Ciate Chalkboard Manicure

Here's another collection that I bought from when I was in the Philippines last year and finally got the chance to use.

The Ciate Chalkboard Manicure set comes with four chalkboard pens, two paint pots Mattnificent (mattifying top coat) and Chalkboard Paint and one instruction booklet.

INSTRUCTIONAL BOOKLET

The instructional booklet contains How-To instructions in 17 languages and also a little inspirational doodle gallery which came in handy when trying to figure out designs for my nails.

PAINT POTS (FULL SIZE)

Mattnificent Matte Top Coat is not what I expected. It definitely does mattify your nail polish but I feel like your polish looks dry and just not nice at all.This formula also is quite streaky but dries very quickly. If I can fine tune my application technique it will definitely be a good addition to my kit as I don't really have many different finishes in my collection.

Chalkboard Paint is probably one of the hardest polishes to apply. It goes on really thick, dries quite streaky and it is quite hard to control the application on the nail, however, it does dry super quick.

After a couple of hours the polish also shrinks and starts to crack. It seems like a lot of these nail art sets that Ciate release tend to be something you would only use for a special occasion/one night, just like the Ciate Velvet Manicure Kits.

CHALKBOARD PENS

L-R: Teachers Pet; Recess; Satchel; Jump Rope

The Chalkboard Pens have good pigmentation and flow out the pens quite well unlike the Manicare pens that are available on the market. If these pens were made with a thinner tip they would be perfect as I found I couldn't really create the designs I wanted as the pen tips were just too thick.

The other thing that I noticed was that once the chalk dried the colours seemed to fade, lost their vibrancy and appeared patchy, especially the pink one (Jump Rope).

 I made quite a few mistakes due to the tip of the pens being too thick. In the instructions it says that if you make a mistake you can easily wipe it off with water. When I tried to take it off with water the chalk barely budged and it actually left a lot of residue on the nail as well as on the skin. It ended up being a lot messier than I thought and was quite frustrating.

Once I finished my nail art designs I applied the Mattnificent top coat and in the images below you can see the patchiness coming through on the designs. I actually preferred a glossy finish on the nails as I feel it looks more vibrant and punchy.

Right hand

Left hand side

 The end result of the manicures was really disappointing especially the patchiness of the chalk. I also feel like they need to reformulate the matte top coat and the chalkboard paint as the streaky finish really affects the final product. It would also be really good if they remade the chalk pens with a thin metal tip so that you can control the pens much better and create better nail art drawings.

Overall, I'd recommend you give this manicure set a miss unless you're really dying to have this in your collection. The better alternative would be the Revlon Chalkboard Range which has a better a consistency as well as a thin brush for the chalk paint which gives you better control and the ability to create more intricate nail art.

If you have this set, did you have the same experience as I did or did I just get a bad batch?