Choosing the Right Nail Color Using Color Theory

With a plethora of color options offered by manicurists, you might find it hard to determine what to choose. You might be wondering how you can know the color that will look best on you. Color theory can help you make the right decision when it comes to nail polish. In the artistic world, color theory displays how humans perceive colors and how different colors can be mixed to match and bring out the best look. Utilizing these basic color theory rules can help you to easily find colors that compliment your tone.

Warm, Cool and Neutral

There are three main color tones including neutral-toned, warm-toned, and cool-toned skin. It is vital to know that skin tone and skin shade are different things. An example is a person with a pale skin shade but a warm skin tone. You can determine your skin tone by looking at your veins. Green-looking veins mean warm tone while bluish looking veins indicate cool tone.

You can also determine your skin tone by observing your skin reaction to the sun. People with skins that tend to burn easily and struggle to tan are likely cool-toned while those who tan easily are warm-toned. If your skin reacts in both ways, you are probably neutral-toned. Exposing yourself to neutral light can help you asses your skin tone.

Cool-toned

Cool-toned individuals should go for darker colors including brown, greens, and shades of blue. Green, purple, gray, and blue nail polish range from dark to light and are concentrated on the cool end of color wheel. Avoid nail polish with lighter pastels or bright neon and look for something that complements your cool toned skin.

When choosing neutral colors you can choose something with richer color like slate gray or Carmel instead of sticking to while or light beige.

Warm-toned

Warm-toned individuals find are lucky with colors because their skin tone goes well with most colors and shades in the wheel. Nonetheless, they can complement their tone by selecting shades that lean more towards the brighter or darker end of the color wheel rather than those in the middle.

When choosing neutral colors, go for pure white, navy or dark blue, and pigment darks such as black. Avoid nail polish with shouting green or yellow undertones and all those colors that are close to your skin tone since they end up clashing or washing out.

Neutral-toned

If your skin is neutral-toned, then you are luck since you can get the best from both warn-toned and cool-toned shades. The only thing you should do is avoiding shades that match your skin because they wash out. Avoid neon like green and yellow because they tend to clash. To achieve a more unique look, you can match your nail colors with your prototype. Prototype is more than skin shade as it can include hair, and eye color. The four prototypes include winter, summer, spring and autumn.

In conclusion, the goal of applying nail polish is to enhance our look by complementing our skin tone. This makes it important to choose the right color; that which goes well with your tone rather than clashing or washing out. Understand your skin tone and use the color theory to select the color that complements you.