"Nude nails are the hot thing," crows Tom Bachik, L'Oréal Paris nail expert, when I interview him during the Toronto International Film Festival. "I don't think it's a trend anymore. It's kind of replaced the French manicure." Of course, at the time of the interview, he's promoting the L'Oréal Paris Collection Privée, a series of nude lipsticks and nail polishes, each with a celebrity spokesmodel (Doutzen Kroes, Freida Pinto, Eva Longoria and Jennifer Lopez). But brand affiliations aside, he's completely right. Nude nail polish has become a staple in the fashion and beauty worlds because of its clean look and ability to elongate the fingers. "The full-coverage nude does for the finger what a nude pump does for the leg," Bachik says. But how do you find the shade that's right for you? First, you have to determine whether your skin has pink/cool undertones or yellow/warm undertones. "If you look at your veins and they're more of a blue-y purple, then you're more of a cool skin tone," Bachik says. "If they've got a bit of green to them, then you've got a warm skin tone." Then, pick a shade of polish that has the same undertones as your skin. In terms of depth of colour, Bachik likes to go one of two ways: "I’ll either go darker and play off of the skin, or I’ll go one shade lighter to accentuate the length of the finger. A lot of times for photo shoots, we do a perfect match and you get a mannequin-hand effect. But I think going one shade lighter or darker makes it look more intentional." If you're still unsure, look to celebrity women that have colouring similar to your own and check out the colours of nail polish that they wear. Usually, they have a professional manicurist picking their shades to ensure that they're ultra flattering. Here are five of our favourite nude polishes to help in your search: [caption id="attachment_10225" align="aligncenter" width="417"] Clockwise from top left: Lancôme Vernis in Love in Pure Narcisse, $16, lancome.ca. L'Oréal Paris Collection Privée by Colour Riche Nail Colour in Doutzen's Nude, $4, lorealparis.ca. Estée Lauder Pure Colour Nail Lacquer in Frozen Fantasy, $25, esteelauder.com. Butter London 3-Free Nail Lacquer in Fash Pack, $17, butterlondon.ca. OPI Nail Lacquer in A-Piers To Be Tan, $11, opi.com.[/caption]