How to Create a Stunning Liquid Glass Effect with CSS

The “liquid glass” effect is a refined evolution of the glassmorphism design trend—where UI elements appear as translucent, blurred panels with a subtle fluid look. Rather than just blurring the background, liquid glass adds visual distortion, soft light reflections, and an organic feel that enhances depth and dynamism.

In 2025, Apple’s new “Liquid Glass” design system at WWDC popularized this paradigm, inspiring web designers to recreate that premium, immersive aesthetic in browser interfaces.

In this article, we’ll walk through:

• The fundamentals of liquid glass in CSS
• Basic implementation (glassmorphism)
• Introducing distortion and refraction with SVG filters
• Browser support & fallbacks
• Performance considerations
• Design tips and use cases

Let’s dive in.

1. Fundamentals: What Makes Liquid Glass Special

At its core, liquid glass is built on the same visual principles as glassmorphism:

• Transparency: Letting background content show through
• Blur: Softening background detail
• Borders / highlights: To suggest a physical glass edge
• Layering: To manage stacking and compositing

What sets liquid glass apart is the addition of organic distortions / refractions, and subtle light behavior (e.g. specular highlights) that make the panel feel like it’s interacting with the scene behind it.

To pull this off in CSS, you often combine:

• backdrop-filter / -webkit-backdrop-filter
• Semi-transparent rgba() backgrounds (not using opacity)
• SVG filters (e.g. feTurbulence, feDisplacementMap, feSpecularLighting)
• CSS transitions or animations
• Layering and pseudo-elements for highlights or gradients

A simple “glassmorphic” style might look like:

.glass {
  background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.15);
  backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
  -webkit-backdrop-filter: blur(10px);
  border: 1px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.3);
  border-radius: 16px;
  box-shadow: 0 8px 32px rgba(31, 38, 135, 0.2);
}

This gives that frosted glass feel. But liquid glass wants more: distortion, curvature, and realism.

2. Basic Implementation: Glassmorphism as Foundation

Before adding distortion, mastering the base is essential.

HTML Structure

<div class="glass-wrapper">
  <div class="glass-card">
    <h3>Title</h3>
    <p>Some description.</p>
  </div>
</div>

CSS

.glass-wrapper {
  min-height: 100vh;
  background: linear-gradient(135deg, #667eea, #764ba2);
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
}

.glass-card {
  background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2);
  backdrop-filter: blur(20px);
  -webkit-backdrop-filter: blur(20px);
  border: 1px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.25);
  border-radius: 20px;
  box-shadow: 0 8px 32px rgba(31, 38, 135, 0.37);
  padding: 40px;
  color: #fff;
  max-width: 400px;
  text-align: center;
}

You can also add hover effects, inner gradients, or pseudo-elements to simulate light gradients. This establishes the visual baseline before adding distortion.

3. Adding Distortion & Refraction via SVG Filters

This is where liquid glass diverges from plain glassmorphism.

Why SVG Filters?

The CSS backdrop-filter property can blur or adjust brightness/contrast behind an element, but it doesn’t natively support warping or bending of the background image. To create refraction or distortion, you typically use an SVG filter (e.g. displacement maps) and reference it via filter or via backdrop-filter: url(...).

Example SVG Filter (simplified)

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1">
  <filter id="liquid-distort">
    <feTurbulence baseFrequency="0.02 0.05" numOctaves="2" seed="1" result="noise"/>
    <feDisplacementMap in="SourceGraphic" in2="noise" scale="10" xChannelSelector="R" yChannelSelector="G"/>
  </filter>
</svg>

Then in CSS:

.glass-card {
  backdrop-filter: blur(15px);
  /* fallback blur */
  filter: url(#liquid-distort);
}

More advanced filters may also incorporate feSpecularLighting or other effects to simulate light glints.

When used carefully, this can make the glass panel appear to warp underlying elements subtly as if seen through a lens of glass.

However, note that this adds complexity and not all browsers support using SVG filters via backdrop-filter perfectly. In practice, many designers layer the distortion effect in a pseudo-element or an overlay rather than applying it directly to the backdrop-filter.

A layered approach might be:

• Base glass layer with blur
• Overlay pseudo-element applying distortion filter
• Additional highlight gradient overlays for specular look

This allows you to control distortions without breaking readability of content.

4. Browser Support & Fallbacks

Liquid glass effects push CSS and browser capabilities to the edge. Here’s what you should watch out for:

backdrop-filter is supported in many modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Edge), but in Firefox it’s disabled by default (though togglable), and older browsers may lack support.

SVG filters may not work uniformly in all browsers when used in conjunction with backdrop-filter.

When filters fail, content may become unreadable or broken.

Fallback Strategies

.glass-card {
  background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.9); /* fallback opaque light background */
}

@supports (backdrop-filter: blur(15px)) {
  .glass-card {
    background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2);
    backdrop-filter: blur(15px);
    -webkit-backdrop-filter: blur(15px);
    /* add SVG filter or distortion layering only here */
  }
}

You can also test whether filter: url(#yourfilter) is supported and conditionally apply or skip the distortion layer.

Graceful degradation is key: if the advanced effects fail, the user should still see a usable, readable card — just less fancy.

5. Performance Considerations

Liquid glass illusions can be heavy, especially on lower-end devices or mobile.

Tips to optimize:

• Limit usage: Don’t apply the effect to many elements at once. Use it selectively (headers, cards, modals).
• Use will-change sparingly: For elements that animate, e.g. will-change: backdrop-filter or transform, but only when necessary.
• Avoid nested glass elements: Nesting multiple backdrop-filter layers multiplies rendering cost.
• Simplify filters: Keep feTurbulence frequencies low, reduce displacement scale, and avoid too many filter primitives.
• Test on real devices: Particularly lower-end phones or tablets to ensure smooth scrolling and interactions.

When used judiciously, the visual payoff is worth the cost. But overuse can degrade UX.

6. Design Tips & Use Cases

Here’s how to make your liquid glass effect effective and tasteful:

• Use vibrant, textured backgrounds: Gradients, images, or abstract shapes help the glass effect pop.
• Maintain contrast: Be careful that text over a blurred panel remains legible — use white or light text with shadows or semi-opaque backgrounds behind text.
• Add light gradients / gloss overlays: Small white or semi-transparent gradients along edges help simulate light catching the glass.
• Animate subtly: Slight hover warp, micro parallax, or gentle transitions can bring life without distracting.
• Use for emphasis: Great for hero sections, modals, call-to-action cards, navbars, or floating UI panels.
• Don’t overdo it: Too many glassy elements can make a UI feel washed-out or cause performance bottlenecks.

Conclusion

Liquid glass designs push UI aesthetics into a more immersive, tactile space. Using CSS and SVG filters, you can combine blur, transparency, distortion, and layered lighting to create an effect that feels premium and modern.

While browser support and performance are real constraints, with careful implementation and graceful fallbacks, you can bring parts of this effect into your own web projects to elevate the visual experience.