Lift your spirits with a miniature lighthouse manicure

Feeling a little unhinged lately? If the day-to-day grind has you feeling lost in a sea of insignificance, you need your own personal lighthouse to help guide you through the clutter. Even if you’ve never actually been to a lighthouse, you probably know it's a literal beacon of hope and something every wayward sailor longs to see when the water gets rough.
Painting a lighthouse isn’t much harder than drawing a candle. The building starts off narrow and gradually widens toward the base. Add some stripes, a few windows and a sea of metallic blue water, and you’ll have a miniature work of art to remind you that all is not lost.
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Materials
- Light blue gel paint (Canni, #612)
- UV or LED lamp (Lumcrissy, not shown)
- White gel paint (Young Nails Mission Control, Fizz)
- Short round brush
- Red gel paint (Young Nails Mission Control, Power Up)
- Black drawing gel (Elite99, #5604)
- Long liner brush
- Metallic blue gel polish (Perfect Summer Chameleon Gel, #012)
- Non-wipe top coat (Cheri)
Fierce League
Instructions
1. Apply two coats of light blue gel polish to your nails, curing the gel between coats with the UV or LED lamp.
2. Paint the lighthouse by creating a design similar to a candle. Create a narrow tip using white gel paint and the short round brush, and then make a broader “building” base that gradually gets wider toward the bottom. Cure the wet gel with the lamp.
3. Using the red gel paint, draw three thick, horizontal lines on top of the white design. Cure the wet paint with the lamp.
4. Create the lamp on the top of the lighthouse. Using the long liner brush, paint a thin black line above and below the first red line. Next, add three vertical lines and two thin horizontal lines to design the individual panes of glass in the lamp.
5. Add a few windows by drawing a small vertical square on each white section. Stagger these squares to give the windows a realistic look. Cure the paint with the lamp.
6. Apply a tiny drop of white gel to the top of the lamp.
7. Surround the base of the lighthouse with metallic blue gel paint to simulate water, and then cure the paint with the lamp.
8. Add some white caps to the water using the white gel paint and the short round brush. Cure the paint once more.
9. Protect your lighthouse by applying the non-wipe top coat to the entire design and curing it with the lamp.
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Safe travels!
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