For the longest time, I’ve been on the hunt for a vanity mirror. I don’t have space for a big, ornate, vintage vanity from a kitschy old thrift shop, and my bathroom is a very small, shared space. There’s no real area of my apartment that allows space for skincare routines, makeup application, or eyebrow scrutiny.
My solution was to buy a rolling cart with drawers in it and a flat top. Then I can keep my endless quantity of makeup in the drawers and use the top as a portable, small-footprint vanity. The only thing I needed after that was a mirror but… I’m extremely picky. My multi-purpose mirror has to put out!
My criteria was simple: I don’t want to need any other mirrors to do my makeup, it has to be able to travel, and I need to be able to use it anywhere.
The first mirror I tried was from a brand called Jerdon. You can see a little tiny bit of it in my review of the Milani Smokey Essentials palette! It’s very compact, but has two doors that flip out from the center to give you a 180° view of your face. The best part of that mirror was that it was illuminated with two strips of strong, bright lights that would mimic natural lighting in even the darkest rooms.
This look got better, I swear.
Eventually, after several happy months of use, I started to pine for something even more simple and streamlined. Something that could be packed away into a suitcase or weekend bag without any issues, something that could illuminate my face, but didn’t have any moving parts that I’d be tempted to break or crack.
Then, by the grace of the blogging gods, Jerdon sent me an email out of nowhere. They have a new mirror, and it’s smaller, more packable, more compact, and has all of the features I love.
Mirrors like these are worth their weight in gold, but the fact is that they’re actually really affordable. We’re talking $25 on Amazon and $10 if you’re willing to get an unboxed model!
I’ve lived in too many apartments with terrible natural lighting to continue relying on windows for accurate lighting. (Remember when I lived in Chicago and my only windows literally faced a brick wall?) I don’t think I’ll ever go back from the land of lighted mirrors. The four LED lights come in handy particularly when doing terrifying beauty tasks like eyeliner or plucking borderline invisible eyebrow hairs.
These practices, of course, require magnification as well, which is why this Jerdon mirror is reversible. The standard 1x mirror has a mirror with 5x magnification on the back!
When it’s this easy to flip back and forth between ultra-magnification and standard, you have the opportunity to get meticulous about your makeup, skincare, or whatever. This is extra helpful around Halloween, when having detailed, perfect makeup is kind of the ultimate goal. (All of you Courtney Loves can disregard that message.)
Jerdon is obviously the queen of mirrors. If you check out their website, you’ll see pretty much every kind of beauty mirror or vanity mirror you could imagine. Wall-mounted, without lights, with extra lights… They absolutely have your dream mirror, whatever it is, and if this isn’t it, you’ll find it on their website. Conveniently, Amazon sells a ton of their models, and at discounted prices and Prime shipping!
This little mirror can be run off of four AA batteries or a power cord that plugs into the wall. For traveling, this couldn’t really be better. The LED lights mean no lightbulb changing for a long, long, long time and battery life is longer, too! LED requires so much less power than incandescent bulbs and in comparison, LEDs are bright AF.
An easy, kickstand-style support means this mirror can be set up just about anywhere and offers a ton of light directly into your face. You could be holed up in the darkest hotel room in the middle of winter, and you’d still know that your skin looked flawless and your eyeliner was freshly sharpened.
While traveling is obviously this mirror’s best friend, I generally keep it set up on my makeup table, ready to go at a moment’s notice. Even when I’m up hours after everyone has gone to sleep, I can flip the switch on this mirror in my bedroom and complete my entire skincare routine without waking anyone up.
Back to the price for a second, because this $25 mirror has just about everyone else in the market beat. When I was shopping for vanity mirrors many months ago, the closest one I found to my “dream mirror” was upwards of $60! Are you kidding?
This Jerdon mirror is less than half of that price and does everything I want. And when that magnifying mirror is flipped over, it actually does more than I want it to. I have boundaries, okay, mirror?
Snag a Jerdon LED Lighted Vanity Mirror from Amazon for only $25 (with Prime shipping!) or…
Giveway: Win 1 of 3 Jerdon LED Vanity Mirrors!
Jerdon not only sent me this mirror to review, but they also want to give away five mirrors to Broke & Beautiful readers! All you need to do to enter is fill out the widget below and choose your methods of entry! After that, just sit back, and get ready to enjoy looking at yourself.
Jerdon LED Vanity Mirror Giveaway
Giveaway ends on Wednesday, October at 11:59pm.
As usual, I will be announcing the winners on Instagram! Be sure you’re following @Broke_Beautiful to see the winners. Good luck!