If you’re serious about looking your best, you must have the right tools, one of which might give you a real reality check.

It’s the magnification mirror. (No matter what point you are in your life.)

The reason: no matter how good your eyesight is, no matter how good you are at applying makeup, typically bathroom lighting is often wrong AND you can’t see everything that’s going on with your skin and how you’re applying your make-up.

Don’t take this wrong. I’m not looking for you to be obsessive; it’s just that skin changes with mood, body fluctuations, age, temperature, the food you eat, etc.. (If you’re 17, you may not have noticed all this yet.) The mirror, however, gives you that extra bit of information so that you can make great choices.

I’d suggest one with a light and multiple times the magnification.

* The more “wisdom” you have, the more important it is that you see exactly what you’re dealing with every morning. The clarity will help you make better choices about how you deal with your skin, maintain your eyebrows and hair, remove unappealing facial hair, insure your teeth are clean, and address any other concerns. The mirror will also enable you to work magic by making sure what you intend to do with your face is actually happening.