manic MANI MONDAY: FLAME MANICURE

So I was looking for nail inspiration and I happened upon Lucky magazine's Pinterest "Nail" board. The rest is history! Ha, well for real I saw these nails and I thought the technique was amazing so I had to try it myself. What I love is that you can use the technique with any design but I figured since The Hunger Games is still the talk of the town I'd just give these flame nails a go but do my own color version. Of course, neon was involved! Read on for the instructions...

You will need:

Nail Polish Colors- White, Red, Orange, Yellow, and Black or Teal for the background

Baggie- Like a Sandwich Baggie or whatever size you have

Quick Drying Top Coat

Draw ten very small flame shapes onto a baggie with a white nail art pen/brush. I used L.A. Colors Art Deco nail art lacquer in White. If you have a thin sharpie you could draw the flames with that first. Make sure the flames are small enough to fit on your nail with a little room left. Everyone's nails are different so you will have to estimate what is best for you.

Fill in all the flame shapes and let dry for about 5 minutes. Use a hair dryer if you want to dry them faster.

Line the edges of the white flame shapes with red polish. I used American Apparel's Neon Red. I did this by creating a blob of the nail polish and painting with a very small paint brush.

Line the inside of the red with an orange polish. I used American Apparel's Neon Orange.

Fill in the center with a yellow polish. I used American Apparel's Neon Yellow. After this step you have to let the polish dry for a while. I waited about 30 minutes just to be sure. Again, you could involve a hair dryer (on a cool setting.)

In the meantime you can paint your nails the color you want them to be. Most of the Hunger Games manis use black polish in the background but I wanted to change it up a bit so I used Essie's Go Overboard. I also am just obsessed with this color. (I won't worry about my messy paint job until the end.)

When the flames have completely dried, peel them off one by one. If they don't come off easily just wait a few more minutes.

Place one flame on the center of your nail. If you misplace it, just softly pull it up and place it again. (At this point my background polish had already dried.) Rub the flame design into your nail and smooth out any bumps.

Very slowly and carefully file away the part that hangs off your nail.

Cover with a clear fast drying top coat. I used NYC In a New York Minute Quick Dry Nailpolish in Grand Central Station.

When your nails have had a chance to dry a little, clean up the mess around each nail.

And there you have it! Flames on yo' nails.

I can't wait to try another design with this baggie technique. It makes it sooo much easier to create designs on my right hand. It always looks like I let a 4 year old paint my nails on that hand. Here's to great solutions!