Forget the ceremony on the steps of the Capitol, the inaugural balls and whether Michelle Obama's dress is so stunning that it rocks the world.

Today, major retailers nationwide, including Macy's, Nordstrom and Saks, will start giving away $175 million worth of free high-end cosmetics made by Clinique, Estee Lauder, Lancome, L'Oreal and other companies.

The list of vendors is a veritable roll call of designer names: Giorgio Armani, Boucheron, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Clarins, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Guerlain, Ralph Lauren, Sarah Jessica Parker and last, but certainly not least to American brides, Vera Wang.

Retailers are giving away the cosmetics to settle a California class-action lawsuit that claimed the stores conspired to fix prices. Stores will distribute free cosmetics for seven days, or as long as supplies last, to shoppers who bought certain cosmetics between May 29, 1994, and July 16, 2003.

All department stores involved in the case have denied any wrongdoing.

Julee Kraus, a spokeswoman for Seattle-based retailer Nordstrom, said the company's stores will ask consumers to print and sign their names on a legal document stating that they are among the estimated 38 million people affected by the price fixing. These will be turned over to the class-action administrator.

"From there, they will be able to choose their gift. We have several things for them to choose from. It's one gift per customer," she said.

Each gift has a retail value of $25 and cannot be returned or exchanged.

Consumers won't have to show any receipts for past purchases of cosmetics.

"It is a little bit on the honor system, I would think," Ms. Kraus said.

The gifts "are not exactly the same sizes as normal retail items. They are different items that were specifically made for the event. Depending upon what the item is, it would be a different shape or different packaging. It's not going to be the same as what we carry normally," she added.

Nordstrom has tried to anticipate the level of interest.

"It's kind of difficult for us to know what to expect. We anticipate that there will be crowds, but we don't know exactly what we're going to see on that day," Ms. Kraus said.

Not all items will be available at all stores.

At Macy's in Downtown Pittsburgh yesterday, five tables, draped in red cloth, with ropes for crowd control, were set up behind the Estee Lauder counter. A cosmetics sales clerk said she had no idea what would be given away or what size the giveaways would be.

Jessica Gioia, a spokeswoman for Saks in New York City, would not comment on the giveaway.

Jim Donahue, chief deputy attorney general for the antitrust section of the Pennsylvania attorney general's office, said that while ads about the giveaway ran in newspapers last week, his office was concerned that some customers might not have seen them. So, the stores agreed to post signs to alert the target audience.

Each of the items being given away was vetted by the special master in the case, retired federal Judge Charles Renfrew.

"We went through each of the items. We tried to ensure that the consumer is getting something valuable," Mr. Donahue said.

The availability of cosmetics matches the sales patterns in each store.

He added that certain brands carried by Saks won't be distributed at Macy's.

For a list of products involved in the class action, visit the Web site www.cosmeticssettlement.com.