I really don’t know why they’re so ugly.  But they are improving.  More importantly, did you know that long-life incandescent light bulbs are not an efficient use of your energy $? Long-life incandescent light bulbs are the least efficient of the incandescent bulbs. Consider LED (Light Emitting Diode) lighting. LED’s are more common for can, track, under-cabinet and holiday lighting. While the initial cost is more, this type of light will use 10 times LESS energy and last 50 times longer than incandescent lights. They use one-third the energy and last 5 times longer than compact fluorescent lights.