MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer Review, Photos, Swatches
MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer
MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer
MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer ($17.00 for 0.34 fl. oz.) is described as a “creamy white.” It’s a stark white cream. NARS Ecume is similar. China Glaze Snow is a bit cooler-toned. Nubar White Peony is warmer. You might even consider White-Out (thanks Brooke!), because the way this applied reminded me of being in elementary school when girls would apply White-Out like it was nail polish during class–dry, chalky, and oh-so-streaky. It’s mostly opaque after two coats, but it’s not even.
It’s not really a shocker, given that this was an awful polish when it came out two years ago (and talk about time flying by–two years ago, you could grab this for a measly $12!). It’s disappointing, though, that there were no improvements made to this formula, because it was particularly bad. It’s still runny, kind of watery (make sure to mix this one really, really well–it settles and gets extremely watery easily), and a streak-fest. The first coat was extremely streaky, and though I tried to do a thicker second coat to hide that initial coat, it couldn’t and pooled a bit around the sides and was slightly streaky even on the second coat.
It’s funny (not really), but MAC used to only increase prices by a dollar for special packaging when it was a collaboration, like when they worked with Disney on Venomous Villains, but they’ve been tacking a little extra on for anything in special packaging these days. MAC is certainly moving into a high-end price point, given that NARS’ polish retails for this much. (And many, many niche polish brands like Deborah Lippmann, Butter London, etc. are at this price point or less!)
Vestral White
LELimited Edition. $16.00.
MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer
MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer
MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer
MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer
MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer
MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer
MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer
MAC is just embarrassing themselves. We rarely get special packaging anymore and when we do, the product sucks AND it’s more expensive………..
Exactly! I find that their special products usually suck compaired to their core line! Its just rushed out too fast and the quality isn’t there. MAC and their mother company Estee Lauder had better get their products up to snuff or else other brands will over take them.
For $10 you can pick up Que by ORLY in Daydream which is white for neon’s at Shoppers Drug Mart (it got to preform better then this!)
17$ for a nail polish from a brand that really isn’t know for having the best nail polish line? That is a bit much! I understand like Chanel and Nars being pricy polish, their are pricier high end brands. When you can buy similar colours from like OPI and China Glaze for much less, I would rather just save my money!
I’m quite sure you can pick up a drugstore brand for alot less, and it would peform much better; but then, you wouldn’t get the special packaging… Again, I couldn’t care less about fancy packaging, unless of course I was using it as a paper weight or bric-a-brac.
;[ How sad.. Ever since Venomous Villains, I have just been hoping and hoping they would do something just as great. Disappointed every time. I find myself less and less interested in MAC, and don’t see myself buying too much from them in the future because I still do like their fluidline and kohls. ;[
I don’t think I’ve ever come across a good white polish! Anyone know of one?
Illamasqua Nail Varnish in Scorch is a pure white & although I have not tried this specific shade, all of the other Illamasqua nail polishes I have go on like a dream and wear like iron.
@Joyce Me neither. Opaque white polish must be very tricky, because many good brands (MAC included) fail miserably at it. Of course, paying a few bucks for a streaky polish hurts a lot less than paying $17. Most people just do lots of layers of the Orly white, or SH Xtreme Wear. I prefer the look of jelly whites built up. Essie Marshmallow doesn’t dry on me, so I’ve been thinking of getting the OPI ballet one.
@Chantal I find Essie in general dries really slowly on me. I’m really impatient so after about 5-10 minutes, I apply a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat and I’m good to go within a minute or two. (Zoya Lucy is my favorite white jelly. When I discovered it, it was like finding my holy grail. Even my husband was impressed, LOL.)
I used the one by Sally Hansen, it’s only like $2-3 at Walmart or Target. Two coats gets it pretty even for me!
@Joyce My go-to pure white creme is Zoya Purity. I’ve found the key to a good finish is thin coats and let them dry for a few minutes between coats to prevent dragging and clumping. I also use Zoya’s ridge-filling base coat, which is whitish. I wonder if that make s a difference, sort of like using primer.
Like @Chantal, I also like the jelly look, so I occasionally use Essie Marshmallow, but most often I’ll start with a thin coat of Zoya Purity and then build a couple of coats of Zoya Lucy on top of it. It’s a perfect clean white jelly, IMO (and ever-so-slightly warm-toned while still being white, not off-white).
Zoya has several great whites, ranging from shimmers to barely-off-whites and nearly-grays and I love them all. At $8, Zoya costs more than most drugstore brands but IMO, their formulas consistently out-perform pricey Mac and friends. (And they have BOGO and discount sales occasionally.) I hope this helps!
What a bummer. I am really annoyed by the price increases. I’m not buying MAC much lately because of this.
MAC is getting to the point where it seems like they don’t even care about product quality or consumer happiness anymore. They continue to put out absolutely terrible products all while raising the prices to account for “special” packaging (yes because painting blue stripes on a bottle is really going to break the bank). I can’t even remember the last time I bought something from MAC…I think it was three or four years ago. They’re just not up to competing with the market anymore, but they continue to increase they’re prices. They’re already making more by shirking on the product quality, so there is no reason to jack up prices $1-2 every year. I’m genuinely wondering how they can be okay with consistently putting out such horrible products…what are they thinking?
@Makaegan Because people keep buying their products. It really is supply & demand. However, if they keep the prices on par with, for example, Urban Decay (which has actually *improved* quality), then they’re just going to go under. Even their sister brand, Flirt!, is much better in terms of quality (though selection is smaller), and less expensive, especially if you catch a sale at Kohl’s. Some of the shades are practically dupes, even.
I think I ordered everything EXCEPT the nail lacquers! 😉 Of course, mine was in two batches as well and it looks like the second part may not get here until MONDAY?!?! WTH?! Ugh. You have no idea how much that ticks me off – Wait… no, I take that back. You probably do.
On-topic though, I LURVE white nail polish! I paint my toes white in the summertime because it looks clean and I like to prance around barefoot or in sandles and show off my white toes 🙂 It’s also such a BASIC color though (and my toes stay painted 18 times longer than my fingers), I usually just spring for whatever $1.99 variety I can find at the drug store… suites me just fine 🙂
@hunterdustin I’m surprised they didn’t have a NAVY polish in the collection. It seemed like it would make sense with the navy stripes!
@hunterdustin 18 times.. LoL.. is that a mathematical algorithm you came up with 🙂
so full of fail for $17.00.. I can think of at least a dozen other brands I would choose first.
I complained to MAC that I wish they would stop sending out useless, expensive promotional material (the mailers containing full-color photographs on cardstock that I throw out immediately) and instead used the money to keep their costs down. I received a generic reply that said they basically increase their prices with inflation, but did not address my specific criticism. Their customer service is a joke, and their products are becoming jokes themselves. Bravo, Christine, for calling them out on this piss-poor product.
@wrigs4prez I’m not sure what’s up with their polish pricing, because it seems to have accelerated much faster than any of their other products. Like lipsticks, eyeshadows, etc. go up $0.50 per year, which is more understandable (most other brands do a similar increase every 12-18 months).
Would be more awesome if the nail polish was actually striped hehe
always bums me to see MAC fail…
“White-out” made me laugh my head off. Nothing else to say really since I cannot stand MAC. Actually, I do have something to say. I’ve been thinking about it while looking at today’s product posts and I’m starting to believe it’s because I feel they’re insulting my intelligence with the over-hyped self-promotion (“Aren’t we great? Aren’t we cool?! Oooh, we’re MAC!”) while having piss-poor quality, a barrage of L/E PR and silliness, the difficulty of getting some of those items in a store, and then price increases for silly blue lines and plastic. It’s as though they’re dangling a really bad plastic carrot in front of your nose, while telling you it’s made of gold, and then not having it actually available while trumpeting to the world how cool and trendy they are. I don’t know, maybe I’m not making sense, but my dislike for them grows with every product I see featured here.
MAC is losing it all one by one. They have quality issues and I am so hating their packaging. When I read “sailor” I actually had a different picture in my mind, specially regarding the packaging. But alas! MAC, proves to be a disappointment yet again. My sister’s getting married in july and we were thinking of getting all her makeup from MAC, but I think I’d rather look else where.
I think MAC needs to realize that one of the reasons they get so many sales is because they are more affordable than high-end brands but most of us know that high-end is better quality a lot of the time. And their polish prices are particularly ridiculous now.
White creams are a pain-in-the-you-know-what. I’ve never found one that I liked.
Pubblicizzi?
ricambio subito!
Pubblicizzi?
ricambio subito!
I think using an actual white out would suffice, lol.
Yup! Looks like white out lol.
It actually doesn’t look all that bad on your nails.
Even if it was streaky or watery, i still wouldnt buy it cause im not paying 17 for just a white nail polish when you can buy a white practically anywhere with better coverage and a cheaper price. The packaging did kind of trick me though, I though it was one of those layer polishes: where one color is on top then goes blue then back to white..not sure why i thought that.
(This is going to be a little bit of a rant, sorry guys. 😛 ) Yikes! I know whites aren’t the easiest color to work with sometimes, but that’s insane. I’m pretty sure I bought the same polish (in terms of formula and performance) years ago from Wet N Wild for 99 cents. It kind of bugs me to see a brand that’s considered high end like MAC release a product that’s this bad. They’re supposed to be a trusted brand that we can stay loyal to, but there should be a difference between “high end” (getting your money’s worth, even if it’s a little pricey) and just high price. This polish almost feels like they’re taking advantage of us by thinking a lot of us will buy because it’s MAC or part of a collection. I understand that this could still sell as a collector’s item, but even then I can’t see paying $16 extra for a cute bottle (to each his/her own in that respect, it’s not my money other buyers are spending, haha). I know they’re not the only brand that does this, just the brand I see it the most from.
@KristianaJanelleMcNeil i immediately thought of the one dollar w&w white too, the pigments even settle the same! shame on mac.
Hi Christine, have you ever tried CND’s nail polish? I never see any reviews, but I really love their nail polish.
@matildawongg I’ve only tried one or two very long ago and then their Shellac more recently!
@Christine (Temptalia) any particular reason for not trying more of CND? I remember reading about how you said a perfect 5 on packaging would be if there were a nice brush/cap for application and I found their brush to be good with a rubberized cap, though this is a small part of the weighting on your final rating!
@matildawongg I’m not *not* trying CND, but I have a lot of polish I already have set to review, so I’m also not spending additional money when my backlog is about 6-9 months! There’s very little reader interest in CND, so it just doesn’t make sense to budget for CND.