear Eye Liner Pen

12: e.l.f. Eyebrow Treat & Tame 

13: e.l.f. Eyebrow Kit

14: Maybelline Volum' Express The Falsies Flared

15: Nyx Matte Lipstick in Tea Rose

16: Nyx Matte Lipstick in Maison

And there you have it, my daily 

makeup routine for the winter! 

I hope you enjoyed. What

products do you like

to use in the winter?

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Musical Monday: Adele and DNCE

Music is a HUGE part of my life. I have been singing in choir since third grade and playing instruments since sixth. Creating music is an important part of who I am, but listening to music is one of my favorite pastimes. I listen to music all the time no matter what I'm doing; studying, driving, reading, cleaning, eating. There's not a time I'm not listening to music in less it's 100% impossible.
I've often been told that I have a good taste in music and I like listening to everything under the sun. And I want to share that with you!

I want to share the music I'm loving at the moment with you all and that's why I am officially starting "Musical Mondays". Every Monday, yes every single one, I will post about some of my new faves or some oldies that I'm getting back into and loving. I really hope that these posts will go over well and that you guys will love reading them as much as I love writing them. Yes, this blog is mainly about fashion and beauty, but I want to include as much lifestyle in there as possible. So with that lets get started with the very first Musical Monday here on Polished and Plus!

This past week I've had a lot of time off from school due to snow (!!), so I've had a lot of time to listen to music and find some new stuff to get into.

25::Adele

I've had 25 ever since it came out, but I've been getting a lot more into it recently. I am a big Adele fan and I think this is one of her best albums to date. The music is a little bit happier than typical Adele and I am loving it. Some of my faves on the album include: All I Ask, Send My Love (To Your New Lover), Remedy, and I Miss You. I think this album is really great and even if you're not a huge Adele fan I think you'll find something you like.

SWAAY::DNCE

I grew up on the Jonas Brothers, so naturally I was devastated when they broke up. I honestly felt like my childhood was 100% over, but now that I see the great things that they are doing individually , I can't help but realize that it was time for them to move on and for me to do the same. I've been loving Nick's music and I was patiently waiting for Joe to do something (other than that 2011 album, yikes). His new band DNCE is so funky and fun that you can't help but dance to their music. After hearing Cake by the Ocean I needed more. They only have 4 songs on the SWAAY - EP, but they are all worth a listen. My current faves are Toothbrush and Pay My Rent. They have a great sound and I can't wait to hear more from my fave JoeBro. 

Hope you enjoyed! 

What music are you 

loving right now? 

Let me know! 

I'm Back!

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted since September. I could go on about how busy I was, etc., etc., but truth be told I was just lazy. I didn't think blogging would be such a huge commitment, but now I'm ready for it. 

Every New Year's we see hundreds of "New year, new me posts" on every social media outlet and almost none of them result in any real change, but for me it really is a new me (with a new haircut to prove it). I have so many amazing things happening for me this year; I'm going to complete my last semester of high school ever, graduate high school, go to college, and finish a whole semester of it. So as the clock got increasingly closer to a new year on December 31st I thought about how I wanted to spend the next year. I decided that I wanted to spend it taking in all of my lasts and firsts and spending time with my loved ones, but I also want to spend it documenting me. I want to document my passions and who I am at any given moment in time, so I decided to start blogging again.

New year, new haircut, new me!

Now you may be thinking, "Victoria, if you wanted to start blogging again in the new year why are you just now posting on the 23rd?" I honestly went back and forth with myself over whether or not to start blogging right away and I obviously chose not to. Instead I've spent the past three weeks meticulously planning out every detail about my comeback that I possibly could. That means everything from new posts and series to videos! I have so much great stuff to share with you all and I hope you enjoy!

Thanks for reading, I hope

you're as excited as

I am!

 

Agenda Organization

Keeping with the theme from yesterday, I want to do another back to school post. This is a bit more of a life post than BTS, but it's about keeping organized which no one can get through the school year without. Being organized is definitely the most important way I maintain sanity throughout the year.

 

This year I'm using the Lilly Pulitzer large agenda in Scuba to Cuba. It is honestly my favorite thing that I have ever purchased.

I love that the Lilly agendas have two calendars for each month! For those of you that may have never used one, in the front they have all the months together and then they have the calendars again with the weekly pages. I like to use the ones in front to write down all general dates that don't pertain to a particular class, like football games and club meetings and then the other ones to write down due dates and tests as well as quizzes.

When it comes to writing down homework, I assign a color for each class. It's visually appealing so it makes me want to write down my homework. Next to each assignment I draw a little box and then after I've completed my homework for the night I get to check it. It's really gratifying to be able to do this for me because I have two days to do homework, I have 4 different classes every other day, and it helps me to do more before I have to which feels awesome.

Thanks for reading! How do you

like to organize your agenda? 

Let me know! 

Back to School Tips!

Well hello there!!

It has been a while since my first post, but I am back! As you may have guessed, school has started for me and it has already been very busy. I most definitely love school but it is a lot of work and stress. So today I would like to provide you all with my top five back to school tips!

1. Make it fun with school supplies! One of my favorite parts of going back to school is by far school supplies. There is something so amazing about writing in a brightly colored agenda or binder that just makes those first few weeks a little more bearable.
2. Plan something fun! At the end of the week my best friend and I went to go see a super funny movie at a diner movie theater and ate brownie sundaes! How much more fun can it get?? By planning something fun to finish off your depressing week of syllabuses and waking up early for the first time in months you have something to look forward to.
3. Start with a positive attitude! If you start off with a positive attitude the week and the whole year will seem to fly by. Staying positive throughout the year will help you get work done but also help you see the better side of school and life in general.
4. Don't obsess over things that don't matter! Going back to school there are a lot of things to worry about so don't make extra ones. You know what I mean, relationships, drama, and problems that aren't your own. Being involved in school and getting good grades should be the only things on our minds and for all the fellow seniors college apps as well. If you're too busy worrying about drama and relationships focus is lost for the things that matter. If you go back to school only worrying about things that matter, the year will be 1,000 times easier.
5. Take it all in! This is more of a tip for all my other seniors out there but I cannot emphasize how important this is for everyone. Take in everything around you at school and really just in your life. You will never be able to experience life the same way you are now. Even though you may hate High School, whether it's one small part or the whole thing, we will all look back on it and want to remember the amazing things that were there. That could be your friends or a favorite teacher of yours, but if you don't take it in now you won't remember it years from now and you'll regret it.   

Thanks for reading! I hope these were
as helpful for you as they are for
me every single year!  

Introduction To Polished & Plus and Me

Hi!

My name is Victoria and I am so very excited to be writing my first ever blog post! I was sitting in my bed this morning and I finally decided it was time to start my blog, something I have been wanting to do for a very long time. First off I guess I should tell you all a little bit about myself. I am a 16 (17 in less than a month) year old regular girl going into my senior year of high school. I love fashion and reading fashion blogs, but I don't feel like there's a blog out there that can completely relate to and encapsulate me, so I decided to start my own. I am a plus size teenage girl but that's not all I am. I love music, fashion, and people!! In addition to fashion I am very passionate about makeup and I hope to share that all with you! This blog is going to be a way for me to share the things I love from trending fashion, my personal style, music, lifestyle tips and so much more.

Now a little bit about Polished and Plus. I chose the name because I wanted to portray living a polished life. Living a polished life to me means having fun and looking good doing it. Being plus size is an important part of who I am, what I wear, and what I've struggled with, but I have and will never let it hold me back. Through writing this blog I hope that I can inspire other young women of all shapes and sizes to never be afraid to be who they want to be and wear what they want to wear.

Thanks for reading and I hope you chose 

to share this crazy wonderful 

journey with me!