Incan Vanity Lights to LED

I am looking at changing out our incandescent 40w vanity bulbs to an LED source. Any makeup artists or people in the know that might offer some manufacturer suggestions for this transition ? Not necessarily thinking a retro fit option. I am hoping performers are ok with the LED color temperature . thanks

Only speaking from personal experience - no theatrical background. We just experimented with a change from 8 CFLs to LEDs. Tried the Home Depot Cree LEDs. The 5000s were way too white (or cool). In the 2700s, the 60w eqvlnt were too bright. She ended up liking the 40watt eqvlnt. BTW, she puts on makeup every day. Not what you were looking for, but I hope it helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. So, yeah, I'm pretty much all that.

My wife is a belly dancer, so she does a lot of makeup work. We just replaced two CFLs with the 2700K 60W Cree lamps, and still have two 43W halogen lamps. She seems happy with that (light output and color temp).
But it really depends on the lighting the stage uses. If you are using quartz-halogen lamps, the light will be a little whiter. So a mix of the warm white and cool white (if you can do it evenly). So if you are using 8-lamp lights, do something like wwcwwcww. It will help eliminate off-color shadows, and still balance the light color. if you are using 6-lamp lights, then do something like 60w warm white, and 40w cool white and wcwwcw.
But that is just some suggestions.

I think your best bet is to aim for a color temperature of 3000k. This will be the tiniest bit less yellow than incandescents and pretty close to the 3200k color temperature of typical TV lighting.

Try Tuwago's globe LED. I've switched out all of our vanity bulbs with these and they are still going strong even after 2 years. Just know that they ARE slightly larger than your typical 40w incandescent globes. I got used to the size and actually think it looks better with a larger globe. Their website says the diameter is 3.7 inches, which is accurrate. http://www.tuwago.com/collections/globe/products/globe-led

stick64 said:

I am looking at changing out our incandescent 40w vanity bulbs to an LED source. Any makeup artists or people in the know that might offer some manufacturer suggestions for this transition ? Not necessarily thinking a retro fit option. I am hoping performers are ok with the LED color temperature . thanks

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Before making any suggestions, what are these "performers" performing in?

If it is a play where viewing distances are long, color accuracy is not going to be overly critical.

If it is something where cameras come into play and closeups matter, then color accuracy will be important and I would not just use any LED bulb, but would source a high CRI bulb so that the results are as intended.

Semiman

Semiman has a point. Also I've noticed a lot of theatrical follow spots and varilites using 5000k lamps.

I think stick64 is referring to vanity lights that are used in the dressing rooms where the performers or actors get their makeup put on.

Correct. We're trying to figure out what color temperature for the makeup mirrors will best match the actual stage lighting.

stick64 said:

I am looking at changing out our incandescent 40w vanity bulbs to an LED source. Any makeup artists or people in the know that might offer some manufacturer suggestions for this transition ? Not necessarily thinking a retro fit option. I am hoping performers are ok with the LED color temperature . thanks

Click to expand...

If this is for professional makeup use, I would strongly advise against it. The light from regular LED bulbs can make colors look a little greyish and off, especially skin tones. If you simply want a whiter color of light, you should get the type of vanity bulbs with a halogen capsule inside. Another option that may work well is to simply use a mix of incandescent and LED bulbs together.

Actually, LED is not that bad, especially compared to the incandescent bulbs with lower color temperatures (<2700K), which vanity bulbs often tend to be, unfortunately, due to their lower wattages and longer rated lifespan. If you have 3 vanity bulbs, perhaps switch 2 of them out with LED and keep one of them to add that deep red frequency light for better color rendering of skin tones. That way colors will not seem dead, but at the same time you will have whiter light that is not so orangish.