Which manicure color to choose, depends on the skin tone, the event, the time of year and the condition of the nail plates. We tell you how to choose nail polish or gel polish in different cases and which shades will help to hide nail imperfections.
Skin tones
The easiest way to choose a manicure color is to be guided by your skin tone.
For medium shade skin, not pale, not red, without a sandy tint varnishes of all colors are suitable.
Pink, blue, yellow nails are contraindicated for reddish skin on the hands. Use coffee and milk, lilac, purple, brown, red palettes.
Light, pale hands with noticeable bluish veins. Beige is contraindicated, which will yellow on such a background. If you need to choose a nude, then pay attention to pink, powder, peach tones. Blue and gray are ideal.
For tanned skin, choose gold and bronze, turquoise, emerald, coral, cherry, khaki, dark greens. It is recommended to avoid cold shades, neon.
Everything that looks good in your makeup is suitable to your hands – you should remember your lipsticks, powders.
The color of your clothes.
Pastels and monochrome fit under any clothing, they are appropriate almost always – on vacation, at work, at a job interview, in an educational institution. It is convenient, but gradually become boring, look monotonous, boring.
It is possible to choose a manicure strictly under a dress, it looks beautiful, but it is very difficult to get in one tone. Something will still turn out brighter, will stand out against the general background.
Under the blue dress. White, gold or yellow, red and azure shades. You can pair them with monochrome gray, black colors.
Coral, orange, yellow, blue, blue, pink lacquers go with the green dress. If a bright combination is not appropriate, then pay attention to wet asphalt, graphite, gray haze.
To a red dress. A win-win option is gold. You can combine it with scarlet, black, white. If the glitter of gold is not appropriate, brown, pink, burgundy, berry options. Lilac may be suitable, but only in soft, muted tones.
Almost all colors look well with a black dress;
White dress. White, like black, is a universal base color, so any shade of manicure will work under such a dress. In this case, if we are talking about the wedding manicure, it is better to give preference to a neutral color scheme – pastel, nude, milk manicure. Add a little playfulness will help to color French with a pink or milk base. By the way, nude and milk – this manicure is suitable for everything – any outfit or event;
Evening dress. If you have an important evening gown, choose either a manicure in the color of the outfit or a neutral nude. Do not make your nails too bright, even if your evening dress is fuchsia – it is too easy to overload the image;
With colors. Manicure under the dress with flowers can be beaten in the same style as the outfit – add a floral design in the form of drawings or sliders to the nails. Another option is to cover your nails with gel nail polish in the prevailing shade of the outfit. If you’re dominated by yellow flowers – use yellow gel polish, for blue buds on the dress – blue gel polish. Nude and milk manicure will also work, as well as black, brown and gray;
Burgundy. Manicure under a burgundy dress can be designed in mustard, blue, emerald or pink shades – you will get an interesting contrast. Almost all shades from the nude palette will be suitable – from light beige, to coffee. Another bold option that adds luxury is a gold manicure under a burgundy dress. Well, if you don’t want your nails to stand out against the dress, get a burgundy or red manicure.
In addition to the clothes, it is important to combine the nails with jewelry. You should not paint them with gold sequins if you plan to wear rings and chains made of silver. It is also recommended to pay attention to inserts of stones, jewelry enamel, glass, which attract attention to themselves.
Events
In addition to matching with clothing, it is also important to consider appropriateness for the occasion.
Event options:
A party at a club, a fun get-together with friends, a night out on the town. A great excuse to add a little sparkle. You can choose coatings with shimmer, use small or large sequins, kamifubuki. It is not necessary to paint all nails, sometimes an accent on 1-2 fingers of each hand is enough. If there is no time, you can apply gold polish over any other coating.
Interviews, exams, formal events, business meetings and negotiations. It is worth choosing basic options: beige, peach, delicate rose. Perfectly suit the classic French with a transparent bed and a white tip. Sometimes monochrome is appropriate.
New Year’s Eve, Christmas, other holidays. Coatings with shimmery glitter in festive shades are welcome: red, deep blue, saturated fir, glittery snow or icy blue;
Wedding. If you are a bride and in the celebration stick to a classic style, the nails are decorated in nude or milk color. For themed events, you can do a bright wedding manicure. For the wedding guest, it is acceptable to make almost any manicure – from calm and natural to bright – red, black, turquoise and add a little glitter;
Gala events, dinner parties. Add charm, sophistication and style to your image with dark nails in noble shades: wine or Marsala, eggplant, burgundy, deep green, petrol. Will be appropriate matte and velvet coatings, which always look stylish. If it is difficult to decide on the choice, you can think about an elegant black manicure.
Time of year
All-season options include polishes in beige, pink, gray and black shades. They go well with different clothes, as well as with each other. If necessary, you can easily make bright accents on such bases with stickers, rhinestones, drawings.
Features of the choice by season:
Winter. Pay attention to purple, silver, cherry, gray shades. The noble blue and burgundy lacquer will be appropriate;
Autumn. If you don’t know what color manicure to choose for autumn, look to nature: the color of golden or slightly rotted leaves, terracotta, azure, the night sky. Brown, orange, berry, and wine lacquers will be appropriate;
Spring. It’s time for a bright rainbow. Especially pertinent are all variations of greens, yellows, coral. It is possible to dilute them with white and beige lacquers;
Summer. Time of pink, orange, green, blue colors, yellow and other pastel shades are allowed. In summer, you can actively use stickers, drawings not only on the hands, but also in the pedicure.
The combination of colors
You can use a simple rule: if it is not clear with what to combine some color, then use monochrome – gray, white, black, beige. This is a win-win, but boring way out. Much more interesting, look unusual duets.
Red
A very popular color, but it is extremely difficult to combine it, it is very easy to ruin a manicure. The combination largely depends on the temperature and saturation.
What is red:
Classic. In the manicure, it is easy to pair it with yellow, blue, brown and brown.
Cherry. It will be well accentuated by all shades of sandy, peach, light orange, azure polishes.
Raspberry. Does not like mixing, but combines with black, white, can be used with the classic rose.
Pink
If it is a nude tone, it will easily fit into almost any color scheme, “calming” too bright manicure. It is much harder to choose companions for pure, saturated tones.
What pink is like:
Classic, clean. Great with coffee, olive, blue and gray, soft mint.
Bright rose, dark pink, fuchsia. Suitable yellow, lime, chocolate, gentle mint, light turquoise.
Bright pink or “barbie” is the most capricious color, as it requires perfect skin and emphasizes flaws.
Yellow
The most controversial combinations in manicure and in clothing are associated with yellow.
What is yellow:
Classic, bright. Ideally combined with blue, black, purple, violet, blue. Looks good with black, graphite, wet asphalt.
Delicate lemon with greenish undertones. Ideally befriends ripe cherry, blue, gray shades, milk chocolate.
Lilac
Often used in summer manicure, well emphasizes tanned skin, masks flaws, takes the attention to itself. Perfectly combines with the nude palette and monochrome.
What a lilac is:
Delicate, light, like a lilac flower. Befriends a delicate rose, mint, menthol, looks interesting with yellow shades.
Bright lilac. Can be combined with delicate lilac, blue, azure, classic rose, silver.
Black
Black polish is elegant, versatile, goes well with all calm, bright, shiny and matte polishes. It’s hard to go wrong here, but there are duos that will adorn any hand.
What colors to add to a black manicure:
- red;
- yellow;
- lilac;
- orange;
- lettuce.
If you want something calm, restrained, you can cover a few nails with white or gray varnish.
Peach
Peach belongs to the nude group, but combines very difficult. The color is delicate, warm, and often exposes the hands not in the best light.
What shades to combine peach with:
- blue;
- emerald;
- chocolate;
- gray;
- red.
It is categorically not necessary to combine peach with pink, lilac, yellow, beige colors, although they are very close in the palette.
Conceal flaws
Bumpy nails with grooves
In this case, it is worth choosing nacreous, shimmering polishes with a sheen of silver, gold, pearls. Sand, rose gold will look good. It is worth refusing deep and dark manicures, which require perfect highlights, emphasize all the irregularities.
Short and wide nails
Visually elongates nails polish, which is not translucent. It should completely overlap the grown-out part, it is better to choose dark variants. With a short length, it is not necessary to do drawings with horizontal stripes, french, to use on one nail many shades, small drawings. Shiny satin coatings are welcome, it is worth refusing matte, velvet nails.
Also, visually elongates nails coating, which is not fully applied to the plate. It is necessary to paint the central part, leaving 1-2 mm from the side rollers. The same technique is used for crooked and very wide nail shapes.
Short, full fingers
In this case, it is worth refusing bright, colorful coatings, which clearly show the tip of the finger, visually shorten. It is worth giving preference to a color close to the skin. Brown, gray, muted pink shades, khaki are acceptable. It is possible to choose matte or glossy coverings.
Incorrect shape of the nails
It is recommended to first qualitatively “discipline” the cuticle, trim all excess, giving the nail bed a rounded or rectangular shape, and then paint in pastel colors.
Hair Color
The choice of hair color is a very controversial issue. The same options may work for brunettes and blondes. It is more influenced by the type of appearance. Some women like warm colors, others like cool colors. But stylists more and more often divide the multifaceted palette into hair-related groups. They believe that it is the manicure that can emphasize and finish the image.
What tones and shades will suit the hair color:
Blondes should pay attention to the pink and nude palette, silver, coffee with milk, nacre. They often choose sky blue, light yellow manicure, which emphasizes the blonde hair.
Brunettes should pay attention to the red palette from coral to burgundy, overripe cherry. Often this type of women’s favorites are brown, lilac, purple shades and silver sequins, which also suit them perfectly.
Brown-haired women should give preference to green, purple, mustard, gold, orange, brown and other natural colors. The same varnishes should be chosen for red-haired girls.
Circle of colors.
If the above tips did not help or there was no time to read, then you can approach the selection of matching colors formally. Use the color wheel and see if you like it or not. How to use a color wheel – you just need to take the opposite or adjacent colors in the diagrams shown in the figure. For example, if you need 2 colors – take the opposite or adjacent colors.
Tips for buying
Choose the right color for the first time in a store is very difficult, especially in poor light. You can be guided by samples. Sometimes sellers offer paper or cardboard so that the buyer himself made a coloring of the tone he likes.
There are nuances to consider when buying:
The product is always darker in the bubble than it actually is. Even a saturated red can become transparent, the application will shine through the loose edge. Therefore, never guided by the packaging.
Coating is rarely applied in one layer, more often two, three, so it will be much brighter than when painted on the cardboard in the store.
A natural nail is not white like the artificial templates and cardboard that lie near the samples in the store.