Happy Friday! If you are a nail art enthusiast, you may have heard about the new Chalkboard Manicure kit that Ciaté recently released. This kit comes with black nail polish, four water-soluble nail art pens, and a matte top coat, and retails for a whopping $25 on Sephora’s website HERE. I thought the idea behind the kit was cute and creative, so I decided that I would recreate the look using nail polishes that I already have in my collection. There is no need to go out and spend $25 on this kit when you already have the necessary tools! Let me show you how you can create a fabulous and affordable chalkboard manicure.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
- Any base coat
- Any black nail polish
- Various nail art pens
- Any matte top coat
I am using, from left to right, the Sephora Collection base coat, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics in Tarred, Revlon Nail Art Expressionist duos, L.A. Colors Art Deco, and butter LONDON Matte Finish. You can use products from any brand you choose, but these are the just items I have in my personal collection. That’s what makes this so great — I didn’t need to buy any additional materials! Now, onto step one!
The first step in creating your chalkboard manicure is applying your base coat and the black nail polish. I used two coats of Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics in Tarred, but any black will be just fine. Make sure you let the black polish dry completely before moving on to step two.
Once the black polish has dried, take your nail art pens and add some fun designs to your nails. I stuck with the basics — a smiley face, a heart, and some abstract designs. You can use any colors that you wish for the “chalk” part of your manicure. I used white, pink, and blue since those are the colors I owned! After you paint on your designs, make sure you let them dry completely before moving on to the final step. You don’t want to smudge your nail art!
Last but not least, apply your matte top coat. Your nails will now have a super cool, chalkboard look! The best part is you didn’t have to purchase a kit for $25, but instead used affordable items, or better yet, polishes already in your nail polish stash. The only difference between this fabulous and affordable version and the Ciaté kit is that you can’t wash off the “chalk” art if you make a mistake. Other than that, the look is the same, and you will have just as much fun painting your nails and showing them off to friends. Who said having fabulous nails had to come at a high price?!
Let me know what you think of my chalkboard manicure in the comments!
Oh wow!!!!
Break out the striper brush and acrylic paints that you already have laying around the house, and you can wash off goof ups. I put a coat of OTD between the black and the acrylic, but you don’t have to, I don’t think. Plus, my beloved black (WnW cheap stuff, one coat coverage perfection), my acrylic paints (Ok, fine, paint pods from the hardware store, they were on clearance for $1, I have 17 of them and I only used 2), and my current favorite matte top coat (NYC’s cheapo stuff) combined cost less than the gas to drive to the store to buy crap that chips off in 12 hours.
I had considered the Ciate collection but did not want to lay out that much. Your option works because I have everything (except the pens) in my collection already. I’ll use a paintbrush and hope for the best.