Maggierose
Yes, that makes sense; of course there are many different shades of nude but my point is that Laura Mercier only recognises one.
No, no, no. There are not many different shades of nude. There are many different shades of skin colour.
Nudity or nudeness is the state of being unclothed which isn’t confined to people who are pinkish beige. It describes the state of undress not the colour of the person’s skin.
Nude is from the Latin nūdus and means open, simple, plain, naked, bare, unclothed. It was foremost a legal term. Its use in law goes back hundreds of years before it was ever used as a fashion colour.
Its first recorded written use as a colour in ladies' clothing dates only from 1922 in the Daily Mail:
Ladies' Hose... Black, white,..taupe, navy, nude, and all shades.
No doubt there was corrolation between the choice of the name as a colour and pale caucasian skin but in this context it is still just a colour and the same applies to cosmetics.