KiraKira is that sparkly diamond-effect Instagram app that everyone wants

We’ve been noticing a trend on Instagram lately: Celebs are SPARKLING. No, it isn’t their natural ~famous person~ sheen, it’s a new app and we must have it. When we first started seeing Insta Stories and Snapchats with this lush diamond-effect, we assumed it was a new filter.

After updating all our social apps and still no sparkles, we learned that the sparkly filter is thanks to an app called KiraKira.

If you film or photograph something in the KiraKira app, it’s automatically saved to your camera roll, so you can upload to Instagram or whatever social platform you prefer.

KiraKira is the reason why so many celeb selfie videos have that unexplainable shine and sparkle to them lately. The Japanese app has been around for two years, but it didn’t start to gain traction stateside until a month or two ago.

The KiraKira app actually has seven different filters, but they all fall under the ~sparkle~ category.

The “KiraKira” filter simply adds a few sparkles to the image, “Twinkle” filter adds colorful sparkles, “Airly” blurs your face beyond recognition, “Color” removes the color from the photo and adds sparkles, “Shine” seems to accentuate all your imperfections + adds sparkle, “Bling Bling” adds a ton of sparkles, and “Glare” makes you look like an actual angel.

We put KiraKira to the test and learned that it takes better photos outside or in a bright room with natural lighting. The video function seems to capture more sparkle than a static photo, and it can turn your dog into an Instagram model.

Happy sparkling!