Emotional Brilliance

Something pretty exciting has happened. Lush Cosmetics have launched a colour cosmetics range! And I have been lucky enough to be a part of a team of 20 Lush employees from all over Britain involved in promoting and championing the new range, the Colour Warriors. We were some of the first peple in the country to see the range and the secret has a hard one to keep! We promoted the event at Lushfest, Lush's annual festival, and I was involved with training London staff on the new range.

Me outisde our Emotional Brilliance launch tent

The inside of our beautiful  colourful tent

The Emotional Brilliance colour wheel at Lushfest

Like the rest of Lush’s product range, the new cosmetics are fresh, handmade with beautiful natural ingredients and good for your skin, something I find truly refreshing as usually when I’m purchasing make up my focus is on the effects and not the ingredients. That is not to say that quality has been compromised for the sake of the ingredients; the new range of colour is richly pigmented, I have yet to try it on a photoshoot but I’m confident that the pigment is so strong that it would stand up well when photographed. The range is also all vegan, and as with all Lush products, not tested on animals so you can feel good about using it too.

The new products are split into 4 sections; patent applied for liquid lipsticks, crème eyeshadows, eyeliners, and a ‘Desert Island Range’ of essentials for everybody’s makeup bag. The whole concept of the range is the brain child of founder Rowena Bird and is based on colour therapy; each of the 30 individual products is named with an empowering word. Harley Street structural behavioural therapist Lady Helen Kennedy chose 30 commonly used words she uses to positively change people’s attitudes and behaviours in her treatments. The 30 words were then given as a list to a selection of Lush employees along with a pantone book, and the employees were asked to pick a colour to represent each word. When it was found that the colours picked for each word had a strong correlation, Rowena decided to turn this coincidence into a treatment for the Lush Spa. However after developing the colours, it was decided that the colour range was just too good to save only for the spa and needed to be brought to all Lush stores. When you wear a colour from the range, you not only wear the colour but the power of the word, clever, huh? The makeup is all about empowering individuals, not about following trends or what is perceived as fashionable. It is first and foremost about feeling good, however as the products are so beautifully crafted you can’t help but look good too! Instore you can play our colour wheel game and find out what the colours you are drawn to say about your personality, kind of like having your horoscope read.

The products launched on Saturday 21st July, and my shop, Lush White City in Westfields Shepherd's Bush had a VIP launch party in the very lovely bar the Vandella in Shepherd's Bush which was a huge success. There are some pictures here on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.368435393227448.79594.140859852651671&type=3.  

And how pretty are the glass bottles?! They will look so good lined up on a dressing table, and they're fairly indestructable too, I've seen a few dropped onto tiled floors. The lipsticks are on top, they have a moisturising base of jojoba oil, rose wax and candelia wax. And they DO NOT COME OFF. Seriously, you can wear them for about 12 hours with no transfering and no fading. My favourite colours are Strong, an orange-red, Confident, a deep purple and Bubbly, a more natural looking coral-pink with lots of gold shimmer. 

On the left hand side on the bottom are the eyeliners, there is a colour called Fantasy that I'm obsessed with, it looks like gold leaf on the skin. Think Cinna in The Hunger Games film. I really want to do a photoshoot with it and just cover someone in gold. On the bottom right are the creme eyeshadows, which have capuacu butter in to moisturise, and which you can wear as bold colour or blend to a natural finish.

Eyes Right and the next 3 products are part of the Desert Island range. This mascara actually GROWS your lashes and has wheatgrass in to condition them. It also has one preservative in instead of the usual 5 or 6 so its super gentle for even the most sensitive eyes. I love a LOT of mascara and I thought it was a bit too natural at first but you can really layer it for a thick look if you like thick lashes. A very versatile product.

Emotional Brilliance translucent face powder  can be worn over makeup to set it or on your bare skin to prevent excess shine. It has a lovely light reflecting finish and won't clog your pores or look cakey. It has a pale pink colour which I have found does not suit darker skintones as much but hopefully this will be improved or a more suitable colour will be brought out. I love this though, usually I don't wear powder at all but it has a very natural finish and still lets your skin glow.

For fans of Strobe Cream by MAC or Highbeam by Benefit, you will love Feeling Younger skin tint, arguably my favourite product in the whole range. It has oatmeal decoction, full of the antioxidant Vitamin E, inside so it is extremely beneficial for the skin. It also has sweet orange flower to reflect light off the skin and make it look fuller, younger and glowing. You can wear it under makeup, over makeup, mix it with your makeup, the list goes on. Basically, it is extremely multipurpose. It looks nice on arms legs and collar bones as well for summer skin.

There is also the lovely Charisma, a darker skin tint which is a mix of golden pigments, oatmeal decoction and cocoa butter. It makes a lovely bronzer and gives skin a sunkissed glow, it also bends in extremepy naturally. I love my MAC Mineralize bronzer but this is quickly becoming a new favourite. As its not a powder it does not make the skin look older, which I love. Again, on darker skintones I have found that it does not blend as well as it is quite a pinky tan colour, and it does not suit dark yellow skintones as much.


If you only buy three products, I would definately recommend Feeling Younger, Eyes Right, and a Liquid Lipstick. But why stop at 3?!