There's no denying that applying your makeup in 'bad lighting' is the difference between leaving the house with orange foundation marks that stop at your jawline, to having a flawless base.

When it comes to applying makeup, there is no opportunity to hope for the best with your lighting setup. Both clarity and high precision are required for applying makeup, and lighting really does make a difference.

We are discussing the best lighting setup for applying makeup in your bathroom to help prevent those makeup faux pas each, and every time.

What Lighting Is Best For Applying Makeup?

The best setting to apply your makeup up in is one that boasts natural daylight, or at least mimics to the same standards. Luckily, this can easily be achieved whether you have access to a natural daylight source or not.

High CRI Downlights

It's common to pay attention to the colour temperature of bulbs, but CRI levels of lights are often overlooked.

CRI is the colour rendering index which is a measurement between 0-100 of how light represents the colour of objects. The higher the CRI, the better the clarity. A CRI of 97-100 offers optimum clarity and precision which makes it fantastic for task lighting. This is the closest to natural daylight lighting that is possible. It answers the tell tale question as to why does paint look different in different lights. It's not your head playing tricks on you, it really is the light!

The Soho high CRI downlights are perfect for bathrooms in general because they provide swathes of bright lighting throughout the space. Positioning a couple of these above a mirror will provide clarity and precision. Whilst evenly distributing the light across your face when applying makeup.

Task Lighting

If it's not possible to install downlights in your bathroom, then creating task lighting around a mirror with a pair of wall lights will bring both style and practicality to the space.

Our bathroom wall lights are all designed for use in a bathroom. They work perfectly on either side of a mirror. This will provide a targeted, focused lighting source to make applying makeup that little bit easier. Just ensure that you pay careful attention to the colour temperature of your bulbs...

Bulbs Colour Temperature

Having lighting with a high CRI is great, but the colour temperature of the bulbs is equally as important. A yellow, orangey light can make you look ill, whilst it could cause you to apply further makeup on your blemishes than is required.

It's all about getting the perfect, happy medium that isn't orangey but isn't completely artificial. A colour temperature of 4100K-5000K is recommended because it meets in the middle. This light is easily diffused and provides further clarity to ensure that your makeup application is flawless.

Use Natural Daylight To Your Advantage

There is no better tool for makeup application than the natural daylight available to you. If you have windows in your bathroom then make use of this by applying your makeup during times of the day when it's at its lightest. Natural daylight is the best for identifying those application flaws.

Just like makeup, with the correct lighting tools to hand it can make a huge difference to the application of your makeup.