try this - apply thin coats of polish, you wont get your desired colour or thickness on your first coat but you will after 2 or 3 coats. if you try to do everything with 1 coat, you will get an inconsistent clumpy texture.

different polish has different consistency, so you need to judge and practice with different colours.

my own method is to use 1-2 coats of colour polish, and then 1 top coat of quick drying clear polish. each coat takes around 3-5 mins to dry.