If you suffer from low light levels in your bathroom, help is at hand in the form of illuminated bathroom mirrors;  all that leaning over the wash basin and squinting as you try to get your mascara in the right place can now be relegated to the past.

With modern homes getting smaller, many bathrooms now get little natural light; in fact, some bathrooms don’t get any daylight at all.  Something that is especially true of en suite bathrooms, which have become a bit of a must-have. And even in a room that does benefit from lots of daylight, what happens after dark?  Centrally placed ceiling lights just don’t cut it because the light hits the mirror at the wrong angle, causing shadows on your face that, at their best can make you look wan and, at their very worst, make you feel like you should take to your sick bed.

Putting practicality aside for a moment, illuminated bathroom mirrors are also very fashionable and, when used as the sole lighting in a nighttime bathroom, create a rather relaxing ambience.

Returning to the facts, by choosing a mirror that incorporates halogen lamps you will also eliminate that persistent problem of fogging.  It’s all down to basic physics: steam hits the cold glass and turns back to water, i.e. condensation.  Because halogen lights emit heat, the mirror is warmed and the condensation doesn’t happen.  Add to this the fact that halogen light is very flattering to skin tones and it would seem to be the only sensible choice for bathroom lighting.  You should be aware though that there is a downside.  Relative to other light sources, halogen is expensive to run and, also relative to the other types of light, these bulbs have a short life-span: up to 2,000 hours.

If keeping energy costs down is more important to you than rendering good skin tones, then consider a mirror that uses fluorescent lighting – and forget the old flickering and slow start of fluorescent lamps of old, which has been eradicated by modern lighting technologists.  You’ll get a good 10,000 hours useable life out of a modern fluorescent lamp, after which time the light quality will fade and they will need to be replaced.

If cleaning isn’t up there on your list of enjoyable tasks, once again illuminated mirrors have something to offer.  Because the lamps are mounted behind the glass, the surface is smooth and cleaning is a breeze – no trying to get into tiny spaces to clean out the soap scum.

For those of us whose eyesight isn’t what it once was, you can even get illuminated magnifying shaving mirrors! Whilst it’s impractical to produce large magnifying mirrors due to the processes involved, it’s relatively easy to produce smaller mirrors.  And that means no more wearing your mascara as eyeliner because you couldn’t quite see where it was going.

You’ll be amazed when you see some of the brilliant illuminated mirrors available, especially those that incorporate tiny LED lamps to create optical illusions.

When it comes to a great looking bathroom and feeling great about yourself, illuminated bathroom mirrors seem to hit the spot.

If you’re tired of squinting into an ill-lit mirror in a gloomy bathroom just to put your face on, you need an illuminated bathroom mirror.

In today’s doll-sized houses with squeezed in bathrooms, not everybody has the benefit of natural light flooding into the bathroom, particularly when it comes to en suites.  And even if you are lucky enough to have an enormous bathroom with dual aspect windows, you still need to use some sort of lighting illuminate your beauty at night.  You don’t need us to tell you that the central ceiling light just isn’t up the job.  At the very best this type of light casts unflattering shadows, at the very worst it can make you look as if you’ve died but not lay down yet.

All that functionality aside, illuminated mirrors also provide very relaxing light levels that are ideal for a long relaxing soak in the bath.  Like candle light but without the flames.

Choose your lamps wisely and you will remove the perennial problem of steamed up mirrors too – halogen lamps give out enough heat to warm the glass thereby preventing condensation! The halogen light spectrum is also very close to that of natural daylight (although slightly warmer), so your skin tone will look good by this light too.  The only downside of tungsten halogen lamps is that they can be quite expensive to run and have a useful life of only 2,000 hours.

So, if costs and energy usage are more important to you than looking pink and rosy, you should perhaps consider fluorescent illuminated mirrors.  Modern fluorescent lamps are far removed from their ancestors, gone is the popping and flickering of old.  They have a useful life of around 10,000 hours, after which time you’ll need to replace them as the light quality deteriorates.  So, in effect, they last five times as long as halogen bulbs.

If cleaning isn’t up there on your list of enjoyable tasks, once again illuminated mirrors have something to offer.  Because the lamps are mounted behind the glass, the surface is smooth and cleaning is a breeze – no trying to get into tiny spaces to clean out the soap scum.

If you need a magnifying mirror to ensure that your makeup is where it should be or that you haven’t missed a bit when shaving, then you can now get illuminated shaving mirrors.  Because to produce a magnified reflection glass must be concave, large illuminated magnifying mirrors aren’t practical to produce.

All illuminated mirrors tend to be good-looking, but some are far more than that.  Designers have used LED lamps to create some stunning effects, from infinite pinpricks of light to Hollywood glamour.

Illuminated bathroom mirrors – how many more benefits do you need?