The 16 Best Nail Colors If You Just Can't With Long Nails This Summer

As someone who almost always has long nails (almond-shaped, please!), I'll admit that when I hacked them down to tiny nubs this past weekend, it was as though an alien inhabited my body. Okay, that's dramatic, but I was sick of them catching on my hair, slowing my typing speed (no good when you're an editor!), catching more food than my mouth, and being all around annoying, so I determinedly clipped them down to about half their size. For a second, I was traumatized. Having shorter nails completely changed the look of my hands and fingers, and the initial shock reminded me of receiving a shorter-than-intended haircut. In seconds, your styling and decorating options can totally change. 

Now, obviously, you can wear whatever nail color you want regardless of how long or short your nails are, but as I'm learning, some colors (like neon pink, gold, and even cream-swirled shades of mocha) look cooler on my shorter length than they did pre-hack—at least IMHO! With summer officially here and tons of new summer nail color collections sitting both on my desk and in my inbox, I decided to sift through a bazillion color options to pull together a list of the best nail colors to wear with short nails. Ahead, 16 nail colors to try if you want of short-nail inspiration. Keep scrolling!

If you love dark nail colors…

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(Image credit: @betina_goldstein)

1. Burgundy

2. Plum

3. Teal 

4. Black

If you like neutral nail colors…

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(Image credit: @oliveandjune)

5. Peach

6. Brown

7. Almost Bare

8. Pink

If you like bright colors…

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(Image credit: @betina_goldstein)

9. Hot Pink

10. Orange

11. Yellow

12. Neon Green

If you like sparkly nail colors…

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(Image credit: @betina_goldstein)

13. Magenta

14. Silver

15. Spiked Lavender

16. Glitter Gold

Beauty Director

Erin has been writing a mix of beauty and wellness content for Who What Wear for over four years. Prior to that, she spent two and half years writing for Byrdie. She now calls Santa Monica home but grew up in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and studied writing, rhetoric, and communication at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. She studied abroad in Galway, Ireland, and spent a summer in L.A. interning with the Byrdie and Who What Wear family. After graduating from UW, she spent one year in San Francisco, where she worked as a writer for Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen before moving down to L.A. to begin her career as a beauty editor. She considers her day-to-day beauty aesthetic very low-maintenance and relies on staples like clear brow serum (from Kimiko!), Lawless's Lip Plumping Mask in Cherry Vanilla, and an eyelash curler. For special occasions or days when she's taking more meetings or has an event, she'll wear anything and everything from Charlotte Tilbury (the foundations are game-changing), some shimmer on her lids (Stila and Róen do it best), and a few coats of the best mascara-type product on earth, Surratt's Noir Lash Tint.