When I saw that Lush was releasing a makeup line, I knew I had to try it. I love many of their products already (my favourites are Ultrabalm, Sandstone soap, Angels on Bare Skin, and the Bubble Bars) so I had high hopes for their makeup range.

The Lush Emotional Brilliance line is a new spin (pun intended!) on choosing colour cosmetics, where customers are asked to spin a colour wheel and without thinking, immediately choose the 3 shades that stand out most to them. I gave the colour wheel a spin at the Lush Perth (Plaza Arcade) and the three colours that stood out to me were a bright orange, light green, and light blue. Those products turned out to be the Strong Liquid Lipstick, Healthy Liquid Eyeliner and Calm Liquid Eyeliner.

When I spun the wheel I noticed that there were a few empty slots, I heard that there was a problem with the original shipment to Australia so my choices may have been different if the wheel had been full (I originally spun the wheel around the end of July when they first launched the Emotional Brilliance line, however my most recent visit to the Lush store was about a week ago and they were fully stocked).

I decided to only pick up Strong, because I wasn't sure how much mileage I would get out of light blue and green eyeliners. I never wear red lipstick as I still have yet to find the perfect red (though I find I can rock a shocking '80s pink lipstick) so I was intimidated by the colour of Strong at first. As the name indicates, it is not for the faint of heart and is a vibrant, reddish orange shade which Lush describes as "blood orange". It does start out having quite a glossy shine to it (but no glitter/shimmer), which gradually fades throughout the course of the day. Strong is very long wearing and as it is a highly pigmented bold shade, it does stain the lips. After eating lunch the shine had disappeared, but the bright red-orange pigment was still there.

I found Strong to be comfortable to wear which is no surprise to me since the base of the Liquid Lipsticks is Ultrabalm, my nighttime lip moisturiser. The consistency is similar to a creamy opaque lipgloss and with a loud colour like this, it's not really ideal for on-the-go touchups without a mirror. The liquid lipsticks are housed in small glass vials with a short, doe-foot applicator. Because of the opaqueness of Strong and its liquid-like consistency, sometimes I like to dot a little bit on my lips and blend it out with a clean finger for a less bold look.

Since I was pleased with Strong, I went back and picked up Perspective for a more wearable, everyday lip colour. Lush describes Perspective as "a natural, dusky rose" and on my skintone, I see it as a mauve-y pink with a subtle shimmer. Perspective is not as bold or strongly pigmented as Strong and it didn't stain my lips -- I also found it comfortable to wear.

One of the best things about the Lush Emotional Brilliance line is the price, here in Australia all the Liquid Lipsticks, Eyeliners, and Cream Eyeshadows retail for $24.95AUD and the US retail price is $22.95USD. It's nice not being grossly overcharged for identical products here in Australia! You can give the colour wheel a spin yourself on Lush's website or head into a Lush store. I recommend going into a store and trying the products out yourself to see how it looks on your skintone as well as to see if you like the texture and consistency.

The Lush store I went to had plenty of disposable applicators and all the doe-foot applicators had been removed from the testers so it's a hygienic way to test the lipsticks on your lips. There's also no shortage of their makeup remover, 9 to 5 (which I have purchased before and I liked it but didn't love it) so you can try out as many colours as you like.