Claudia WilliamsIf you’ve followed any sort of social media trends recently, you’ve probably heard at least a little bit about holographic nails. From runway models to beauty bloggers to Fashion Week, it seems like everyone is rocking this dazzling new look. Holographic nails are almost intimidatingly popular, but you don’t have to break the bank (or a nail) to get this shimmering, glittering, glamorous style for yourself—with our list of fifty awesome holographic nails, you’ll be sure to find the perfect nail art design that fits the unique, creative style of the nail addict in you!
50 Amazing Holographic Nail Masterpieces That Will Leave You Dazzled
Holographic nail color comes from regular nail polish, with the addition of a special pigment, made up of microscopic reflective particles, that gives it that trademark sheen. After applying a base color or just a base layer to the nail, you can add a layer of the holographic pigment with a brush or a simple makeup applicator, and then brush off any extra pigment for that eye-catching, holographic look. Over the top of the powder, add another layer of clear sealing gel, and you and your nails will be ready to make a splash. They provide a memorable contrast to matte nails.
The holographic nail trend really came to the world’s attention when model Gigi Hadid rocked a chrome nail at the Met Gala, but it took off a while later on various social media sites and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Everyone loves the way their nails look in photos or just catching light out on the streets—with these fifty cute designs, you can choose one you like, or make it your own, so that you, too, will be ready to rock your own nail art for both long nail designs and short nail designs!
1. Pretty In Pink
These pink holographic nails are long and strong and ready for a night out on the town or just kicking it around the house with a few close friends—when accessorized with some cute minimalist mid-finger and thumb rings, they’re an eye-catching addition to your look that will have people stopping for a second glance. This is a great alternative to the usual ombre nails.
2. “I Believe in Pink”
Audrey Hepburn once said, “I believe in pink,” and, looking at these pretty cute nails, we don’t blame her one bit! This sparkly nail design is short and neat, but the holo nail polish gives it a unique twist, taking the nail color design from cute and simple to what looks like fairy dust nails.
3. Not Just a Color—It’s an Attitude!
Performer Miley Cyrus once quipped that pink wasn’t just a color, “it’s an attitude”—and if that’s true, then these pink holographic nails have got attitude in spades. Unlike the fairy dust nails, this is a long nail design, but like every nail polish idea here, it’s almost a guaranteed show stopper!
4. Shiny and Chrome
At a first glance, these awesome chrome nails almost look like a natural nail polish, but once they catch the light, they become a cool kind of reflection of one of the best parts of the holographic nails trend—the effortless shine and iconic gleam of holographic nail powder that’s pretty hard to ignore, but nearly impossible to forget.
5. Glow in the Dark Glam
The holographic nail powder used on these glitter nails may not actually glow in the dark, but it looks as though they’ll glow just about everywhere else! The beautiful yellow and blue undertones give an almost otherworldly look to this supernatural nail art design, and we just can’t bring ourselves to look away.
6. Quintuple Rainbow
With these nails, the holographic nail polish gets used to its full effect, as the natural gradient of colors found in every light beam is scattered across these designer nails to create a beautiful rainbow display. Almost all holographic nails play with light, but this holo nail idea takes full advantage of the fact, and it’s awesome!
7. “Nothing’s Too Girly”
Pink has always been a popular color for your average nail addict, and the holographic powder really just takes it to the next level! Simple, clean, and classy, this nail polish idea is a gorgeous nod to old-school nail ideas, while embracing the shimmering shine that has come to be so characteristic of modern holographic nails.
8. Mirror, Mirror
These nails might not use chrome nail polish, but the resultant glitter nails have a hint of chrome about them, nonetheless. With the rise of so many manicure types on various social media sites, we love the ones that seem to mix and match the best of so many different styles to create truly different nail designs.
9. Odd One In
Speaking of a cute easy nail design, these hologram nails are the perfect short nail design for those who love the holographic nail polish trend but don’t want to take themselves too seriously. The glitter nail art sets a fun contrast to the gleam of the remaining nails, and the end result is nothing but dazzling!
10. Clean and Classy
No matter the occasion, if you like clean, simple lines and bright, classic colors, then these are the nails for you! The holo nail polish used for this sparkly nail design is more understated than some of the others so that there’s just a hint of the usual shine when the light hits them just right.
11. We Run on Purple Time
There are chrome nails, and there are hologram nails, and then there are these gorgeous nails, which are in a league all of their own. The glitter nail art at the base of each nail is the only thing more eye-catching than the nails themselves, and either way, they’ve certainly got our attention!
12. Keep it Short, Keep It Simple
These holographic nails use a mirror nail polish to create a clean, crisp looks that stand out among hundreds, if not thousands, of other, equally eye-catching nail art designs. The metallic look of the finished product lends them an industrial look, but the short, neat trim really turns the style up to eleven.
13. The Snow Queen
The frozen fractals of different mirror nail polish colors give these cool-as-ice holographic nails a wintry feel, no matter what the weather’s like outside! As professional as it looks, all you need is a nail brush, this cute easy nail design, and a little bit of time, and you’ll be able to make it your own.
14. On Wednesdays, We Wear…
Pink! Like many of the other styles on this page, these holographic nails use pink powder nail polish to create a warm, friendly, familiar look that only reveals its holographic nature upon closer inspection. As this style shows, you can’t go wrong with a few trendy rings to point focus towards your perfectly polished nails.
15. Roses are Red, Violets are…
The old rhyme might say blue, but we all know the answer is really purple—with blue and green undertones for contrast, of course. Some nail art designs play up the intricate detail that nail art always highlights, but these are the nails for you if your tastes tend towards a modern, minimalist design.
16. Don’t Worry, be Purple!
Sometimes a little powder nail polish is all you need to take a nail polish color from warm to impossibly cool. These holographic nails are highly polished until the reflection is metallic in nature, and the finished result is somehow bright and coolly reserved at the same time—a nail art design for all seasons. These short coffin nails never go out of style!
17. Bright and White
Holographic powder doesn’t always have to be used to punch up the color—for manicure types like the ones pictured here, the holo nail polish can be used to lend a touch of brightness to otherwise plain white polish, taking them from just “every day” to something you’ll want to wear every day from here on out!
18. Precious as Platinum
Can you ever really have enough glitter? There’s not any actual glitter to be found in this holo nail idea, but the answer is still a resounding no. One of a few truly metallic nails on this list, these holographic nails have a cool, hard gleam about them that makes them stand out from the crowd.
19. When Metal Works
At first glance, these nails would seem to just be plain old gray, but the second light hits them, they’re set aflame by a veritable rainbow of changes—the metallic gleam is replaced by a shimmering display of light and color, and the highlights are reflected in the new colors to shine even brighter than before.
20. Like Rust on Iron
Rust doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. For these glittering, golden nails, the muted red and brown undertones give the nail polish a weathered, antique sort of look that’s countered by the highly metallic sheen of the holographic powder, and the end result is a marriage of old and new that’s pretty much impossible to ignore.
21. Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
Catch a tiger by the toe—or by the hand, as is the case with these stunning nails! Each nail highlights a different style of nail art, and we just can’t pick which one is our favorite! The tiny gemstones on the pinky fingers, the smooth, pearly surface of the middle fingers—each one’s as gorgeous as the next, and we just can’t look away.
22. Puttin’ On the Glitz
Looking sharp in every possible sense of the word, these nails all play with light and shadow, reflection and absorption, in a way that’s absolutely mesmerizing. The pinprick gemstones at the base of the pinky finger play off the larger glitter pieces on the pointer finger, and the four different styles shouldn’t work so well together, but they really, really do!
23. Think Pink and the World is Rosy Red
Continuing the trend of a contrasting nail (and our overarching theme of Pink), this long nail design uses the white-pink gleam of all the other nails to highlight the chrome nails on both ring fingers. The gradient from the lighter polish at the base of the nails to the almost translucent sheens of the nail tips provides an eye-catching contrast, even when the whole nail is just one color!
24. Smiles, Hugs, and Lots of Purple
Another purple style for our list, these holographic nails feature a sweet little detail on the ring finger as their only distinction, but the pretty, eye-catching design is enough to warrant a second look, and the luminescent sheen of the four remaining nails is enough to warrant a third, fourth, and fifth look!
25. Tough as Nails
These nails are no-nonsense—or, at least, as no-nonsense as gleaming chrome fingernails can ever be! Filed to a point and polished to a shine, this relatively short style will let everyone you meet know that you mean business, but the reflection of the colors you’ll automatically pick up along your way soften the edges just enough to be perfectly polite.
26. For When You’re Feeling Blue
Perfect for all those blue days, these nails will have you feeling better in no time! Another style that straddles the line between short and long nail designs, these holographic nails feature a contrast or accent nail on the third finger, with an extra coating of glitter gel to stand out against the holo powder used on the remaining four nails.
27. Make Your Blue Print (or Make Your Prints Blue)
From the same design company behind No. 24, these pretty, pale blue nails feature not only the distinctive gemstone scoop on the ring finger but also a muted seashell pattern on the same nail that contrasts the sharper, almost geodetic design of all the other nails. The resulting comparison makes the lines look sharper and the edges softer, and makes these nails another example of just how well opposites attract!
28. Sugar and Ice and Everything Nice
After some of the flashier styles that have appeared on this list, it’s nice to get back to an old classic with a modern twist. These modest, unadorned nails pretend to be meek and unassuming, but the holographic powder lends them a shine and a glint that is anything but, and we couldn’t be more here for it!
29. She’s Got That Midas Touch
If everything you touch already turns straight to gold, what better way to let people know that with this short, stylish nail polish job? Again, a few clean and minimalist rings help draw the eye towards the hands, but the glittering gold of these holographic nails certainly holds people’s attention, once they’ve got it!
30. Purple Rain (and Purple Rainbows)
This particular polish powder comes from the same provider as No. 19, and the purple power it provides promises a plethora of positive perceptions! But seriously, alliteration aside, these purple nails have enough of that classic metallic sheen to catch a thousand other colors, even though the rich, warm purple is still strong enough to shine through in the end.
31. Ride Eternal, Shiny and Chrome
No need to drive yourself mad with these nails—clean, neat, and unpretentious, this style is ready to hit the road, with glitz and glamour turned up to the max! With a more visible holographic pigment particle than some of the other styles, these nails catch the light in a fury of colors, and the end result is nothing less than pure chrome.
32. Get Right to the Point
Like some of the other examples on this list, these nails look sharp enough to cut glass, but the softer pink and purple hues of the unaccented nails round out some of the edges and give it a sweet, sultry kind of look. You can get the same effect either by adding individual reflective rhinestones or by dotting clear nail polish in beads on the contrast nail and setting it after each application!
33. A Certain Touch of Class
These holographic nails really do seem like they’ve got the best of both worlds! The soft, muted pink of most of the nails, combined with the bright chrome nails on the ring fingers and pointed shape of each individual nail, present an image that’s equal parts danger and soft, feminine beauty. We also love the way the chrome nail reflects the shine off the pink nails to pick up some pink tones of its own!
34. Seeing Double (and Triple and Quadruple)
An effect you may have noticed on some of the different nail designs listed here is the concentric ring look, where the high sheen of the nails bounces back on itself, creating a pattern of nesting rings on the nail—and this style is another great example! We’ve already seen chrome with an underlying warm base layer, but the cooler base layer of these long, simple nails provides an air of distinction and reserve that we just love.
35. Nice and Neat
Clean, classy, and exactly dazzlingly opalescent, these glitter nails are an excellent example of just what makes holographic nail art so intriguing—namely, the way they interact with light and shadow so that no two nails ever look exactly the same. Here, the pink, silver, and blue tones are picked out by the way the light strikes them, and the end result makes it hard to look away!
36. Keeping it Blunt
For days when you don’t want the sharp delineations seen in some of the other examples or the rounded edges are seen in so many of the others, these blunt pink holographic nails are the perfect nails for you! With a more natural look about them—a design choice that’s also echoed in the pink base that only fades to chrome towards the tips—these nails are simply, effortlessly beautiful.
37. Rings Within Rings
Like No. 34, this sparkly nail design is another outstanding example of the concentric ring pattern that’s so easy to find in holographic nails. In addition, the oft-mentioned interplay of light and color is in full swing here, too, so that the base layer of pinkish purple is swallowed up by the bright notes of every other color on the spectrum, creating a “shining” example of modern-day nail art!
38. There Is No Green Without Blue
There’s no green without blue, and no purple without blue, either, so why not just have all three at once? These nails are just dark enough to be dramatic, but the bright splashes of color that shine through on top of the dark paint gives them a hint of fun so that the end result is a glowing galaxy of light and darkness, side by side.
39. Sparkles are Your Friend
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend—but surely anything with this many sparkles has to be a close runner-up, right? Two of the fingers are painted a “plain” pink, buttoning down a couple of your nails can help to add a sense of cohesion to the glittering display of all the other nails, so that what could have come out as a chaotic jumble of light and color instead becomes a single work of art!
40. Fifty Shades of Great
Gray is plain. Gray is dull. Gray is boring. Until suddenly it isn’t—the iridescent underside of these steely gray nails is a fun, fresh, and fascinating way to jazz up a color that most people wouldn’t have bothered looking twice at! As with many other nail designs, these nails are made to be in motion—each flash of hidden color will snap attention right back to your hands as you wave them oh-so-casually about, making a point that no one’s going to forget anytime soon.
41. Seeing Stars (and Stripes)
One of our personal favorites on this list, these retro nails give off a sort of Art Deco vibe, carrying hints of Great Gatsby glamour and Golden Age glitz! The clean black lines show off the shimmering holo nail polish to its best advantage so that the finished product looks as classy as it does classic, proving that these nails are here to stay!
42. White in the Right Light
White is another popular color for glitter nail art, and with nails like these, it’s easy to see why! The already bright look is taken up to the next level as soon as it hits the light so that the sparkling, shimmering look is impossible to ignore.
43. Same Color, Different Shades
Another example of how powder nail polish can be used to dress up even the simplest of colors, these nails start with a sweet, simple pink and then jazz each nail up to its full potential, so that each one is a mini-masterpiece, all on its own! We especially like the contrast between the ring finger and its two neighbors, making it really shine.
44. Get Them Seeing Green
These positively wicked nails will have everyone who sees you turning positively green with envy! Another gem from the same nail powder company we’ve seen a few other times, this short, clean-cut style is green with just enough hints of yellow, blue and gold to keep people guessing, and just enough glint to let people know you mean business.
45. “Oh, I’m Happy Now”
“If you’ve got cool nails,” actress Maisie Williams observed, “You wake up and you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m happy now’”—and we know exactly what she means. These nails may look purple at first glance, but the sheer number of colors that appear upon a closer look turn them into a dazzling display of light and reflection that render them utterly happiness-inducing.
46. Beauty is Forever
Pain may be temporary, and beauty may be forever, but there’s certainly nothing painful at all about these relatively simple holographic nails, and the bright holographic colors are certainly beautiful! With only a simple ring on one finger to serve as extra adornment, these nails are clean, chic, and constantly working to make sure that you’re dressed to impress.
47. Not the Old French Manicure
Forget the French tip nails you think you know—this is a modern twist on a classic look that’s sure to have everyone you meet saying ooh-la-la! But seriously, we love the classy look that the hint of chrome gives these stylish nails, and the soft pink tones of the rest of the nail provide a perfect backdrop to the sudden splash of holographic shine that plants this timeless look firmly in the here and now.
48. Transparently Dazzling
We don’t know if it’s the sheer length of this nail style that provides that fun transparency to the end of the look, or if it’s the reflection of the light of the dark gray case, but either way, we love it! Whether you see chrome or pink when you look at the finished product, you can’t deny the striking appearance or the soft shine that these nails are sure to provide.
49. Glamour Girl Gradient
Like the previous example, whether this nail style is primarily pink or primarily chrome colored depends on nothing more than a trick of the light, but either way, the look provides a touch of old-school glamour with a dash of millennial pink and modern metallic to keep what would otherwise be fairly standard painted nails dazzling and unforgettable.
50. Black and White and Chrome All Over
Nothing says “drama” like plain black nails, and this holographic display really kicks it up a notch! The stark contrast between light and dark and the range in colors from pure black to solid chrome provides a whisper of old Hollywood glamour, with enough silver screen star power to stop your personal audience in its tracks.
50 Simple Holographic Nail Designs That You Have to Try
Holographic nails are all the rage right now, and, with a look at these designer nails, it’s no real mystery why. Anyone of these nail ideas would be perfect for nearly any occasion, but you’re not limited just to the designs featured here. Put your own creative spin on the pictures we’ve picked out, and your nail art is almost guaranteed be cool, classy, and, above all else, uniquely you! Make sure to post your own different nail designs where people can see them, and help inspire someone else to take part in one of the best trends!
