Red nails are perfect for Valentine’s Day, Christmas, New Year’s, or even just a plain old Tuesday. But definitely not a Wednesday. We all know what color Wednesdays are reserved for.
Red is the perfect color for a bold mani, as it’s the color of love, romance, passion, and hot sauce. We found the best red nail art featuring hearts, fruit, flowers, and even Spider-Man. Rock these red nail designs whenever you’re feeling fiery. Don’t worry – we have the firefighters on speed dial.
18 Red Nail Design Ideas For Lovers… and Fighters
1. Lunar New Year Tiger Nails
These claws are fierce enough to contend with the Tiger King himself. But don’t bring Carole Baskin into it. The last guy who messed with her didn’t make it out. Allegedly.
2. Cherry French Manicure
We cherry-picked the best red nails for this list, so of course this manicure had to make the cut. They’ll match your chapstick, but we can’t guarantee they’ll taste as good.
3. Peter Parker Press-On Nails
A Spider-Man accent nail may be all the red you need in your life. You don’t want to make MJ jealous, after all.
Available on Etsy.
4. Solid Red Nails
There’s something so underrated about a manicure with plain red nail polish. Which is convenient, because that’s also all we can manage to do by ourselves.
5. Red Nude Dragon Press-On Nails
We like this design because we really relate to dragons. Our breath is fiery and hot when we wake up from a long slumber. Not sure what to do about these scales, though.
Available on Etsy.
6. Rainbow Heart Accent Nail
This red design works for Pride month, Valentine’s Day, or even Let Your Eye Beam Rainbows Week. What, that isn’t on your calendar?
7. Wine Tip Ombre Press-Ons
Press-on nails are great if you’re better with glue than a paintbrush. Which also happens to be our pitch for Scrapbooking Bar Night.
Available on Etsy.
8. Red French Manicure
Let this red French manicure inspire you to do as the French do and go get a croissant.When in Rome, right? Or, is it Paris? We didn’t pay attention in Geography class.
9. Strawberry Red Nails
Roses are red, cherries are too. And so are strawberries. It turns out a lot of things are red. Which is good news for your nails, but bad news for indecisive poets.
10. Sparkly Red Nails
These nails work for plenty of holidays, but they don’t preclude you from having to bring dessert, Susan.
11. Red Polka Dot Negative Space Mani
Coloring in the whole nail is so 2021. In 2022, we do splashes of color complete with polka dots. Shaky-handed nail techs everywhere can breathe a collective sigh of relief.
12. Minimalist Nail Design
Perfect for beginner nail designers and people who have subscriptions to the MoMA. Or is it the Met? Our only subscriptions are to Netflix and Disney+.
13. Metallic Red Hearts
This design reminds us of the Valentines we used to get in decorated boxes we made back in elementary school. We tried putting out a shoe box for Valentine’s Day last year and ended up with a squirrel sanctuary!
14. Retro Flower Red Nails
This half-painted retro flower mani says ‘I may not have had time to finish, but you can’t say I didn’t try.’ It’s the same thing we said to our last manager.
15. Powerpuff Girls Manicure
Sugar and spice and everything demonic. We think Lil Nas X would approve.
16. Snowflake Plaid Nail Design
We recommend this design if you’re hoping to manifest more snow. Go forth and conquer, Snow Miser.
17. Floral Red Tips Manicure
Go for gold with two floral arrangement accent nails instead of just one. It’s way easier than going for the gold at the Olympics, and it doubles as a subtle hint to your partner that they haven’t gotten you flowers in ages.
18. Sweet Swirls Nails
Good news: these nails are Wednesday-approved. Regina George would totally rock these in this decade. Christina Ricci… not so much.
When she's not typing away on her laptop, you can find Laura working on her MBA at Boston College, listening to Taylor Swift, or sweating it out at an OrangeTheory class. Follow her on Instagram @LauraKristine21 and LinkedIn.
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thank you I loved these red nail designs