Things are really startin' to heat up and it's time to break out the corals, the berries, and of course the nudes! (DUH!) Check out some of our top lipstick picks for spring and summer. You can find more swatches of these lippies in the Cocoa Swatches app!

While the term "WOC" aka Women of Color is an easy way of referring to minority women across the United States, more often than not, it's used as a nice and tidy PC way of saying black women. Just take a look at these headlines. 

A few of you (on different platforms might I add), have called us out for not posting or supporting enough black owned beauty brands. At first listen, I found that accusation preposterous. We post and promote black owned brands ALL THE TIME! Often unsolicited, for free or at a discount.  

In a previous survey, we asked you, the Cocoa Collective, which beauty retailer you preferred to shop at. The majority of you gave your vote to Sephora, however, in a personal study of the brand about a year ago, I explored the current climate of the beauty retailer industry and who is *actually* winning. Surprise Surprise. It is not Sephora. 

Coral blushes look gorgeous on so many complexions and are perfect for spring/summer! Check out some of our faves below. 

Cult makeup brand, The Balm, just revealed face swatches of the latest addition to their product suite - a whip foundation. Known for their cute vintage packaging, clever shade names, and ode to the 50s and 60s, The Balm has gained a massive following with over 1 million devoted fans on Instagram, but this time did they take it too far?

LET YO SOUL ✨Whenever I need a highlighter that refuses to quit, I find myself consistently reaching for 2 products!

Many products come and go but few makeup items are as tried and true as MAC blushes, especially for darker complexions. They come in over 40 shades and are $23 each! Check out swatches of our top picks below.

So you've heard of drugstore hauls, PR Box hauls, Sephora hauls, anti-hauls...the list goes on and on, but is there such a thing as a "wish haul?" While not technically an actual haul, we wanted to put together a list of things we were *thinking* about hauling but weren't quite ready to pull the trigger on yet. Please please please let us know if you've tried any of these goodies!!

You get creative with it. You beat that face with it. You spend hours on it. Sometimes you wear it, other times you don’t. You spend hella money on it. You wear it how you want to.  You love it. It’s yours.

What is it?

Truer words have never been said. Will we ever get enough nude lippie choices? Doubtful. 

I use to believe people with darker skin couldn't "bronze" because I never saw products that could actually act the way I imagined a bronzer should. In reality, there just aren't that many products marketed as bronzers that actually function on darker complexions.

No matter what your beauty routine may be, the magic of powder can be realized in various ways. For the oily and combo skinned beauty lovers, powder is helpful in the prep and priming stages, before applying foundation (i.e. the Jackie Aina method.)

To be frank, buying foundation online can be a b*tch. It's especially frustrating when beauty retailers like Sephora and Ulta only carry the lighter shades of certain foundation formulas, leaving those of us with darker complexions to play the guessing game. Side effects of this phenomenon might include: 1. Wasted Time 2. Wasted $$ 3.Hella Frustration.

One of the largest conundrums of 2017 is that fact that black women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in America and yet they get the least amount of funding. According to a Fortune article, written just a few months ago in June of 2016, “The number of businesses owned by African American women grew 322% since 1997, making black females the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S.” However, this inspiring statistic for black women across the country is harshly juxtaposed against the cutthroat reality of the start-up world. As reported in TechCrunch, “In “The Real Unicorns of Tech: Black Founders Women,” a recent report by #ProjectDiane, you’ll come across several startling statistics, for example, of all venture deals from 2012 to 2014, only 0.2% (24 of 10,238 deals) went to went to black female founders.”