shellac and birchbox

So a couple weeks ago I broke down and finally bought a kit to do my shellac at home, spending $40 every 2-3 weeks was getting a bit ridiculous. I bought the orly gel fx kit from amazon and the orly LED light. This kit is awesome, it's pretty dang easy to do shellac at home, when they tell you at the salon that it's not they lie, hahaha. I'll tell you what is not easy and that is the cuticles, but I got something in my birchbox that should help with that. The Orly starter kit was around $75 it came with remover, prep, primer, base, top, 3 colors, cuticle oil, 2 nail files, and 20 remover pads. The light is the Orly LED light and it was around $30 with shipping I spent around $115 and after this go around it will have almost paid for itself, and this weekend I'm going to practice on my friend and maybe mom too. The color below is called naughty, also included is haute red (bright red), and kiss the bride (pale pink). The Orly is different from other gels because the basecoat is infused with vitamins for you nails so it is supposed to be good for them, my nails are a mess because I've picked off my shellac so many times, that is why they are super short right now, I needed to trim them down and start fresh. I'm very happy with my purchase and this color naughty, in a month or so I'll work on adding new colors to my collection.

I finally received my birchbox yesterday, took longer with my change of address. You know when you get those emails when your package has shipped and you know when it should be delivered and drives you crazy because you can't wait to have it, well I had to wait like 5 extra days because of the change of address.
In this birchbox is:
Amika color perfection shampoo, haven't tried this yet so can't tell you much about it besides it smelled nice.
Clark's botanicals, smoothing marine cream, this is the little black pot with the CB on the top, this has glycolic acid to exfoliate and can be used on face, body and hands, I'm using it on my hands to hopefully help with my cuticles and so far I like I probably put it on about 3 times last night and just applied again this morning. The smell is very organic but it's not bad.
Harvey Prince, skinny chic spritz, this scent is supposed to increase energy levels and fight food cravings with a zesty blend of apple, mint, and lotus blossum. I am very surprised that I like that cocktail of scents but it's very fresh, I spritzed some on last night, and could be that I just wasn't hungry or the stuff worked because I don't feel like I overate last night, which can happen when my husband is out of town and I make pasta for myself but I didn't feel like exploding afterwards last night.
The balm cosmetics, put a lid on it, this is the tiny tube laying in the box, it's a primer for eye shadow, now I don't wear eye shadow so this one will probably get passed along to a friend, or I may keep it for one of those special occassions when I do wear shadow.
Finally, 100% pure, nourishing body cream, that is what's in the little packets. This stuff was awesome it's 100% vegan and organic, which is not something I care about when it comes to body products as usually you are fighting wrinkles and things with chemicals but this stuff was nice and creamy and the scent was like coconut macarons, I may actually buy this on birchbox's site, and possibly the skinny prince but waiting until I use up the whole little bottle of that and see if I think it's worth it, you can get a small bottle for $26 on birchbox's site and the 100% nourishing body cream is $15. Even if I like the clarks botanicals the full size of that cost $115 so won't be buying that one.

Birchbox is a subscription service for $10 a month you get one of these lovely little boxes in your mailbox full of 5 samples some boxes are better than others, I have received a full tube of mascara in one that was awesome and another time I received a hydro silk razor with coupons for refill blades, which is a great razor if your looking for one. You can subscribe at www.birchbox.com, you may have to go on a waiting list for a short time until they can fulfill your order.