Aside from the spam above, halogen is a great option. It still has the best color rendering when it comes down to it. Although I'm a huge fan of LEDs, you won't find too many yet in decorative sconces.

I wouldn't be too concerned about power usage. You won't be using it for hours on end and will get the best quality light.

If you're going to stay in the bathroom for hours on end with the lights on, yes.

In which case the solution is to use CFL/ LED sconces or some similar lighting.

CFLs tend to die quicker when they are turned on/ off in rapid succession and left on for very short periods of time ( In some juristictions, the law (eg - title 24) mandates the use of approved energy efficient lighting.

I'm not clear on the type of lighting fixtures you looking for in the bathroom. However, you should be able to use a CFL or LED in many situations. And as others mentioned there is nothing wrong with halogen bulbs considering the limited amount of usage.

Here's what we did with our bathrooms as a result of the upstairs remodel. In the vanity area there is a ceiling flush mounted opaque glass fixture with two 9 watt CFL's and two 3 light sconces with 7 watt cfl's. In the bath/shower area there is another ceiling flush mount opaque glass fixture with two 9 watt cfls. Over the shower/tub is a sealed halogen shower spot in a can. Multiple switches allow light levels and electricity usage to be controlled but there can be plenty of light on demand.

I switched to CFL's for about 90% of our lighting about 4 years ago and had one CFL bulb die within the first year. I have not experienced any short-lived CFL bulbs in bathrooms.

As I understand it, halogen lamps are a bit more efficient than conventional incandescent, so they get a break from new energy efficiency regulations. That may be why you're seeing a lot of them these days.

That said, halogens are still pretty inefficient. While their light quality is about as good as it gets, they waste a lot of the energy input as heat. Especially in summer, having them a foot or two from your face or head can get kind of uncomfortable. The heat from the lamps can degrade the fixture wiring over time, too.

LEDs are usually more efficient than halogen (though, surprisingly, some of the cheap ones are only a little more so). They can be made small, which for some folks is a style plus, though I admit I haven't looked around to see how many light designers are actually taking advantage of this characteristic now. LEDs' light quality varies from rather dismal to surprisingly good. The stuff with high efficiency and good light quality tends to be quite expensive.

CFs are currently still the kings of energy efficiency, and are much more reasonably priced than LEDs. However, they tend to require larger and possibly less fashionable fixtures.

We just got rid of the old "Florescents in a box" lights for the Master Bath.

We used four, 6 inch flush mount LED's in the ceiling---they give off a "Ton of Light" and we have them on a dimmer.

For "Accent Lighting" we bought two "Wall lights" (Scounces)?
They came with incandescents but we replaced them with
LED bulbs that put out the equivalent of a 40 watt incandescent (but draw only 8 watts full on)---more than bright enough and again dimmer installed. The LED bulbs were about $9 each at Home Depot.
I like the way LED's dim as compared to dimming an Incandescent----The LED's stay white when dimmed instead of changing "Orangish" as incandescents do.

Here's how they look in our bathroom:

and a "Close Up" of the light.

Gary

"CFs are currently still the kings of energy efficiency,...."

More efficient than linear fluorescent?