Color therapy, sometimes dubbed as “chromotherapy,” “cromatherapy,” “colorology” or “chakras” in Indian Ayurvedic medicine, is an alternative medicine method in which color is used to “balance” what could be lacking in a person’s physical, psychological, spiritual, mental or emotional makeup.
The practice, though discounted as “pseudoscience” or lacking scientific evidence, was backed by some scientists like Dinshah Ghadiali, who claim that colors manifest therapeutic effects by “healing” its corresponding colors in body and spirit.
Color therapy could explain why people wear a certain color for a certain day, but as Lush co-founder Rowena Bird found out, it is not about the clothes, but what one feels at that moment.
Believing that colors have the power of suggestion — that these can influence how a person behaves in a certain way — Bird invented Emotional Brilliance, a new range of long-lasting lip colors, eyeliners and eye shadows that come in colors not inspired by fashion timetables, but by emotions a woman feel in a given moment, enabling her to choose the makeup color that captures that moment, which is just perfect for her “at moment” lifestyle.
Gilda Nones-Cruz, Lush Philippines merchandise manager, says the brand worked with renowned Harley Street Strategic behavioral therapist Lady Kennedy, who specializes in changing people’s behavior and attitudes, to come up with a list of words that later inspired the makeup collection. Through her therapy session with a group of 10, Kennedy has come up with 30 words that people aspire for every day. She and the group connected these words to Pantone colors and thus the collections’ colors were born: yellow for lifted; pink for passionate; glittery chocolate brown for sophisticated, and so forth.
To help women choose the “color of the moment,” Lush stores offer Color Wheels from which one can get a personalized color reading. A customer is asked to choose three colors that stand out the most at that time. These picks are then linked to the feelings the colors associate with. These words, according to Kennedy, reveal a little bit about one’s current state of mind.
Nones-Cruz explains that the first color mirrors one’s strength or weakness; the second is a subconscious need; while the third is one’s talent that one requires to achieve the need.
“The color that represents your strength you wear when you want to accentuate this. The color that resonates with your subconscious need — what your subconscious desires the most — you should wear to remind yourself that you need this. And the color that represents your talent, you should wear to help achieve your subconscious need. These are not things that anyone else can predict — it’s all down to you,” Bird enthuses in a statement.
The emotionally-charged collection, says Nones-Cruz, is vitamin-enriched as well. Organic jojoba oil, candelilla wax and rose wax, traditionally used in the United Kingdom for treating wounds, are predominant ingredients that make the products ideal for sensitive skin. Wheatgrass and magic orange, meanwhile, have antioxidants that reduce fine lines and make one look younger.
The handcrafted cosmetics, which bear their makers’ signatures in the products’ recyclable PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) containers, also take pride in having 100 percent natural ingredients in its pigments, processed with little preservatives and without animal testing. Likewise, Nones-Cruz assures the collections’ labels are made of recycled paper, while the strings attaching the labels to the bottles can be reused as tangle-free ponytails.