Lets talk about lighting and skincare.  I could go on and on with this one.  Just to be clear I would like to state that I am not a fan of any LED or florescent lights.  Not in your home for both a visual stand point of how the lighting makes you see things and or a health stand point of what could possibly be good for your eyes or physical body.  I’m going to share a story here about how I really started to notice lighting and how important it is as to how you see yourself.

Where it all began

When I started my esthetician career I was working at a four star resort in Kaanapali on the island of Maui.  I had been working full time for about six months and I was new to the field. I started to notice a pattern almost every time I was doing extractions on clientele.  Let me describe the service, we were offering a European facial on the menu.  Basically it was a 50 minute facial that consisted of a complete cleansing of the face, steam with exfoliation and extractions included, relaxing facial massage and a mask to finish the service.  Every time I was doing extractions the female clientele would comment, “oh my pores are so big.”  Around this time I too was learning to balance my skin after having a major acne attack and healing my skin.

I started to realize something.  How many times do we look in the mirror up close when we are picking our pimples or playing with our blackheads and think to ourselves our pores are huge?  I’m sure we are all guilty of thinking this at one point in time.  I remember when I had been picking at my own face that I too thought that I had large pores.  But then I started to look around and notice people on the daily when you looked at their face you couldn’t see massive pores on their noses. If your really look at people you can barely see their pores around the nose area at all.  I started to realize that we all see ourselves worse than other people see us.  We are our biggest own critiques.  Not to mention these were hotel guest that all have those large magnifying mirrors in the rooms that everyone can play with. We all have big pores if were using that magnifying mirror emphasizing our pores.  I started to explain to everyone after hearing the comment of how big they thought their pores were, that we basically see ourselves more “harshly” than others see us and it depends which mirror and lighting you are in. From that point on I learned to take into consideration if I felt my reflection looked off in a mirror it could be the wrong lighting or a magnified mirror that was causing what I could see to be negative.

Speaking of lighting, have you ever noticed that at certain places or even public restrooms you can look amazing and other ones you can look horrible? Have you ever stayed at a friends house and you look good and then when you return back to your place you don’t see yourself the same in a mirror? Personally I noticed every time I would travel home to visit my mom at her house, the lighting in her bathroom was so warm and I looked amazing in the mirror.  This is because my mom used incandescent light bulbs in here bathroom.  If you pay attention you can start to learn when the lighting in your bathroom may have strong sunlight causing you to see yourself, your skin and your facial features harshly, that can be an effect of bright sun reflecting off the wrong wall or the lightbulbs in your bathroom may have a blue tint to them which can have anyone looking horrible. Its something to take note of in general when choosing lighting and bulbs for your living space especially the bathroom area.  Who doesn’t want to look into the mirror and see their best self?

Fast Forward to 2024

Fast forward and here we are in 2024 and what are the types of lighting/bulbs that have been pushed on us for the last 10 years or so?  LED lights in the home to “lower energy cost”. I should also mention florescent bulbs here too.  These bulbs are not the best for your eyes or your health but are found in most business and commercial settings.  The easiest way to explain the LED bulbs or fluorescent bulbs is that everything has a frequency.  These bulbs are not anywhere close to mimicking the natural sunlight and they have studies that show how blue light can have a negative effect on your brain and internal body.  As far as frequency goes this lighting doesn’t mimic or work in natural harmony with the body and can be known to throw off your natural body rhythm.  I personally feel it also can cause you to see yourself differently and have a negative perspective of yourself. I also want to note that the new mirrors that are coming out today with the LED ring around them can also give you a different look.

The best healthiest light bulbs to use in the home are incandescent.  These bulbs are purely analog and mimic infrared light. The incandescent light gives off a naturally full and pure spectrum.  This pure spectrum gives off a high color rendering score.  Color rendering index or CRI score measures how well a light source replicates colors in your environment.

Benefits of incandescent light bulbs

1. The full, balanced spectrum of visible light
2. Provides nourishing, regenerative infrared light
3. Low flicker
4. Low EMF

Conclusion

I recently was having a conversation with a friend who had bought a new home.  I was commenting on how much I hated the bathroom lighting and bulb in my bathroom and that it was LED and I felt that I looked horrible when I looked in the mirror.  I told her I just have to know when I look in the mirror that I do not look like this and its the lighting.  She replied to me “I am so glad you said that.  I never realized I have those bulbs in my house and I always thought something was off.”  Without getting into a whole science of light bulbs and what is right and what is wrong  I just wanted to shed some light on lighting and personal perspective when your looking at your reflection in a mirror.

Take Away

• Lighting can have a huge affect on perspective when you see yourself in the mirror and incandescent bulbs are the best for seeing yourself naturally
• Some new mirrors with the lighting built in aren’t usually the most complementary to skin tone
• No one can see the pores on your nose as your walking around on the daily (look at other peoples noses and take note you probably wont notice their black heads)
• Try to keep the use of a magnifying mirror to a minimum
• Just remember natural sunlight is best and any light bulbs that resemble natural light is more complementary and closest to your true reflection.
• Incandescent Bulbs are closest to resemble the sun and would be best to use in the home.
• If you have the wrong lighting and maybe a cheap mirror they both can cause you to not look like the true beauty that you are meant to be.
• In the end its all about those light bulbs and mirrors.