What lighting do you prefer for applying makeup? Share!
I like really bright lights, and preferably, ones that aren’t hot! I love the brightness of the lights I have now, but they’re SO hot that I feel like I’ll sweat all my makeup off before I’m done sometimes!
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As long as my base products are a good match, any lighting will work. If I’m using new (to me) products, though, I *try* to get strong, natural light, but with my “tried & true” products, I’m used to working with them, and know how they apply, so I’m not too particular.
I like natural light, but sometimes that’s hard to come by so really bright daylight bulbs are a close second.
bright daylight if I can get it or my bathroom lights.
Maybe the problem is too many lights?
They’re normal bathroom fixture lights, so there aren’t too many – the bulbs themselves are very hot, which I didn’t take into consideration prior to purchasing.
I had some lights like that in another house, and I had to go down in bulb wattage due to the heat, but then I lost a huge amount of ability to see what I was doing.
If the problem is the heat, you should use fluorescent bulbs instead of incandescent ones. They give off much less heat.
The lights I have use Halogen bulbs!
Bright, natural daylight any time.
I’m lucky I have ceiling to floor windows and my room is white so it is all very bright and clean and applying makeup at the dresser is easy. Gloomy winter days can wreak havoc with this so sometimes I have to apply makeup under down lights which I reckon are woeful but unavoidable at night time.
I’d like bright, white lights, but I currently don’t have any space to set up any lights near my desk, so I just turn the living room light on and open the blinds of the window I sit next to. Very inconvenient if I’m applying makeup at night. 🙁
Natural light!
Natural! I like to sit right in front of my window 🙂
Bright fluorescent lighting like the change room at the gym has. At home I need to stand by the window with a hand mirror to check if everything is even because the lighting is so crappy and outdated.
Bright lights, yes. But preferably one that keeps colors true to color. And the angle that the light comes from matters too. Whenever I stay at my parents’ place I struggly with my make-up application because the lights in the bathroom hit me from above and cast shadows over my face.
I prefer natural lighting. My makeup desk is infront of a big window so I get a lot of sunlight pouring in. I have a small No7 lightup magnifying mirror that I use sometimes too.
I just bought a mirror (circled in a light) designed by a company called KindHuman at BB&Beyond. It only lights up when you look into it and shuts off seconds after you walk away. It also charges with a USB port so i can use it in any room (on any surface). But what’s fantastic is the light/brightness that is illuminated. It’s the perfect colour temperature for putting on make-up. It’s a little expensive but it’s the best make-up mirror that i’ve used in years. Worth a look.
Do you mean the simplehuman mirror? That’s the one I have. It’s super bright – in fact, it kind of hurts my eyes if I look at it for too long. But you’re right about the color temperature. It reminds me of natural daylight. I think you’d really like it, Christine! It is pricey ($200), but you can always use one of those 20% off Bed Bath & Beyond coupons, which is what I did. It doesn’t really detect your face, though – it just has a motion sensor. Which is cool, but I mean, it’ll detect your butt if you walk in front of it. The auto-shutoff feature is great, though. Love that it’s cord-free and rechargeable.
Oh, forgot the best part – it doesn’t get hot! I think it uses LED lights.
Simple Human?
Natural light. I put on my makeup in the bathroom window using a magnified mirror. I still try to use natural light for evening makeup….I’ll just use deeper shades and apply differently. I love using natural light because it shows any imperfections and allows me to blend perfectly.
I always use natural light when applying makeup in the morning or just bright white light. but not too bright as some vanity mirror with lights it often too bright for my eye.
I don’t have any fancy lighting. There is a regular light inside the nook where I do my makeup and in the day some natural light filtering through the window. I like the natural light because it helps me see how my blush will actually look. I find I put too little blush on sometimes in artificial light and when I go outside, I’m like where is it, lol. 🙂
I use a mixture of natural (window to my left) and incandescent light (behind & above me) because that’s what’s in my bathroom. It works but I always check in a mirror in a very brightly lit room.
I have a lighted makeup mirror I use while sitting at my vanity/desk. I cannot ever imagine putting my makeup on leaning over a bathroom sink with my horrible bathroom lighting. Although, I am slightly under 5′ so that may be the problem lol. Ultimately, I would love my desk to face natural daylight but that’s not possible, so I usually take a hand mirror outside to check everything. And sometimes it’s shocking, in a bad way lol.
Bright natural light. I hate putting makeup on when it is still dark out, and I am relying on lightbulbs.
I prefer soft 40 watt bulbs. Applying makeup is self-care for me, so I like to be as comfortable as possible. After I apply it, I will check it in a brighter light.
Natural light works best for me. Unfortunately, I can only rely on it in Spring and Summer before I go to work as my mirror that I apply my makeup in is in the bathroom by a window. When it stays darker longer, I have to depend on the lights above the mirror.
Natural light if possible, if not fluorescent light.
bright daylight especially for blush
I love my bathroom lights; wall-mounted and eye level (not overhead) and bright, fairly white light. Natural lighting it best of course, but not an option for me sadly!
I prefer natural light or bright daylight light bulbs.
Natural daylight.
Natural lighting! I’m always fearing that I look cakey or fake outdoors haha that’s why natural lighting is so crucial to me when I do makeup
The ideal is natural daylight streaming indrectly from big windows. In lieu of this, bright lighting absent of background shadows prefrably with one 5x mag mirror for tweezing etc.
Natural light or ordinary lightbulbs. In the winter it’s dark so long in the mornings one can’t wait for natural light, and when it comes, it might not be all that light after all.
I do check my makeup in a few different lights before considering myself “done”, daylight, if possible, soft light and the harsher light in the bathroom.
I know I’m not being very “green” in my habits, but love the GE light bulbs (the old kind) in “Daylight”. They are kind of a blush colored bulb. When I saw that it was becoming harder to find the incandescent light bulbs, I went on a buying frenzy and stocked up like crazy. I have sight in my right eye only and other types of lighting or light bulbs just don’t provide the light I need.
Bathroom overhead fluorescent cool-white full spectrum.
Natural light
I use reveal bulbs in my vanity room.. Huge difference in lighting compared to incandescent bulbs.. They gave off a really natural light.. They are so great I actually use them all over my house.. Do a quick search for reveal bulbs for applying makeup and u will see a major difference in lighting
Definitely sunlight, but having my room in the basement does not cater to this need so i use a hot, bright desk lamp right now. I’ve always felt so strange feeling like I sweat off all my makeup before I’m done with it so I’m glad I’m not alone haha!
My Zadro lighted mirror is sufficient. Day light would be perfect, if at all possible.
Can I just say that the video commercials that load on the blog are disturbing. They slow down my browser and having sudden sound blare out of your speakers is just generally highly unpleasant
This couldn’t have come too soon! I’m having MASSIVE dilemmas at the moment applying my makeup. We have downlights in our house and they are sooo yellowy-orange. I’m incredibly pale, NW10, and like to bronze up my face daily. I put on my bronzer in the morning thinking I look ok and when I look at myself at work with white-lights or outside in the day, it’s like I didn’t put bronzer on at all! Soooo frustrating.
I went to a hardware store yesterday and bought a 40-watt lamp and bought 2 different types of bulbs, a 14 watt ‘cool daylight’ energy saving bulb and a 28 watt halogen white clear globe. Apparently both meant to appear 40 watt. So we’ll see how it goes…In hindsight I probably should’ve bought the non-energy saving globes =S we’ll see how it goes!
Natural light when possible. I have a magnifying mirror fixed to the wall. When natural light isn’t possible, I have two spotlights either side of the mirror that light up my face.
My vanity sits right in front of my bedroom window, so I use natural light. I do, however, have to check the final outcome in my bathroom mirror (which has 4 big 40w bulbs) and in my full length mirror that’s also in my bedroom but turned away from the window. That way, I know I look good in natural and artificial lighting. If I don’t, it looks too made up, IMO. I’m a freelance artist and I need my makeup to be on point. No one wants someone to do makeup for them if the artist looks a hot mess. Lol. IJS.
I also prefer really bright lights. My vanity doesn’t get much natural light so I like to use super bright (energy efficient of course) daylight bulbs. They’re not yellow like most household bulbs and the light mimics natural sunlight. It really helps!
I’d love natural light, but I get ready before the sun comes up – so I’ve discovered the SimpleHuman makeup mirror – which is the best thing ever invented for makeup application. Seriously, check it out. It’s worth every penny of the $200 price tag. It’s the closest possible thing to natural light, and the 5x zoom is absolutely perfect.
I prefer bright but not hot lighting as well which is one reason I can’t stand doing my make up in my bathroom. I also prefer lighting that is as natural as possible. I currently have a ceiling fan with 5 bulbs, the lighting is great and the positioning of the mirror reflects the light so even in the evening I still get bright light.
Natural daylight. My vanity is right in front of an almost 7ft window, facing south, so I have a lot of natural light, but not direct sunlight. It’s perfect for applying makeup, because that way I know it will look exactly the same when I go outside :).
I prefer really bright lights as well, white lights, nothing with too yellow of a cast. (I like the clear bulbs) The bathroom I currently do my makeup in has great natural light, which I use to make sure the newly painted crazy yellow walls aren’t throwing everything off!
I only really have natural daylight available (yes, there’s artificial light in the bathroom, but it’s very yellow), so I use that. I prefer it though, as then you kind of know what you’re getting, as it were – like what you see in the mirror in terms of colour and intensities is what you’ll get when you walk out the door!
I hate hot lights too! I couldn’t bring myself to add 6 hot lights to my vanity when I was redoing it recently (sweat factor is real) so I purchased the SimpleHuman auto mirror from Bed Bath & Beyond (now I see Sephora has it too) and I LOVE it! It has a 10x magnification, it’s cordless, auto on/off and so bright! I sit by the window, have a single light over my large vanity mirror and with my simplehuman mirror light I have everything covered for tweezing, application and photos 🙂
Oh, and it’s full spectrum surgical lighting so you will see everything.
I have a dressing room style mirror that my husband made for me, but the moment I walk outside I feel like I applied too much makeup! Anyone else has that problem? And do you guys know what I should do about it?