Tutorial - Textured Mani By Layering

A few months ago I had come across a blog that talked about how to make any of your polishes textured (like a liquid sand) by layering over a textured polish. I tried to find the blog post but couldn't, so I am unable to provide a link. If anyone knows which blog did this a few months back with Zoya Godiva please let me know; I would like to give credit to my inspiration!

July 11 Edit: Big thanks to Michelle from Lacquer or Leave Her (who also did a posting on this topic here) for reminding me where my inspiration came from. I first saw this layering technique on Bee Polished!

Anyway, the idea is to take a regular polish and layer it over a textured polish to create any textured mani of your wishes. This is great for two reasons: first you are not limited to only what is on the market, and second (the real winner) you save money! Who doesn't love saving a few dollars? Using OPI Solitaire as the base textured polish is the same in theory as using white undies for neons. My thinking is this will give great colour using only a thin coat of regular polish. What I have here today is a step-by-step picture tutorial. Enjoy~

Step 1: Put on your favorite base coat (or not, I didn't for this tutorial).

Step 2: Apply one coat of OPI Solitaire and let dry for 10 mins
Giving a generous amount of time for this coat to dry will maximize the texture before the next step. You can apply a second coat if you wish, but I like a fast mani. Either one or two coats of textured polish will give you a textured result at the end.

Step 3: Apply a thin coat of regular polish to cover the white textured polish.
Try to do as thin a coat as possible that will still allow coverage of the entire nail. You want this thin in order to maximize the texture. The thicker the coat, the smoother the finish (less texture).

Step 4: Clean up and you are done! Simple right?

I tried different types of polishes (duochrome, glass fleck, foils, etc) and they all worked well.

Thumb: OPI Her Majesty's Secret Service

Index: OPI I'm All Ears

Middle: OPI Just Spotted The Lizard

Ring: OPI Warm & Fozzie

Pinky: Zoya Aurora

I also tried layering 2 polishes on the textured one: OPI Oy-Another Polish Joke on top of OPI I'm All Ears. However, this reduces the texture; there is still texture but it is very smooth. This layering combo looks like a hybrid of OPI Magainze Cover Mouse and OPI Jinx (or Pink version of Jinx).

I tried this technique using different types of polishes, and I like the results with foil polishes best (eg. OPI HMSS). Especially the OPI ones because they are made of so many coloured particles that you give a beautiful sparkle in the sun.

If you have anymore questions about the tutorial or method, let me know in the comments below! Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed this tutorial~