21st birthdays are special like every birthday. Who doesn’t like to glam up for their special day, and what screams glam more than well-done nail art?
Being obsessed with glamorous birthday nail designs, especially on birthdays, I have reached the nooks and corners of Pinterest and Instagram to collect the nail biting best selection to spare you the tedious part (research) so you can get to the fun part of nail art soon.
So, let’s get to the main point: What nail art is trending now?
Here are some of the findings:
- Milky white shades
- bold solid colors like cobalt blue
- Fuchsias
- orange
- mustard yellow
- metallic hues
Following are stylish birthday nail arts for your inspiration to glam up your personality on your 21st birthday.
Modern Nail Art Designs for your 21st Birthday You Will be Obsessed With
Fingers crossed! (with stylish nail designs) Let’s dive into the amazing nail art designs and patterns that are trending. Check them out below.
1. Nail Art designs that are in Trend Right now
Summers give you the liberty to play with different aesthetic nail paints and decoratives. These are the popular designs that have taken nail art enthusiasts by storm recently.
- Aura Nails:
Aura nail art is one of the most dreamy, trendy and ethereal manicure art ideas. In this design, one color is placed in the middle of the nail, flawlessly blending into the surrounding color, giving your nail a breezy look. The most popular combinations are sunset-inspired pink and peach, dusty pink and purple, pastel shades, lemonade yellow, and extravagant, bold, solid shades with a shimmery feel.
- 3D French Tip Nails:
To give a more innovative yet modern and sleek touch to your nails, try creating 3D French Tip nails. Usually, this style has classic white tips, but it also uses materials like hard gel or acrylic to add raised motifs, such as flowers, dots, or other decoratives.
These nails will look stunning if you wear embroidered jeans at your birthday party.
- Mocha Nails:
This one is perfect for coffee lovers who can’t get enough of it. The warm brown tone looks fabulous with almost any attire. You can combine them with the hints of pink or mauve undertones.
To decorate them, you can play with several options like:
- Adding black and white swirls
- Making cute heart shapes
- Cherry red accents
This design will go well in short square birthday nails as well.
Interesting fact you might not know!
Given the ever-growing popularity of unique nail art, the entire industry is valued at almost $8.4 billion. With new incoming tech and creative nail paint ideas, there are no bounds to creating perfect nail art for a birthday or any other celebratory event.
2. Themed Nail Art Designs for a WowStyle on your Birthday
You can either match the nail art with your favorite movie characters or your 21st birthday party. The possibilities are endless in themed nail designs.
- Fun Fruit Nails For Summers:
If you are a girl who loves cute stuff, this one’s for you. You can create seasonal fruits like watermelon, strawberry, lemon, kiwi, and papaya or pick a color shade inspired by the fruit juices. For instance, pink lemonade shade with a hint of bluish tone, lime green color in gel texture, and minimalist peach color.
Another way is to go all maximalist and create fruit nail art in 3D. You can try designs that mimic real fruits, such as strawberries, watermelons, oranges, and kiwis. It will give your nails a realistic effect.
- Paint Confetti, Balloons, Cakes and Sprinkles:
Since it’s your milestone birthday, why not have everything inspired by the party? You can paint cupcakes, balloons, dripping chocolate textures, fireworks, confetti, and sprinkles as nail art to celebrate your special occasion.
Want something extra? Glitz up with glitters. It looks incredible in any color. You can even pick random color shades, and they will look amazing.
- Birth Year Nail Design:
Many girls like their birth year written on their nails. You can get more creative and write each digit on each fingernail or the complete birth year on one nail.
You can give it a twist by adding 70s punk fashion elements like messy lines, bold patterns, graffiti-style words, and shapes like snakes and cobwebs to add a unique appearance to it. Just remember one rule of thumb when creating punk-themed nail art: The more mismatched and chaotic, the better!
3. Unique Nail Art Color Combinations
Depending on the patterns and color schemes, there are several top trends you can choose from.
- Geometric Nail Art:
Geometric nail art instantly attracts attention and makes your personality more stylish. You can design circles, boxes, squares, single lines, polka dots, diamonds, or pretty much any shape, depending on your birthday dress.
- Negative Space Nail Art:
This one is my personal favorite. Negative space nail art is one of the cleverest designs that will leave people in awe of your creativity. This manicure is low-maintenance and looks effortlessly minimalistic every time.
The idea is to intentionally leave some parts of the nails empty and decorate some areas to make the final look coherent. You can either use bare nails or apply sheer polish first to make the base more prominent.
- Marble Nail Paint:
It is the most popular nail art technique girls of every age love. You just drop your favorite nail paint color in the water bowl and wait a few seconds to spread it out. Then, dip your nails so the pattern sticks to the nail perfectly. This nail style looks stunning to wear at summer wedding events as well.
Trendy Color Schemes For Nail Art:
Following are the modern and chic color combinations and shades that will make your nail art pop.
- Rose Gold: It is a timeless and elegant color that looks luxurious on almost every fashion item—be it a watch, shoes, or nails.
- Golden And Silver Chrome: With its high-shine metallic finish, you can make your nails look luxurious.
- Milky White: It looks so pure, creamy and dreamy! Its subtle appearance makes it a popular choice for many celebrities like Lizzo, Hailey Bieber, and the Kardashians.
Locking Nail Art Design for your 21st Birthday? Pro Tip!
This year, mix-and-match nail art designs are trending as well. To create mix-and-match nail art, you can get inspiration from all your favorite designs and combine them with your personal style. The design of all nails will be different but look fantastic if done right.
Steph Stone, a celebrity nail artist from Los Angeles, said in her Instagram post, ” only want to have mismatched hands from now on,” depicting the popularity of mismatched nail art in 2024.
Tools You Require for a Perfect Nail Art for your Special Day
Nail art tools are a must for women’s makeup and wardrobe collections. When you are planning to do nails on your own, you will need:
- Nail art brushes
- Nail stickers or stencils to make patterns
- Stripping tape to draw clean lines
- Small gems and beads for decoration
- Cuticle tools
- Correcting pen to fix mistakes
- Jelly stamper
Final Words
21st birthday nail ideas are endless if you get inspiration and explore your own creativity. You can give a new twist to the most popular nail art designs and make them your signature look. It is your special day, and you are starting a new chapter of life. Your nails must express your vibrant and elegant personality. So, choose the art designs that suit your aura and slay the look.
