10 Spring Nail Designs and Color Ideas to Try in April 2025

Prepare to hear about buttery yellow a lot this spring. In addition to being the go-to shade for cute spring nails, buttery yellow is the unofficial color for spring 2025 fashion. This soft, creamy, subdued color actually ranges in tone from a shade above white to slightly golden. It's the best way to do a bright color without doing a bright color. Know what we mean?

On nails, we love the way buttery yellow looks so clean and fresh. It creates the perfect amount of not-quite-pastel contrast to be much more playful than a standard French off-white. We love buttery yellow that represents a true yellow with some bright undertones for bringing sunny vibes to a spring look. That's why one of our go-to polishes for spring this year is Zoya Nail Polish in Darcy. While not intensively bright, Zoya's perky take on buttery yellow is just cheerful enough. We also love that it practically stays on forever. (Image credit:@aanchysnails) 

We've already dubbed spring 2025 the year of the "bouquet nail" around the R&S offices. Have you seen those gingerly painted floral designs all over Insta and TikTok? It's giving us '90s throwback vibes to those Laura Ashley dresses we all loved. If you have the patience, hand-painted flower nails are so gorgeous. The process to get them includes a base coat, dotting tools to create the flowers, and a great topcoat. If you don't have the patience, do what we do to stay on trend with flower nails—scoop up a nail-wrap kit.

We especially love the kits from Scratch that we recently featured in our rundown of the 10 best nail wraps and stickers. Scratch uses super-thin stickers that you can shape and file for a 100% custom fit. They also wipe off in a second with ordinary nail polish remover. It may shock people to learn that you don't have hand-painted flowers on your nails! (Image credit: @nailsbylaney_) 

Tracking perfectly with the clean girl aesthetic, soap nails create a natural nail look by topping a subtle pink or soft-white polish with a glossy topcoat. While we love a rose-petal pink for this trend, some fans of the look go with a nude bottom coat. The squeaky-clean look is perfect for stepping up from clear polish to embrace the color fest that is spring 2025 while staying true to your understated core.

This low-maintenance look hides chips a lot better than some of the other hot spring nails this year. It's our pick if you routinely go a full week without touching up. With this understated look putting your nails in the spotlight, we recommend preparing them using one of our favorite top-rated nail strengtheners. 

To get soap nails with the sweetest pink twist, we recommend OPI Nail Lacquer in Bubble Bath. This whimsical shade lasts up to seven days. We love that you can either increase the intensity of the pink pigment by adding three coats or get a sheer look with two. To turn the volume up on pink with soap nails, we recommend any of the shades on our list of the 10 best iconic pink nail polishes ever made. In fact, keep these pinks bookmarked for any spring nail ideas with floral or fruity designs. (Image credit: @thenailechorg)

We can't quit the feminine, futuristic look of iridescent pearl spring nails. You can tune this high-sheen look up or down depending on the shade used. We're especially partial to the white pearl nails popularized by Hailey Bieber. While white and off-white shades offer the cleanest look for the iridescent trend, you can also pull it off with soft pinks, blues, and tans.

To get this look, we recommend using a gel nail polish and following up with a no-wipe topcoat in whatever shade you want. This will create a thick, neat base. To get the iridescent effect, apply a white pearl chrome powder. Finally, seal it all together with a clear topcoat. The way to "cheat" with instant iridescent pearl spring nails is to pick up a bottle of Londontown Lakur in Coconut Crush. This subtle metallic essence looks great over bare nails or layered on top of your favorite spring nail colors. The benefit over real spring gel nails is that this polish contains biotin and jojoba seed oil to help promote healthy, strong nail growth instead of drying out your cuticles. (Image credit: @giangnail.ie)

This is one of our favorite spring nail designs for balancing clean girl aesthetic with pastel party girl. Also known as fairy dust nails, blueberry milk nails place a creamy, powdery blue topcoat over a pearlescent or white base. There's not one shade of "blueberry" that defines this spring nail look. Feel free to pull it off with anything from periwinkle to sky blue. In our experience, layering with pearlescent polish can get messy. We love a one-step application to achieve blueberry milk nails using Essie Nail Polish Blue-Tiful Horizon. No need to try to balance your top and bottom coats. This formulation creates a deep periwinkle finish with a single coat. (Image credit: @glossnail.bar) 

Ready to hop on the almond nail trend? Start with a gorgeous almond-shaped nail that's the perfect mix between a rounded and pointed nail. A refreshing change from sharp, pointy nails, the almond nail has a slim silhouette that narrows softly toward the tip. This is the aesthetic you want if you've been searching how to get the look of elongated fingers you've seen everywhere.

With almond nails having such statement-making qualities, we prefer to pair this shape with a subtle cream tone. Think light, creamy shades of beige, tan, and off-white that show off the unique silhouette of the almond nail. We like the warm tone with a pinch of shimmer from Essie’s Wild Nude Nail Polish. With an easy-glide brush applicator, this polish creates manicure-quality results with just one to two coats. If you want to play around with some darker nude tones or nudes with hints of blush, our recent guide to the absolute best nude nail colors out there will help you find your dream shade. (Image credit: @vintagenailsroom)

Nails with micro accents are here to make spring feel whimsical. With this genre, you can use any nail color spring looks are trending toward. There's no rule with this one. We adore tiny patterns and flowers set against a neutral nail. The way to make micro art pop is to choose a bolder, brighter accent color that doesn't distract from your base. To get your nails ready for this trend, take a peek at our list of the 10 best cuticle oils and creams.

If you're not exactly crafty, skip artwork for a little nail capping/cuffing. This minimalist design just requires a little bit of lining or glitter along the cuticle and nail edge. In addition to creating high-contrast adorableness, this micro art trend also seals and protects the ends of nails. You can also do a strictly reverse French manicure look by just painting a little half-moon along the cuticle. For a bright and fresh look, we love using OPI Nail Lacquer in Strawberry Margarita for accenting a base of pale pink polish. (Image credit: @_by_shelley)

Soft pink is the easiest way to get cute spring nails in a pinch. Soft pink can be creamy, shimmery, or sheer. If you want to do powder pink nails, use a powder dip at home. However, we prefer the clean, shiny look of a silky, pearly pink. We get our perfectly soft pink nails in one step using Essie Nail Polish in Ballet Slippers. This one has a very subtle "pearly pink" hue that's nearly translucent. If you want to try shades all over the pink spectrum to pull off different spring nail ideas, get some rosy inspo from our rundown of the 10 best pink nail polishes. (Image credit: @nailsbyshantal) 

We're obsessed with opaque nails with fruit art. If you've already seen this look, you're also in love with juicy strawberry and cherry nails. To do this look, add small fruit accents over a clear or solid manicure. Some nail artists are using a steady hand to manually paint on adorable little pieces of fruit. Others are cheating by using nail stickers. We've had success with Ciaté London The Cheat Sheets Nail Stickers for creating a genuine just-back-from-the-nail-salon look with super-cute fruits. (Image credit: @biab_nail) 

We consider this the cousin of the blueberry milk nail we doted over a little further up on this list of our favorite spring nail ideas. This is a slightly more metallic take. To get vibrant aqua nails, combine a base coat, aqua blue shimmer polish, and a topcoat for sealing in the shine. To make this stand out from blueberry nails, we prefer something like ILNP Nail Polish in Hush for its deeper blue and shinier shine. The cool tones in this color actually shift around how it presents under different types of light. If you pick a product with less shine, we recommend using a topcoat with glitter to amplify the gleam. (Image credit: @nailedbyhayden)