Clear vs frosted bulbs

A clear bulb lets you see the emitters. All of the output leaves from a small bright area, so the bulb reads as a point of light - decorative if that is what you wanted, and uncomfortable if it is anywhere near your eyeline.

A frosted or milky bulb scatters that same output across the whole surface of the glass. The bulb becomes a soft glowing ball rather than a hot point. You lose a few percent of the light to the coating and you gain an even source with far less glare.

Neither is better in the abstract. The question is whether the bulb is meant to be looked at or looked past.

1. Vanity bar or mirror light: frosted. The bar faces you and the mirror doubles every source. This is the clearest case on the page.
2. Bare pendant over a table: depends on height. Above eye level and dimmed, a clear filament bulb is a decorative object and works. At eye level over a dining table, it is glare in the face of whoever sits opposite.
3. Open-top shade in a lamp: frosted. You see the bulb from a sofa whenever you look up at it.
4. Enclosed globe or diffuser: either. The fixture is already doing the diffusing, so the finish barely registers. Spend the money on CRI instead.
5. Exposed fitting where the bulb is the design: clear. That is the whole point of the fitting, and a frosted bulb in it looks like a mistake.

GE Relax HD G25 - the frosted pick. 360 lumens at 2700K with CRI 90 and a matte frost finish. At a vanity, color rendering and diffusion are the two things that decide whether the mirror is usable, and this publishes both.
Cons: 360 lm is the least light of the globes here, so count bulbs generously; GE lists it for indoor use with no damp rating published.

Sunco G25 frosted globe - more output, wider spread. 450 lumens over a published 230 degree beam and damp rated, which is the rating a bathroom fitting technically wants.
Cons: CRI is published as a floor, 80+, rather than a number; sold in 12-packs.

Sunco G25 clear filament - the clear globe done properly. 500 lumens at CRI 90 with a visible filament, for a fitting where the bulb is on display and above your sightline.
Cons: put it in a mirror bar that faces you and it glares, doubled; filament bulbs also show every fingerprint.

EDISHINE vintage Edison A19 - decoration first. 700 lumens at 2200K in clear glass. This is a bulb bought to be looked at: the color is closer to candlelight than to a working white.
Cons: 2200K is too warm to read by and renders color poorly by design; CRI 80+ published as a floor; and in an open fixture at eye level it is pure glare. The wider case is in vintage Edison LED bulbs.

Buying clear for a fixture that faces you. The most common one, and the reason vanity bars get replaced when the bulbs were the problem.

Assuming frosted fixes a too-bright room. It fixes glare, not quantity. If the room is uncomfortable because there is simply too much light, that is a dimmer or fewer lumens.

Mixing finishes in one fitting. Two clear and one frosted in a three-globe bar looks like a failed bulb rather than a choice.

Ignoring CRI because the finish is right. A frosted CRI 80 bulb is comfortable and still makes skin look flat. At a mirror, buy both.