3.2 Colour theory
When it comes to the colour of nail polishes, there are literally thousands of options these days! Plus, if you start doing nail art, you may use multiple colours on each nail. Usually, your client will have their #fave colour in mind when they arrive at their appointment, but there are times where you will be asked for your opinion. When this happens, a basic understanding of colour theory can help to inform your choices.
To be able to provide sound advice to your clients about which colours will work best for their skin tone, it is important for you to have a good understanding of the colour wheel and colour theory. Many of us learned the basics of colours at school, and you may even remember songs about the colours of the rainbow! The easiest way to think about the colour wheel is to look at the categories of colours. According to colour theory, there are primary colours (red, yellow and blue), secondary colours (green, orange and purples) and tertiary colours (blue-green or red-violet).
When it comes to selecting colours of polish for clients, you need to consider their skin tone and the look they are going for. Colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel are categorised as complementary, and they will result in a vibrant, strong contrast. For example, if you have blue eyes, wearing an eyeshadow that has an orange hue will make them pop!
Key phrase | Hue: another word for the term colour and refers to the dominant colour or ‘colour family’ on the colour wheel. For example, the hue of sky blue is blue, the hue of terracotta is orange, and the hue of emerald is green.
Key phrase | Saturation: tells us how colourful colour is in terms of intensity. If there is high saturation, this means the colour will be more intense, and in reverse, if the saturation decreases, the colour will be paler or appear washed-out.
Key phrase | Tonal value: refers to the amount of light that is reflected off the colour, resulting in how light or dark a colour is. For example, fluorescent yellow is brighter than a mustard yellow, so fluorescent yellow would be higher in value (brighter) than the mustard yellow.
Depending on the sort of look your client is going for, you will need to carefully consider the type of hue, saturation and tonal value needed to achieve the look. Additionally, you will need to determine whether or not the colour they have chosen will be complementary. To do this, we can further categorise colours into warm, cool and neutral. If we draw a line and chop the colour wheel in half, cool tones are to the left, and warm tones are to the right:
As you can see, cool tone colours include greens, blues and blue-based purple. Warm tone colours include orange, yellow and red. Neutral colours tend to include black, white, brown and grey. There are certain colours that will look better on certain skin tones and undertones.
Key phrase | Skin tone versus undertone: Skin tone (overtone) is the surface skin colour (fair, medium, dark), whereas skin undertone is the subtle hue underneath the surface (warm, cool or neutral).
Knowing which colours work best with your own skin tone and undertone is an excellent place to start when learning to apply colour theory professionally. Most of us know our skin tone in terms of whether we have fair skin, medium skin or dark skin. Our skin tone can change throughout the year, depending on how much sun we are exposed to, whereas our undertone never changes.
Key phrase | Melanin: a natural skin pigment found in hair, skin, and eye colour in both people and animals. Variation in colours depends on the type and amount of melanin they have.
A good way to think about the impact of a client’s natural melanin is to compare an olive skin client (more melanin) and a fair skin client (less melanin). As a general overview, consider the following recommended colours with regard to skin tone:
| Skin tone | Recommended colours | Colours to avoid |
| Fair and light skin | Dark brown, burgundy, grey, blues, deep purples, lavender, lilac, sapphire, and emerald greens. | Yellow and orange, as well as any pastel shades or soft colours as they may wash you out. |
| Medium skin | Dusty pink, soft rose, peach, jade green, taupe, grey, off-white and blue. | Bright red, bright yellow and neon colours as they can look overpowering. |
| Olive skin | Orange, red, golden yellow, amber, warm greens, blue, turquoise, moss green, magenta, purple, chocolate brown and creamy whites. | Colder blues, soft greens and yellows as they can be too similar to the undertone of your complexion. |
| Dark skin | Purple, pink, peach, orange, yellow, jade green, cobalt blue and bright colours in general. | Brown, navy and lots of black – these dark colours won’t contrast nearly enough with dark skin and can blend in rather than be complementary. |
Determining your undertone can be a little tricky and can sometimes seem like a bit of a guessing game. If you are still struggling to identify your undertone, carefully examine your skin and see what hues appear. If you have pink or red hues, then it is likely you are cool-toned. If you have yellow or golden hues, then you are likely warm-toned. If you have a balance of hues or have olive skin, then it is likely you have a neutral undertone. Look at the celebrities below and see if you can determine who has warm, cool or neutral skin tone:
How did you go with your undertone assessment? If you assessed the celebrities toward the left to be warm-toned and those on the right to be cool-toned, then you are correct!
As a quick reference guide, identify skin tones by looking out for:
| Veins on the underside of the wrist appear green Suits gold jewellery Skin tans easily | Veins on the underside of the wrist appear blue/green Suits silver or gold jewellery Skin tans well but may not burn | Veins on the underside of the wrist appear blue/purple Suits silver jewellery Skin burns easily and rarely tans |
Different shades of colour will also impact the way the colour looks. Of course, colour is all a matter of preference and if your client is set on the neon green – make their dreams come true!
If you are interested in learning more about the best colours for skin tones, access the resources linked:
It is important that you keep up to date with legislation because ‘not knowing’ is not a reasonable defence. With the emergence of