Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Met Gala 2026 Cements Two Nail Trends: Iced Chrome and Dipped Tips

Celebrity manicurists turned the red carpet into a how-to guide for wearable art.

Overview

  • Nails on Monday’s Met Gala red carpet coalesced around two looks that outlets now call defining trends: high-shine iced chrome and painterly dipped tips.
  • The dipped style showed up as silver-sprayed fingertips on Ashley Graham and as cobalt drips on Tessa Thompson, with Naomi Osaka’s crimson tips built onto sheer gloves to extend her silhouette.
  • Iced chrome ranged from Rihanna’s mixed-metal set to short “vanilla” chrome on Gigi Hadid, with pared-back metallic French tips on Jennie showing easy ways to wear the look every day.
  • Named artists drove the moment and shared methods, including Juan Alvear’s “frost-bitten” rhinestone press-ons for Lisa using KISS bases, Tom Bachik’s watercolor brushstrokes for Emma Chamberlain, Iram Shelton’s 3D florals for Naomi Watts, and Mei Kawajiri’s cobalt drip nails.
  • Post-event coverage has shifted to technique and adaptation, with product callouts like chrome powders, gels, press-ons, and rhinestones, and even after-parties saw resets such as Osaka’s shimmery skinny French that signals how the trends translate off the carpet.