Seaglass Nails Are The New Jelly Nails For Autumn

Last year, the jelly manicure went viral. Blame the '90s nostalgia factor — the translucent, candy-coated finish is like the nail-art equivalent of Jolly Ranchers or Juicy Tubes — or the subsequent blowup after over 4 million people double-tapped Kylie Jenner's Instagram of her pink see-through acrylics. Whatever the spark, jelly fingernails were everywhere in the summer of 2018.

After fulfilling the typical life expectancy of a Instagram trend, the jelly buzz faded. But now, jellies are back again, and this time they're getting a fresh autumn twist with a matte finish and a new name: seaglass nails.

The new trend comes to us courtesy of nail pro Jessica Washick, who tells us that the look was, in fact, fully inspired by last year's jelly nails. "I was reminiscing about how fun the jelly-nail craze was," Washick says. "I wondered how that aesthetic could translate into the colder months, and the vision of opaque seaglass came to mind."

The basics of seaglass nails are essentially the same as the jelly manicure, except finished off with a matte top coat. "To get the clear opacity in your base, you’ll combine your coloured nail polish with a clear top coat to give it a more viscous finish," Washick explains. "You'll paint that polish mixture onto your nails and let it dry — that's your jelly manicure base — then you apply the clear top coat on its own, followed by a matte top coat. The two top coats layered over the jelly base diffuses the colour, picks up the white undertones, and makes the finish extra frosty."

For Washick's transitional turquoise seaglass manicure, she used three polishes: She Drives Me Crazy by Deborah Lippmann, combined with Nails Inc clear top coat and finished with OPI's matte topper. She tells us that we'll probably see the look pick up in many different colour-ways, too. "I love this look in a fun lime green or a deep royal blue," Washick says. "I think it's a fresh take on matte nails that might spark a trend for autumn and winter." After seeing how jelly nails took off last year, we're ready to bet on it.