How To Get the Viral Glass Manicure

Summer 2024 is all about the manicure. There’s yet another new nail look to get to know? The glass manicure. A perhaps inevitable evolution of our obsession with glass skin, glass nails tick many of the same boxes—the look is healthy, clean and glossy.

“The idea around glass nails has come from manicurists chasing techniques to achieve the most glossy, reflective finish they can create for a nail,” explains celebrity nail technician Harriet Westmoreland. “The glass manicure is more subtle than a classic chrome, and the light reflects like glass rather than how a chrome effect looks, this is the next step on from chrome.”

Thought to have originated in Korea, the effect requires more technical prowess than you might think. “The key to a glass nail is correct application,” Westmoreland points out. “You apply the chrome as a base and then a fairly thick apex [nail enhancement] on top – this reflects the light catching the chrome but it’s more subtle, because the chrome is underneath the clear gel, instead of on top.”

To achieve the effect at home, Westmoreland recommends the following layering system: base, chrome, apex clear gel [the smoothing and strengthening layer you apply on top of or underneath a color or nail design to help it last], and then finally a top coat.