This is not the usual fare for me, but I couldn’t help it. After stumbling upon this site, I couldn’t take my eyes off the design (no, really, I’m just talking about the design). Cocoa&Creme.com is a fashion, makeup, and celebrity tips site for African American women, or any woman with a darker than pale shade of skin.
Crush Factor:
Twitter: Following 16 / Followers 890 / Listed 42
Facebook: 663 Fans (“Likes”)
Alexa Rank: 425,067
Compete Rank: 177,138
Look at this custom sidebar creative. Look of the Day? That’s killer. Not only do they provide fresh sidebar content each day, but the look has the customized look and feel of the rest of the site. I’m so impressed. I don’t even care what the look of the day is. I just know I like that they have one, and that it looks this good.
Three font styles broken up by a color change keeps the eyes intrigued and reading this specialty content. Now I know that Monique Coleman looked like at the VIP screening of “Gimme Mo.” I would have never known that otherwise. Seriously.
Clean. Good contrast. To the point. A winning piece of creative.
Then there’s the actual post. We haven’t touched on those yet. Check out this creative below. Not quite an infographic, this falls somewhere in the middle. Again, while the content doesn’t appeal to me personally, I love the way they envisioned this graphic.
Want to look like Rihanna? Here’s all the makeup she used. Heres’ how she applied it. And we’ll show you in a way you can’t resist looking at. Near perfect presentation. Only complaint is the title of the post. Uh.. where is it? Oh. WAAAYY down below the photo? “Get the Look: Rihanna’s Aqua Eye Lids.” Weird.
From a usability standpoint, I’m more likely to click The Daily Blog: Submit News + Tips link above the image, thinking it’s just some weird link to the post content. But I would be wrong. That’s how you subscribe to the site. Just because you WANT the title to be above the photo doesn’t mean it will be. Sadly.
Most surprising was that this site has only been around since early July 2010! Cocoa&Creme came onto the scene with a vengeance. Featuring two to four posts per day, this site has quickly built an archive and a following most six month old blogs would envy.
I can’t imagine that it’s the only site dedicated to the subject, but Cocoa&Creme pulls it off with more style than even the more traditional online mags. I predict that this site will grow by leaps and bounds as it carves its own niche loud and proud.