Dear Anonymous...

Today, I received a nasty message in the comments section of the Venus Embrace Giveaway post. This is what "anonymous" wrote:

Sorry to be so cynical but one of the winners of the Venus giveaway has the same last name as you. Is that a relative or in-law? If so, I think that is totally unfair to your readers. Now I am wondering if the other winners are all just friends of yours. Hmmm.....not a good look Daneen. :-(

First of all, I think it is a cowardly act to come on my blog, publicly accuse me of being a liar and a cheat, but conceal your own identity. So, anonymous...I'm posting my rebuttal on the main page (not in the comments section) so that you, and everyone else who reads Spoiled Pretty, understands that I have nothing to hide and that there is no impropriety going on.

Carrie Baird was randomly selected from the Gillette giveaway entries. Did I worry that this might appear suspect? Yes. But is it fair to disqualify a woman whom I have never met, merely because we share a last name (FYI: Baird is actually a very common surname)? Absolutely not. If my last name was Smith, and I chose a winner with the same last name, would we be having this conversation? Probably not.

I spend an inordinate amount of time coordinating these giveaways. Every Monday, it is my joy to offer each and every one of you an opportunity to win my favorite beauty products. And it absolutely makes my day when I notify a reader that she's won and she writes back, "Thank you so much, Daneen. I'm so excited to receive my prize. I never win anything!"

Contests aside, I am up to my eyeballs in beauty products...and that's after I've given much of it to my family and close friends. So your theory of my orchestrating fake giveaways is completely and utterly ludicrous.

So, in closing...Anonymous, I hope that you will have the decency to never, ever enter a Spoiled Pretty giveaway again. Because a person who would question and attack my intergrity doesn't deserve to benefit from my beneficence.