Hi Miss Wumble! The orientation of the fixture is purely preference, there are no hard, fast rules in positioning them. In my experience, most people do not like to look at the bare light bulb and they are easy to flip over. As long as you have enough light to put on makeup and see details, I would encourage you to flip it. You might also consider getting rid of the medicine cabinet and replacing it with a decorative mirror. You would be amazed at how much larger your space will feel without it. Good luck with your project!

Whoa, that's not good that the medicine cabinet door hits the light! That was definitely not a good installation.

If you're using a vanity bath bar, I actually think it's better to have the lights pointing down for this simple reason: the light should be focused on you and your face as you stand at the mirror. In this photo, you see that most of the light is focused on the ceiling, which isn't ideal.

But if you are able, it's even better to flank a mirror with sconces on both sides for lighting at face level without any bulb glare. That does mean putting in new electrical boxes, though, and if that is not in the cards, that's okay too.

You may want to take a look at frosted light bulbs to use in a vanity bath bar if you are very concerned about bulb glare. They come in a wide variety of sizes and you can't see the filament inside.

I hope this advice has been helpful! Let me know if you need more help.

I like how you have it now as long as you have enough light for shaving/makeup. I just bought a vanity light and will install mine going downward but yours looks just fine.