Does Your Bathroom Mirror Give You an Accurate Reflection?
Posted on: 8 February 2019
The odds are that you check out your own reflection multiple times each day. As far as the number of times you look at your own reflection each day, would you think it's an average number of times? Interestingly, men look at themselves in the mirror some 23 times per day, with women averaging a check of their own reflection some 16 times per day. Where do you fall on that scale? Bathroom mirrors are perhaps the reflective surface where you do the majority of your mirror gazing (or glancing). It's the place where you check that you're looking your best before heading out to begin your day. Therefore, you want the mirror to be an accurate reflection of what you look like. Is your bathroom mirror accomplishing this?
Size of the Mirror
A full-length bathroom mirror might be impractical, depending on the layout of your bathroom, but you still want to gain a true sense of how you look. Is your mirror big enough to accommodate this, or is it so small that you need to lean in? Upsizing your bathroom mirror is a key (and very simple) way of improving its accuracy. Mirrors don't have to be expensive, and installation is straightforward.
Best Possible Lighting
Even when the mirror is of an optimal size, it's not always the case that its lighting will offer the best possible outcome. Bathroom lighting can be classified as task lighting, as in lighting designed to achieve a particular task in a particular room. But is your lighting achieving this task?
Be wary of direct overhead lighting above a mirror. The downward light creates shadows on your face and can illuminate any lines and skin imperfections. This can create unnecessary worry (and even cause the improper application of cosmetics to disguise the imperfections), but it's not as though this is what you'll look like when you leave your home.
Lighting units on both horizontal sides of the mirror are best, creating a natural, almost neutral light that doesn't result in shadows (leading to the most accurate reflection).
LED lighting in the mirror frame can also be a good investment. Though there is downward lighting from the lighting installed in the upper frame, this is largely cancelled out by the other lights.
By making sure that your bathroom mirror is large enough and has correct lighting, you can be confident that it gives an accurate reflection of you.
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