The Summer Nail Color Palettes to Wear Right Now
Butter yellow spent the spring taking over sweaters, then handbags, and now it has officially made it to the salon chair. Cobalt pulled the same move from the runway. After a couple of summers of quiet, milky neutrals, nail color is LOUD again, and the people who paint hands for a living sound thrilled about it. Stephanie Stone, the celebrity nail artist who works with Sally Hansen, said it perfectly: “This summer is going to be all about colors that feel alive.”
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You can generally group nearly every color that nail artists are forecasting (and nearly everything we continue to save in our camera roll) into five broad color categories. No matter if you’re a single-hue woman or if you plan on cycling through each hue by August, this is what to request from your next salon visit, which bottles are worth spending money on, and the tips the pros want you to know before heading out on your next beach vacation with a fresh manicure. To see all the palettes featured in this story, scroll down!
Start With the Juicy Brights
Watermelon is the middle ground between pink and red, and it photographs just like candy. Celebrity manicurist Gina Edwards told Who What Wear that this bright color will never tip into a neon color and looks good on short natural nails or an almond-shaped nail. For those who want even more pop from their color options, check out hot pink and dragon fruit fuchsia (which are part of the same family).
One of our Beauty Empty Experts (BEEs) described ILNP’s Vaporwave, an indie watermelon shade, as “an eye-searing watermelon red that’s just SO much fun,” and another, who calls herself very pale and cool toned, wrote that it “looks really good on me. Extremely fun and summery!” Watermelon gives you the confidence of a classic red without all the formality.
These are the other bright colors not to miss this summer:
Our BEEs report watermelon earns the most compliments of any summer bright, and a few keep a bottle going into September for pedicures alone. The recurring gripe is beach wear, since sunscreen and sand chew through a creme finish fast. Most treat a glossy top coat as part of the color, not an optional extra.
essie Nail Polish in Watermelon
A juicy pinkish-red creme with a near-perfect shopper rating and a vegan formula.
Butter Yellow Isn’t Going Anywhere
Butter yellow was last summer’s breakout, and instead of fading it got a promotion. Nail artist Svitlana Motyl told Bustle, “It’s proven to be one of the most wearable color trends. It complements warm weather wardrobes beautifully, plus it also suits a wide range of skin tones.” The shade works because it behaves like a neutral (it goes with denim, white linen, and every gold ring you own) while still reading as a color.
The bottle to know is essie’s Unsalted, a dusty pale yellow that landed right on time. When one BEE went hunting for the perfect butter yellow this spring, the recommendation came back fast: “they also recently released a butter yellow called Unsalted.” Another kept it simple: “I got Essie Unsalted. It’s a trending color.” Budget shoppers can grab Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri in Swirling Sunflower instead, the $7.99 pick from Refinery29’s summer list.
Pale yellows do come with homework. A BEE who owns a similar butter yellow from Zoya warned that it went on “very patchy, even after three coats,” and that complaint follows pale yellows generally, not one brand. Thin coats, real drying time in between, and a ridge-filling base coat get you to the smooth, buttery finish the trend photos promise.
A few more pastels deserve a spot in the rotation:
BEEs treat butter yellow as the pastel that earns permanent-collection status, and plenty who bought in last summer are still topping off the same bottle rather than chasing a replacement.
essie Nail Polish in Unsalted
The pale, slightly dusty yellow essie released right as the trend peaked.
Ocean Blues, Cobalt Included
Blue used to be the risky choice at the salon. This year it’s the confident one, and it runs from barely-there sea glass to a full cobalt statement. Motyl is bullish on the deep end, telling Bustle cobalt is “one of the standout shades this season because it’s vibrant and fresh, reminiscent of clear summer skies and tropical waters.”
Turquoise and aqua give you the beach reference with less commitment. Nail artist Becca McCall calls turquoise the color of the summer, and essie covers that range with In The Cab-ana and Offbeat Chic, both $10. Mint drifts in and out of this family too. Motyl told Bustle that “mint green is making a strong comeback, particularly Tiffany-inspired shades,” and the community’s reference point hasn’t moved in a decade: “With mint I think of a classic, China Glaze For Audrey,” one BEE wrote.
The coastal colors hardly stop at cobalt:
The Hive splits between cobalt on short square nails and softer aqua on longer shapes. Both camps flag that deep blues show tip wear sooner than any other summer shade, so expect a shorter gap between appointments.
essie Nail Polish in Butler Please
A bright cobalt creme from essie’s best-seller list and Refinery29’s pick for the trend.
The Tropical Corals
Even though the beach may be a long way off, your nails are about to tell everyone where you’d rather be with coral, the color of vacations. One of the most recognizable colors in the OPI collection is OPI’s Cajun Shrimp, which is an orange-coral shade with spice. It has been around for so long that OPI actually trademarked its name, and it appears on many lists that have come out recently listing some of the best summer nail polish colors. Refinery29 lists it at $11.99. Beyond the original Cajun Shrimp, there are warmer takes like mango, tangerine, and sunset ombres that transition from apricot to peach, for anyone who spends those hot summer months outside.
The only real question with coral is whether it suits you. As one commenter put it, “For my skin tone there’s a very fine line between elegant coral and clown orange.” The line moves with your undertone, since pinker corals flatter cool skin and the orange ones light up warm skin. When in doubt, essie’s Peach Side Babe ($10, the soft coral from Refinery29’s list) is the gentlest way in.
The rest of the tropical lineup looks just as fruity:
BEEs with cool undertones keep coral in the pedicure rotation, where the clown-orange risk drops to zero, and the warm-toned ones wear Cajun Shrimp straight through August.
OPI Nail Lacquer in Cajun Shrimp
OPI’s spicy orange-coral, established enough to have its own trademark.
Milky Sheers, Jelly, and Pearl
The one holdover from the clean-girl years survived by getting more interesting. Milky white is still everywhere (search “coconut milk nails” and clear your afternoon), but this summer it comes glazed, pearled, or jellied. Nail artist Olha Shtanhei says “glazed jelly nails will become the look of summer 2026,” describing them as “sheer, glossy, dimensional, and very wearable.” The manicure that kicked the whole conversation off was the Tiffany-blue glazed jelly look Zola Ganzorigt created for Hailey Bieber.
Half of this palette is finish rather than color. Nail artist Maryna Slynko says “clients are paying attention not only to color, but also to the way a finish interacts with light,” and pearly toppers over milky bases are the easiest home version of the idea. The base to own is OPI’s Funny Bunny, the sheer soft white that builds from barely-there to full milk glass in two or three coats.
A few more milky looks are worth screenshotting:
Milky formulas have a streaking reputation, and it’s real. One BEE said of a popular milky white with shimmer that “the only way I could keep this one from streaking was 3 coats and it basically ruined the ‘milky’ part of the polish.” Sheer-by-design bottles like Funny Bunny dodge most of that, since the first coat is supposed to look like almost nothing.
Milky sheers are the Hive’s most repurchased nail category, period. BEEs describe them as the shade you wear when you cannot decide, and several keep one on their toes year-round. The trade-off they flag is opacity anxiety, the urge to add one more coat that turns milk glass into correction fluid. Two thin coats and a walk away is the standing advice.
OPI Nail Lacquer in Funny Bunny
OPI’s sheer soft white, the starting point for most milky manicures.
Picking Your Palette
If you already know your undertone, the palettes mostly sort themselves. Corals and butter yellow flatter warm skin, watermelon and cobalt favor cool skin, and the milky sheers work on everyone (the diplomatic option). If you don’t know yours, our guide to finding your undertone and color season walks through the tests, and nails are the cheapest place to run the experiment. A $10 bottle is a much lower-stakes commitment than a $40 foundation, and the pool doesn’t care if you get it wrong.
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What Our BEEs Are Buzzing About
Here’s what the beauty community is saying about these colors:
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