diff --git a/src/st/st-texture-cache.c b/src/st/st-texture-cache.c
index 0c794a3ab..3bf3a5e97 100644
--- a/src/st/st-texture-cache.c
+++ b/src/st/st-texture-cache.c
@@ -780,13 +780,13 @@ st_texture_cache_load (StTextureCache       *cache,
   if (!texture)
     {
       texture = load (cache, key, data, error);
-      if (texture)
+      if (texture && policy == ST_TEXTURE_CACHE_POLICY_FOREVER)
         g_hash_table_insert (cache->priv->keyed_cache, g_strdup (key), texture);
-      else
-        return NULL;
     }
 
-  cogl_object_ref (texture);
+  if (texture && policy == ST_TEXTURE_CACHE_POLICY_FOREVER)
+    cogl_object_ref (texture);
+
   return texture;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/st/st-theme-node-drawing.c b/src/st/st-theme-node-drawing.c
index 8942966bf..2123cc487 100644
--- a/src/st/st-theme-node-drawing.c
+++ b/src/st/st-theme-node-drawing.c
@@ -402,7 +402,7 @@ st_theme_node_lookup_corner (StThemeNode    *node,
     return COGL_INVALID_HANDLE;
 
   key = corner_to_string (&corner);
-  texture = st_texture_cache_load (cache, key, ST_TEXTURE_CACHE_POLICY_NONE, load_corner, &corner, NULL);
+  texture = st_texture_cache_load (cache, key, ST_TEXTURE_CACHE_POLICY_FOREVER, load_corner, &corner, NULL);
 
   if (texture)
     {