In the mood for pastel green nails? We’ve collected the 17 best shades from big-name and indie polish brands so you can find the look you’re craving. We’ve included colors from pastel green nail polish’s varied range from seafoam mint to sage to yellowy spring green. For more soft colors check out my roundup of the best shades for pastel purple nails.
How Does Your Zen Garden Grow? is the perfect new leaves in spring green. It has just the right amount of yellow in a heavily white base for a spring pastel that’s bright, cheerful, and botanical.
OPI’s Infinite Shine line offers a higher, gel-like glossy finish and longer-lasting wear than their normal polishes when used with their base and top coat. It’s opaque in two coats and has a very easy to work with formula. You can see it swatched here in this application review video on YouTube.
Mint Chocolate Chip by Morgan Taylor is a classic pastel mint shade. It’s one of those perfect shades that can’t go wrong. It goes with anything, on any skin tone, and can be worn in any season. It’s a true mint with a touch of blue and really does remind me of creamy mint chocolate chip ice cream.
This Morgan Taylor shade has a dreamy formula that’s creamy and opaque in two coats. The first is a little streaky but it quickly evens out on the second. See a live application and review in this YouTube swatch video.
Anyone can do a solid pastel blue-leaning mint, but not every brand can pull off a creamy pastel sage like Can Dew Attitude by Essie. This green has a creamy white base and is nearly opaque in only one coat, but you’ll want to do two for true pigment.
The yellow-touched true green pastel is a unique shade that I doubt you have in your collection and looks amazing on all skin tones. The formula is flawless with a high glossy finish and good wear-time.
You can see it swatched here on this YouTube review of Essie’s Spring Collection.
Plain not your thing? Check out Dew Drop by ILNP. It’s a pastel pistachio green speckled with emerald green metallic flakies that give it a robin’s egg look. Really ILNP’s entire Hatched Collection has stunning spring pastels of all colors if you’re going for this robin’s egg look. I included another polish from this collection in my article of best polish for pastel purple nails.
It has a crelly formula, meaning it’s a mix of cream and translucent jelly polish. It’s not clear, but you can see through a little bit and that allows these speckles to build in layers for a neat 3D effect. The polish is fully opaque in three coats but you could get away with two if you were strapped for time.
Take a Dip by NCLA rides the line between green and blue with this light pastel seafoam. It’s a gorgeous all-year-round shade that goes with anything and complements all skin tones. There’s a lot of white in this formula so it applies well and you won’t need a ton of coats to get the look you want.
NCLA polishes are made in America and are vegan, cruelty-free, and seven-free.
This Cucumber Mint Bundle comes with this cute color in both regular and gel nail polish so you have options for what type of polish you want and you can easily touch up your gel manicure when it starts to chip. Both bottles are full-size so you’re getting two bottles of polish for the price of what you might pay for one higher-end nail polish. The Dare to Wear bottle air dries and has an easy-grip rubberized handle. The Perfect Match bottle is gel polish and needs a UV nail lamp to cure (dry) it.
I would call this a garden green pastel or a light, creamy sage. The shade is very wearable in the spring and summer months. The gel polish is long-lasting and has a lovely formula. The Dare to Wear version is a little more on the sheer side and will need two to three coats.
That’s Hula-Rious! from OPI’s Infinite Shine line is a light pastel minty green that’s somewhere between spring and sage green. It’s a unique color because it has more than a touch of yellow in there which pushes it more toward spring green or sage–but it’s cool-toned so instead of being a sunny spring green, it’s squarely a mint. This isn’t the normal sea foam blue mints you’re used to seeing and is keeping the mint trend fresh.
The polish goes on slightly streaky and sheer on the first coat but is opaque in two or three coats depending on your application and preferences. OPI’s Infinite Shine formula has a gel-like shine and gel-like performance in that you can get around a week out of this polish or more depending, again, on your application and how roughly you treat your nails.
That’s Hula-Rious! is made in America and currently in high demand so it might be back-ordered. You can see it swatched in this YouTube review.
For a slightly different finish, consider Fashion Playground by Essie. It’s a crelly that has a slight shimmer with silver reflective microglitter. The glitter isn’t too flashy and you really only see it in the right lighting so it’s not the type of polish that would be out of place in an office.
As a crelly, it’s quite sheer and needs three coats to get close to full opacity. It doesn’t have a lot of white in the formula and is a little thinner than the formulas you may be used to from Essie.
Part of Color Club’s Neon Pastel Collection, Til the Record Stops is not a subtle polish. It’s bright and eye-catching which I love. Unlike some other pastels, the formula of this polish isn’t packed with white so it’s much more sheer. You’ll want two to three coats for full opacity or you can layer it over a coat of white nail polish which is what I recommend.
You can watch a review and live-application of this polish, and the whole collection, in this YouTube swatch video.
Pistache by Ella + Mila is a creamy light pastel pistachio green with a touch of sage green. It’s a unique shade among these greens and one you likely don’t already have in your collection. The polish is quite a light shade and the formula is a little sheer so I’d recommend layering this over a base of white nail polish for best results.
Ella + Mila polishes are seven-free, made in America, and PETA-certified vegan and cruelty-free.
For those concerned about harmful chemicals, go with the only water-based polish on the list: Mint to Be by Piggy Paint. Mint to Be is a bright, punchy mint green leaning toward a pistachio green.
Piggy Paint claims to be safe for children, pregnant people, and even toddlers and babies. Normal polish’s base formula is a chemical solvent and as that solvent evaporates, your polish dries. That solvent is what you think of as “nail polish smell.” Piggy Paint has a water base that takes longer to dry (hit it with a blow dryer for a minute to speed up the process) but is much safer for young ones. Plus it doesn’t have that same strong odor.
Piggy Paint is also made in America, vegan, and cruelty-free.
You won’t be sacrificing boldness when you wear Sublime by Heroine.NYC this green neon pastel. A lot of the pastels on here are leaning toward blue-green seafoam or yellowy spring green, but this polish is a true pastel lime green. It’s a high-energy color that screams fun.
The formula has plenty of white in it so it should be opaque after two coats with nice, bright pigment. Heroine.NYC polishes are made in America, cruelty-free, vegan, and nine-free. Just be aware that it’s a slightly smaller bottle than standard nail polish.
If mint is your comfort zone, you’ll love China Glaze’s Re-Fresh Mint. It’s a true seafoam green polish with a heavy white base placing squarely in pastel mint territory.
The formula is creamy and a breeze to apply. It’s a bit streaky on the first coat that will even out. Re-Fresh Mint is perfectly wearable at two coats but three coats rounds out the color. You can watch it applied in this YouTube application video.
Cha-Ching by Revlon’s Colorstay Gel Evy is a good choice for people in a rush who are looking for their nails to dry quickly. Its fast-drying formula cuts manicure time and you’ll love Cha-Ching’s pastel blue-leaning pistachio.
Unlike some other pastels, this one doesn’t have as much white in the base so it can start out a little streaky but that covers up smooth on the second or third coat.
For gel polish options, check out this Venalisa Bundle in Mint Green. It comes with mini-bottles of their creamy seafoam mint gel polish that reminds me of sea-glass, as well as their gel base coat and tempered gel top coat.
It’s a good choice for people just getting into gel nail polish who might not already have their own top and base coats. Keep in mind that you will need a LED or UV nail lamp, but quality lamps are quite affordable these days so don’t let that intimidate you.
Do You Harajuku? is a pastel sage by Morgan and Taylor with an iridescent shimmer. It’s a middle-sage and you could almost call it pastel wasabi if you were going from the naming conventions of the collection.
Compared to other iridescent nail polish, the shimmer is very subtle and only visible is good lighting so it’s a shine that can slip under the radar. Keep in mind that, like a lot of Morgan and Taylor polishes I’ve tried in the past, the formula is a little thin and sheer so you’ll want three coats or to layer this pastel over a base layer of white.
Pastel Green is exactly what it says on the label. It’s a cheery shade of pastel spring green, matching the color of tree buds and young, tender leaves. There’s plenty of yellow in here to keep it warm and this color would look best worn in spring or summer. The formula is on the thin side so expect for it to start out streaky and take two to three coats for full opacity.
Agatha Ruiz de la Prada polishes are 11-free, vegan, and cruelty-free. The bottles are slightly smaller than full-size but you can actually pick up the full Spring Fling Collection (four pastel shades) for surprisingly cheap so if you’re on a budget that might be the way to go to get the most for your money.
Craving pastel green nails? With our guide, you'll find the best pastel green nail polish from your favorite brands and discover new shades from indie brands.
