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Nail Care

The Perfect Nude for Every Skin Tone

For years, there has been a debate on how to choose the right nude for your skin tone. Some say it’s going a shade darker or lighter than your skin, while others say it should mirror your fingertips.

The Perfect Nude for Every Skin Tone

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While we don’t believe there are rules when it comes to wearing colour, we do believe in helping you find your most flattering personal shade of nude. To help you, we created a guide with light, medium, and deeper skin tones in mind so you can find the best nude polish to compliment you all year round.

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Before you begin, you’ll need to know if you have warm, cool, or neutral undertones.

To find out, take a look at your veins. If they’re green to olive, you have warm undertones, which often look best with gold accessories. If they’re blue-green, you are neutral which pairs well with rose gold, and if they air on the side of blue-purple, you’re cool, which looks great with silver. Read on to see our picks for your skin tone, as well as what types of accessories flatter you best.

Fair Skin

Nude Nail Colours for Light Skin Tones

If you have light skin with blue or purple undertones, you’ll want to reach for soft pinks like Mod About You or Pretty Pink Perseveres. For blueish-greenish undertones, a peachy shade like Mimosas for Mr. & Mrs. or a warmer pink like Barefoot in Barcelona will stand out – pair these shades with rose gold accessories, a metal that’s always flattering for this undertone. Olive undertones can opt for warmer hues like Over-slay your Welcome.

Cool Undertones:

Neutral Undertones:

Warm Undertones:

Medium Skin

Nude Nail Colours for Light Medium Skin Tones

Medium-toned skin with cool undertones not only looks great in silver jewellery but shades like Taupe-less Beach, a soft grey with subtle hints of lavender. Blue-green undertones can go cool with Don’t Bossa Nova Me Around® or warm with Somewhere over the Rainbow Mountains, while shades like Coconuts Over OPI will look flawless on olive-green undertones.

Cool Undertones:

Neutral Undertones:

Warm Undertones:

Tan Skin

Nude Nail Colours for Medium Skin Tones

Put it in Neutral and Passion are favourites of ours for tan skin with cool undertones–pinky beiges will always flatter you. Blue-green undertones will look best with warm shades like You Don't Know Jacques and Barefoot in Barcelona, while opaque crème polish like Faux-ever Yours will perfectly flatter warmer-toned skin– this undertone and shade also looks great with gold accessories.

Cool Undertones:

Neutral Undertones:

Warm Undertones:

Dark Skin

Nude Nail Colours for Medium Deep Skin Tones

Baby pink shades like It’s a Girl! or a gentle wash of buff like Coconuts Over OPI looks great on medium-deep tones with blue and purple undertones. Neutral undertones will look great with a dove beige colour like Dawn of a New Gray and rose gold rings, while Samoan Sand is a stunning warm nude nail colour for skin with olive-green undertones.

Cool Undertones:

Neutral Undertones:

Warm Undertones:

Deep Skin

Nude Nail Colours for Deep Skin Tones

Deeper-toned skin with cool blue-purple undertones are always flattered by rich shades of rosy pink, like Keep Calm & Carry On or Passion – complete the look with silver stacking rings or bracelets. If you have blue-green undertones, opt for bright, pinky nudes like We Canyon Do Better, but if you’ve got olive undertones, rich chestnuts like It Never Ends is always a good look.

Cool Undertones:

Neutral Undertones:

Warm Undertones:

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