AVEENO and Best Things in Beauty Giveaway Contest

Congratulations to Kathy T! She won these wonderful AVEENO sets!

To celebrate Mother's Day, AVEENO and its partner, Recyclebank, are sponsoring an incredible giveaway contest. As I mentioned in a Friday Forum, I joined the AVEENO Ambassadors program for bloggers who care about beauty and the environment. You reap the benefits.

Whether you're a new mom, a seasoned mom, or excited to shower your lovely mom this holiday with appreciation (possibly a bit late since our contest ends Saturday), we know you are ready to celebrate this Mother's Day. AVEENO wants to help with a Mother's Day giveaway!

AVEENO believes that the ingredients found in nature, and proven by science, have the power to help every woman discover the full potential of her own natural beauty. The contest prize is a 2011 Mother's Day Kit starring the AVEENO Positively Ageless Complete Starter Regimen and the AVEENO Baby Eczema Therapy line, perfect for mother and baby!

Each product in the POSITIVELY AGELESS Complete Starter Regimen is specially formulated with the ACTIVE NATURALS Natural Shiitake Complex. A natural antioxidant, Natural Shiitake Complex works with the skin's own natural renewal process and has been shown in scientific studies to provide a broad range of benefits to the skin.

With its unique blend of shiitake and mannentake mushrooms, Natural Shiitake Complex has been shown to provide antioxidant activity to help defend against free radicals that can damage the skin. In a clinical study, when women used the kit as directed, 100% of them showed improvement in their skin in as little as one week.

Eczema is among the top five skin conditions for babies 0 to 36 months of age, with 10% to 20% of all infants experiencing some kind of eczema. I developed it as an adult - and started using baby eczema products! The AVEENO BABY Brand, one of the most preferred brands of infant skin care by pediatricians, has harnessed the naturally soothing power of ACTIVE NATURALS oatmeal to help care for baby's skin with eczema.

Aveeno Baby Care was developed in partnership with leading dermatologists. AVEENO's BABY Eczema Therapy Moisturizing Cream and BABY Cleansing Therapy Moisturizing Wash have been shown to improve the quality of life for babies with eczema and have been awarded the National Eczema Association Seal of Acceptance. In a clinical study, over 90% of babies showed improvement in multiple symptoms of eczema (roughness, dryness, itchiness, or scaling) when used daily.

How would you like to win these sets of products? Pretty cool contest, I think.

How can you enter to win? Easy! Just leave a comment here once. After you comment, feel free to send me an e-mail at bestthingsinbeautycontests@gmail.com and identify your comment. You can never be too careful about sharing an e-mail address you care about on a blog, so feel free to follow this step (an alternative is to code your e-mail, e.g., myname at gmail dot com, in your comment).

You can "earn" a second entry by tweeting this contest. Just make sure to include "@BTiBeauty" (without the quotes) and "AVEENO" in your tweet. I will tweet the contest this evening, and you can simply retweet it to earn that second entry. You can earn a third entry by following the blog - either here or on Twitter (any entrant who is already a follower will automatically earn the follower point, but you can save me time by telling me you're a follower in your comment). I can't track followers through a third-party service, so you need to be on Google's list for me to verify the entry.

We'd love it if you would sign up on Facebook to be an Active Natural. Check out this link. You'll get valuable coupons when you pledge to take smell steps for big changes in our environment.

The deadline for entries will be Saturday, May 7, at midnight. The next morning, I will use a random number generator (random.org) to select the winner. I will e-mail the winner at that time. The winner will have 48 hours to reply to my message and provide a shipping address. After 48 hours, the prize will be forfeited, and another winner will be selected. Make sure to check your e-mail - and look in your spam folder - when the contest ends. The winner's prize will be shipped by Recyclebank and AVEENO.

The contest is open to residents of the United States. Good luck!

Photos courtesy of AVEENO and Recyclebank

The Friday Forum - April 22 - Happy Earth Day!

I love dogwoods! This one is a volunteer in my garden. It placed itself perfectly at the front corner of my house, after I had lost a limber pine to an ice storm. It was a welcome guest who made this a home. I have several flowering trees in my garden that were probably brought to me by birds (another great reason to encourage birds by feeding them!). This is one of the best. It came at a time when many of our dogwoods were dying from blight, one of those sad twists of nature that can take our precious trees away - for good.

Every day should be Earth Day. That's why I'm an AVEENO Ambassador, a partnership with Recyclebank. In celebration of Earth Month, AVEENO has kicked off an interactive incentive program with Recyclebank on the AVEENO Facebook page to encourage consumers to take small steps towards beautiful change. Small changes can add up to a big impact, and each of us has the power to transform the health and beauty of the communities in which we live. The AVEENO BE AN ACTIVE NATURAL program lets us all join together and take these small steps toward a more beautiful Earth. AVEENO has invited everyone to join all of us on a journey to take a million steps to transform our own health, our spirit, and our communities. Check out the AVEENO Facebook page to see how you can participate.

I'm enjoying a vacation day off from work. I have many errands to run, so it won't be restful, but I hope to feel accomplished when the sun sets. I'd love to shop, and I know I will pop over to Nordstrom briefly. I'm also looking forward to the arrival of a shipment at Neiman Marcus. I'm hoping some of the "overdue" items on my lust list arrive. I also need to clean clutter.

Are you planning to watch the royal wedding next Friday? Unfortunately, I will be working, and I can't imagine taking a vacation day to watch the whole event. I suspect there will be news clips galore - if not reruns - so I'm sure I'll get to see the pageantry. Kate Middleton is a gorgeous young woman, so she is bound to be beautiful. It will be fun to see her dress, hair, and makeup. Will there ever be "another Diana"?

It's time for The Friday Forum. We use the forum to share information and chat. Did you find any deals you couldn't resist this week? Are you using a fabulous product and want to sing its praises? Did you find a beauty product disappointing? Do you have a question others might be able to answer? Want to talk about skin care? What's new in your life? Just use the comments. Don't be shy. Just make sure to ask any question you might have over the weekend. By Monday, most readers have moved on.

Don't forget to enter this week's STAGES of BEAUTY giveaway contest! I'm always surprised by the response to skin care giveaways. We get half the entries we get with makeup. Why is that? The winner of this contest will receive three fabulous products tailored to her age group - all effective and luxurious. The value of the prize is so much higher than the value of, say, a single lip gloss. You smart gals enter in droves for makeup. What's the deal?

Photo by BTiB