You can't have it both ways...

...or can you?  So it's no secret that the hot new trend in the polish world is texture.  With flocked, sandy, caviar and leather effect nails popping up everywhere, it's difficult not to notice.  While I love trends like crackle and spotted and now texture, I also hate that they're just that; trends.  We all end up buying tons and tons of these and let's face it: those 15 bottles of crackle polish you bought last year are just sitting in a drawer now getting zero use. Who wants last years trend on this years nails? I've tried to find new and exciting ways to use these effects polishes but this go round I thought it might be more prudent to find ways to get in on the trend without shelling out a lot of cash.  So here's a little experiment I did for you. :)  Above you see a combination of both Models Own Coral Reef and Zoya Godiva.  I chose Godiva for this experiment because she is a neutral color and therefore seemed the least likely to interfere with the color of the Coral Reef.  On the index, middle, and pinky finger I used two coats of the Coral Reef followed by one coat of Godiva on all nails but the middle, and two coats of Godiva on the middle finger.  As you can see, there is no texture.  On top of a flat polish Godiva simply looks like a gold glitter.  A pretty one, but a flat one.  So then I decided to turn the tables. On my ring finger we have two coats of Godiva (allowed to fully dry) and then a single coat of Coral Reef.  Bingo. Now we have a flat color with a textured look. This is similar to the look of the Milani's, Barry M's, and Nails Inc textures which have no glitter, but rather, a flat tone effect.  Here's a close-up comparison:

Again on the left here we have two coats of Coral Reef topped with two coats of Godiva. I'm guessing this is why they tell you not to use a base coat because it just looks like glitter on my polish. It was not raised in any way.  On the right we have two coats of Godiva followed by one coat of Coral Reef.  See how it's textured but the color is there?  Now you can turn any polish into a textured polish without ruining your bottle by mixing it or shelling out for a million different colors of polish! Magic!  If any of you try this with different colors, I'd love to see the results!!