We love contests, especially when we win them. I obsessively completed those Publishers Clearing House ones for years when I was a kid, completely convinced that maybe, just maybe, I was going to make my family rich.

Well, this new one from Neutrogena may not pay off your college loans, but we think it would be super fun. It’s called the “Flaunt Your Inner Celebrity” contest which, we realize, is not the coolest name in the world. But if you win you get to fly to New York for a makeover with one of our favorite makeup artists, Matin, who has worked with Gwyneth, Angelina, Jennifer Garner and pretty much every major American fashion magazine. After you get all fancied up, you’ll have a proper fashion photo shoot and of course get to keep all your shots.

Sounds like a pretty good deal to us. You can enter on Neutrogena’s Facebook page. and if you win, we expect an exclusive on some of those shoot outtakes.

Following in the footsteps of Mischa Barton, Hayden Panettiere, and everybody’s favorite Party of Five cast member, Emma Roberts has just been signed on as the new brand ambassador for Neutrogena.

The 18-year old Nickelodeon princess, who made her rounds at Spring 09 last year in New York, has previously modeled for Dooney & Bourke, another hallmark of commercially successful teen queens (think Lindsay Lohan, and Hayden, again).

Interestingly, Neutrogena/Dooney girls tend to have a penchant for designing on the side: Lindsay’s leggings, Mischa’s line of purses, Hayden’s guest designing for Dooney & Bourke, etc (fortunately, Jennifer Love’s star fell long before starlets were required to design anything but careers with direct-to-video endings).

So is this the first of many stepping stones on the way to Emma Roberts, the Collection?

We’re assuming that, like us, you stayed up to watch the women’s all-around gymnastics face-off, and already know that Texan (via Russia) babe Nastia Liukin took the Gold.

Since she’s the next big female athlete, endorsement-wise, and happens to also be beautiful in an incredibly swanlike kind of way, PLAY: The New York Times Sports Magazine is already wondering whether she’ll go beyond her current commercials, like AT&T, to something more “adult”.

Nastia’s already done some smiling for Cover Girl, but other than that, it’s been pretty non-girly so far. But we’re pretty sure we know the next best thing for her:

Wouldn’t she make the most adorable Neutrogena girl ever? It’s age-appropriate, it fits her target audience, and we could totally see her talking about how it’s the only thing she’ll use, or whatever.

In fact, we think she’s more perfect for it than Taylor.

You know how so many different beauty companies will claim stuff like “#1 Dermatologist Recommended” brand, product or whatever, and when you were 12 you thought, “Wow, I’ve got to get down to Drug Fair” but now you think, “How do they know that? When were they polled? How could there be more than one #1 recommended brand?”

Well, it looks like there really are people who look out for this sort of thing (we always thought big companies could say what they wanted, as long as they weren’t too obnoxious about it.)

Today’s WWD reports that Neutrogena (one of our favorite beauty brands, for the record,) has gotten into into a little hot water with a watchdog group called the NAD (National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus). Apparently, Neutrogena’s commercials have been making it look like some of their individual products are the #1 recommended product by dermatologists, when really it’s the brand as a whole.

Plus, it looks like the NAD is asking to see evidence behind that huge claim, in addition to Neutrogena rewording their ads.

It’s nice to know there’s somebody out there monitoring what some of these commercials claim. Now if only they could do something about skinny mirrors in department stores, we’d all be so much better off.

Checking out the Beauty Flash spread in next month’s W makes us think of the ongoing conversation we’ve been having with friends for years- beauty products that actually work.

It’s no secret that advertising drives a lot of what’s found in magazines, and that publications with a luxury perspective tend to showcase the glitziest and rarest of the newest crop of whatever, no matter if they work or not.

Products by Clinique, Estee Lauder, Revlon, La Prairie and the like make it into high-end glossies every month, but everybody knows they’re a huge waste of hard-earned cash. Ask any beauty editor what she washes her face with every morning, and you’re like to hear some combination of Neutrogena and Olay.

Readers don’t hear about great products like Cetaphil because they don’t seem to advertise, and the packaging is less than persuasive.

So do you really need that new La Mer Cleansing Foam “fortified with precious jade and pearl powders” for $65? We think (know) not.

How do you inform your beauty product purchases? And have you ever splurged on something because a favorite magazine told you to?