Psychological Experiment on Preference of Mirror Lighting for a Selection Method of an Appropriate Light Source

A research to define the preferable conditions of important lighting factors was carried out to develop a selection method of an appropriate light source for the design of comfortable mirror lighting. Such a light source would be helpful for women to apply makeup. Illuminance and color temperature were used in this study as important lighting factors for the mirror lighting. This paper describes two stages. In the first stage, the results of a detailed questionnaire of the acts performed when applying makeup clarified that these acts had different features depending on the time of day. In the second step, the lighting conditions that changed the brightness and color temperature were shown to observers for a range of practical mirror lighting techniques. The observers evaluated their psychological preference of various lighting conditions for applying makeup in the morning and at night. The results of this experiment were that, for makeup in the morning, observers had a significant preference for 5000K over 3000K and, for makeup at night, there was not significant difference. Therefore, a light source of 5000K is more appropriate than 3000K for the design of mirror lighting for the application of makeup in the morning.