Nail color for olive skin.

Your hands show the green-gold cast of olive skin more than your face does, because there's no foundation on them. A pale, white-based polish like a milky pink or a beige nude sits right next to that cast and makes it look greyer and yellower by contrast.

Shades with real pigment work the other way. A caramel, brick or wine nail gives the eye a clear color to land on, and the skin around it reads as warm and even. Your undertone decides which family: warm olive glows in earthy, golden-based shades, and cool olive in blue-based reds, berries and plum.

The nude that looks clean on olive hands is one or two shades deeper than your nail bed, with a warm brown or rosy-brown base. Toasted almond, caramel and latte nudes suit warm olive. Rosewood and mauve-taupe nudes suit cool olive.

If you love the sheer, glassy look, choose a sheer polish with a pink-brown tint. It evens out the nail without the chalky white pigment that turns grey on olive skin.

A red manicure is one of the easiest wins for olive skin. Warm olive suits brick, rust and tomato reds. Cool olive suits cherry and blue-reds. A deep, true red that leans neither orange nor pink works on most olive hands.

Dark polish is where olive skin shines. Wine, espresso and oxblood make olive hands look golden and expensive, and they suit almost every olive type. In autumn and winter, an olive green or deep emerald nail echoes the green in your skin and looks deliberate.