MAC Endless Night nail polish review

Sometimes I fall in love with a polish because of the colour. Sometimes I fall in love with it because of the name. And sometimes, it’s a little bit of both in just the right amount – and such is the case with MAC’s Endless Night. It originally came out with Daphne Guinness’ rather underwhelming collection earlier in the year, but as since been re-released in MAC’s holiday Glamour Daze Collection – making it the perfect opportunity for me to pull out a polish that has been haunting me for months with its soft intriguingly understated beauty.

Endless Night is a beautiful work-safe neutral – a pink/lilac leaning greige that’s the perfect palette cleanser (yes even I need one once in a while!). But this is not just your average boring beige… oh no! This stunner has the tiniest flash of pretty pink shimmer hiding beneath its deceptively calm exterior. Of course, it’s an absolute bugger to photograph, so you can see it more in the bottle than you can on my nails in the pictures, but trust me – it’s there in real life and it is awesome.

This also brings me onto why I love the name, which instantly reminded of the Agatha Christie novel of the same title, and the quote that inspired it (from Auden’s poem Auguries Of Innocence):

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night.

Having read all of Agatha Christie’s novels (apart from the last Poirot – I just can’t bring myself to do it!), I can safely say that Endless Night is my least favourite of the lot, yet that beautiful quote has always stuck with me. My simplistic interpretation is that some people are born into light and others to darkness; without spoiling too much, the book contains one character who conceals his hidden depths of ‘endless night’ with fatal consequences.

Rach’s literary class over and just how does this relate to nail polish? Well, with a name like Endless Night, you would expect the colour to be a deep mysterious black or a dark midnight blue, but instead here we have this light clean crisp neutral. Yet there, lurking beneath its surface, is that gorgeous unexpected flash of pink shimmer – and it’s exactly those secret dangerous hidden depths that play into my whole envisaging of the ‘endless night’ concept. And yes, I probably do read too much into these things!

Back to the facts and what is undeniable is that MAC have pulled out a winner in the formula department. A slightly streaky first coat build easily into a smooth, glossy, opaque finish by the second, and it glides on like a dream – where it stays, chip-free and beautiful, for at least five days.

Endless Night is classic with an edge, beige but quietly rather brilliant. It’s also one of those shades that’s the polish equivalent of some immense body shaping underwear – namely, it makes your nails immediately look longer, prettier and in better shape!

A neutral with hidden depths and an opportunity for me to prattle on at length about Agatha Christie? No wonder I love it!

P.S. Google tells me the quote is also in a Doors song. Blast. Leave me with my dreams of MAC’s creative department being full of secret Christie addicts as opposed to Jim Morrison fangirls!

Looks good with: libraries, cardigans, literary allusions
Drying time: ❤ mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: +5 days

MAC Endless Night nail polish, Daphne Guinness/Glamour Daze Collections, $110

Note: This product was provided for my consideration.