I was wondering why different mirrors make me look better/worse. Does anyone know the facts? Also, could it be the lighting?
I suspect that a combination of background and lighting are the main contributing factors. Certainly lighting, more than any other single factor, plays a huge role in how a person looks. As a former portrait photographer, I can tell you that lighting makes or breaks a shot.
Fluorescent lighting is particularly unflattering.
Depending on what backing they use for the mirror and the quality of the glass, it may also have a slight color bias that might result in your looking unusually sallow, greenish, or ruddy as well. But as others have said, it’s probably the lighting.
I have a mirror that I take with me to festivals when I’m selling my rayon tops so that people can try them on and see how they look. It’s just a regular cheap wall mirror that Mr. S built a wooden frame and stand for, and I painted and decorated it. And for some reason it’s a “skinny mirror” – accidentally, I swear! It must be distorted just enough to create the effect.
You could also have a “fat mirror,” I’m quite sure, like in the funhouse.