Drugstore Chic: Revlon Nail Art Chalkboard Nail Enamel

Although my usual makeup choices may lead you to believe otherwise, I can't pass up a great bargain.  Today, I have one of the best drugstore finds I've stumbled onto for awhile.

When this Ciate chalkboard nails kit first came out, I thought about it but quickly dismissed the idea. $25 for 4 colors? No thanks. The markers seemed like they'd smudge easily, too.

Every nail art trend always spawns the drugstore version.  And this time, I feel like drugstore has beat the high-end version!

Revlon has been stepping up their nail art game lately, releasing quite a few duos like those I'm about to feature. The only major downside is that you have to really watch the brush since excess nail polish gets on it easily and you can have a giant mess. If I hadn't had paper towels down, I'd have chalkboard nail enamel on my living room area rug!

For Autumn 2013, Revlon has released a series of eight LE Nail Art Chalkboard Nail Enamel Duos.  They retail for $8.99 each, but if you're like me you know how to watch for the plethora of BOGO sales to pair with your coupons.  I picked up this entire collection going to two different stores.  After combining sales, coupons, and store rewards, I walked away with the eight colors for less than the Ciate kit.  Budget beauty at its best.

I love the names of these polishes- they're aimed at the back-to-school crowd. Each duo has 0.26fl oz (combined) of nail polish. I'm going to confess right now: I don't know about wear time since I tested these on a nail wheel.  I lack the nail art gene, so you're getting a much better attempt at using these properly by painting a stationary object.

Over-achiever is the soft pink chalk color of the group. I found it relatively easy to work with, and opaque in one heavy coat or two thin.

Study Date is a bold neon orange.  It is the brightest polish of the group, and was opaque with one coat.

Teacher's Pet is a yellow chalk color.  As expected, this one needed a bit of love to get full opacity since it's such a light color.

Pass/Fail is a light lime green chalk. It was muted but yet opaque relatively easily.

Spring Break is chalky aqua.  It's a beautiful color.

Liberal Arts is a pale sky blue- and one of the standouts to me. It was opaque in one coat and really had a nice contrast to the base color.

Homecoming is a chalky lilac- and another of my favorites. I found it among the easier shades to work with.

Straight A's is classic white chalk.  Like you might imagine, the formula was difficult at best, and required precision and patience to achieve opaque lines.

My pathetic attempt at nail art, in order:

And some sad attempts at multi-color nail art:

Bottom Line: These are an adorable, budget-friendly way to try out this nail art trend- especially if you catch them on sale. The brushes up the difficulty level, but it's still great value.