Trust us - these are the best (and worst) rooms in the house to apply your makeup in, according to professionals
Turns out, we've been using the wrong room...
Have you ever noticed that your makeup turns out differently when you’re on holiday and staying in a hotel? Or after applying it at a friend’s house, rather than your own home? You’re not imagining things: the environment in which we put on our foundation, blusher and mascara can impact their final results.
Your look can vary due to lighting, humidity and even wall colour, meaning the room in which you choose to apply makeup – even within the same home – can make all the difference, or lead to makeup mistakes. “Your makeup can look completely different depending on the room you apply it in,” confirms Danielle Louise, Fresha’s beauty expert.
“A lot of mistakes are not actually about skill; they’re about the environment. You can be using great products and applying them well, but if the lighting is wrong, it’s much harder to judge what the makeup really looks like.”
What are the best rooms to apply makeup in?
So, which lighting should you opt for to get the perfectly blended base and best bronzer placement? I spoke to two makeup experts to share their top tips.
1. Bedrooms (or bathrooms) with natural lighting
These rooms tend to have the best natural lighting and pared-back décor. And if you’re lucky enough to have a separate dressing room, make sure you set things up near a window. “Natural light gives you the most accurate view of your skin and your makeup," explains Louise. "It helps you see where foundation needs blending, if bronzer looks too warm, if blush placement is balanced and whether or not concealer is actually seamless. If you can sit facing a window, that’s usually ideal."
Light up magnifying mirrors help recreate strong natural daylight in dimly lit or tricky rooms - this one comes with warm or cool lighting options and has a flip-out stand for easy portability.
Opinions differ over whether or not the bathroom is an ideal choice (more on this later), but it all depends on the placement of your bathroom (is it east-facing for morning time light?) and if you have windows and good mirrors in there. For celebrity makeup artist and Co-Founding Partner of Product Society, Mezhgan Hussainy, the following elements all line up.
"For my day-to-day glam, I prioritise a room that has a mixture of natural light coming in with some artificial light. For me, that’s my bathroom," she tells me. “I have windows which bring in sunlight that reflects off the neutral tones of the room, helping to bounce ambient, neutral lighting. I know if I do my glam in that environment, my look will carry through any of the rooms I will be in throughout the day.”
2. Any other room with soft, evenly distributed lighting
Although bedrooms and bathrooms are commonly chosen for makeup application, that certainly isn’t to say that other rooms in your house should be avoided. Any room with natural lighting (or a mix of natural and some artificial) and simple, neutral walls (think: living room, dining room, etc) can work.
However, if you struggle with natural lighting in your home, Louise comments that the second-best option is any room that has soft, evenly distributed lighting instead. This light, she says, should be “ideally positioned around the face rather than directly above it.” And if you really need to use majority artificial lighting, if possible, opt for a room with white lighting that mimics daylight, rather than anything too yellow-toned or warm.
This luxurious makeup mirror helps any room in your house suitable for applying makeup, regardless of light and paint colour - plus it contains a smaller magnifying section for fiddly jobs such as tweezing eyebrow hairs and applying lip liner.
What are the worst rooms to apply makeup in?
“Sometimes changing rooms makes more difference than changing your routine,” advises Louise. This clearly matters – so here’s what rooms to avoid to get the best outcome from the get-go.
1. Artificially-lit bathrooms
Bathrooms are very hit-and-miss. If you have a beautifully-lit space like Hussainy, your makeup will look beautiful. It’s also pretty convenient to do your makeup here in the morning, as it's where a large part of getting ready for the day often takes place. However, while bathrooms can sometimes be the best choice, in certain homes they’ll be the worst – particularly if you don’t have any windows and, instead, any lighting is all artificial and pretty overpowering.
“A lot of people do their makeup in the bathroom because it feels practical, but bathroom lighting is often far too harsh, too dim or badly placed,” says Louise. “That can lead to over-blending, under-blending, using too much product or choosing the wrong shade entirely.”
She adds that, in particular, yellow-toned lights can be counterintuitive for flawless makeup application. And if they’re overhead lights, you may be in even more trouble. “Bathroom lighting tends to cast shadows in all the wrong places. Overhead lights can make under-eyes look darker, skin texture look more pronounced, and foundation appear more blended than it really is. Then you step outside and suddenly see streaks, patchiness or a shade mismatch.”
But lighting isn’t the only thing you have to worry about. If you choose to do your makeup in the bathroom, be sure to leave plenty of time between showering and application. “If the room is warm or steamy from a shower, that can affect how products sit on the skin, too," Louise notes. "Makeup may start slipping, separating or applying unevenly before you’ve even left the house.”
2. Rooms with coloured walls
Hussainy says that you should always take note of the colour of the walls in the room where you’re about to do makeup. Surprisingly, they can impact your results more than you’d think. “I would avoid doing your makeup in any room with paint colours that affect the outcome of your overall look,” she begins. “For example, rooms with deep red or blue tones on the walls will change how you see tones as you are applying your makeup.”
Similarly, Louise adds that anything pink, yellow or grey-toned can “subtly reflect colour onto the skin and throw off your makeup judgement.” Instead, suggests Hussainy, try “embracing a space with neutral wall colours and ambient lighting.”
3. Dark rooms or those with very warm lighting
As mentioned, anything with very warm, yellow-toned lighting from artificial overheads or lamps isn’t ideal. The main issue this can cause is for your foundation, which can look darker or more golden-toned, meaning shade mismatches and a lack of effective blending.
Equally, dark rooms aren’t going to do you any favours. This may sound obvious, but even a room that’s only moderately lit can cause problems, creating unwanted shadow and a real muted ‘flatness’. Any room that’s too dark can “cause people to apply too much concealer, bronzer or blush because features are harder to see clearly,” says Louise.
Regardless of the specific room you choose, as long as you have some natural light, fairly bare, neutral walls, and clear air that's unaffected by shower steam and heat, your makeup will likely be a hit.
