Best Nail Polish Colors for Your Skin Tone
Two people can buy the same beige and get completely different results. The reason is not how light or deep their skin is. It is the undertone underneath it, and it takes about ten seconds to work out which one you have.
Skin tone and undertone are not the same thing
Skin tone is the surface: fair, light, medium, tan, deep. It changes with the season. Undertone is the hue underneath, and it does not change: warm (golden, peachy), cool (pink, red, blue) or neutral (a balance of both).
Polish sits a few centimetres from your skin, so the undertone is what it has to live alongside.
Three tests, pick whichever you trust
- 1The vein test. Look at the inside of your wrist in daylight. Blue or purple veins point to cool, green to warm, and a mix that you cannot call means neutral.
- 2The jewellery test. Which metal do you instinctively prefer on yourself? Silver tends to flatter cool undertones, gold flatters warm. If both look fine, neutral.
- 3The white paper test. Hold a plain white sheet next to your bare face or hand in daylight. Skin that looks rosy against it is cool; skin that looks golden or yellow is warm.
What flatters what
- Cool undertones. Blue-based reds, berry and plum, navy, lavender and periwinkle, frosty whites and silver.
- Warm undertones. Coral, tomato and orange-leaning reds, terracotta and warm brown, olive green, mustard and gold.
- Neutral undertones. Almost anything, which sounds like a cop out until you try a true nude: neutrals get the widest range of nudes and mauves that actually read as skin.
LONDONTOWN’s guide sorts shades the same way, and adds the practical point that your wardrobe matters too. The polish is next to your sleeve as often as it is next to your skin.
The rule that is worth breaking
None of this is a restriction. A shade that clashes with your undertone still looks good if you have enough contrast: a deep aubergine on very fair cool skin is striking precisely because it does not blend. What undertone theory predicts is which shades will look effortless, not which ones are allowed.
The place it earns its keep is nudes. Nude is the one category where getting the undertone wrong looks like a mistake rather than a choice, because the shade is trying to pass as skin. If you only apply this once, apply it there.
Test it on your own collection first
You do not need to buy anything to find out which of your bottles suit you. Swatch the candidates, photograph them in daylight against your own hand, and compare them side by side rather than one at a time. Our guide to swatching for true colour covers the lighting, and numbered swatch sticks make the comparison quick. If you are still building the collection, the first shades worth owning is the place to start.