Tinkerbell 10K & My Pirate Fairy Zarina Mani!

Good afternoon dears!  If you are an avid follower of my Instagram or Facebook page you know that I spent last weekend in Disneyland to participate in the Tinkerbell 1/2 Marathon Weekend.  I was lucky enough to find a bib for the 10K late in the game as everything was sold out.  I was very happy to get into the race again this year and had an absolute blast!  I even had a pretty great race time!  6.2 miles in 57:20.  It's a very crowded race so it's quite difficult to PR (personal record) in a Disney race and this was my second fastest run recorded on my RunKeeper app.  Pretty good even though I had to weave and zig zag though other runners for the first 2 miles.  Anywho, yes I was tired, yes my legs were a bit sore (more uphills than I expected) but I walked away wishing I had signed up for the 1/2 or even the Pixie Dust Challenge - both the 10K and the 1/2 totaling 19.3 miles.  Next time!  Until then here's my costume, nails and pictures from race day!  

I decided to dress up as Pirate Fairy Zarina from The Pirate Fairy movie.  

Here's my "flat" Zarina costume.  

And here's my mani with my daughters Zarina doll. 

I remembered to get a few pictures of my all mani while in the park.  I was actually in line for California Screamin with my middle child.  I love how my nails turned out, even thought my Jolly Roger pirate skull is off center.

I used a-England Dragon (green), a-england Holy Grail (gold), Sheswai Honeyfox (red), KBShimmer Sun & Games (gold glitter) and basic black and white polishes for the art.  

I had to get up at 3:30am to get to the race in time.  It was dark and cold and I was so tired. It's hard to get a good night's rest when you know you have something to do early the next day.  I think the excitement kept me awake.

Pre-race selfie.  See, still dark out.  Thankfully the adrenaline was already going so I wasn't as cold at this point.  

Race time!  

Announcers wishing us all a great race.  

Super blurry shot of running down Main Street.  The castle is in the background.  Sorry, I was running, best I could do.  LOL.  I actually didn't stop for any pictures with characters or photo op spots.  I was focused on finishing with a descent time.

Another blurry run-by pic of Lightning McQueen & Mater in Radiator Springs.  Running through the parks is the best part of the race. I'm glad they were at the end of the race this time instead of the beginning.  Helped push me through to the finish line.  

I ran backwards to get this pic of me coming up to the 6 mile marker!  Yeah, kind of dangerous as there was a big box that I easily could have tripped over.  Thank goodness I didn't!  

Another blurry running pic - this is the finish line!  They announce names as you are approaching the finish line.  And there are characters lined up to high five you!  

I stopped RunKeeper a bit after crossing the finish line so it show's my time a little off.  But I wanted to share the course!  

DONE!  Got my Gatorade, banana and MEDAL!  

Feeling pretty accomplished at this point!  

One more picture showing off my medal.  

And my #runmani.  I use this hashtag on my Instagram page to share my mani's when I go running.  I thought it would be fun to share this one holding the medal instead of my usual post holding my water bottle.  

Treated myself to beignets and coffee from Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen Express.  I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear I ate them all.  And I was even hungry again almost right after.  Well that was my journey through the Tinkerbell 10K!  Hope you enjoyed it!

a-England Ballerina Collection

Good evening!  As you guessed I am dropping this post real quick while I cook dinner, bathe my kids and get myself ready to go out to a beauty event with my bestie.  The life of a wife/mom/bff/polish fanatic is sure busy, but I have so much fun doing everything (except having to talk to teachers at school - that's hardly ever fun).  Well I had a 3 of these beautiful a-England Ballerina's but for some reason couldn't bring myself to wear them until I had the 4th.  Thankfully Michelle at Ehmkay Nails put me out of my misery and sent me the 4th one for my birthday!  She's just awesome like that.  So I have these amazing holos to show you today and even did a couple pics with 1 on each finger so you can see them together.  Let's jump on in and look!

a-England: Shop, Color4Nails, Overall Beauty, Llarowe, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

Up first is Fonteyn, "a soft silver holographic hue bearing a lavender tint."  Fonteyn is so lovely.  I love the almost matte-holo look that it has.  The formula was amazing and applied like butter.  I had complete coverage in 2 coats.  I think Fonteyn had the most holo flame of all the Ballerina's.  Fonteyn also dried quickly so this could be an option if you are running out the door and need some polish!  I did not use topcoat.  

This is Encore Margot.  Encore Margot is an "icy blue prismatic hue" that really shows off that tight scattered holo effect.  Again, that metallic-matte holo look is very strong here.  The formula and application were both the highest quality (as were all the other Ballerinas in this collection).  I used 2 coats for full coverage and no topcoat.

Her Rose Adagio is a created to look like "faded roses in a silver prismatic base."  As Adina says, Her Rose Adagio is truly a "romantic" shade.  We see the metallic, matte holo finish here again and it is so pretty with this color.  Formula and application were both amazing again.  I used 2 coats for full coverage and no topcoat

Dancing With Nureyev is my favorite of the Ballerina collection.  It is an amazing "violet-blue shade" that is just the perfect tone that isn't too light or dark and has a beautiful tight scattered holo effect.  The formula and application of Dancing With Nureyev were both fantabulous.  I had perfect coverage in 2 coats and no topcoat.

 Here I've got all 4 of the Ballerina polishes on my hand together.  I did this mostly because Fonteyn and Encore Margot are pretty close in their bottles.  But here you can see that Fonteyn clearly leans more purple while Encore Margot is more blue (almost a minty blue).  Index to pinky:  Encore Margot, Fonteyn, Her Rose Adagio, Dancing with Nureyev.  2 coat of each color and no topcoat.

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas!  Did Santa come to your house?  He came to mine and my kids are ecstatic!  So this will be quick!  I wanted to wish you a very Happy Holiday and good tidings to you and your loved ones.  I look forward to watching the joy in my kids faces and eating the delectable tamales I made with my family.  Enjoy your day and hope you like my mani!

a-England: Website, Color4Nails, Overall Beauty, Llarowe, Ninja Polish, Mei Mei's Signatures, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

Elevation Polish: Blog, Shop, Llarowe, Instagram

Pretty Serious Cosmetics: Website, Color4Nails, Llarowe, Mei Mei's Signatures, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

I used some pretty fabulous polishes for this mani!  I started with a-England Tess D-Urbervilles, a very dark hunter green with mini emerald green flakes.  Tess is a stunning color full of depth and glamour.  I used 2 coats for full coverage and optimum depth.  Formula and application were both flawless.  I used Tess on my thumb, index and middle fingers.  I topped Tess with Elevation Polish Yeti <3's the Holidays.  Holy moly this is a gorgeous Christmas glitter mix.  It's packed full of satin and matte white glitters in fun shapes like hearts, circles and squares.  There are also red and green matte circles and gold holo stars.  But the best part of Yeti is the gold shimmer.  It's absolutely amazing.  And it has the perfect amount of shimmer so that it doesn't turn frosty or block out the base color.  Lulu really knocked this one out of the park, it's truly amazing.  Formula and application were both fabulous.  I used 2 coats.  I then used Pretty Serious Cosmetics Santa's Sunburn on my ring and pinky finger nails.  Santa's Sunburn is a scorch your eyes "red foil with tiny flecks of silver."  I adore this red!  I used 2 coats for maximum eye-burnage.  Formula and application were wonderful.  I finished this mani with 1 layer of topcoat over Santa's Sunburn and 2 coats over my glitter nails.