While you hardly need an excuse to invest in new nail polish, a new season brings new colour choices, so it’s only fair that you treat yourself to shades guaranteed to help give your beauty regimen a boost. And while nail polish may seem trivial, the right colour choice can help round out outfits or even dress them up, adding personality to a look defined by neutrals, or act as an anchor to an ensemble that’s splashy and bright. Just remember that chipped polish is never in.
Cool Tones: Greens and Blues
Taking a page out of the seasonal affinity for blue (or fall’s temperatures themselves), cool tones dictate the nail polish spectrum, as autumn sees khaki greens, sky blues, and even limes or indigos taken from summer into fall. Preferably worn alongside more neutral pieces (browns, greys, blacks and creams), a kick in nail colour keeps an otherwise monochromatic aesthetic from seeming boring, as a much-needed splash acts as a reminder that autumn’s never drab.
Warm Tones: Rust and Reds
The perfect counterpart to blacks and blues, nail polish in dusty, wine-toned varieties help to add depth and to romanticize the season, as the short-lived hues of falling leaves are captured for just a little while longer. Warm and classic, rusty shades can act as their own neutral alongside outfits based around prints, while the traditional red rings true of a season pledging allegiance to all things retro through its timelessness and automatic glam.
Creams and Beiges
While white nail polish was a short-lived trend that eventually solidified itself as a fashion don’t, cream and beige-toned nail polish bring a softness to the season’s colour spectrum “ especially when worn alongside pieces bathed in warm tones like reds, pinks and dark browns. Our only suggestion? Avoid sparkly colours that won’t work well with a well-worn aesthetic “ or that take away from an outfit already bold. While creams and beiges can be considered a focal point in certain capacities, in terms of nail colour, they’re the quintessential neutral.
Purples and Greys
Despite grey having already made its mark on last Fall/Winter, the shade’s coolness works perfectly alongside 2011’s warm and dynamic autumn landscape, acting as a complimentary tone to warmer colours, and as the ideal counterpart to outfits built around black. The same rule applies to purple: an ideal match for the black leather trend of the season, it’s bold qualities take the likes of cigarette pants and a white blouses up a notch “ offering enough drama to keep classics interesting, but not going so far as black nail polish tends to.
