Christmas Sweater Nails

The base of this is Zoya Ginessa.  I used Zoya Holly, Zoya Jade, and the Nailz Craze 03 stamping plate.  I painted the colors in stripes and then scraped the polish off in the same direction. 

Hunger Games Manicure, The Girl Who Was on Fire Nails

Why didn't I take this picture with the Hunger Games book?  It is currently out on loan.  Catching Fire is the second book in the series.  If you haven't read The Hunger Games, you should.  In the book they mention a manicure the main character, Katniss, got in her Hunger Games makeover.  It is described in the book as flames carefully painted on her nails.  Here is how I did my version.

This will all sound way more complicated then it is.  I did a yellow/coral/red gradient nail with a make-up sponge.  Then I used a dotting tool to add black over the top to make flames.
Step 1-  Base coat.  I used Essie All in One Base.
Step 2- One coat of white or milky colored ridge filler.  Most yellows take several coats.  Over a white polish, you need less coats of yellow polish.  I used Sally Hansen Whirlwind White.

Step 3-  Do as I say, not as I do.  Add one coat of yellow to the entire nail.  I used Wet n Wild Spoiled Mind Your Own Beeswax.  I only added the yellow halfway on the nail, but the orange/coral polish will cover better over yellow then it will white.
Step 4-  Add a 2nd coat of yellow halfway up the nail.
Step 5- My only polish color that didn't have shimmer was the yellow.  So I added a coat of Essie Pure Pearlfection halfway up the nail over the part that will remain yellow.  If none of your polish colors have shimmer, wait until you are done with the yellow/orange/red gradient, and then add a coat of shimmer.  You will want the entire gradient to have shimmer. This part will eventually become the fire.

Step 6-  Sponge an orange or coral polish beginning half way and ending 3/4 of the way up the nail.  I use a small section of a make-up sponge to do this.  If the orange/coral ends up being sponged on the entire last 1/2 of the nail, that is perfectly fine.  You will go over it with red anyway.  I used Zoya Rica.

Step 7-  Sponge a red polish onto the last 1/4 of the nail.  I used Zoya Jade.

Step 8-  Paint squiggles on the nail with a black polish.  I used Wet n Wild Black Cream.  Ideally you want a cream finish to contrast with the shimmery fire gradient.  You can either use a dotting tool or a nail art brush to paint the squiggles.  I used a dotting tool.  When I was trying this out over an old manicure a few weeks ago, I used a art brush and that worked fine too.
Step 9-  Paint black in a fine line along the edges and cuticle of the nail using either a dotting tool or a nail art brush.  Paint closed any areas at the top (by cuticle) that seem like they should be connected.  I connected a few too many squiggles.  The video shows how to do step 8 and 9 and shows an alternate way to do a fire nail. 
Step 10- Top coat.  I used Seche Vite.

I'm obviously a nail art beginner (see above pictures :)).  But, anything I can do, you can do.  I have the art skills of a second grader.  This looks complicated, but isn't.  It does take a bit of time, but probably less then you think it will take.  You could do this with other colors as a base (blues?) to look like cars or bikes painted with flames.  And remember...

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Zoya Jade

This is Zoya polish in the color Jade.  Why is a red polish named Jade?  All of Zoya's polishes have women's names.  So why is a red polish named Jade?  No idea.  This is a red jelly polish with red sparkles.  It took three coats to make it opaque.  The red sparkles are sort of floating within the polish itself in three different layers.  I haven't had a polish quite like this one before.  Photos just don't capture how pretty this is.  I stamped a silver snowflake on my index finger with my new nail stamping kit.   
On my nails Zoya polish wears like iron.  It grows out from the cuticle and needs to be removed before it even begins to chip.  I've had issues with getting Zoya to dry.  It has stayed wet for hours for me, and usually gets some kind of bump or dent before it dries.  It dries with no issues for my sister.  Polish is a very your mileage may vary product.  How it performs varies from person to person.  I'm still experimenting with different top coats and ways of applying Zoya.  Hopefully I will get it to work for me.  This time I waited 10 minutes between coats, and it seemed to dry faster.
Notice the green grass poking through the snow at Christmas time.  So much better then the several feet of snow and sub zero weather we have had for the past few years.
Edit:  I'm now using Essie Good to Go topcoat and this polish dries without an issue for me.