The Gareth Pugh nail polishes that were recently introduced by MAC came in new square bottles and a hefty increase from the normal $15 to a whopping $22. With an increase like that, I pull out my wallet with high expectations. Was it really worth it? …Not quite.

Let’s start with the bottles. While I normally rave about square bottles (cuz I luvs them, especially when I try to put them into my helmer), these are inelegant, hefty things. Not only that, the black X’d out square on every side eradicates almost all trace of what color the bottles contains. I understand that a company has to brand their product, but I think they could have left at least one side black square free so that color content could be ascertained, if not quickly, at least eventually.

Now let’s move onto the website, shall we? My biggest pet peeve is cosmetic sites not properly giving their consumers an accurate idea of what the polish finish is. Second, although less common, is sites that grossly misrepresent shade. Ding! Ding! Ding! MAC managed to do both this time. So which of the MAC swatches to the left (click them for a better view) go to my swatches? Don’t waste too much time trying to figure it out as this question really doesn’t have a correct answer.

MAC Inert is a putty creme (yes creme, not a shimmer like their swatch indicates) which pretty much went on like putty. I ended up putting on three coats as the self leveling was not fantastic. I will say that in my experience that these light putty grey colors are rather like white cremes that always seem to take three coats to achieve a non-streaky finish. So let’s let that slide. But it’s still a freaking creme!

MAC Hyper is probably the only color out of this trio that I liked. Sort of. The MAC website describes this color as “deep blue with a violet pearl”. Try as I might, I’ve yet to catch that violet. It’s hiding. And damn well. The good news is this was a two coater. The bad news – we’ve seen this color before, haven’t we? A few years ago, polish companies didn’t put out enough non-standard colors so simply introducing a blue or green sent us polish collectors into a titter. No longer the case. Companies have caught up with our need for renegade shades and throwing a standard blue out there is no longer enough to warrant a $7 hike in price. So while I like the color… already have it, already done it.

MAC Ascension is a light lilac/grey base with mild green duochrome. From what you can see of the color through the black squares on the bottle, the color is breath taking. Vivid purple, blue and green. None of that awesomeness transfers to the nails. Now while I adore a good duochrome, this one is a fairly tired color. It’s been done. Much cheaper. Too many times. This was three coats.

This post may sound harsh. And perhaps it is. But if a company is going to put out something that is 50% more than their regular price, damn it, I want something that’s 50% better than their regular product.