21 Best Polishes for Pastel Purple Nails

Find the perfect shade for you with one of the 21 best polishes for pastel purple nails. Pastels are fresh, youthful, and fun so pastel purple nail polish is a must for any spring look. For more soft shades check out the top polishes for pastel green nails. Don’t forget you can extend the life of your mani with the best top coat brands around.

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What makes something pastel?

A pastel shade is a color that is desaturated giving it a soft, light appearance. Saturation is a way to describe the intensity of colors, and one you've probably played with in your social media filter options. A fire-engine red is highly saturated but if you desaturate that color you end up with pinks and eventually pastels. 

When it comes to nail polish, pastel shades tend to have a lot of white in their formula which allows for those springy colors. This also helps to make them more opaque and need fewer layers. 

Why are pastel colors associated with spring? 

When you look at spring and Easter decorations, it's pastels as far as the eye can see. This is probably because the first colors to come in after a long, grey winter are pastel shades. The first flowers have delicate pinks and purples and even the leaves on the trees are a spring green as opposed to their deeper, summer green.

According to Inside Science, this lighter color is because the brand new leaves are only starting to produce chlorophyll, which is what gives leaves their green color. Plus they're thinner and more see-through and when light passes through a color, it appears lighter.

Choosing the right pastel purple nail polish for your skin tone.

Pastels are great because they tend to go well with any skin tone so what you really need to look out for is warm and cool tone pastels.

So if you have warm-toned skin, go for pastels that have warmer look to them. Think purples that are on the pinker side. If you're cool-toned, go for purples that are bluer. 

How to make your pastel nails pop.

The nice thing about pastels is that they're attention-getting without being overly bold or flashy. If you feel like your pastels aren't looking as bright as you'd like, apply a layer of white nail polish and then, once dry, paint your pastels over that. 

You can also go with a more opaque base coat with a lighter cast that can do something similar to a layer of white polish. 

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