February 18 2009 - Trends

To Match or Not to Match?

Help clients solve the debate on whether to keep all 20 nails the same shade.

By Jayna Rust

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When What Not to Wear’s Stacy and Clinton proclaimed that shoes and bags didn’t have to match, it was like a fashion lightbulb was switched. It’s such a hard rule for some to break, though, that it’s still part of the show’s promotional material.

And when it comes to the polish on hands and feet, what’s the case? Should fingers and toes have matching colors? Or is this an old-fashioned fashion our moms told us, too?

Nail professionals and clients seem to have a variety of opinions. Last year celebrity manicurist Jenna Hipp told All Lacquered Up readers to “avoid matching the hands with the toes. You don’t want to be too matchy-matchy!”

But in January on InStyle.com Deborah Lippman balked at the “common” idea that you can’t match the polish on fingers and toes.

So what’s a client to believe? What are you supposed to tell her when she asks for your advice? Well, some, like one blogger who writes about “Live, Love, Beauty, Health, and Everything in Between,” still like matching digits. The majority — more than 60% — of beauty readers, however, on bellasugar.com last fall said they don’t match their polishes.

So, next time she asks, tell her that although it’s no fashion taboo to have 20 same shaded digits, most ladies don’t match and help her pick out complementary colors for the fingers and toes.