There’s a beauty editor stirring up trouble and tossing out tradition this season. While many are wearing Pantone’s Mocha Mousse or classic jewel tones, she’s taken a stand against dark shades. Her nails are sheer and milky for an uplifting contrast to the shrinking daylight hours and cold weather. Her style is designed to mimic translucent, high-end china. The idea is that porcelain nails are winter’s better neutral look this year. It's not loud or trying too hard. Instead, it’s a clean, expensive-looking finish that leaves nails healthy-looking and luxuriously cared for. It uplifts every manicure as a beautiful wrap to 2025’s minimalistic mood.
Porcelain Nails Are Winter’s
Why Porcelain Nails are Winter’s Next Trend
Let’s start with a practical thought. Everyone has a lot of sheer shades on hand because 2025 was a big year for minimalist manicures. Let’s give them another chance to shine! Because we are living in dark times. It’s time to bring beauty to the world any way you can.
Milky, sheer polish can enhance the natural beauty of the nails, flatter the skin tone, plus it’s easy to customize in a million different ways. For example, here’s a Limited Edition LDS Color Gel Shade that’s creamy beige but translucent just like fine porcelain. The artist has altered the tip on one fingertip with chrome powder and another with glittery line art gel. You can also see the difference between the matte and glossy top coats.
LDS Gel Polish - 054 Limited Editon
Aurora Chrome Powder - 05
Pink Vanilla Nails for Cool Tones
This is a six ingredient recipe for a delicious porcelain nails manicure. It consists of Pink Vanilla Builder Gel in the Jar, base and top coats, dual form tips, a nail lamp, and file. Looks good enough to eat!
This sheer shade is creamy like strawberry milk and ideal for cool undertones. Moreover, this builder gel ensures durable results that lengthen and strengthen natural nails.
LAVIS Builder Gel In The Jar (ver 2) - 13 Pink Vanilla - 30ml
Porcelain Nails for Warm Tones
Warm undertones look lovely with the Pastel Mellow shade of builder gel in the jar. It leans more beige than pink to highlight the skin’s beauty.
Once again, it’s a simple recipe to cook up a translucent, glossy manicure like this. After prepping the natural nails, apply and cure the LAVIS base coat. Then dab and swish the builder gel back and forth to coat the inside of the nail form to form the extension. Take it almost to the cuticle and flash cure it. Add more builder gel to coat the nail bed and secure the extension to the nail. Press the form and wet builder gel into place on the nail and cure completely. Remove the form and shape the extension with a nail drill or file. Finish with LAVIS Diamond Top Coat.
LAVIS Builder Gel In The Jar (ver 2) - 06 Pastel Mellow - 30ml
Refresh Winter Nails in Minutes
Porcelain nails are valid for every length and shape. It’s the finish, not the length that matters. Sheer shades like DND’s Be My Muse are ideal for quickly refreshing your manicure, leaving it gorgeous and glossy. It’s creamy enough to look flawless and translucent enough for a hint of lunula to peek through.
Milky Perfection Like Fine China
When you think about porcelain, do you imagine a finely crafted teacup that lets the light shine through? If so, DND’s Coconut Silk has the right milky essence to copy the look on your nails. What’s more, it fits right into holiday themes.
DND DC Gel Nail Polish Duo - 2460 Coconut Silk
Porcelain Nails Secret
We’ll let you in on a little secret about porcelain nails this winter. You don’t have to give up cat eye polish to achieve the look. Instead, pull out your favorite shimmery pink or beige and create a porcelain manicure with it. And just like expensive china is embellished with gold, you can add texture and metallic decorations for a luxurious effect.
Here the artist applied a cat eye shade from the LAVIS Cabin Fever Collection for the milky pink base. Then they used LDS Emboss Gel and non-sticky LAVIS Builder Gel for the swirls and flower, followed by LDS Metallic Marble Ink for the golden shine.
LAVIS Cat Eyes CE9 - 08 (Ver2) - Gel Polish 0.5 oz - Lavis Cabin Fever Collection
Barely Ombre Nails like Very Expensive Porcelain
The incredibly smooth gradient here is thanks to a single shade. It comes from the LAVIS Glossy Touch Collection, a set of jelly gels that deepen in color with each layer applied. It allows the soft pink nail bed to show through while the tips appear milky.
So, what is this tableware that inspired the porcelain nails winter trend? We suspect the aforementioned beauty editor was thinking about world famous white porcelain made in Dehua, Fujian province, China. Potters there have been making ceramics since at least the 10th century A.D. It may have been Marco Polo who brought the first piece back to Europe in 1295.
During the Ming Dynasty from 1368 to 1644, the white porcelain wares became even more refined and beautiful. When these samples reached Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, a wealthy man in Dresden, Germany who had collected over one thousand pieces had an alchemist figure out the formula. Soon European manufacturers like Meissen and Chelsea were imitating sleek white Chinese porcelain, too. Fast forward three more centuries and now we’re wearing imitation porcelain nails this winter.
Embossed Metallic Porcelain Nails
Cool undertones may prefer silvery metallic decorations over gold for their porcelain nails sets. These are easy, even hypnotic, to sculpt using non-sticky builder gel and LDS silver metallic gel.
Conclusion
Porcelain nails are winter’s better neutral look that uplifts every manicure. They are simple yet elegant, refined yet straightforward. Who would’ve guessed that milky, sheer nail colors would ever be rebellious? But here we are, fighting against the shortening hours of daylight and dismay with grace and optimism on our fingertips.
What’s more, when you shop for favorite porcelain nails shades in our store, you can qualify for free shipping and sign up for exclusive promotions. Come browse the top nail brands and most wished-for nail art supplies to plan out your nail goals for next year.
Source:
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/blanc-de-chine-white-porcelain-from-china
