Coral Nails

Coral is a mix of pink and orange, and the ratio decides everything about who it suits. A pink-leaning coral stays flattering on cool and fair skin; an orange-leaning coral needs warmth in the skin to avoid making the hand look ruddy. Test it against the inside of your wrist rather than against the back of your hand, where the tone is already warmer. Application matters more than with a deep colour because coral is a mid-tone bright: it shows streaks that a dark shade would hide, so build it in thin passes and let each one level out fully rather than trying to reach opacity quickly. If the shade turns out slightly too loud once it is on all ten nails, a sheer milky coat over the top knocks it back into the softer coastal register without changing the colour underneath. Glossy suits it; matte turns coral chalky and adds years to the hand.

Coral does its best work against white, cream, denim and raw linen -- anything that lets it be the single warm point in the outfit. It fights with red, and it sits awkwardly next to true pink, so check the rest of what you are wearing before committing. Gold hardware amplifies the warmth; silver cools it and makes it read more pink than orange, which is a useful lever if the shade is slightly too bright for you. On the hand it reads as holiday rather than office, and it is at its most convincing on shorter shapes where the brightness is contained -- a long coral nail is a much bigger colour statement than most people expect when they pick the bottle up. It also flatters a tan more reliably than any other bright, which is why it keeps reappearing every summer.