What kind of lighting do you use to do your makeup? What lighting would you like to use, if you could?
I use really bright lights that run warm. They’re really, really hot, though, so I would change it to something that didn’t heat up so quickly.
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I do my makeup in front of my screen door, haha.
I do it in front of the window in my dorm room! My window faces north so there’s a decent amount of sun in the morning…if it’s not over-cast. It normally is, though. At least any natural light is better than artificial for makeup application, in my opinion.
No light at all, opaque boxes for every product I own. This is the best way to storage one’s makeup ( or a chest of drawers but always avoid light at all costs ).
I normally do my make-up in the bathroom, so I have a bit of a lighting issue. The window is to me right hand side when facing the mirror, so I generally get shadowing on one side of my face. Otherwise I can turn on the light above the mirror which runs extremely warm– enough to distort colours when doing blush, etc. Ideally, I’d like to change the above-the-mirror light to a cool white, which I think would be perfect lighting, but I doubt the globe it needs comes in cool light.
I use a task lamp pointed at my face but the light is too golden… Always makes colors look less bright than they are so it’s easy to overdo it. I need a new set up!
Really really bad lighting! 😛 I’m a student who rents a studio and the lighting in my bathroom is just awful, but still the best for doing my make up. (Can you imagine!) I have a 30×30 cm mirror which I take outside the bathroom after I finished my look to check if it doesn’t look weird in other lighting. 😀
Natural daylight.
Natural light during the day, and bright hollywood lights at night, but I’m unhappy with my current setup. I want to do something I saw my friend do years ago, fix a lamp behind my mirror so it diffuses the light. Clever gay guy who is into interiors lol.
The current lighting I have is terrible aka I have none, so I have to do my makeup in the bathroom. Ideally I would like a large backlit mirror on a vanity 🙂
I have a table with pretty strong lights but I find them too warm so I usually go to the window anyway
I have a totally crappy light in my bathroom at home. I did replace the incandescent bulb with a florescent one, which makes it a bit brighter. I would love to have the room to put rows of lights down the sides of the mirror just for makeup, or have a brighter bathroom so I could use regular daylight to see by.
On weekday mornings, I do my makeup in the change room at the gym under the florescent lights. This is my favorite place for makeup as I can stand right in front of the mirror (I’m sooo near-sighted) and I can tell that everything is even. It’s the perfect place to try new color combos, being so bright and unforgiving. I can’t overlook a single mistake there!!
Ott Lights! I couldn’t live without them.
Same here! I recently got the OttLite Natural Makeup Mirror and love it
I, have had mine for a while and love it too! I just hate how it tends to turn for no reason! I put tape to prevent that from happening!
I am lucky to be able to use natural light! It’s almost always sunny in SoCal, and my vanity is right by the window 🙂
I use a makeup mirror with open bulbs over the bathroom sink and if during the day, that room has a large southwest window, so diffused natural light (i mean, no glaring sunshine). It’s a great room for natural light.
(it’s a good place right now, until my daughter is old enough to shower – steam/moisture not good for cosmetics – and get into my stash!)
My light isn’t great, two overhead wall sconce type lights pointing down above the mirror but I do have those GE Reveal light bulbs in them which makes the light much better. And I have a lighted magnifying mirror I can use for close up work.
A gigantic florescent light in my bathroom. I hate it. If I tried to do my make up in the living room near the window to get natural lights, all of my makeup would become cat toys and disappear instantly.
I use whatever lighting I can, depending on where I’m doing my makeup and time of day. Ideally I’d use natural light, every time
The only time I find light to be an important factor is when applying foundation, but I’ve been using a TM most of the time, and I really research foundation shades by applying them, then checking them in natural light. Once I have the right shade, light isn’t a huge factor. I’ve been wearing makeup for so long, I have a pretty good idea of what shades work for me, and what they look like applied.
Timely post! I just upgraded all my makeup brushes, foundation and concealer for 2013. I decided it didn’t make sense to spend all this time and money investing in MAC brushes/makeup only to rely upon bad lighting. After weeks of research including the infamous (and overpriced) OTT lighting, I bought a great mirror from my local Bed, Bath and Beyond store that has dimmable natural light and sun light. It swivels, magnifies and points out my weak spots like its Joan Rivers (lol). So far, I love it. Name brand is Zadro.
Amendment – dimmable sun light, not natural light (I wish).
two super-bright wall sconces that are at face level on either side of my bathroom mirror.
Whatever is in my bedroom, and if I could…I would definitely love “natural” lighting….
My mirror sucks and makes me say whoa what was I thinking after I get outside. Obviously I’m in the market for a new on and this totally reminded me to ask you if you’ve ever used or heard of the Simple Human mirror. Its SUPER expensive but is supposed to literally be just like natural sunlight. Anyone else know?
I stand by the window and put my stand up mirror and little plastic makeup drawer on the deep ledge. At some points in the winter, the sun is still low when I get ready so that it’s too dark to do my makeup by the window in the morning! I really like the natural sunlight but the effect it has on foundation is blush is so different from indoors lighting that it’s almost not helpful.
I use the ottlite mirror! I like it, I got it from amazon at a cheaper prize. It is great only problem i find with it is that the mirror tends to turn whie it is sitting still so I put a piece of tape to prevent it from moving!
I do it at my vanity which is right under a big window so I use natural light!