Metallic Nail Designs You’ll Want to Screenshot Immediately

25 Metallic Nail Designs That Bring the Shine

1. Moss Green Metallic Nails

Oh, how we love this green shade for the fall and winter seasons. It feels super glam and gives everything a velvety touch. You’ll want to find a green metallic polish with gold undertones for this look.

2. Mixed Metals Nails

Just like you mix your jewelry, you need to try mixed-metal nails—they’re chic and go with just about everything. This nail art has a silver-metallic base with a gold, coppery French tip. This is super easy to do from home, just make sure you let the base color fully dry before you add the tip or else it’s going to all blend together.  

3. Metallic Diamond Halo Nails

We love how simple this metallic nail look is, almost like a reverse French tip that complements the little ‘moons’ at the bottom of your nails. It looks as if someone came along with diamond or pixie dust and sprinkled it on your nails. Although it looks simple, creating from home can be a bit tricky. We recommend painting on the glitter near the base of the nail with a thin manicure brush. You can clean up any run-over with a cotton swab dipped in nail polish remover.

4. Micro Metallic French Nails

You could consider this a signature look from nail artist Betina Goldstein. Micro French tips are in, and look great on both long or short nails. For this, pick a metallic color and anchor it with a neutral, like a black or white color. Use a French manicure stamper to get a thicker black color line, and once that’s fully dry, trace the glitter on the edge of it with a thin nail brush.

5. Stay Golden Metallic Nail Design

Abstract nail art designs aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. We love gold nails like these because they’re not perfect ‘dips’ and the gold has more of a rounded edge before the natural nude nail starts. You’ll want to start with your nude base coat first, then with a small nail brush, paint the top of your nail with the metallic gold color and shape your edges. This one’s practically foolproof because the circles don’t have to be perfect.

6. Marbled Metallic Nails

Remember the DIY water-marbling nail trend? Well, it works perfectly with metallics. If you want a customized bling look and have the time to dip each nail, you might want to try your hand at water marbling. Just add drops directly from your nail polish brush of two or three different colors onto each nail. Then grab a toothpick and swirl the looks together, taking off any excess with a brush. You’re going to have to wait a bit longer for these to fully dry, but it’ll be so worth it. Everyone will want to know your secret to those perfect swirls—they might even ask if they’re nail stickers!

7. Silver Shimmer Nail Art

This cat-eye nail trend (AKA velvet nails) can be achieved when your nail artist applies the polish with a gemstone technique. It’s best to show a photo if you want something translucent like this and they can help you decide what you need to grab from the polish shelf! If you want to create a version of this look at home, reach for a glitter polish and brush all over the nail. Once that dries, grab a silver metallic polish to create French tips on top of that.

8. Starry Tipped Metallic Nails

These nails are very holiday inspired. We love the subtle French tip with a gold that leans a bit more yellow and orange. Applying any sort of glitter or nail stickers will take some time as you arrange them but it will be so worth it in the end. These are the nails you’ll want to take pictures of over and over!

9. Gunmetal Tips

Gunmetal nails are the perfect blend between edgy and glam! If you like the look of silver nails, we challenge you to go a bit darker by finding a gunmetal shade and pairing it with a black like the one above. This look is easy to accomplish yourself with the right nail colors. Just paint the entire nail black and wait for it to dry. Then grab a silver nail polish color and gently push the polish about a centimeter away from the cuticle to create a circle effect. Then reach the brush to the tip of the nail as you normally would.  

10. Pink Metallic Ombré Nails

These scream Barbie-chic. Even if you don’t love the color pink, surely you can appreciate these ombré metallic nails. This is another look that we recommend showing a photo of to your nail artist. It looks to be a special holographic nail polish and chrome dust mixed together! Don’t forget the rhinestones at the bottom.

11. Mirror Nails

These mirror nails are incredibly popular and our explore tab is flooded with them. They were seen all over the place during NYFW, too. Most of these looks aren’t entirely smooth and have some 3D aspects to them. We think they look like the inside of a mother-of-pearl shell and are best replicated with 3D builder gel.

12. Jewel Toned Metallic Nails

Best believe we’re still bejeweled! These Taylor Swift-inspired OPI jewel-tone nails might be our next manicure goal. They feel maximalistic without being overpowering. Try blending pearly tones with pink, blue, and green metallics for this look. This is easy for beginners too, as it’s a basic manicure that just uses a lot of colors.

13. Metallic Mocha Nails

In case you’re wondering, coffee-inspired nails are still trending! We love this fresh metallic take that blends shades of champagne, brown, and copper colors to basically create the perfect, cozy latte-inspired manicure. To create the little hearts at the end, make two dots next to each other with the color of your choice by dipping the base of a bobby pin into polish. Then gently connect the two circles into a heart with a toothpick.

14. Metallic Blue Nails

Electric-blue nails have been all over Instagram lately. Find a metallic-blue nail polish to achieve this look, or try out our editor’s favorite, LAKUR ENHANCED COLOR BY LONDONTOWN’s Nail Polish shade in Iconic layered with a metallic top coat.

15. Rose Gold Nails

If you’re into neutrals but still want to enjoy the metallic-nail trend, rose gold is the perfect option for you. It has both champagne and gold undertones and goes with just about every outfit.

16. Center Stage Metallic Nails

Choose any nude base of your choice or even go totally clear by adding just a top coat. From there, place a star-shaped metallic nail sticker in the dead center of your nail. Seal the final look with another top coat. 

17. Nails on Fire

Flaming tips are nothing new in the nail art world, but you can spice yours up by adding a chrome effect to the flames only and leaving the rest of your nails bare with just the base color. If you want to keep things simpler at home, just draw on a flame design at the tips of your nails with a metallic shade.

18. Walk the Line Metallic Nails

Sometimes less is more, and that’s certainly the case with the metallic effect on this nail design. You can easily recreate this at home with shiny nail strip stickers. Place across the center of your nail and seal the entire look with a top coat.

19. Metallic Holiday Nails

November through December is typically a time when people experiment with bold red hues, but you can liven up your look by swapping a shiny red for a metallic one. Create snowflake effects on the nails by drawing thin lines with a thin nail polish brush and then dotting the lines with the base of a bobby pin for a textured snowflake effect.

20. Alternating Vision Metallic Nails

Paint one finger all metallic and then create a French tip on every other nail. Feel free to add designs to the bare nails like stars or dots or just keep the entire French look bare. 

21. Glitter Base Nails

When speaking about French manicures, we typically always leave the base a bare or nude shade. However, this glitter base French manicure look really ups the ante on sparkle and shine. Paint each nail base with a metallic shade and alternate the metallic tip color on each finger to create a French design.

22. Dotted French Metallic Nails

Use any metallic shade of your choosing to create a French manicure and then complete the look with rhinestones. You can grab these online, just make sure to cure and set the stones with a top coat. 

23. Double Duty Metallic Nail Art

Dots and lines might seem simple (and they are easy enough to do from home!), but when you combine them on a nail design, they really pack a punch. Use any line plus dot combo on your nails to achieve this look. You can even try creating a vertical line in the center of the nail, and adding dots to one or both sides of the line. 

24. Fade Away Metallic Nails

Remember the old ombré sponge method where you paint the tip of a sponge and then dab directly onto the nail for an ombré effect? That’s still the easiest way to achieve this look. Just grab your favorite metallic color and dab away, my friends. 

25. Sign on the Dotted Line Nail Art

Paint an all over color of your choice on your nails. Then once that shade is fully dry, grab a toothpick or end of a bobby pin and dip it into a stunning silver shade. Line the entire edge of your nail with the dots. This one works best on round-filed nails. 

Final Thoughts 

With a little practice and a lot of creativity (i.e., the list of 25 nail looks above!), you can create the metallic nail look of your dreams at home. Check out the IPSY Shop to pick up all the makeup and hair products to accompany your metallic nails for a full-on makeover. We’re manifesting trying new things in the new year, and we encourage you to do the same!