Beauty comes in so many forms. So this year, we have decided to give you the chance to nominate your mom (or actually any mom you know!) for Garden Girl’s First Annual “My Beautiful Mom” contest. We are looking for the best story describing why your mom is a beautiful person. The winner will be chosen on May 7th (the day before Mother’s Day).

Entering is easy. All you have to do is post your entry here. In your posting, please provide a description in 50 words or less, of why your mom is beautiful. We are especially interested in understanding her beauty from a “beyond skin deep” perspective.

The only conditions are that your entry is 50 words or less, you do not include your mother’s full name, and you don’t post anonymously (we need to be able to give your screen name to announce the winner). Otherwise, you have free reign. Entries will be judged on creativity, uniqueness and general story. And don’t forget – it doesn’t have to be your mom, it can be any mom that has a special place in your life.

Have fun – and get cracking! Because your mom will be thrilled with the prize: a $75 gift certificate to Garden Girl - free for her to use on whatever paraben-free, phthalate-free, sulfate-free, petroleum-free Garden Girl products suit her beautiful fancy!

And don’t forget to spread the word – there are so many deserving moms out there!

We haven’t done a contest in awhile and as we are midway through our new product introductions I thought it might be fun to give away our super Super Hero Serum (a $38 value!) For those of you who haven’t tried it yet, Super Hero Serum is a gorgeous silky serum packed with anti-oxidants and anti-aging ingredients like CoQ10, DMAE, Retinol Palmitate and organic fruit acids. It feels incredible going on and your skin is left soft, smooth and radiant. It helps to firm, reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and repair damage. It’s a tiny Super Hero in a bottle!

So for the next week you can enter to win a totally FREE full-sized bottle of our serum. Entering is easy, and you can increase your odds by doing more things. To officially get credit for your entries, you must summarize them and email them to contest (at) gardengirlskincare (dot) com

• An email to contest (at) gardengirlskincare (dot) com saying you’d like to enter – VALUE: 1 Entry
• “Like” the Garden Girl page on Facebook - if you have already done that, then just let me know VALUE: 2 entries
• Follow @GdnGrl on Twitter - again, if you already do, then just let me know VALUE: 1 entry
• Retweet the @GdnGrl post about the contest VALUE: 1 entry
• Post this link on your Facebook page and encourage your friends to enter the contest VALUE: 2 entries
• Join our email list by clicking on the link on our home page – if you already are on the list, let me know VALUE: 1 entry
• For every friend of yours that “Likes” the Garden Girl Facebook page VALUE: 2 entries (you will need to include the names because I can’t figure out how to track that…)
• For every friend of yours that places their FIRST order this week and puts your name in the comments section VALUE: 5 entries

Don’t forget – you will need to email your list of qualified entries to contest (at) gardengirlskincare (dot) com before Sunday, March 6th at 5pm. The winner will be announced in next week’s email!

We had some great entries for the Garden Girl contest – I thank all of you who participated. It was a lot of fun to see people “buzz” about Garden Girl. The results we got were fantastic – and we now have a lot more people that are aware of Garden Girl!

We had quite a few people who did a lot of “buzzing” and they definitely had an advantage simply because of the number of entries that gave them. And in the end, the name drawn was one of the contestants who did quite a bit of work to get the word out! So without further ado – the winner IS……

JENNIFER WREN!!!

Congratulations Jennifer -  we will be in touch with your gift certificate to Garden Girl. And thanks again to all of you who participated.  Stay tuned for another contest soon!

My brain has been buzzing over the past week or so to come up with a great way to generate a little Garden Girl buzz. I have done contests before on my blog but I thought this time I’d ramp it up a bit and see if I could utilize social media a little more than I typically do. So I created this contest, but of course, as with anything social-media-focused, I need YOUR help. The more you help – the greater your chance is of winning. And the prize is a BIGGIE!! A whopping $100 in FREE Garden Girl products – of YOUR CHOICE! Fun fun fun.

Here’s how it works. You earn entries for basically spreading the word about Garden Girl. I will tally up everyone’s entries and then do a drawing on October 30th to see who the winner is. That means you have 2 weeks to generate a little buzz on your own! You can earn entries by:

• “Liking” Garden Girl’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/GardenGirlSkinCare) – if you already Like it, then you automatically have an entry VALUE: 1 entry
• Posting a message on YOUR Facebook page, encouraging friends to “Like” the Garden Girl Facebook page and giving the URL for the page (http://www.facebook.com/GardenGirlSkinCare) so they can easily access it VALUE: 2 entries
• Posting a message on YOUR Facebook page a message that says “Win $100 in FREE Garden Girl skin care products. Find out how by going to http://bit.ly/bKIooI“  VALUE: 2 entries
• Posting on Garden Girl’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/GardenGirlSkinCare) your favorite Garden Girl product and why you love it VALUE: 1 entry
• Posting on your Twitter page a message that says “WIN $100 in FREE @GdnGrl skin care products – find out how by going to http://bit.ly/bKIooI” VALUE: 2 entries
• Following me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/GdnGrl) VALUE: 1 entry (if you already follow me, then you automatically get 1 entry)
  
• Signing up for the Garden Girl email list by going to: http://bit.ly/b7hF6d VALUE: 1 entry (if you already are on the list then you automatically get 1 entry)
  
• Encouraging your friends on Twitter and/or Facebook to sign up for Garden Girl’s email list by posting: “Sign up for @GdnGrl Skin Care’s weekly email list to get weekly specials! Go to http://bit.ly/b7hF6d to sign up!” VALUE: 2 entries for each
• Forwarding this week’s email to friends VALUE: 1 entry for EACH friend you forward it to!
  

You are free to do ALL of those or pick a few – whatever works for you. It’s really easy and will only take a couple of minutes of your time – but it will be a huge help for Garden Girl, for which I will be eternally grateful! My goal is to get 100 more “Likes” on Facebook, 100 more Twitter followers and 50 more people to sign up for the email list.  I can’t do it alone – which is why I’m dangling the BIG OL’ $100 of Garden Girl products as a carrot, so to speak. Do you  think we can do it?

IMPORTANT: How will I know what you did? Well, I will rely to some degree on the honor system – but I know that GG customers are good eggs so I know you’ll be truthful! All you need to do is post on the Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/GardenGirlSkinCare) OR email us here (info at gardengirlskincare.com) and let us know what you did.

The contest ends on Friday, October 29th at midnight. So get crackin’! You could be the lucky winner!!

Holy smokes – I am so behind schedule this week!! My apologies for not posting the contest winner! But the person who was selected at random from the entries with the correct answers to my questions is……. (drum roll)

LISA MATHER of Texas!!

Congratulations Lisa! I will contact you this week and get the Break Free out to you!

In a giving mood today! So I figure it’s high time for another product giveaway. This month it is for a FREE bottle of Break Free fruit acid gel. This product can be used safely on all skin types and it is a fantastic “at home peel”. Break Free is comprised of glycolic, pyruvic and lactic acids which basically eat away at the glue that is hanging on to the dead skin cells on your face. Sounds a little icky I know, but the results are amazing. Your skin looks fresh and renewed.

The best part about Break Free is that it is a serious product – it’s far superior to many of the typical glycolic or other chemical peels you’ll find in a store. Break Free has a 7.5% concentration, with a pH between 1 and 2 it is unbuffered. Why does all of this matter? Well most of the products you’ll find are buffered and have higher pH levels which means they are less effective. Break Free is the perfect combination of having just the right levels so that it is incredibly effective, but also safe to use at home.

So you can use Break Free and save zillions of dollars (ok that might be a slight exaggeration) over dermatologist peel treatments, and get fantastic results right at home. Peels not only help your skin look smoother and younger but with continued use they also help to even skin tone, unclog pores and reduce any pigmentation issues you might have. And if you suffer from breakouts? It’s one of the best solutions for maintaining clear skin.

We typically suggest that if you have normal to oily skin you should use Break Free 1 to 3 times per week and leave it on for 1 to 3 minutes each time (depending on your tolerance). If your skin is dry or sensitive you can start by using it once per week or once every other week and build up from there.

It is vital to remember, however, if you use any kind of exfoliator, that you are extra careful with your sun exposure. You need to be fully protected because you are exposing the more sensitive layers of skin to the sun. So just be sure to be deligent with your sun screen!

Now for the good part - one lucky winner will get a full sized 4 oz bottle of Break Free for FREE. HURRY – the contest ends Tuesday, August 4th.

Here’s what you need to do to enter:

Go to www.gardengirlskincare.com an answer these questions, then email the answers to contest@gardengirlskincare.com:

1) What is the name of the customer who said “I want to tell you how much I love your products. I do have very sensitive skin and many “natural” products, like Aveda tend to irritate. I have been using my Oasis for Faces, plus toner since I received them and my skin looks and feels wonderful.”

2) What is Garden Girl’s mission? (you can cut/paste)

3) Name 2 beauty blogs or magazines that have featured Garden Girl reviews

Have FUN!!! And don’t forget to submit your entry by Tuesday August 4th!

Boy we had many entries for this contest – and some people really were very creative in their responses! Even though the drawing is random, I really love reading the fun things that people write. Some people already are Garden Girl customers and others are hoping to try our products for the first time. But don’t forget, if you didn’t win, you can always try Garden Girl without any risk – we have an excellent return policy (which we can do because we are so confident you’ll love the products!)

OK, I know you’ve probably already skipped down to see the winner’s name anyway, so here it is:

Caroline Scannell of Massachusetts (no, I didn’t play favorites for the “local gal” to win!)

Caroline – I have your email address so I will be in touch. For everyone else, be sure to sign up for our email list (you can do that on our home page at www.gardengirlskincare.com). Not only do you save $5 on your first order as a “thank you” for signing up, but you also get special offers and early notification of our contests. Also – if you’re on Twitter you can follow me @GdnGrl and also get updates. So sign up, then stay tuned for another contest coming soon!