R-Values Matter to Make Customers Look Good

The CRI value that we talked about above is a measurement of the overall ability of a light source to render color, but it is important to know something about the way individual colors appear under a light source – especially red. Without getting too technical, the CRI value is a compilation of individual values that measure how well a light source renders specific colors compared to a standard source (daylight for example). These individual numbers are called “R-values”.

To make your customers look healthier, you should make sure your lighting has high “R-values” for R9, R13, & R15, the three key colors that impact the look of skin tones.

LED lighting that is now ubiquitous and in earlier days, fluorescent lighting, are notorious for not containing enough red (R9) to make people look healthy. You have probably heard of people complaining about the lighting making them look sick – this is likely the is important because no matter the tone of skin it is the reflection of the blood flowing through it that makes us look healthy. Sick people often look pale because of reduced blood flow or lack of red blood cells. On the other hand, if the lighting lacks red (has a low R9 value) then healthy people may appear sick. Not exactly the look your customers are hoping for when they’re trying your products!

Referring to the chart above, if a light source does not have much red content but a lot of blue and green – common in LED sources – then your blood, and hence your skin, may take on a greenish tone. Interesting side note here: sea water filters out red, so if you are diving at deep levels and cut yourself your blood will actually look green.We’ve talked a lot about R9, but there are two other R-values of significant importance to cosmetics retailers: R13 and R15. These two colors are often associated with different skin tones and as above, a light source lacking the ability to render these colors well may make your customers look unhealthy…or even worse…

What's Important For You To Know

To make your customers look healthy, you should use illumination that contains plenty of red, technically identified as "R9" as well as other skin tone colors, "R13" & "R15". Your lighting supplier should be able to provide you with this information.