IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! – For beauty lovers, that is, because holiday gift sets just dropped at Sephora and there’s some great ones this year. There’s honestly so many different sets available this year that rounding them up is an overwhelming task. Because there’s so much to sort through, I’m highlighting only items featuring products that I already know I love, or that I would buy myself. As a general rule, I’m a huge fan of makeup minis. When’s the last time you actually finished an entire blush? Especially if you’re like me and hoard a ton of products, buying minis or li ..read more

Not to be dramatic, but I found 3 LIFE CHANGING items this week. (But one of them is so great that I’m doing an entire separate post on it, so you’ll have to come back later to hear about that…) What I Bought This Week // Allbirds “The Dasher“ My orthopedic boot is DEAD!! This week, I was able to get out of my boot and back into a shoe for the first time since my surgery 8 weeks ago. It’s still a little painful, so I’m taking it slow, but the ability to actually get outside and walk the dog is such a game changer for my mental health. For the past couple weeks, I’ve started to get so exc ..read more

I can’t be the only one who is completely losing it now that we are officially in our 7th month of quarantine. Not to mention, I’m on week 6 of recovery from foot surgery – I can finally walk, but I’ll still be in my orthopedic boot for 2 more weeks. My point here is that I haven’t exercised at all for almost 2 months, and I am ~mentally unwell~. Since we’re all in the same boat with being trapped at home to some extent, I thought it could be fun to start a series highlighting the things I read, watch, buy, and do each week in an attempt to maintain some semblance of sanity. What I Read This ..read more

We’ve all stepped into the gym feeling supremely uncomfortable, not having a clue how to do anything properly, and wondering if everyone is watching and judging us. When I first started lifting weights, walking into the weights section was even harder. There were bulky dudes everywhere, grunting and lifting gigantic weights. And there I was with my noodle arms trying to do lat raises with the lightest weights, and struggling. I hate the idea of other women feeling uncomfortable at the gym because once you’ve been going for a while and have a routine, you realize that absolutely no one is look ..read more

I didn’t feel good enough. I was constantly comparing myself to others. I felt like I always needed to buy something new, and I always needed to look perfect. Constantly buying clothes and shoes just to take photos of them, picking apart pictures of myself because I didn’t look like the bloggers that I follow (thigh gaps are overrated, people, but why does it still feel bad when every girl on the internet has one?), feeling bad that I didn’t have designer items (I don’t need material items just for the purpose of showing them off in pictures!).   I kept making excuses: I didn’t have time ..read more

Hello beautiful people! Welcome back to Polished & Pink, where life has overtaken blogging and this girl has been off the grid for quite some time. Today, I’m back with a brand-new category for the site: Wellness, which you can find under the Lifestyle tab. Over the past year or so, I’ve become increasingly focused on my overall health, wellness, and fitness. I had reached a point where I absolutely hated my body and was consistently indulging in unhealthy, processed foods. I had no idea how to approach nutrition in a non-boring, non-salad-focused way. And I HATED going to the gym. Rather ..read more

IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! – For beauty lovers, that is, because holiday gift sets just dropped at Sephora and there’s some great ones this year. There’s honestly so many different sets available this year that rounding them up is an overwhelming task. Because there’s so much to sort through, I’m highlighting only items featuring products that I already know I love, or that I would buy myself. As a general rule, I’m a huge fan of makeup minis. When’s the last time you actually finished an entire blush? Especially if you’re like me and hoard a ton of products, buying minis or li ..read more

Not to be dramatic, but I found 3 LIFE CHANGING items this week. (But one of them is so great that I’m doing an entire separate post on it, so you’ll have to come back later to hear about that…) What I Bought This Week // Allbirds “The Dasher“ My orthopedic boot is DEAD!! This week, I was able to get out of my boot and back into a shoe for the first time since my surgery 8 weeks ago. It’s still a little painful, so I’m taking it slow, but the ability to actually get outside and walk the dog is such a game changer for my mental health. For the past couple weeks, I’ve started to get so exc ..read more

I can’t be the only one who is completely losing it now that we are officially in our 7th month of quarantine. Not to mention, I’m on week 6 of recovery from foot surgery – I can finally walk, but I’ll still be in my orthopedic boot for 2 more weeks. My point here is that I haven’t exercised at all for almost 2 months, and I am ~mentally unwell~. Since we’re all in the same boat with being trapped at home to some extent, I thought it could be fun to start a series highlighting the things I read, watch, buy, and do each week in an attempt to maintain some semblance of sanity. What I Read This ..read more

When I graduated from college, I thought that was it. I had become a fully formed adult, I knew most of what I needed to know about life, and my hobbies and interests were pretty nailed down forever. I didn’t realize that my post-college years would actually be significantly more formative than my college years were. I’ve learned more about who I am and what I want from life in the past year alone than I did in all 4 years of college combined. I’ve always spent a lot of energy trying to project a certain version of myself to the world for consumption. I would see people that I admired and try ..read more