Would you spend £10,000 on home lighting to make yourself look younger?
Company boss Jenny did and swears it’s worth it. But you can lose wrinkles, too... by changing the lightbulbs
ALTHOUGH she’s in her mid-50s, interior designer Jenny Weiss is frequently mistaken for someone at least a decade younger by visitors to her home. Jenny, who lives in Weybridge, Surrey, with her husband Graham, 55, a property consultant, their son Dan, 27, and his fiancee, Louise, admits that she looks after herself.
‘I don’t smoke, I eat healthily and I avoid sugar,’ she says. ‘I also use good skincare.’ But the secret behind her youthful looks isn’t a cream or surgery — it’s the clever lighting she’s had installed.
‘As I’ve got older, I’ve become acutely aware of the impact lighting can have on the way I look and feel,’ she says. ‘As far as I’m concerned, good lighting is the best make-up, so the lighting throughout our house has been painstakingly chosen to be as flattering as possible. It gives everyone a slightly airbrushed look that subtly blurs imperfections and takes years off.’
Looking her best is so important to Jenny that when she moved into her six-bedroom detached house five years ago, one of her first calls was to specialist lighting designer Sally Storey. ‘I’ve worked with Sally on several projects, and although her expertise starts at £10,000 — not including lights — it’s money well spent.’
Among the lighting tricks recommended by Sally are using warm, white-based bulbs, rather than colder blue-white ones, as they flatter skin tone and emit less glare, and long, slim lights either side of the bathroom mirror to imitate natural light.
‘Obviously, you need good enough light to do make-up correctly, otherwise you risk leaving the house looking overdone, but you don’t want to see every single flaw first thing in the morning,’ confides Jenny.
Dimmer switches, or a mood lighting panel, in the bathroom and bedroom are also must-haves, she says.
‘A softer glow rather than harsh overhead lights can take years off — it creates warmth and fades wrinkles,’ Jenny explains.
There are also four pre-programmed light settings in the main entertaining area, and Jenny selects a different one depending on the event or time of year. ‘If I’m entertaining, I choose the lowest setting, which is more flattering,’ she says.
Ten years ago, the only women who could have told you how they liked to be lit were professional models and actresses. But now, thanks to instantly available digital images, ubiquitous camera phones, and the rise of the selfie, women of a certain age have a heightened awareness of the impact lighting can have on their appearance and they’re prepared to spend money doing something about it.
One friend of mine in her 40s has recently swapped all the bulbs in her house from bright white to warm white and ditched the harsh downlighters in the kitchen, where she spends much of her time. ‘I look years younger,’ she said.
Meanwhile, another has stopped going to quiz nights at her son’s school because the strip lighting is so unflattering. ‘My husband thinks I’m really vain, but I look like a haggard old crone,’ she shrugs.
So what is it about poor lighting that means it can so dramatically transform the way we look?
‘Light and shadow are how the eye distinguishes shapes,’ explains professional portrait photographer John Godwin. ‘It’s the way our brain makes sense of what we’re seeing, and is able to gauge, for example, how wide someone’s face is, or where their nose is. That’s why contouring using make-up is so popular, because it’s about artificially creating light and shadow in a way that’s most flattering.’ And, he points out, it’s even more important to make sure we get lighting right as we age. ‘As women get older, they lose the natural plumpness of the face and develop wrinkles and a tendency towards more uneven skin tone,’ he says. ‘These are all features that bad lighting can emphasise, and good lighting can disguise. For example, light from directly above will cast shadow into wrinkles, making them appear even more apparent, as well as creating shadows under the eyes that make women look tired. Similarly, light from behind can highlight any downy hair around the chin, as well as any frizzy hair, which means it often shows up greys because they tend to have a more wiry texture.’ The wrong lighting can instantly age you; kinder lighting take years off, which is why even celebrities can sometimes appear to age in the space of 24 hours. Take Renee Zellweger, who was pictured at a photocall perfectly lit with glowing skin and smooth forehead, only to be snapped the following day in direct sunlight, which emphasised every wrinkle and made her look 15 years older.
no wonder some women go out of their way to avoid places where they know the lighting is harsh. Jenny, who runs a design consultancy, Hill House Interiors, can roll off a list of places she tries to avoid at all costs, particularly anywhere with downlighters or spotlighting.
‘I was recently photographed underneath a spotlight, and it wasn’t flattering,’ she says. ‘The hideous, fluorescent lighting in airports also makes everyone look terrible.’
She points out that good lighting isn’t just flattering, but is also uplifting, and, of course, when you’re happy, you look better. ‘It’s the most worthwhile investment for looks and mood,’ she enthuses.
It’s not just women of a certain age who are going to great lengths to ensure the lighting in their home is ultra flattering.
Wellbeing expert Stephanie Lewis (simplystephanie.co.uk) is only 30, but she installed dimmer switches and invested in warmtoned light bulbs after moving into her West London home with her fiance, Sebastian.
‘I remember walking into our flat before we bought it and almost gasping in horror. Bright white bulbs and wall lamps created awful shadows that put at least ten years on me. My face looked washed out and ancient,’ she says.
‘But now, I can walk in at the end of a long day, shattered, and still feel good.’
Jenny and Stephanie have worked out that with a little bit of know-how, it’s possible to create a lighting scheme that conceals imperfections. Shops have been doing it for years by lighting their fitting rooms in the most flattering ways, having realised we buy more clothes when we look our best in the mirror.
So what basics does every woman — particularly those over the age of 40 — need to know?
‘you may think of lighting in terms of how many watts a bulb gives out, but what really makes a difference to your appearance is what is called the Colour Rendering Index (CRI), which measures how accurately a light will show the colour of an object,’ says lighting designer Bill noble of wowlighting.co.uk.
‘To do your make-up, you should choose as high a CRI as possible, as it will give you an accurate idea of what your bare face looks like.’
In other rooms, a lower CRI will be much more flattering.
‘Colour temperature, which is really a gauge of how much yellow or blue is in a light, is measured in degrees Kelvin (K) and the colder — or bluer — the light, the higher the number,’ explains Bill.
‘The strip lighting you often find in offices is around 4000K, as anyone who’s been aghast at the dark shadows that suddenly appear under their eyes in a badly lit office will know.’
In contrast, a warmer yellow light hides any blue tones, and doesn’t emphasise red tones, so it is considered to be one of the most flattering lights.
And, of course, positioning of lighting is also key.
‘We usually only notice lighting in relation to mirrors, as that’s when we see the effect it has on us,’ Bill noble says. ‘A single spotlight above only serves to highlight wrinkles and blemishes. But the same is true elsewhere in the home.
‘Ceiling recessed downlights have become popular and can be very effective but, if you choose the wrong type of fitting, they will act as little glare bombs in the ceiling, highlighting wrinkles, and casting shadows under the eyes.
‘If possible, you should use downlights instead, where the lamp is recessed into the fitting, significantly reducing glare.’
It may sound like a lot of hassle — and expense, but Jenny Weiss, and many like her, are utterly convinced that it’s all worth it.
‘On Christmas Day we are having 30 people for drinks in the morning and then 20 for lunch,’ Jenny says. ‘Graham and I will be doing all the cooking, which we love, even though it’s pretty exhausting. But I know for a fact that no matter how tired I feel by the time we sit down, I’ll still be looking glowing, healthy and youthful — and that’s all down to our lighting — how can you put a price on that?’