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.

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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.

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:

• Mod About You

• New formula! Pretty Pink Perseveres

• New formula! Passion

• New formula! Bubble Bath®

Neutral Undertones:

• Mimosas for Mr. & Mrs.

• New formula! Barefoot in Barcelona

Warm Undertones:

• Bare My Soul

• New shade! Over-slay your Welcome

• New formula! You Don't Know Jacques!

• A Clay in the Life

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:

• Taupe-less Beach

• Baby, Take a Vow

• New formula! Passion

• Put it in Neutral

Neutral Undertones:

• New formula! Don’t Bossa Nova Me Around®

• Somewhere over the Rainbow Mountains

Warm Undertones:

• Coconuts Over OPI

• Stop It I’m Blushing!

• Sweet Heart

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:

• New formula! Passion

• Put It In Neutral

Neutral Undertones:

• New formula! You Don't Know Jacques

• New formula! Barefoot in Barcelona

Warm Undertones:

• Samoan Sand

• A Clay in the Life

• New shade! Faux-ever Yours

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:

• Coconuts Over OPI

• New formula! Passion

• New formula! It’s A Girl!

Neutral Undertones:

• Dawn of a New Gray

• Let's Be Friends!

Warm Undertones:

• Samoan Sand

• New formula! Bubble Bath®

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:

• New shade! Keep Calm & Carry On

• New formula! Passion

• New formula! Pretty Pink Perseveres

• New formula! It’s A Girl!

Neutral Undertones:

• We Canyon Do Better

• New shade! A Sherbert Thing

Warm Undertones:

• A Clay in the Life

• New shade! It Never Ends