25 New Years Eve Manicure Ideas for a Sparkling Start to 2026

Whether you New Years Eve Manicure Ideas on dancing the night away with a few hundred of your closest friends or cuddling up on the couch with a fur baby and a bottle of Welch’s Sparkling Grape, chances are, if you’re reading this article, your perfect New Year’s Eve includes a stunning manicure. And as you could probably surmise, we’re right there with you. After a year of fun nails, from Valentine’s Day to Christmas, why wouldn’t we keep the party going into 2026?

With that in mind, we rounded up 25 of our favorite nail ideas for New Year’s Eve. From sparkly stars to coquette Frenchies, find the perfect mani for watching the crystal ball drop.

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Glitzy Gold

Jewel tones are a great pick for New Year’s Eve. A glassy gold manicure will definitely amp up the glitz and glamour for your celebrations.

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Winter Stripes

Striped manicures will never go out of style, as far as we’re concerned. This blue-and-white option is a cool, unexpected choice for New Year’s Eve.

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Glittery Glass Windows

The intricate design of cathedral windows makes them a perfect source of inspiration for your nails. This shimmery nail look, in particular, is truly mesmerizing to behold.

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Colorful Gems

Elevate your party vibes with a stunningly bedazzled manicure. Choose nail gems in various shades for the ultimate show-stopping set.

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Twinkling Night Sky

Match the vibe of your evening plans with a moody midnight-blue manicure. A layer of glitter flecks will add a dreamy, twinkling element to the shade.

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Dark Arts

What can we say—we’re drawn to velvet manicures like magnets. (Sorry, we had to.) For this set, nail artist Brittney Ellen sponged on the metallic polish while holding a magnet to the underside of the finger. She chronicled the process on IG.

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Le Chat d’Argent

With some strategic handling of a magnetic wand, nail artist Melanie Graves created a French manicure with just one polish. She posted a tutorial for the look on her Instagram.

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Crown Jewels

For this velvet manicure, nail artist Anna used Mooncat’s Pandora’s Box, a burgundy with a gold magnetic reveal, to create what might just be the most sumptuous manicure of the season.

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Sparkle Motion

While nail artist Aistė Haas used a fine-lining nail art brush (and immense skill) to create this pearlescent manicure with star nail art, we’d probably just take this pic to our favorite nail tech as inspo.

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365 Party Nails

What was initially a Brat Summer became The Year of the Brat. Pay homage to the 365 Party Girl energy that dominated 2024 with a mismatched mani featuring chrome details, rock and roll studs, and (of course) glittery Brat-green polish.

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Back in Stock(ings)

Level up a trendy sheer black pantyhose New Years Eve Manicure Ideas with cheeky designs that evoke vintage nylons—think back seams, lace motifs, and Swiss Dots.

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Mirror, Mirror

While Ellen used (since discontinued) press-ons to achieve this mirror chrome manicure, you can get a similar look by taking a velvet-chrome approach: Start with an opaque black nail polish, cure it, and then top it with a blue or silver magnetic shade. Once cured, top that with an iridescent chrome powder and lock everything in with a gel top coat.

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Dancing Queen

If you’re looking for a manicure that will catch all the light from the disco ball, top a sheer coat of silver shimmer polish with holographic cutouts and metallic chrome designs.

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Easy Breezy

Even the most classic nail art can be made to feel festive and fun. For example: Top a French New Years Eve Manicure Ideas with a swipe of chrome (essentially the “going out top” of the manicure world) for a set that will make them do a double take.

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Phénomèn-on

Nail artist Lauren used Chanel’s sold-out lacquer Phénomène to create this shifty dark mani. For a similar look, try Essie’s For the Twill of It.

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Future-Forward Skittle

Take your New Years Eve Manicure Ideas from Christmas through New Year’s Eve with a Skittle design. Red nods to the holiday season while holographic black and shimmery silver read NYE.

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Fresh Start

Fresh year, fresh starts. Wear that ethos on your fingertips with a milky nude New Years Eve Manicure Ideas that screams “clean slate.”

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Going for the Copper

Whether you call it copper chrome or Moscow mule, this New Years Eve Manicure Ideas will look perfect wrapped around your sparkling beverage of choice on December 31.

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Ice Princess

As we all know, shades of silver, black, and gold, dominate New Years Eve Manicure Ideas. But don’t sleep on gemstones in shades of pink, purple, and blue—they provide a fun aughts vibe that feels especially fitting for the 25th anniversary of Y2K.

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Too Classy for This World

You could top a translucent silver base with solid black orbs and French tips for an intergalactic New Years Eve Manicure Ideas with alien superstar vibes…

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Dessert Menu

… or keep that design but swap out the silver and black for caramel and espresso. Less intergalactic, more decadent dessert.

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Bow Out New Years Eve Manicure Ideas

Talk about a New Years Eve Manicure Ideas with range: Before December 25th, these glittery silver French tips topped with gold bows are little presents. After, they’re wintery coquette.

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Moody Blues

Cobalt is a sleek and sophisticated hue well-suited for those post-holidays, pre-Valentine’s winter days. Wear it all over, use it as an accent on a few milky swirl fingernails, or both.

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Champagne Wishes

A lush gold velvet New Years Eve Manicure Ideas is like a glass of champagne for your nails. We’ll “cheers” to that.

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Not-So-Heavy Metal

If you tend to gravitate toward silver over gold (though as far as we’re concerned, there’s no need to choose), a metallic New Years Eve Manicure Ideas in a short, square silhouette will look as at home on the dancefloor as it will back at the office come January 2.