Posted by Tran Khue
on July 02, 2025
If you love cat eye polish, this summer it’s getting a fresh twist. The shell cat eye nail trend blends magnetic shimmer with ocean-inspired designs. It’s mermaid nails revisited. The light-catching look is full of depth, like a tiny underwater world on every fingertip. Now’s your chance to set sail and take your next set somewhere new and unforgettable.
Shell Cat Eye Nails, the Ocean Trend Splashing into Summer
What’s the easiest way to shape seashells on your cat eye nails? We like using Lavis Rhinestone Gel for 3D effects like the ridges. It’s also handy for attaching pearls and charms. The thick, transparent gel works like a dream and magnifies the shimmer of the cat eye polish underneath.
Seashells, in real life, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and amazing colors, too. Mollusks like sea snails and clams are marine creatures that create shells with calcium carbonate filtered from their environment. Seashells have the same main ingredient as Tums and have even been crushed up and used to treat heartburn.
What’s more, similar to tree rings, seashells have growth rings that indicate the age of the creature that lives inside.
LAVIS Rhinestone Gel UV/LED - 15ml
Sea Glass Cat Eye Nails
Here the artist used Lavis Emboss Gel for the fine texture on this set. It features several shades from the Lavis Enchanted Spell Collection. Honestly, cat eye polish is so pretty it’s hard not to buy every shade!
Colorful and intricately shaped seashells also hold a fascination for humans. In prehistoric times, an infant was buried in a cave in South Africa with a pretty cone shell that had been strung onto a necklace. Neanderthals also collected seashells from the Mediterranean along the coast of Spain.
Moreover, the world’s first currency was seashells, not gold or silver. The small white money cowrie shell comes from the Maldives. It served as money around the world for around a thousand years.
LAVIS Cat Eyes CE11 - 02 - Gel Polish 0.5 oz - Enchanted Spell Collection
Undersea View
Here’s an underwater view with algae and bubbles along with abstract shell nails painted with cat eye polish. Most shell nail designs are based on fan-shaped scallops. Although they spend most of their time lying on the seabed, scallops can move. They clap their shell parts together while squirting water to swim.
Stiletto-shaped shell cat eye nails resemble auger or turret shells. These creatures can drill into the sand.
If you spend time beachcombing, you might also recognize limpets. They are shaped like miniature volcanoes attached to the rocks. This design protects them from predators and strong currents, plus they have a suction cup foot and slime that works like glue.
LAVIS 00 Clear - Non Sticky Builder Gel In The Jar 30ml
Mermaid Nails
It hasn’t been that long since the revival of The Little Mermaid movie and the mermaid nails trend. We think that Ariel would appreciate cat eye nails since they are sparkly and mesmerizing. Here the shell nail is part of the overall ocean nails theme that includes a mermaid sticker, charms, and pearls.
The next time you want to take shells home from the beach, make sure that you won’t get into trouble. Places like India and the UK fine tourists for picking up seashells. That’s because even discarded shells are essential for maintaining the coastline and providing homes for creatures like hermit crabs. The crabs have a fascinating system for moving house. A community of crabs will organize into a line with the largest at the front and that creature gets the biggest empty shell. It abandons its prior home for the next smaller crab to take and so on.
LAVIS Cat Eyes CE9 - LOVE POTION COLLECTION
LAVIS OP2 - 21 - Gel Polish 0.5 oz - Lavis Wanderlust Collection
Shell Shorties
A Japanese artist created this short nails manicure with a mother-of-pearl effect thanks to cat eye polish. In nature, nacre is the smooth and shiny rainbow-like substance found inside some shells. Abalone have some of the most stunning examples as the interior of their homes looks like a turquoise oil slick.
What’s interesting is that the nacre isn’t just beautiful, but also super strong. Its nanostructure keeps the shells from cracking with the help of chitin, the same stuff that insects use for their exoskeletons. Think of it as the builder gel of the shell world.
LAVIS Rainbow Cat Eye Gel - Universal Cat Eye Collection
Ocean Nails
Let’s talk about pearls for shell cat eye nail designs. Natural pearls are extremely rare. Most are cultivated or made from artificial materials to resemble the real deal. Real pearls are made of the same material as a mollusk’s shell. That sounds strange since shells and pearls don’t look much alike. However, inside the pearl sack of a mollusk, the materials are laid down in the opposite order, with the shiny parts on the outside. It’s not a grain of sand that causes pearls to form. Instead, it happens after the mollusk has been injured. It’s fascinating to see how healing can cause something so beautiful to happen.
In a way, cat eye polish is similar to pearls in that ordinary ingredients make something amazing happen. If you saw the ingredients separately, you might not be impressed. But when the metallic particles and pigments are mixed in the formula and you can move them around with a magnet to concentrate the glitter, it’s magical.
LAVIS Cat Eyes CE2 - Gel Polish 0.5 oz - Under The Sea Collection
Chrome and Cat Eye Effect for Shell Nails
This is the year of chrome and cat eye polish. Metallics are trending, so take advantage of this moment and go all out! Layer a glaze of chrome powder over cat eye polish and texture it with emboss, rhinestones, or hard gel to achieve a look like this. Notice how the ridges radiate at an angle just like on real seashells. Go for extra realism by ensuring that one end of the ridge is slightly thicker than the other. As you can see, this creates a stunning manicure no matter the nail length.
Chrome Nail Powder
Conclusion
Are you ready to dive into the shell cat eye nail trend? You’ll find all the trendiest cat eye colors and essential supplies in our store. Take advantage of sales plus free shipping so that you can relax and focus on your nail goals.
Sources:
https://wildlifesos.org/things-you-didnt-know-about-seashells/
https://news.ufl.edu/2021/06/sound-of-the-sea-/
https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/insects-invertebrates/facts-about-seashells
https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/insects-invertebrates/facts-about-pearls
