Hannah Pool: If there is one beauty product I consider a necessity, it has to be Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula. Look in the bathroom of any self-respecting black woman and you'll see the distinctive brown and orange logo.

Bronzers put to the test.

'When talking to other black women, hair is never far from the conversation. We're either bemoaning the latest black celebrity to get theirs straightened, or agonising over what messages we're sending out ourselves.'

My skin goes darker in summer, so it's time to start looking for a new face powder.

'Women's magazines will have plenty of beauty news and pictures of how to wear the current looks, but they will all be modelled on skins in varying degrees of white.'