MadameNoire just published an exclusive conversation with our founder, Faith McCoy Scriven, and it opens with something a lot of us know too well: the last-minute "Hey, boo" cancellation text, the booking rules that read like a lease, the nonrefundable deposit, and the rising price of keeping up a look that needs another appointment every few weeks. The piece is quick to say that plenty of beauty professionals are worth every penny. It's also fair to want looking good to take less work.

You can read the full piece here: Beauty Shouldn't Be A Burden: CocoLash Founder Faith McCoy Scriven On Reinventing DIY Glam For Black Women.

The bigger question in the article is how much time and money we give to looking our best, and what we'd do with some of it back. Faith's answer starts with one question she asked during the interview: "What do you actually have time for?" A few of our favorite parts are below.

From the concert stage to CocoLash

"I'm a Gemini. I've lived many lives, as I like to call it," Faith told MadameNoire, laughing.

Before beauty, she was a pianist who debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at 14, earned her master's from the Manhattan School of Music, and performed at Carnegie Hall. Then came tech, where she was Stripe's first non-engineering hire, and executive recruiting, before a move to Atlanta with her husband and son.

"We had no plans," she said of that move. She and her husband looked at buying an existing business, from plumbing to stairlifts, before landing on hair extensions. "I knew nothing about hair extensions," she admitted. "I just had to kind of figure everything out as we went along." She worked the warehouse, helped customers, and fixed the website herself. That is where she learned what it takes to run a beauty company and who it serves.

If you'd like the longer version of that story, we told it last month: Meet Our Founder.

"We can do better than this"

Lashes were a natural next step, because Faith loved wearing them. Shopping for them was another story. "This is so overwhelming. This website is so noisy," she remembered thinking. "I don't even know where to start, what do I do?"

Too many styles, complicated techniques, and marketing that didn't always show women of color with care. So she set out to build something different. "I really wanted to focus on women of color," she said. "I wanted it to be lashes that you could wear every day or for a special occasion. I wanted them to be easy to apply."

CocoLash launched with 10 styles, enough range in length and fullness to find your look without drowning in choices. The lineup has grown since, but the focus on keeping things simple hasn't changed.

Made for real life

Faith is honest about her own routine. "I'm not getting fully faced up every day," she said. "For me, it's all about time and efficiency."

That's who she builds for. One thing that surprised her: much of our community is millennial and older, including women in their 70s who reached out to try lashes for the first time. "My customer base is my age and older, which I think is great," she said. "I want to look like this every day, or I want my hair to be like this every day. Like, that's not real life. We go to work."

We love that part. Wanting to feel put-together doesn't come with an age limit, and it shouldn't come with a second job attached.

Why clusters

The interview also gets into why CocoLash is built around clusters. Clusters let you customize, because, as Faith put it, "everyone's eye shape is different." You can start small with a few clusters at the outer corners and build from there, instead of trying to get a full set perfect on both eyes on day one.

Our classic styles, like Daisy, Violet, and Peony, give softer definition. Poppy and Dahlia are there when you want more drama. And Fern and Ivy are pre-glued half lashes with no separate bond step. They go on in about 30 seconds and are designed for up to 5 days of wear.

Still learning, every day

When MadameNoire asked how CocoLash helps women who struggle with application, Faith didn't pretend it's solved. "I still feel like that's something I'm figuring out and learning every day," she said.

At first she thought a how-to card and a few influencer videos would cover it. Then she realized we don't all learn the same way. She used heatless rollers as an example: you watch the long tutorials, put in the time, and still might not get the result. "It's not satisfying," she said.

So we've expanded our tutorials to feature women from different backgrounds, including tutorials in Spanish. And on removal, her advice is short: don't pull your lashes off. "Don't do that. Just use the remover." It protects your natural lashes. Our How to Apply page walks through application step by step.

A founder who answers

The last section of the piece is about the relationship between a beauty brand and the women it serves. Faith reaches out to customers for feedback, checks in on how things are going, and tucks personal notes into orders. A tough review is a chance to talk. "You don't know what you don't know," she said.

Customers are often surprised she answers them herself. "Someone actually responding to you," she said. "It feels different, it hits different." She calls herself an introvert who'd rather have a one-on-one conversation than be on social media all the time, but she makes herself available anyway. "If someone wants to talk to me, I'm gonna be the first one to call."

And she isn't asking you to become your own stylist, makeup artist, and lash tech. "Most women, yes, we can take a few minutes on a Sunday to put some lashes on if that's going to make us feel good," she said.

Thank you

We're grateful to MadameNoire for the conversation and for writing so thoughtfully about what Black women want from beauty right now: transparency, respect for our time, and the freedom to look and feel beautiful on our own terms. And thank you to all of you. Every order, every review, and every message is part of the reason this conversation happened.

Read the full feature on MadameNoire. If you're ready to try your own few-minutes-on-a-Sunday routine, the Ultimate Lash Essentials Kit has everything in one box.

With love,

The CocoLash Team

CocoLash lashes are designed for up to 7 days of wear. For hygiene reasons, lashes should be disposed of after 7 days and are not reusable. Fern and Ivy half lashes are designed for up to 5 days of wear.