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. I wouldn’t say I have enough glitter–just a lot.
Nail polish is my favorite way to wear glitter because it’s the least likely to shed sparkles all over my clothes. For nail glitter hacks and tips check out the bottom of the article but for now, let’s look at the best and the brightest glitter nail polish around.
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.
My partner has said he thinks this is the brightest glitter I own. Carnivalesque is a clear base filled with hexes, squares, and diamonds of all sizes in all the colors you can name as well as a sprinkling of micro-glitter.
Most of the glitter pieces are reflective but many are holographic as well adding in that extra bit of color. I love the sparkle in this one and the variety of shapes like glitter at a carnival. This can be worn as a top coat or on its own, but you’ll want to use a sponge to apply it if you’re using it on its own.
Adesse was kind enough to send me a sample of this shade to try but with no guarantee of any review at all. Adesse New York’s lacquers are 12 free, cruelty-free, GMO-free, vegan-friendly, and made in New York. Carnivalesque has organic bamboo extract, argan oil, and shea oil for healthier nails.
Paige is a holographic micro-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.
This polish is a clear base with two different sizes of highly reflective gold hexes. The combination ends up looking almost your fingernails are covered in gold leaf. 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. Shattered Souls 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.
This stunning holographic lacquer 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.
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.
If you haven’t found something playful enough on this list, Upside Round is as playful as it gets. It’s a clear base loaded with small and matte neon confetti glitter. You’ve got neon purple, yellow, orange, pink, green, and blue.
The glitter is slightly translucent so you get a neat effect when they overlap. There is also a little bit of red micro-glitter floating around in there and that contrast makes these polka dots more visually interesting.
This is going to have a bumpy finish so a top coat is a must. The glitter load is heavy and they tend to stick to each other so you’ll need to do a little manipulating with the brush to get your confetti where you want it. I love this one for spring and summer wear. It makes me smile just looking at it.
This looks like a birthday party. If you’re looking for a playful pink, Candy Shop 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 hexes and circles in several shapes in a tinted base. This isn’t a reflective lacquer and instead looks like confetti. Or funfetti.
The base is a translucent bubblegum pink and you can control how sheer or opaque you want it by how many layers you apply. It’s a three-free polish and contains biotin and green tea extract to nourish nails.
I know I just said you can mix two polishes to get multidimensional 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.
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.
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. At one coat, Turn it Up looks like party confetti. At two coats, it looks like candy.
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.
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.
Deck the Claws is a perfect Christmas red with holographic glitter so your nails sparkle like a Christmas tree ornament. The color shouts holiday party.
The formula is edging toward a jelly meaning it is partially transparent which allows you to see the floating layers of holographic sparkle for a 3D look. This means you’ll want two to three coats for good coverage.
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.
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 expensive embroidered beading on a designer gown.
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.
This gorgeous jewel-tone lacquer is made up of purple, blue, and red reflective hexes with smaller gold circles in a clear base. The result is a gemstone appearance that looks good over many different color base coats.
It has a kaleidoscope feel to it when you turn your hand and the light catches all the separate colors. On its own, it’s a fairly thin polish and if you want to wear it alone, you’re best using the sponge trick I talked about in the introduction.
It does already have a high gloss, but a top coat would smooth over the slightly textured finish and extend its lifespan. Lovely Jubbly is an eight-free formula and is infused with hydrolyzed silk, horsetail extract, and vitamin A, C, and E to strengthen nails.
Here’s a holiday theme polish but unless you show everyone the bottom of the lacquer bottle, no one will know. Beyond the Mistletoe is a translucent blue base with holographic micro-glitter and holo-glitter than is just barely larger than micro-glitter.
It creates this solid sparkling effect where there are always specks ready to catch the light and throw little twinkling rainbows back at you. It can be worn as a top coat, but I think it looks best alone.
For full coverage on this one you definitely need two to three coats and it has a textured finish like most heavy glitters. This lacquer is three-free, vegan-friendly, and cruelty-free.
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.
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.
