I’m addicted to glitter nail polish. I wouldn’t say I have a problem; I would say I have a lot of glitter polish and holographic nail polish–and that I need more. We’ve got some of the flashiest polishes in here. In order to get brighter, you’ll need to switch to reflective glitter nail polish.
For nail glitter hacks and tips check out the bottom of the article but for now, let’s bask in the glitter.
The only word I can think of when I see this polish is spangle. I got this for Christmas and I can tell you the pictures and video don’t do it justice. I’ve had someone over a skype call say, “Whoa! What’s on your nails?” because the sparkles were visible even over a video call.
When Hexy Bikini moves in the light, it looks like your nails are studded with rhinestones. Hexy Bikini is a clear base loaded down with silver micro-glitter and studded with small and medium holographic hexes of silver, pink, and teal. Because of the holographics, it looks like there are way more colors packed in there when the light hits it.
It is a textured polish so expect a slightly rough finish that can be smoothed over with a clear top coat. To be worn on its own without using a sponge method, I’ve needed two to three coats or it can be worn as a top coat over a base color. This is definitely one of my new favorites and one of the polishes that I get the most excited to wear.
Looking for a soft, gentle pastel? There’s such a playful, whimsical feel to Lullaby that it’s irresistible. According to Cirque Colors, there are over 20 different types of glitter mixed to for Lullaby including small, medium, and large hexes and unique square shapes (not a shape you normally see) in spring colors like soft green, sky blue, baby pink, and periwinkle. There are also white star shapes in there every now and then which show up on your brush as a treat.
This is not a full coverage type of polish but as a topper, it will transform any polish you’re wearing and increase the people’s interest in your nails tenfold.
Juliette is so crammed with sparkle that looking at the bottle you’d think it was a solid cream pigment or a heavy micro-glitter, but it isn’t. Juliette by ILNP is a clear base filled with irregular holographic flake glitter–a ton of it.
For a glitter nail polish, it’s very opaque and you can get full coverage with just two coats which is impressive for even non-glitter polish. The holographics used in this are so intense they twinkle like starlight. It dries to a surprisingly smooth finish and because it’s not traditional glitter it won’t be a struggle to remove. Juliette is three-free and cruelty-free.
Hologram Diamond is a stunning holographic lacquer that looks like it’s loaded down with glitter of all sizes but it’s hard to tell because it’s just so darn shiny! When they say diamond, they mean it. Sometimes diamond-like just means shiny, but this gets at that unique diamond quality to shoot out sparkles of light in all the colors of the rainbow.
This is disco ball levels of brilliance and maybe not for the easily distracted. For me, this is perfection. It doesn’t have as gritty a finish as some of the others and is opaque in two coats.
This one is a gel polish which needs to be cured under UV/LED light but it comes with the matching standard nail lacquer or you can buy the standard lacquer alone.
Want your nails to reflect more light than a disco ball? KBShimmer’s Lounging Around is part of their Reflective line and the titular polish of their Spring 2022 Lounging Around Collection. I got to test out a media sample of the collection so I can stay from personal experience that these glitter polishes are about as sparkly as polish can get without breaking the laws of physics.
The lacquer has a gorgeous blue tone that looks great in all lighting, but once you get out into the sun or under bright lights, these polishes practically explode with light, going from a deep blue to practically appearing white because of how much light is being reflected. Your nails glow. Pictures can’t do it justice.
You honestly can’t go wrong with any polishes in the collection but my favorites are Lounging Around (featured above), Love You Brunches which is blue with a pink flash, and Self Reflection, a sparkling sandy gold.
I’ve found that two coats are all you need for these Reflective polishes and you definitely need a good top coat because they dry textured.
I know I just said you can mix two polishes to get multi-dimensional shine, but Cosmo has all of that in one lacquer. This is a silver micro-glitter base with holographic hexes and it’s not for the faint of heart.
This is not a subtle glint on your fingertips; this is blinding, prismatic shine. The formula is a little on the thick side but that means you only need one or two coats for full glittery coverage.
It is a textured polish so there is a gritty feel to it once dried. If you’re not into that, a clear top coat will cover the grit. It’s also 10-free, so it’s free of 10 of the common but less desirable ingredients like formaldehyde. It’s Zoya so you know it has staying power. Expect this one to last chip-free for four days at least.
For those looking for a unique color combo, Glitter Up is here with a color palette of peach, dark blue, purple, sky blue, and black.
It’s a clear base packed to the brim with hexes in two different sizes. The black glitters are only in the smaller size to keep the polish from becoming too dark. All of the glitter colors are matte except for the dark blue hexes which are metallic for a surprise sparkle.
It’s a very unusual combination that is going to catch some eyes. Glitter Up works best over lighter colors or layered or sponged on its own.
Polishes that have such a high glitter load like this one have a tendency to need to be really shaken up well, especially as they get older. Glitter sinks. It’s just the nature of things. I use a vortex mixer to shake up my nail polish so it’s smooth and uniform.
Brilliance is a unique flake glitter in a clear base. It’s hard to tell you exactly what color it is because the multi-chrome effect has it constantly shifting. There are certainly green, gold, pink, bronze, and blue tones.
It has a look of mermaid tails, tropical fish scales, or the shiny metallic backs of jewel beetles. The irregular flakes remind me of gold leaf and since it’s not a traditional glitter, this one will be much easier to remove.
It’s not so much a polish you would wear alone and it looks best over dark colors. Static pictures really don’t do it justice.
This Born Pretty Holographic Glitter is just what it says on the label. It’s a clear base with holographic glitter in micro-hexes as well as large hexes. The combination ends up having a sort of flaky look somehow. I’ve bought myself several Born Pretty holo polishes and I am always impressed at just how holographic they are. I don’t know how they do it but the rainbows their glitter produces are so clear and bright and colorful.
Keep in mind, Born Pretty bottles are quite small. This is a seven-milliliter bottle and typical nail polish bottles are usually closer to 15 milliliters. I’m not bothered by this. The glitter is dense so you’ll get plenty of manicures out of this bottle when you’re using it as an overlay accent or full coverage.
If you’re feeling the rose gold bug, this is for you. A Cut Above about perfectly matches the rose gold iPhone. It’s a clear base loaded with reflective pink quartz tinted gold hexes in all sorts of sizes.
Some polishes when they are full of these big hexes get glompy when you’re trying to put them on, but A Cut Above goes on very smooth. It’s a three-free polish, making an effort to reduce the harmful chemicals they use.
If you want to wear this glitter on its own without using the sponge trick, you’ll need two to three coats for full coverage which isn’t abnormal for a glitter polish. As a top coat, this one is protective and will last you around four days depending on how much you abuse your hands.
Sashay My Way is a clear base with uniform gold holographic hexes and thin holographic gold bar glitter. It’s light on the bar glitter so it’s more an accent to contrast the shimmery hexes. The result is a top coat that looks like an expensive embroidered beading on a designer gown.
I’m not normally that into bar glitter, those little strips that I tend to think make you look like you got in a fight with a paper shredder. This is the first bar glitter lacquer that I am legitimately drooling over.
Paige is a linear holographic nail polish packed with micro-flakie glitter in a fun raspberry pink. I bought this one for myself because I couldn’t resist and it has quickly rocketed into my normal rotation.
This polish from ILNP’s Ultra Holo collection has lots of sparkle and the intense holographic formula gives it a color-changing rainbow sheen. Depending on the angle, Paige has magenta, blue, gold, and red flecks hidden inside.
The shimmery sunset pink pigment is very rich and smooth. It doesn’t feel like putting on a glitter polish. You only need one to two coats to be fully opaque ready to go. Three coats will give a little more punch to the holographic effect, but it doesn’t need it.
You’ll get an easy five days of wear out of this. When I had it on my toes it went two weeks before it started chipping. ILNP polish is three-free and it’s made in America which is always great.
Fun nail art tip: paint one layer of Paige over black for a colorful, galaxy effect.
Rollin’ With The Homies stands out from the glittery crowd with its unique star shape. Glitter is most often in a hex form but Color Club really has gone out of the box with their line of glitters including this one packed with holographic gold stars.
The stars are in a clear base along with gold holographic micro-hexes which will fill out the spaces between the stars.
They will need a little manipulation to make sure they fit on your nail and sit flat, but the instant nail-art effect is worth it.
Alloy Matey, besides having an awesomely punny name, contains dense micro-glitter with small holographic glitter that sparkles with tiny rainbows at every movement. This one works as a top coat or on its own for a glittery diamond look.
It will need two or more likely three coats to get full coverage on this one though. Like most micro-glitters, it has a gritty texture when dry, but a top coat can smooth that out and make the holographics even more brilliant.
Turn it Up is a fun, non-reflective confetti glitter nail polish. It’s loaded with white micro-glitter and small and medium hexes in yellow, blue, purple, green, orange, and red. That’s the whole rainbow on your fingers.
At one coat, Turn it Up looks like party confetti. At two coats, it looks like candy.
The formula has a UV light inhibitor to keep sunlight from fading your color. I had this on for a week and I didn’t notice the colors dulling at all. This one works as a top coat and it can be worn alone. I personally like two coats over a black base.
I’ve found that the sponge trick with this polish affects its staying power, but the glitter is dense enough that you can get away with painting it on like a standard lacquer.
If you’re looking for a playful glitter that looks like a birthday party, Lots of Dots delivers. It looks like you could find it in a tall glass jar along the wall in a sweets shop.
This is a mix of colorful micro-glitter hexes in several shapes in a clear base. This isn’t a reflective lacquer and instead looks like confetti. Or funfetti.
It’s definitely one that you’ll want to use the sponge method for or use as a topper. Like all Morgan Taylor, it’s a three-free polish.
Pop the Bubbles is part of L’Oreal Paris’ Gold Dust collection and it’s chock full of micro-glitter and silver glitter that is just a little bit too big to be called micro-glitter.
What you get is a really gorgeous continuous shimmer like sunlight on water. It has a textured finish which feels a little sandy so if that’s not your jam, grab a top coat. This is definitely a polish you’d wear alone.
You get full coverage with one coat but two coats gets you the full shimmery effect. It dries extremely fast and has good staying power.
For something fun and cheeky, go for Color Club’s Nailmoji Collection. This polish is called Omg and it’s a clear base filled with neon pink matte confetti glitter, white hearts, yellow smiley faces, white ghosts, red lips, and brown smiling poop emoji glitter.
Yup, there are little emoji poops in there and you can wear them on your nails. It’s funny, it’s cute, and it’s undeniably unique in a glitter.
The formula is great like you expect from Color Club, but you do have to do a little fishing to get out the glitter pieces that you want. That’s not unusual for this type of polish and it’s worth it for the finished manicure.
Salt Water Sassy is one of my favorite shades for spring. This is a pastel robin’s egg blue crelly with white, aqua, yellow, lavender, and coral hex glitters in several sizes.
It goes on a like a dream and you don’t’ have to fish for glitters which is nice. The crelly formula allows you to see glimpses of the glitters on each layer of polish for a 3D effect.
I got to test out a media sample of this shade and it’s just so bright, and springy, and cheerful. I look forward to wearing it each spring.
Since it’s a sheer crelly formula, you’ll want two to three coats for good coverage. For more soft colors check out polishes for pastel green nails.
A Little Lovely is a clear base with different sizes of highly reflective gold and pink hexes. The combination ends up looking almost your fingernails are covered in gorgeous rose gold. It works as a top coat to brighten up any shade and as a stand-alone polish for some serious shine.
It’s not going to give you dense coverage like some other glitters without several coats or sponging, but the glitter is so bright that you might not even see that the whole nail isn’t covered. This one dries to a textured finish which feels even more like having gold leaf on my fingers. It’s an eight-free polish so it’s not full of nasty stuff that can hurt your nails.
If you like a good holographic sparkle, check out Piece Out by Color Club. It’s part of their Halo Hues collection so you know it’s going to be flashy.
Piece Out is a slightly tinted blue base with blue holographic hex glitter. It takes two to three coats but it creates a scattered holographic effect that looks like sunlight sparkling on the ocean.
This lacquer is three-free, vegan-friendly, and cruelty-free.
