The nail art craze does not seem to be disappearing anytime soon, spotted at countless runways at New York Fashion Week. Embellish your fingernails for the spring with darling flowers, delectable strawberries, or marbled swirls. Chic manicure? Nailed it!

Flower Power:

This charming design incorporates dainty flowers and colored polish to create a fresh, spring look.

You Will Need:

• Base coat
• White nail polish
• Clear top coat
• Makeup brush or paintbrush
• Toothpick
• Yellow nail polish
• Colored polish of your choice
• Toothpick

How-To:

• Begin with a regular French manicure. Apply a top coat over the nail.

  1. Quick Tip: French manicures can be created in many different ways. After applying a base coat to your nails, try keeping the brush of a white polish steady while rotating your finger underneath the brush. Alternatively, cut a binder hole reinforcement sticker in half, lay it over your nail, and use the curved edge as a guideline for the white polish.

• Using a toothpick, apply a dot of yellow polish to your nail. This will be the center of the flower.

• Using the back of a makeup brush or paintbrush, dot a colored polish of your choice around the yellow dot to create the flower petals.

• Seal your design with a top coat.

• For the rest of your nails, use a toothpick to dot the yellow polish in a ring underneath the French tip of each nail.

• Seal your design with a top coat.

Strawberry Shortcake:

These juicy, delectable nails look good enough to eat.

You Will Need:

• Base coat

• Coral-red nail polish

• Green nail polish

• Small paint brush or makeup brush

• White nail polish

• Clear top coat

• Optional: green glitter nail polish

How-To:

1. Apply a base coat to your nails.

2. Paint your nails two coats of a coral-red polish.

3. Using a green polish, paint three rounded blobs at the outer tip of your nail.

4. Using a small paint brush or the back of a makeup brush, apply white dots to the red portion of your nail. Try to keep the dot pattern symmetrical and consistent for best results.

5. If desired, apply a green glitter polish over the leaves to add a hint of sparkle.

6. Seal your design with a top coat.

Water Marble:

This vivid nail art design employs room temperature water and bright polish to create nails that are truly one-of-a-kind.

You Will Need:

• Scotch tape

• Base coat

• Medium-sized bowl

• Room-temperature water (*Note: the water must be room-temperature in order for this technique to work.)

• 3 bright nail polishes of your choice (Make sure that the polishes are newly bought so that they have not thickened.)

• Toothpick

• Cotton swab

• Nail polish remover

• Clear top coat

How-To:

1. Place Scotch tape around the edges of your nail. Use a piece of tape on either side of your nail and at the base of your nail.

2. Apply a base coat to your nails.

3. Paint your nails with two coats of a white polish.

4. Using a bowl of room-temperature water and a bright nail polish of your choice, drop a small amount of polish on the surface of the water. If the color does not spread out over the surface of the water, you may have to adjust either the temperature of thee water or the quality of the polish.

5. Using a second bright polish, drop a small amount of polish over the existing polish on the surface of the water. Repeat the process with a third bright polish.

6. Repeat the process a second time with all three bright polishes, ensuring to drop them in the same order.

7. Use a toothpick to quickly create a design on the surface of the water.

8. Lay your nail onto the surface of the water, making sure to align it with the design you created.

9. Leave your nail underwater for about 5-10 seconds. Gently blow on the surface of the water to dry the polish.

10. Remove your nail from the water and peel off the tape surrounding it.

11. Use a cotton swab dipped in nail polish remover to clean up any polish around the edges of your nail.

12. Seal your design with a clear top coat.

   This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on Apr. 4, 2014.