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?

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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!