Decorated Doldrums: Update - New Vegan Cosmetics on the Scene!

What's this? Why, it's a new blog post! Yes, it's been quite a while! Sorry, my life lately has been quite ... how should I put it ... character-building.

But enough of that, what I came here to talk about is some exciting new vegan make-up that has come to my attention!

Majorly late to the party on this one, but at the end of July, Lush launched their new range of colour cosmetics, Emotional Brilliance!

The range consists of 11 lipsticks, 6 cream eyeshadows, 11 liquid liners, mascara, powder, and 2 new skin tints, all of which are certified vegan.

The idea was inspired by Lush's spa treatment, Synaesthesia. The idea is, that you choose three colours from their spinny wheel instore or online, based not on your colouring or preferences, but on what stands out to you at that particular moment.
The colours are all supposed to represent something about you emotionally. It's a nice gimmick, but personally, I like to keep my therapy sessions and my make-up bag separate. I don't know about you, but I have enough to think about without worrying that my emotions are clashing with my eye colour! My advice is to stick to what flatters your skin, hair and eyes.

They are rather pricey - shadows, liners and lipsticks are £14.50, mascara, powder and skin tints are £12. You do get a good amount of product though, and they are multi-purpose - liners can be used as shadows and vice versa, and the lipsticks work beautifully as blush.

I bought their cream eyeshadow in Sophisticated, which is a shimmery taupe. It's beautifully pigmented and crease resistant, providing a lovely base for other shadows. Definitely one of the best cream shadows I've used.

I'm rubbish at photography - in real life the colour is a neutral, suit-all shade - cooler than the bottle pic, but warmer than the swatch. Beautiful.

My second purchase was their Eyes Right mascara. I was very impressed with this one, deep black, non-clumping, serious thickening and lengthening. It's great for building up the coats for a full, dramatic look. It's not water-proof but water-resistant, however I experienced no smudging or flaking.

I only have one problem with it, and that problem applies to the rest of the range, too.

The packaging.

Weird glass dropper bottles. What were they thinking? Glass is heavy and breakable - if you're like me and carry your make-up in your handbag this is just annoying. And how are you supposed to get to the last of the product when it runs out? Also, the powder doesn't come with a sifter - that's just an accident waiting to happen.

The packaging is just about passable for the other products, but it gets a but ridiculous when it comes to the mascara. Let me show you.

What is this!? A mascara wand FOR ANTS???!?

Wow, that is seriously small. Too small to use comfortably, if I'm honest.*

I've smudged it a fair few times trying to maneuver it around my inner and bottom lashes.

My advice to Lush would be to scrap the bottles and switch to tubes, like OCC's latest lip tar tubes, and Eyeko's mascara. I know recycled and recyclable packaging is important to them, but I'm sure there must be a way to make a recyclable tube? Eco-friendly packaging is a major plus, but it shouldn't hinder my use of the product.

Products are available from Lush stores and online. Lush kindly sent me some swatches to give you an idea of the shades, but I encourage you to pop into the stores and have a play with them.