8 Cool Nail Color Ideas For The New Year

How are your nails feeling about the new year? Ready for a fresh start? Not that into the whole “blank slate” thing? Anxious about your looming resolution to spend less on salon visits? However the impending arrival of January 1 (a new year and a new decade!) is affecting your fingertips, there are plenty of winter 2020 nail color trends for that.

Maybe your hands are not quite ready to loosen their grip on December’s holiday spirit; in which case, glitter is a good choice. “Even after the holidays, glitter nails are a fun pick-me-up during chilly winter months,” Mazz Hanna, a celebrity manicurist who works with Julia Roberts and Kacey Musgraves, tells The Zoe Report. At the opposite end of the sparkly spectrum, “there's something cozy about matte nails,” she says. “Maybe it's because they look super-soft, like your favorite warm sweater.” Coincidentally, just like a cozy winter sweater, a matte mani gets even better with embellishments. “The nail trends for the new year involve texture,” Jackie Saulsbery, a celebrity nail artist who works with Adele and Queen Latifah, tells TZR. Think: pearls, crystals, stones, foil, and more.

Ahead, the eight winter 2020 manicure trends for however your fingers are feeling — from excited (over-the-top appliqués) to blah (understated “naked nails”) and everything in between.

Winter 2020 Nail Color Trend: Matte Nails

“A favorite winter look is matte nails,” Hanna says. “A matte topcoat immediately ups the cool factor on almost any nail color. I think that every color looks super cool in matte” — especially when contrasted with a high-shine French tip.

Winter 2020 Nail Color Trend: Naked Nails

“This is a simple manicure where you leave part of the nail naked,” Eliana Gaviria, a nail expert with Haven Spa in New York City, tells The Zoe Report. “This has been popular in the past, but it will be back in full strength in 2020.”

Winter 2020 Nail Color Trend: Chrome Nails

Metallic takes it up a notch in 2020 and goes chrome. “The chrome technique is completed by using a powder that is rubbed onto the nail,” Gaviria says. “It comes in many colors and the result depends on the color base you use, but it has to be done at a salon or spa.”

Winter 2020 Nail Color Trend: Velvet Chrome Nails

“This is basically using a jewel tone metallic polish and then, instead of using a shiny top coat, you finish with matte top coat,” Elle, a celebrity manicurist who works with Laura Dern and Kristin Stewert, tells TZR. “I love LeChat Dare to Wear Hypnotic and topping it with the brand’s matte top coat to easily achieve this look.”

Winter 2020 Nail Color Trend: High Fashion Appliqués

Saulsbery says texture is the trend to watch for the new year. “Think pearls and glitter polish,” she says. “Zoya has amazing textured polishes in all types of fun colors, then you can jazz it up with some pearls or stones.”

Winter 2020 Nail Color Trend: At-Home Accents

If hand-gluing pearls to your fingertips feels a little too advanced, try an at-home kit. “Kiss Salon Secrets Kit is at all the drugstores and includes lots of different trends to achieve all sorts of designs all in one box,” Elle says. “They have a simplistic style without being garish.”

Winter 2020 Nail Color Trend: Metallic Dots

“There are few things more gratifying (and liberating) than being able to give yourself a salon-quality manicure whenever and wherever you wish,” a representative for Olive & June, a Los Angeles-based nail empire, writes to TZR in a press release to TZR. If your new year’s resolution involves dropping less money on manis, metallic dots offer an on-trend option that’s easy to execute at home.

Winter 2020 Nail Color Trend: Early Spring Pastels

Hanna predicts a return to “light colors that you would normally see in spring.” She winterizes these shades with a matte coat, but opting for just a hint of pastel — say, with a French manicure — works too.