Hello everyone! My first YLF post ever after having discovered this site this past Friday. Love the site and this topic! I'm a lifelong RATE who is struggling up the ladder towards Polished. My excuses: always bit my nails, have hair that is "unpolishable", have struggled with acne for 38 years (no kidding), and have eyebrows that could stand twice weekly waxing. At 50 though, I've found that a little more polish is almost a necessity. As in...unpolished at 30 can be fresh and cute, unpolished at 50 easily borders on frumpy.
A big part of my move towards being polished was getting my hair cut this summer to a style I can actually keep looking good. I'll post a pic later but my haircut is very similar to Angie's and I LOVE it! Previously, no matter what I did to it, my hair was lank and tired looking just a few hours post-styling. Now it looks good all day, every day with very little effort. It takes so little time to get to a more polished look that I really don't have a good excuse for not doing it.
I've also stopped biting my nails as much (still an issue) but am trying to at least maintain my cuticles and keep my little itty bitty nails nicely filed. My makeup is minimal- a mineral powder foundation, mascara, and my sacred lipstick because I really have never gotten the hang of applying anything else. Blush tends to make my narrow face look narrower, eye shadow makes my small eyes look smaller. Maybe less really is more sometimes!
The shift has definitely helped my confidence level. I feel good!