Nicole Marie Melton: Beauty Editor/Essence.com, Founder/BeautyBreakthrough.org
COCOBlogger of the Month
3 min read

Nicole Marie Melton: Beauty Editor/Essence.com, Founder/BeautyBreakthrough.org
At COCOTIQUE, we believe in the spirit of beauty through confidence, grace and optimism. In our COCOBlogger series, we feature women who exude those things through their personal brands, and have them share their favorite beauty and fashion secrets. In this post we present Nicole Marie Melton: Beauty Editor, Essence.com and Founder, Beauty Breakthrough. In 3-5 sentences, who are you and what is your profession? I'm Nicole Marie Melton, beauty editor at ESSENCE.com and founder of Beauty Breakthrough, a faith based organization that encourages women to build beauty, health and wholeness through Christ. My 9-5 job requires me to delve into all things hair, makeup, and skincare to deliver breaking beauty news to ESSENCE.com readers. My overall mission in life is to inspire women to honor God via a healthy and spirit-led lifestyle that cultivates beauty inside and out. What is your claim to blogging fame? The #SaladJam! Back in November, I was sitting at home eating a huge salad. I posted it to Instagram with the hashtag #SaladJam and decided to eat a salad every day that week. After that, my followers wanted to start eating salads, too. In January, I started the Salad Jam Challenge on Instagram and to date, we've posted over 1,600 salads. Crazy, I know, but I'm so happy my beauties are eating fresh raw veggies! You can learn more here. What 3 products are in your ultimate beauty arsenal and why?
  1. The Clarisonic Skincare Brush- I love how it removes every trace of makeup and makes my skin feel super soft. I use the deep pore cleansing brushes, which are great.
  2. Mac Sheen Supreme in Tea Ceremony. I lost this lipstick once and I really didn't know how I was going to survive. Luckily, I found two lingering tubes of it at an outlet store in Michigan and I was ECSTATIC. It's the perfect creamy, peachy nude. I'm obsessed with it.
  3. Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie. I've tried A LOT of hair moisturizers in my day, but I always keep coming back to this one. It's my ultimate natural hair necessity.
What is your favorite accessory? Necklaces! So, before the Salad Jam, there was the Jewelry Jam, which was another little phrase I came up with out of the blue one day and it just stuck. I LOVE statement jewelry. I used to be a jewelry designer in my former career so that's probably why. If you had 2 hours to pick out an outfit from head to toe, where would you shop and why? I'm a big fan of discount outlets. Nordstrom Rack and Off Fifth are my faves. From there, it's TJ Maxx and Marshalls. I like the thrill of hunting down a great bargain. I also like that there are so many different things, styles and brands to choose from at these stores. Which beauty/fashion trends are you most looking forward to for spring? I'm not really too much of a trend follower. I just prefer to wear what I like. However, if there was something I could try, it would be bangs. I would LOVE to cut bangs, but I never wear my hair straightened. For fashion, I plan on getting those new ankle jeans that Gap has in all the bright colors. I adore those. I'm still into the color blocking thing too. Not sure if that's still a trend or not, but I'm rolling with it for a few more seasons. More about Nicole: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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