Mani: Goth Gold or Matte Crackle POP!

I was soooo excited to get my bottle of Zoya POSH in the mail--it's been OOS for so long. It is a beautiful red matte, and like all of the Zoya mattes, is just hypnotic to apply and stare at! Not to mention, run my fingers over it, the "suede" finish feels so cool!

Application was a little lumpy, I may add a little Restore to it. So far, Lolly is the BEST for application, you can almost get away with one coat of that. But for Posh I did 2, if I was just going to leave it at that, maybe a 3rd would have smoothed it out. My hands shake so I don't always get the neatest brush strokes.

But I didn't leave it at that....with all my polishes that I haven't tried I decided to toss on a coat of China Glaze Metallic Crackle in Tarnished Gold. Then I topped it with a coat of Sally Hanson Diamond top coat.

At first I really didn't like it. I love my mattes so much, I wished I hadn't messed with Posh. But since I kept taking off polishes that day I was DONE. Even after putting on the clear coat which made things pop even more, to me, it still looked my my nails were bleeding.

I know, you're saying Ewwww. And yes I do have a reference point:

My youngest sister came home from school crying one day. Some older kids had bullied her, so being a very protective big sis, I took off with her to find the punks. They may have been younger than me, but they were just as big as I was. And they tried to start a fight.

Big mistake. Huge.

I grabbed the one who was taking a punch at me, my very long, very STRONG nails gripping the collar of his shirt. My very own Vulcan Death Grip. He teared up, his buddies fled, and when I let him go, I realized I had ripped all the nails on that hand. The nails were intact but they were no longer connected to skin underneath. Washing the blood out stung like a MF, let me tell you, but not one nail broke, they were all just bent backwards (yeah sorry TMI). Ah to have Wolverine strength nails today!

So. Yes. I didn't like this mani at first, and deemed it Goth Gold. But it grew on me, so I renamed it Matte, Crackle POP!

I still don't know that I will completely cover a matte in the future--I mean, what's the point? But I was curious to see what would happen with the crackle over a matte. I think it came out pretty cool.

What polish combos have you experimented with and were pleasantly surprised or grew to love?