Just like any beauty style, there are a few basic principles that have to be followed. Similarly, when picking out nail polish colors, there are certain things to take into consideration. Nail polish colors are meant to flatter, or at least complement the skin tone of the wearer. Here’s a simple guide to help you choose the right color according to your skin tone.
For Fair Skin
• Women who have fair or light skin can use most colors for their nails. However, there are still differences in fair-skinned women in undertone and shade. Women with skin that’s too pale might want to avoid extremely dark colors since they will look much too eye-popping.
• Choose shades that flatter your fair skin, such as pink in either soft or bright shade, a light to medium shade of purple, and red.
• If you’re going for a healthy, rosy look, use nail polish in shades of pink.
• Blue-based polish is usually recommended.
For Medium Skin Tone
• Being the middle color, medium tones can wear most shades.
• Medium tones will do well with nail arts since the different colors and prints blend well with their skin color making them look stylish. It is recommended to use nail art designs that have metallic shades.
• Using glitter polish will add a tanned look.
• Using vibrant colors like yellow, blue, orange, or pink will look impressive. Bright shades are the perfect color for this skin tone.
• To emphasize the neutral color of medium tones, you may use metallic and silver versions of a light blue color.
• Avoid navy blue, dark purple, and red.
Dark Skin Tone
• To emphasize the beauty of dark skin tones, nail polish with dark colors should be used. Colors like chocolate brown, dark green, red, or a nice burgundy match the rich color of dark-skinned women.
• Gold also looks good on dark skin making it easy for dark-skinned women to pull off a stylish look with gold polish.
• However, if you want to accentuate tanned skin, lighter shades may be used. Other colors that may work for dark skin are light brown and chocolate, pink, light blue, and purple. Since tan is a sun kissed color, gold nail polish should be avoided as it will blend completely with the overall color of the skin making it invisible. For tan complexion, go for colors found on the warm side of the color chart.
• Yellow-based colors come highly recommended for women who have dark skin tone.
The general rule when matching complexion or skin tone to colors for nail polish is quite simple: dark to dark and light to light. Light skin will look best with light to medium colors while dark skin will look better with medium to deep dark colors.
