Meet Nicole Ross! July's Clean Beauty Box Curator, Founder & Creator of blog lashesandlemons

Nicole Ross is a self defined recipe developer with a passion for health and wellness. She created lashesandlemons as a space to create a hobby for herself around cooking. With a strong belief that you can elevate any healthy dish by plating it beautifully, she got to work on Instagram and the blog was born!

A big belief of Nicoles is that you should never have to sacrifice your health based on how busy you are. She says you should always put yourself at the top of your to-do list, and cooking healthy food and learning more about the ingredients you put on your skin is a great place to start. On @lashesandlemons, you can follow Nicole's lifestyle and health journey as she continues to build her own confidence in hopes to inspire others to build theirs.

Throughout the month of July, Nicole will be popping up to share information about the picks that she loves and chose for her curated box. To get started, we caught up with Nicole for a Q&A all about her!

Nicole: I am just an everyday girl that has loved makeup, skincare, and beauty for as long as I can remember. As I grew up, the process of it all became such an important and valuable activity for me. I believe you can never be fully dressed without feeling good in your own skin, and that includes taking the time to love and pamper yourself. With such an incredible access to information and the new science behind makeup and skincare, I feel I not only have a responsibility to myself to be educated about what goes on my skin but also to my followers! My followers have grown with me as I have continued to learn and educate myself about the beauty industry.

Nicole: A few years ago I had some challenges with my skin. I was breaking out all the time and I didn't know why. I constantly would buy and return new skincare products and some of them would make my skin worse. That is the moment when I turned to clean beauty. It was pretty new to me at the time and I was fascinated educating myself about these smaller companies that were breaking out in the beauty industry and were paying attention to what ingredients they were using. I started researching ingredients in the products I was using and did my best to find an alternative. Throughout that process, I shared with my followers who also had similar concerns and were excited to learn along with me!

Nicole: Clean doesn't always mean it will work for your skin! A lot of ingredients in clean makeup products are replaced with oils and that isn't so great for acne prone skin! I am continuing to learn about my skin type and how it changes during seasons. With that being said, sometimes I switch up my makeup in the summer or winter. Just as it's important to learn about ingredients, it's just as important to learn about your skin type so that you can find products that work best for you.

Nicole: Washing your face and removing your makeup. No matter how clean or amazing the products you are using, if you are not allowing your skin to breathe it defeats the purpose. I use the double cleansing method where I use an oil based cleanser first to remove makeup and then use a gentle cleanser to wash and clean my skin. This is a crucial step to prevent breakouts and promote youthful skin as products can sit in the lines and pores of your skin.

Nicole: Body wash. Once I found out so much information about ingredients, it was hard to break up with products I loved for years. I think the easiest place to start is body wash or body products. Once I finished a product I loved, I went to look for a cleaner alternative to replace. This was an easy and affordable way to transition to cleaner products.

Nicole: The Coola sunscreen refresher spray! I just celebrated my 27th birthday and anti-aging and taking care of my skin is of prime importance. I love that this spray is a refresher and you can spray on throughout the day to protect your skin from the sun!

Nicole: I stand behind one of my favorite sayings "you can never feel fully dressed without feeling good in your own skin" and I don't just mean what you look like on the outside and all the incredible colors of makeup on your already beautiful skin. BUT, all of those things that make you feel your best. Taking the time to take care of yourself, spending time doing your skincare routine or makeup and acknowledging how beautiful you are whole having fun accentuating the features you love the most.

On my instagram account and blog you can find me sharing activities daily about how I choose to take care of myself and feel my best. Because, when you feel your best, you glow from the inside out and you share that glow with everyone around you.


Follow Nicole @lashesandlemons and stay tuned on @birchbox for a couple of exciting live streams:


7/1: Intro to Nicoles Box
7/22: Q&A w/ Nicole & Kella (our Director of Merchandising & Growth Marketing)


7/26: Box Customization (Aces)
7/27: Box Customization (Everyone)