Have you ever applied nail polish and been shocked at how the picked skin around your fingernails suddenly looked redder and rougher? If yes, this blog post is for you. If you want to learn how to choose the right color for your skin tone in general, this post is for you too!
Like many of you who struggle with nail-biting, I use colored nail polish to make biting less tempting. Also, there is something about a fresh manicure that we don’t want to ruin, am I right?
But somehow, with certain colors—like bluish-gray or a nude tone—my sore skin from skin picking was more visible than usual.
Then one day, I stumbled across a Brad Modo video about finding the right hair color for your skin tone. The essence of the video is:
If you have a warm skin tone, stick with warm colors; if you have a cool skin tone, stick with the cool.
So, if you struggle with dermatillomania like me, your fingers are probably a little red and sometimes even bleeding. Therefore, nail polishes with warm tones are a better choice.
This rule of thumb applies to styling in general, but I never thought about this as I’m not very adventurous with colors in my wardrobe!
How to find out if your skin tone is warm or cool
There are a few tricks to figuring out if you have a warm or cool skin tone. To conduct the tests, look at your skin under natural light, as artificial light can change the appearance of your skin tone.
Vein Test
What color are your veins?
Blue or purple = cool skin
Green or olive = warm skin
Blue or green = neutral skin
Jewelry Test
Does gold or silver jewelry look better on you?
Gold jewelry = warm
Silver jewelry = cool skin
Both colors look great on you = neutral skin
Sun Test
Do you tan easily?
Do you tan easily, no redness, golden color = warm
Do you burn easily and turn red = cool
Eye Color Test
What color are your eyes?
Blue/grey/green/deep brown = cool
Brown/hazel/honey = warm
A mixture of colors = neutral
Paper Test
Hold a white paper next to your face and look in the mirror.
Does your face look:
Yellow = warm
Pink/rosy/bluish-red = cool
Both = neutral
I hope you find this little excursion into color theory helpful! Maybe a good nail polish color distracts from not only nail-biting but also visually covers up the damage caused by skin picking—until you get a better handle on your dermatillomania 😉
Extra tip for nail-biting and skin picking:
Keep your nails trimmed short. Having less nail provides less to bite and is less tempting. Some swear by acrylic nails, and others find bitter-tasting no-bite nail polish helpful. Do mini manicures at least once a day. Scan your fingers for hangnails and trim them with a tool–don’t rip them off!