Giorgio Armani Beauty Crema Nera OMC3 Giveaway Contest

Thanks to Loyd Cassler, I have one Giorgio Armani Beauty Crema Nera OMC³ Obsidian Mineral Restoring Cream to give away! This Crema Nera has an SPF of 15 (protecting against both UVA and UVB rays), so it's basically a day cream - lightweight in feel, but with heavy-duty effectiveness. It's priced at $185. Isn't the Armani Beauty Team at Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy Chase, Maryland, generous?

The targeted anti-aging OMC³ treatment is designed to restructure, replenish, and re-plump the skin for women (and men) concerned with wrinkles, firmness, and sagging. It's perfect, though, for women of all ages. Its active ingredients are the OMC³ complex, a combination of perlite solute, iron, and silicium - the latter two being anti-aging, cell-regenerating minerals; pro-xylane, which stimulates the production of glycosaminoglycans, important to the function of connective tissue; and hyaluronic acid (a must-use topical hydrator). I won't bore you with the biology lesson. This is "good stuff" for the skin!

Crema Nera OMC³ is said to add density, firmness, and structure to the skin by working at three levels: the epidermis, dermo-epidermal junction, and the dermis. Basically, the three essential ingredients in OMC³ are believed to repair the skin by acting on different types of collagen, increasing collagen production. The results? In a four-week test, 81% of the participants experienced increased firmness, 73% experienced a decrease in the appearance of wrinkles (imagine pushing them out from the inside), and 73% had improved density.

How can you win this incredible cream? Just leave a comment here once and tell me what your favorite Best Things in Beauty Armani Beauty blog post has been. There are a lot of them because I love my Armani cosmetics and skin care (just use the "Search This Blog" feature on the right sidebar to find all the "Armani" posts).

After you comment, feel free to e-mail bestthingsinbeautycontests@gmail.com and identify your comment. You can never be too careful about sharing your e-mail address on a blog, so I would follow this second step if I were you (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) in your tweet. I will tweet the contest soon, and you can simply retweet it to earn that second entry.

The deadline for entries will be Saturday, August 28, 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. It's hard for me to believe, but I have had two no-show winners in the last few months.

We are going to try something different. This contest is open to anyone anywhere. Here are the terms. I will carefully pack and ship the prize (as I always do). I cannot insure it - it's amazingly expensive to do so. If it leaves the U.S. and it's lost or stolen, I won't be able to replace it with another OMC³. We'll try this once and see how it works. I know some of you suggested that I charge for postage, but I wouldn't feel right about doing that. I'll do my best on this end; let's see if your mail services do right by you on the other end if we have an overseas winner.

Good Luck!

My thanks, once again, to the uber-generous Armani Beauty team at Saks! They take such good care of us.

Photo courtesy of Armani Beauty

Tarte Femme Natural Eye Shadow Palette Giveaway Contest Winner

I've wondered for months why random.org seems to select numbers that are "way into" the list of entrants. Today, it surprised me and selected #2: Kammi. Congratulations, Kammi! You have been notified by e-mail that you won this fabulous, refillable Femme Natural Tarte Eye Shadow Palette.

The shades in Femme Natural are naturals for everyone - soft, pretty, and laden with Tarte's skinvigorating ingredients. Here's the list. Top row (left to right): shimmering buff, soft sand, golden peach, shimmering sage, and soft sienna. Bottom row (left to right): golden tan, soft petal pink, golden plum, shimmering cocoa, golden navy. The double-ended eyeliner is golden bronze and shimmering auburn. Kammi should have fun playing with them!

Thank you for entering and for your sweet notes in e-mail. We'll start another contest later today, so come back and enter! We've now proven that the strategy of waiting to be in the middle of the pack isn't reliable [wink].

Photo courtesy of Tarte

Tarte Femme Natural Eye Shadow Palette Giveaway Contest

Tarte Cosmetics has a superstar eye palette, Femme Natural, and I'm giving one away! I purchased it during Friends & Family because it's fabulous, and I wanted to be able to share this treasure.

You'll show the world your softer side with this subdued refillable natural eye palette. The reusable purple case is accented with a fabric flower appliqué and filled with 10 mineral-based eye shadows, a double-ended brush and a double-ended eyeliner. The magnetic base allows you to pop out the recyclable eyeshadow pans. Then you can refill them with new Tarte shadows to reuse the palette and reduce environmental waste. It also comes with directions that illustrate some of Tarte's favorite looks!

The shades in Femme Natural are naturals for everyone - soft, pretty, and laden with Tarte's skinvigorating ingredients. Here's the list. Top row (left to right): shimmering buff, soft sand, golden peach, shimmering sage, and soft sienna. Bottom row (left to right): golden tan, soft petal pink, golden plum, shimmering cocoa, golden navy. The double-ended eyeliner is golden bronze and shimmering auburn.

How can you enter to win this $44 palette (which is a $182 value)? Just leave a comment here once. After you comment, feel free to e-mail bestthingsinbeautycontests@gmail.com and identify your comment. You can never be too careful about sharing your e-mail address on a blog, so I would follow this second step if I were you (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) in your tweet. I will tweet the contest in a few hours, and you can simply retweet it to earn that second entry.

The deadline for entries will be Saturday, August 21, 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. It's hard for me to believe, but I have had two no-show winners in the last few months.

This contest is limited to residents of the U.S. and Canada. Good Luck!

To my international readers: I still don't know what to do about you gals. No matter which option I use, the price to ship a prize with any kind of tracking and insurance is really high - way more than the item's value. Some of you have suggested to me that I allow international entries, continue to ship the way I was, and let the winner take the risk. Given my recent history, that would mean that three out of four winners would never receive their prize, the prize would be damaged, or the box might arrive two months later. All of those outcomes would make me feel really bad. I just don't know what to do. Keep writing me with ideas, please. We will figure this out somehow.

Photo courtesy of Tarte

Four Prizes - Four Winners

We had four prizes to give away this week, and we have four winners. Congratulations, ladies! You have all been notified by e-mail.

The LORAC On Screen Duo didn't seem to be a hot ticket - probably because by the time I put up the contest, the price had dropped to $7 at the LORAC site. Oh well, it's still free, and Nightowl and Victoria will each receive one (along with two nice Armani samples). Random.org drew Nightowl's number first, so she will receive the Champagne & Caviar duo. Victoria gets Fame & Fortune.

After random.org did its work on LORAC, it set to work on the Armani Beauty Lip Shimmers. Liberty_Belle said in her entry that she would eventually win a prize. She must have had special influence with the random number generator! She won #63. Cara won #59. Both are fabulous shades.

Winners, please make sure to send me your address within 48 hours. Twice in the recent past, a winner has not responded. That's why I have now adopted the 48-hour rule. I had wondered why so many beauty bloggers had a response time deadline. Now, I know.

Once again, I want to thank my friends on the Armani Beauty Team at Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy Chase, Maryland, for their generosity to Best Things in Beauty readers. We love you!

Many thanks to everyone who entered for your sweet comments and e-mails. I love hearing from you. If you haven't won a contest yet, keep entering. The odds are pretty good that you will win someday.

You may have noticed that I haven't posted the latest contests at Free!Grechen. I love Grechen, but she had to start charging for the service (understandably - I'm sure maintenance can add up). I really can't afford to pay the charge right now because the postage and the prizes add up to a lot of money. On top of that, I splurged on an iPad last month, so my credit card bill is grim. I will try to use Twitter to publicize all the contests for awhile, so make sure to visit the blog or check Twitter each week. For other contests, please visit Free!Grechen. She does a great job. As soon as I win the lottery (eat your heart out, Kelly - I'll share), I can go back.

Makeup Lovers: Our next giveaway starts later today, and I think you are going to like it. See you then!

Photo courtesy of salotteries.com.au