From fish lures and Halloween frights to magic 8 balls and star-like gems, local nail stylist Marli Smith has spent the last year honing her favorite designs.

Smith said, “I was always really creative I feel like, and I wanted to have my nails done, but I didn’t want to pay an exorbitant amount of money to get my nails done. So, I researched a lot to figure out how to do it myself.”

The 22-year-old began creating her own nails in August 2024, right around the time of her 21st birthday. Smith described her first set of nails as a “grungy, black and chrome” design. Although she still uses chrome in some of her creations, Smith has now created a wide variety of styles and tones in her work, having made around a dozen different designs.

Smith gets most of her inspiration from the changing of seasons as well as Pinterest, where she’ll find other nail designs and put her own spin on it.

“Sometimes I’ll just sit down and see what happens, just kind of go for it,” she said.

Smith said that the most popular set of nails she has made was the fish lure-themed design, but that the design she is most proud of is a set of blue, orange and clear nails, adorned with graphic lines that she describes as “super fun.” The blue, orange and clear set also took the longest out of any set Smith has made, taking around 5 hours to make.

However, Smith believes that the fish lure design is the most meaningful for her.

“I want to follow trends,” she said. “I guess the fish nails were kind of on trend whenever I did them, but I try to do whatever I feel like doing usually, because if I follow a Pinterest picture, which I like to get ideas from, I’ll get too worked up in the details, And that’s not really what I want to do.

“That [fish lures] was one of the ones that I just kind of did on a whim and it was a goofy one, instead of trying to be all pretty and manicured. And I just did it because I wanted to do it.”

While Smith does have a few favorite materials to work with, she’s always looking for new ways to experiment with her nail art.

“I like to use gel polish and the nail tips. So what I do is I make the gel X nails into press-ons.

She said, “I really want to explore cat eye polish. I need to learn how to do it more, but I used it for the eight ball nails.”

Smith said what separates cat eye polish from other types is that, “It has, teeny, tiny, little magnetic particles in it, and before you cure it, you can move it around with a magnet so that it will make a shimmer. Kind of like it has a reflection, like a cat’s eye.”

Aside from exploring new materials, Smith said that she hopes to create “crisper” nail art.

“It still looks so hand drawn, but I hope it gets crisper and I can do more intricate designs,” she said.

Just as she has, Smith hopes that people will invest in their nails creatively, as it allows you to “express your personality more” and “feel good” about yourself.

Nail designs by Smith can be purchased through @marli.moo on Instagram and 501-205-9295 through text message.