Nails

12 Nude Nail Polishes for Every Skin Tone

Finding the perfect nude nail polish for your skin tone can be as tricky as finding your ideal foundation shade. Here's how to pick a color without looking like a corpse

by Dawn Davis

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Skin tone: medium If your skin tone is medium, Pink says to look for polish colors with a warm base that's similar to your skin tone. You can pull off metallics, but you should avoid anything that's too silvery because the coolness will clash with your natural warm undertones.

We love Deborah Lippmann Nail Lacquer in Modern Love, $16, for medium skin tones because the color is rich and creamy with just a hint of red to brighten things up.

SEE NEXT PAGE: Skin tone: medium

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products mentioned

Dolce & Gabbana Nail Lacquer

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Essie Nail Polish

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Jin Soon Nail Polish

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Deborah Lippmann Nail Polish

8.5

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OPI Nail Lacquer

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LCN Nail Polish

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Duality Cosmetics Nail Pak

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Orly Instant Artist Nail Lacquer

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Estee Lauder Pure Color Nail Lacquer

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SpaRitual Nail Lacquer

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Zoya Nail Polish

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Butter London Nail Lacquer

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Older comments

Gorgeous! I love nude nails, and when a chip occurs it is a lot less noticeable than when wearing vivid colors.

by GigiSD Saturday, April 13, 2013 at 11:09PM Report as inappropriate

These are nice but I prefer bright colors on my nails.

by justmilly Friday, March 29, 2013 at 06:47PM Report as inappropriate

I was surprised not to see Essie's Barefoot and Topless on the list!

by BlondeCupcake Friday, March 29, 2013 at 11:32AM Report as inappropriate

lovely neutrals

by AstridB Friday, March 8, 2013 at 07:16AM Report as inappropriate

Nice colors , i like.

by mlira Monday, February 18, 2013 at 10:18AM Report as inappropriate

Those nude shades are very pretty for any skin tone. I would have liked to see more cheaper brands since there were some that are very expensive and some I've never heard of, but the shade range gave me an idea on what to look for in my skin tone.

by darkangel81 Thursday, February 7, 2013 at 08:11AM Report as inappropriate

nice shades.

by Monique3 Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at 08:22AM Report as inappropriate

Lovely colors and a nice variety of skin tones covered. I can totally see which shades I went wrong with. Good article!

by Chantilly Wednesday, January 9, 2013 at 12:33AM Report as inappropriate

Nudes are a nice change every now and then but as my favorite "accessory", I love to have more color on my nails. Though you can subtly perk up the nudes with some clear rhinestone or some light nail paint

by BeautyBoss Tuesday, January 8, 2013 at 06:36PM Report as inappropriate

Love nude polish and this article was a huge help! with very fair skin, some colors look all wrong on me...now I know why! Pinky-beige-lavender is what i'll look for going forward.

by shimmergurl Friday, January 4, 2013 at 08:15PM Report as inappropriate