It seems as though the nineties are making a comeback in a really big way. Not that we’re really complaining about that, obviously; we loved the nineties. We’d actually give anything to go back and relive the decade all over again. But as well as nude lips, chunky highlights, and jelly shoes, there’s something else from the decade coming back into fashion … butterfly nails!
We’ve decided to take a look at some of the best butterfly nails on Instagram right now and bring you a few of the looks we instantly fell in love with. As always, don’t forget to show some love and follow the artists behind these exquisite designs. We’re grateful to them for their hard work and fabulous nail inspiration!
31 Looks: Butterfly Nails
1 – Lilac Butterfly Nails
A simple yet effective butterfly design, these pastel shades are perfect for spring … if it ever decides to come back around again. The slight pearlescent hue of the butterflies themselves were what caught our eye, but these coffin nails are pretty damn beautiful, don’t you agree?
Follow the artist: philglamournails
2 – Rainbow Ombre Butterfly Nails
We’re taking things in a slightly more colourful direction with these gorgeous ombré butterfly nails, peachy tones to pinks, then purples, then blues, then greens; across one nail, then another, then another until you’re all done. Paint on a couple of butterflies when you’re done (or throw decals on, followed by a layer of top coat), and flick a thin brush dipped in white paint to recreate the little star-bright effects, and you’ll too have a manicure as gorgeous as this one.
Follow the artist: anouskaanastasia
3 – Butterfly Nail Inspiration
How many butterflies do you want? Well, as many as you can fit on there, of course. That’s the best thing about these longer talons: you have much more room to play around with butterfly nail designs that are slightly more adventurous and intricate.
Follow the artist: jadetangtheartist
4 – Cute Butterfly Nail Inspo
The #butterflynails hashtag on Instagram has a host of designs that follow the spring and summer-themed trend, but you might just stop when you see these ones. With the pink, blue, and purple butterflies intricately painted across them, they’re pretty much perfect!
Follow the artist: laquenailbar
5 – Blue Butterfly Nails
Feeling blue? We hope you’re not literally feeling blue, but if you are we’re here to talk!
In the meantime, why not check out these stunning blue butterfly nails, blending rich tones of blue with shiny shades of what looks like a rose-gold/copper shade. It’s a great colour combination, and definitely one that we’re thinking about putting together for our next mani appointment!
Follow the artist: ldnailsxo
6 – Square Butterfly Nail Ideas
Fancy keeping things classic and simple? These butterfly nails might just tick all of the right boxes for you, then. The rich burgundy-red shade is great for when you’re not feeling particularly pastel or bright, and we loved the pearl-beaded addition, adding an air of sophistication to the look.
Follow the artist: nailartemarilia
7 – Yellow Stiletto Butterfly Nails
Like your nails like you like your shoes? Stiletto! These green-yellow and bright tones, matched with a pearly and gold butterfly design has got all of the features you might need. We like them because they’re sassy. Which of the designs we’re showing you today do you like and why?
Follow the artist: fiina_naillounge
8 – Butterfly Nail Art Idea
We’re obsessed with the contrast of dark black and light, pastel peach and yellow tones in these butterfly nails. And then there’s negative space in there too? We’re absolutely digging this artist’s work! Adding these ones to the list for spring, for sure!
Follow the artist: nailarts.irina.markova
9 – Coffin Nails With Butterflies
We’re not entirely sure why, but we’re getting St. Patrick’s Day vibes from these cute and long, butterfly coffin nails. The little holographic butterfly pieces would look great with any number of colours and tones, of course, but there’s something about this yellowy-green shade that we’re absolutely in love with!
Follow the artist: zack_pn
10 – Fabulously Long Butterfly Nail Look
Wow … these nails are INCREDIBLE! They’re much longer than we could cope with, but we Stan hard any woman that can rock these nails and do everyday life with them. Honestly, people, how the devil do you do it?!
Follow the artist: hnnailsbyhoney
11 – Butterfly Nail Embellishments
Again, not another nail idea that would work with like, a job or responsibilities or trying to open a ring pull can without breaking a nail … but they’re so pretty, we can’t even cope! The blue and orange tones make this butterfly design just fab for a summer holiday or sunny occasion, but we could think of a number of events to have an excuse to rock these beautiful talons!
Follow the artist: laquenailbar
12 – Beautiful Gem-Inspired Butterfly Nails
We’re back to stiletto, long nails again, but these ones are gem-inspired and we love them so much. We actually think that these ones might make for great butterfly wedding nails, but we’d love to know your opinion on them. Would you? We absolutely would!
Follow the artist: fiina_naillounge
13 – Simple and Colourful Butterfly Nail Look
Not sure what colour butterflies you’d like on your nails today? Why not just go with one of each shade and be happy to have the colours of the rainbow! A cute pride-inspired detail, we love the rainbow feature running across this butterfly design.
Follow the artist: anouskaanastasia
14 – Pink and Lilac Butterfly Nail Inspiration
Another ombré design, but this time a wonderful pastel mix of pink into purple. The white and silver + glitter butterfly stands out without being overly obvious with this butterfly look. We think it’s adorable, but what do you think?
Follow the artist: beautiful_in_light
15 – Square Tipped and Turquoise Butterfly Mani
Want something bolder and brighter? These square-tipped and turquoise butterfly nails might just fill the void in your perfectly-manicured life! Simple, effective, and utterly beautiful — but what three words would you use to describe these?
Follow the artist: chaunlegend
16 – Pretty in Pink Butterfly Manicure
Another day, another ombré butterfly manicure. I mean, we can’t get enough of them — and we’re definitely putting this one down on the list for when spring comes around again. Are these ones going to take the top spot for you?
Follow the artist: fiina_naillounge
17 – Simple Pink Butterfly Nail Design
Stickers and decals really can make the world of difference to an ordinary manicure. The dusky, nude, pink tones of the nail colour itself is really muted and classic, and the addition of black, white, and grey butterfly decals over the top help to bring it to life and make it stand out from what would otherwise be a fairly normal and everyday nail look. It’s definitely not boring now, though!
Follow the artist: hannahroxit
18 – Butterfly and Flower Nails
Sticking with the nudes, we’re adding a hint of shimmer and some embellishments with these butterfly and flower nails … because butterflies come hand-in-hand with flowers and one wouldn’t exist without the other. There’s a really gorgeous mix of colours in this manicure design, and we can also think of different flowers that would look great with different butterfly colours too!
Follow the artist: indigonails
19 – Baby Pink and White Butterfly Nail Design
If it’s a set of nails for a gender reveal party you’re in the market for, these ones are PERFECT! You’ve got the baby pink and baby blue in there, which are two shades commonly used to tell people whether or not you’re having a baby boy or a baby girl. (Everyone can wear whatever colours they like, obviously!)
Follow the artist: jadetangtheartist
20 – Classic Butterfly Nail Inspiration
If like us, you have a hard time dealing with super long talons, this shorter and more natural-nail butterfly look is a great example of how you could get creative on even shorter nail lengths. We’re a little bit in love with these coral pink delights.
Follow the artist: justinasnails
21 – Long and Simple Butterfly Nails
If you want to keep your nails natural, but still add that butterfly trend, this stunning holographic butterfly look is one that you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for. It almost looks as though the butterflies are actually having a good old flap around in your nails … and who wouldn’t want that?!
Follow the artist: lafayette_nails
22 – Holographic Butterfly Nail Design
Did you know that there are over 17,500 species of butterfly around the world? If you were looking for inspiration on colours and designs, you certainly wouldn’t have to go looking for very long! These gorgeous holographic cut-out butterfly nails have a little bit of every colour in, just in case that was the kind of look you were going for, but you could always have a quick flick around the actual different species of butterfly to find a colour combo that you wanted to copy.
Follow the artist: ldnailsxo
23 – Pink and Black Butterfly Nail Design
We’re still a little bit in shock over the realisation that there are more than seventeen thousand different species of butterfly, to be honest, but these gorgeous nails don’t really need much of an introduction. Classic, simple, and yet oh-so-beautiful, just like most butterflies!
Follow the artist: nailartemarilia
24 – Butterfly Nail Look For Summer
In case you were wondering, there is such a thing as a rainbow butterfly species. In fact, there are quite a few of them. Our favourite – and one that looks a bit like the butterfly used as inspiration for this lovely nail look – is the Goliath Birdwing Butterfly, almost know to be the second-largest butterfly species in the world.
Follow the artist: nailarts.irina.markova
25 – Wonderfully Colourful Butterfly Nails
If you’re interested in more rainbow-coloured butterfly species, we definitely recommend having a little Google for the gorgeous Blue Morpho Butterfly, the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly, and also the Peacock Butterfly. Or, you know, these stunning butterfly nail art designs!
Follow the artist: naq57
26 – Butterfly Stiletto Nails
We’ve seen a lot of these butterfly holographic pieces in nails lately — and it’s set to be a trend that takes us right through from fall, into winter, right into spring and summer next year. We just hope that we’ve given you plenty of inspiration to see you right the way through!
Follow the artist: laquenailbar
27 – Brilliant Blue and Matte Butterfly Nails
Do you remember the Blue Morpho Butterfly we mentioned previously? Well, these nails are beautifully based on that stunning insect, capturing the gorgeous blue tones fabulously. The beauty of nature really does take your breath away sometimes; we should use it more in beauty inspiration!
Follow the artist: hnnailsbyhoney
28 – Pink and Yellow Ombre Butterfly Nail Look
The little gold butterfly embellishments on these pretty ombré nails have only been added to one of the nails, which is a great tip if you’re clumsy (like us) and have a habit of knocking them off a lot. If you’ve only got one nail to work about protecting you’ll find that life is a lot easier!
Follow the artist: judyrox
29 – Butterfly Nails For Spring
The simplicity of a black outline filled in with beautiful, pastel shades of colour is really something — as shown by this pretty manicure idea. Another one that focuses on slightly more natural-length nails, they’re a great one for spring.
Follow the artist: jeanniesnail
30 – Turquoise Butterfly Almond Nails
The Luzon Peacock Swallowtail Butterfly offers blue and pinky-purple tones as inspiration for this gorgeous, turquoise-blue design. While we’re mentioning this stunning butterfly species, we feel it is important to let you know that it is an endangered species. Why not take five minutes to read up on how you could butterfly and insect species thrive in your garden or local area? Doesn’t hurt to try and do our own little bit for the environment, does it?
Follow the artist: fiina_naillounge
31 – Honey Bee and Butterfly Nails
And last but certainly not least, we come to this amazing (and long!) nail look: honey bees and butterflies. The Wallace’s Golden Birdwing Butterfly is a gorgeous black and yellow/orange butterfly species that could easily be used as inspiration for this look. This particular species is usually found only in Indonesia, so unless you live there, Google will just have to be your friend for now.
These nails are fabulous, and if you love bees, we’ve got a host of other nail looks you’ll probably want to take a look at … including this one: 21 Bee Nail Art Designs.
Follow the artist: hnnailsbyhoney
And there you have them: 31 of the most beautiful nails we’ve come across on Instagram lately. What do you think of them? Do you have a favourite? One that you’re lining up for your next nail appointment? Don’t forget to show these artists some love if you enjoyed seeing their creations today — and let us know what you want to see next! Leave your comments down below.
Have a fabulous day!
