It is possible to get high
CRI and brightness and non-glare light, and NOT HOT light at a make-up counter, however your aren't going to get it with screw
base lamps. Who wants those anyway? They just stick-out and get broken-off, provide a place for wigs to burn-up, plastic coat hangers to melt, and dry cleaning bags to emmolate upon, right?
I've been specifying BB&S Pipeline fixtures for make-up counters and full-length dressing mirrors for several years now. They have been used in film studios, TV studios, and theatres widely. Be aware that their primary kit sales are for
portable production use, but the RAW series of
LED pipeline product is better suited for installing. The RAW Reflect series has a 6' long angled bracket and continuous 6'
LED strip that is suitable for setting along each side of a dressing mirror and projecting a brighter zone of light than the bare RAW strips do. The LEDs will need to be directly powered from a good quality 36 volt constant
voltage power supply. The
portable power supply BB&S offers is way more expensive than a good Meanwell industrial
power supply. The difference between the BB&S strips and others is that the plastic
cover you see is actually a thick layer of phosphor embedded plastic with a row of UV/Blue exciter LEDs behind them. It is the plastic that produces the light, not the LEDs inside. Other manufacturers light strips are just white LEDs and translucent plastic covers. Science wins!
Also, for best results, you should consider refinishing your Dressing / Make-up room(s) so they have color
neutral surfaces. I see many rooms that have been painted, stained, postered, and other forms of visual abuse applied so that any light reflecting off the walls, ceiling, floor, and countertops is significantly tainted (sometimes with the most garish colors
).
In conjunction with the lights around the mirrors, you should also consider replacing the ceiling light fixtures (the entire light
fixture!) with something that has good indirect light and high
CRI LEDs. My go-to fixtures are the Cree ZR22 and ZR24. This way, all the light in the room is correct, not just some of it. Stained Ceiling Tiles? Replace them, too.
Take note that many Dressing / Make-up rooms are
not code compliant regarding the
power switches for the Mirror Lights and the
Power Receptacles. The
NEC requires (for a very long time, too!) that there be a pilot light in the corridor OUTSIDE the Dressing Room that indicates when the Lights or Outlets are powered on inside the Dressing Rooms. If you install the pilot lights, be sure to label them, otherwise people will soon just wonder what they are. (It seems obvious that you should label the pilot lights, but, to-date, I have
never seen anyone label them except on projects where I have specified it. Most Electrical Engineers don't even know that the pilot lights must be there, so this explains the lack of seeing them in most venues I visit.
Fun side note: I had USB-A charger outlets installed in the
power raceways, too, so the receptacles for hair dryers and curling irons wouldn't get cluttered with wall-warts. You can now get these in USB-C format, too. Each quad of
power receptacles is separately powered so there is plenty of
juice for hair dryers and curling irons. Maybe next time I'll install the wireless charging pad 'hot-spots' in the countertop . . .
Below is an example with new finishes ans 3200K Cree ZR24 troffers and 3200K BB&S Pipeline between the mirrors. The picture doesn't do it justice as the auto-exposure on my camera just didn't get what I was trying to capture.
Pilot Light Plate for Dressing Room Hallway