Globally and across many markets, neutral nail colours have emerged as the most popular shades, with black nail polish taking the top spot, according to a recent report by Perfect Corp., a global provider of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) beauty and fashion tech solutions.
The popularity of nail colours has grown rapidly over the past few years, and the global nail beauty market is expected to grow at around 8% over the next decade, according to Transparency Market Research (TMR). As consumers embrace nail care and nail colour as a key aspect of their beauty routines, Perfect Corp. tried to identify the emerging trends in nail colours and textures using data sourced from their YouCam Nails app. [1] The app features thousands of AR-powered filters that allows users to virtually try-on nail colour and nail art effects in real time. According to Perfect Corp., the YouCam Nails app cumulates over 7 million virtual nail colour try-ons per year.
Neutral nail colours are the most popular globally
According to Perfect Corp., globally and across many markets, neutral nail colours have emerged as the most popular and most-frequently tried-on shades. Furthermore, the company’s data revealed a trend towards edgier neutral tones, with black nail polish taking the top spot as the most frequently tried-on shade globally. This bold and versatile tone began to rise in popularity over the past year as celebrities stepped out at award shows and on red carpets wearing this striking nail colour in both high-shine and matte finishes.
The trend toward neutrals observed in the big data continued with Pearl White and Sand also emerging as some of the most popular nail colour shades globally.
Black nail polish and light neutral shades were also confirmed to be top trending nail colours in regional data observed for the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Brazil, France, Japan, China and Mexico.
Red and metallic tones
Red nails, such as Cherry, Crimson and Sparkle Red were also among the most popular nail colour shades globally. These tones emerged as top shades across all regions analysed, with a significant trending popularity toward red shades and bright tones across the Middle East regions including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman.
High shine, metallic and chrome tones such as Metallic Rose Gold, Foil Gold, and Foil Silver were also observed among the top 10 most tried-on nail colours globally. These tones trended in all key markets analysed, with a significant preference observed in China, Mexico, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.
Cream nail polish tops global texture trends
As far as textures are concerned, cream nail polish was the top tried-on texture across all global markets, followed by jelly, matte, and sheer nail colour formulas, confirming the recent dramatic transformations in this area, with new and innovative finishes taking the beauty world by storm.
