Every time I catch my reflection in a gas station mirror—bathed in that harsh, overhead lighting that angles down like an accusation—I have to remind myself: this isn’t the place to evaluate my face.
Overhead lighting has a purpose. It’s perfect for washing your hands. Scrubbing a stain out of your shirt. Reading a sign. It’s designed to illuminate surfaces, not faces.
But we’re conditioned to take those quick glimpses—checking our teeth, smoothing our hair—and then accidentally absorb the worst version of ourselves in the process. The lighting is unflattering by design, built for visibility, not tenderness. And yet we let it speak to us like it knows the whole truth.
Makeup isn’t immune to this. You can spend an hour carefully applying your base, blending your blush, carving your brows—and then one glance in that convenience store mirror convinces you it was all a lie. But it wasn’t. It’s just the light.
If you’re going to assess your makeup—or yourself—use lighting that was built for faces. Natural daylight near a window. A soft ring light. Something eye-level, something kind.
Because the truth isn’t found under fluorescents.
It’s found in context.
And context, like beauty, deserves better lighting.
