My son used these and they are beautiful and understated. Love the no trim look. They are pricey, however. They are mudded in place during the drywall stage.

Halo fixtures are reasonable and can be obtained with a variety of finishes of the inner cone. Ensure that your selected fixtures have fully recessed lamps. If you have an insulated ceiling ensure that you select fixtures which allow for contact with insulation. For a step up in quality go to Lightolier.

Another source is DMF. Link. They have different levels with more feature as you go up.

The X series 2" downlight

Features: Recessed, Adjustable, Wall Wash, Decorative, Warm Dim, Tunable White

Lumens (Downlight): 750 lm (9.5W), 1000 lm (12.5W), 1250 lm (14.3W), 1500 lm (16.5W)

Lumens (Adjustable): 750 lm (12.5W), 1000 lm (14.3W)

Color Quality: 93+ CRI, 2-step SDCM

Color Temperature: 2700K, 3000K, 3500K, 4000K, Warm Dim, Tunable White

Beam Spread: 15° Narrow Spot, 25° Spot, 40° Flood, 60° Wide Flood, Linear

Dimming: 0-10V (1%), TRIAC/ELV (1%), DALI (0.1%)

Input: 120/277V

Installation: New Construction, Remodel, Wood/Millwork, Flangeless Mud-In

Trims: Round, Square, Wall Wash, Flangeless, Decorative

Finish: White, Black, Bronze, Clear Diffuse, Warm Diffuse, Custom Color

Rating: Energy Star, Title 24 JA8, Declare Listed, Wet Location, Chicago Plenum, IC

Warranty: 5 year; 50,000 hours

When lighting a work zone, you can further lessen shadowing by using two sources offset to either side instead of one centered.

Tech Lighting makes a lot of low profile recessed lighting. It's called their "Element" line of architctural lighting. Here's a link to their pdf: http://images.techlighting.com/ELEMENT/documents/Element_Flipbook2012.pdf

I know you were making a point, but realize that photo is photoshopped.

There are a myriad of styles, trim options, and manufacturers that you could consider "reliable." It is more a fact of aesthetic, budget, and lighting goals. Most manufacturers offer multiple lumenaires with functions to fit your criteria.

Not photoshopped picture of the Element lights in my son’s new bathroom.

@clt3 Wow, that bathroom turned out very beautiful. I hope he's proud of how it turned out! Did he use those downlights in other areas of the house as well? I will highly consider Element lighting. Yes I see that the price is up there, but it's in my budget, it's a smaller home. @res2architect Yes trimless is important to me. I want the lights to look as unnoticable as possible.

@Pi_pumkin_sol3, he’s redoing his kitchen right now with the same lights, only round.

@clt3 breathtaking. That's exactly what I would hope to have for my kitchen. I'm doing it! :)

@clt3 do you know if your son used the 2inch or the 3inch Element Downlights? Thank you for sharing with me.

To lower the visibility of the light source it is necessary to make the fixture aperture smaller and/or the light source deeper in the fixture.

Unless you're only lighting one task or wall area, you will need more of these fixtures to light a space potenitaly doubling the cost but the effect is quite good.

Don't overlook 4" deeply recessd adjustable LED fixtures that are Title 24 compliant.

@clt3 Can you ask your son the height of his kitchen ceiling and which size aperture he used, as well as if it was the low lumen output or the high lumen output ? I'm really inspired by your pic and it's not often I come across a real-life photo of these Element lights being used.