Codorniu Sparkling Wine, Reina Maria Cristina is the perfect Mother’s day treat, or for any other occasion. Codorníu Reina Maria Cristina is a stunning Chardonnay blended sparkling wine, full of fine persistent bubbles and fresh, intense aromas of tropical fruit, apple and honey.

Created to honour the Queen Regent, Maria Cristina, who granted Codorníu the title of ‘Purveyor to the Spanish Royal Household’ in 1897, Reina Maria Cristina has the quality and personality to suit the grandest of occasions and the most important people – so treat your mum like a queen this Mother’s Day with Codorníu Reina Maria Cristina!

This premium, quality sparkling wine is well balanced with good body and notable freshness making it ideal to accompany any baked fish, white meat or rice dishes you may be preparing for your dear mum – although equally suited for a toast and tipple, no food required!

Girlie Gossip love this fresh, fruity tipple! It has certainly got our royal seal of approval.

Merrydown, the deliciously refreshing premium cider, has peeled away its old image to reveal a brand new look.

But as we all know, it’s what’s inside the bottle that really counts. And the best news is that Merrydown still has the same great appley taste that has been a firm favourite for more than 60 years.

Perhaps it’s the light sparkle that makes Merrydown special. Or the flavour that comes from using the juice of crunchy, sweet eating apples rather than bitter cider apples. But a recent taste test revealed that Merrydown has one of the best appley tastes of all ciders* – which is exactly what you’d expect from a drink that has been made by trusted cider makers since 1946.

Look out for the new labels showing traditional apple pickers busy in the orchards – a clear reminder of Merrydown’s roots. Then choose from crisp Dry or fruity Medium flavours – both are ideal for drinking with food. Or try our favourite recipe – chill well, then enjoy with friends. Perfect!

Girlie Gossip loves Merrydown Cider, classy packaging and a cool refreshing taste. Mmmm!

*Tangible Research, October 2009

Enjoy Merrydown responsibly

We recently took a closer look at the Rebel Compact Pro Dryer from Diva Professional Styling. This stunning girlie pink hairdryer was right up our street so it was a case of love at first sight!

We were looking for something lightweight, easy to use but professional quality and that’s definitely what we got with this dryer. It is stylish, lightweight and has all the attributes of the salon professional dryers minus the arm ache!

Details:

• 2000 watts

• Long life AC motor

• Compact comfortable design

• Ergonomic handle with pro-switching

• 3 heat settings

• 2 speed settings

• True cold shot

• Gloss metallic finish

• Slim concentrator

• Choice of hot pink carbon or purple carbon finish

The Rebel Compact Pro Dryer from Diva Professional Styling   is available from www.sallyexpress.co.uk. Highly recommended for professional hair care at home and very reasonably priced at £34.99!

A Girlie Gossip ‘Must Have!’

The perfect gift this mother’s day is Bronnley’s Velvet Rose Collection which includes the beautifully fragrant Velvet Rose Eau De Toilette, a quality box of luxury triple milled Velvet Rose Soaps and a luxurious individual triple milled soap to pamper and indulge. Let your mum one indulge in a little luxury with an extra special gift this Mothers Day.

Bronnley’s Velvet Rose is the ultimate enduring fragrance to celebrate the heritage and spirit of this classic British brand and is available from leading department stores and independent chemists nationwide. It is also available online at www.bronnley.co.uk or by calling 01280 702291 for stockists.

We love the super cute individually boxed soaps and think that the whole collection would be just perfect for pampering Mum this Mother’s Day!

Add a little fun to your bedroom this month with Girlie Gossip and Naughty Nights UK – We’re giving you the chance to win a fab goodie bag with a few of Naught Nights most popular products. Keep reading below to see what you could win and for details on how you can enter!

The One-Touch Bullet Vibrator

This is the ultimate discreet , power packed & silent vibrator known to man!

It has a smooth , metal finish surface , soft and smooth texture is the perfect little helper for short breaks and holidays.

It’s a tiny 5.5cms long , fits privatley into your pocket or handbag , so you can take it wherever you go.
It’s Waterproof too , making showertime the most enjoyable.

It has an easy-to-remove screw off cap for removal of batteries. Less time fiddling around , more time orgasming!

Durex Play Sensations

is all about having more fun and Play Sensations lubricants allow you to experiment with touch, with taste and with each other.

Durex Play Sensations contents 10 sachets x 5ml:

* 2 x Warming, lubricant heats your skin and heightens sensitivity
* 2 x Tingling, lubricant is an extra silky tingly lube that can be used all over the body
* 2 x Soothing, contains Aloe Vera known for its skin soothing properties
* 4 x Taste, is flavoured with either fruity cherry or sensational pina colada

You’ll also get a cute satin blindfold that can serve double duty. Use it first for any party games requiring a blindfold, then give it to the bride-to-be as a gift to take home and enjoy with her new hubby. Plus a fantastic Keychain bullet (one of the three in our main image) if you’re a winner!

Check out more of their range here: http://naughtynightsuk.co.uk/store/

How to Win!!

To enter all you have to do is leave us a comment below! (You can register here to be able to do so If you’re not already a member) We’ll pick the winner at random from all comments received. Competition ends March 15th 2010

Good luck!

On February 26th insanity will spread as THE CRAZIES breaks into cinemas nationwide. A reinvention of the classic film by the zombie guru George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead) the suspicion and paranoia of the Cold War era is revitalized to prey on the fears of the 21st century.

To celebrate this terrifying release, we’ve teamed up with Momentum to give 10 lucky winners a chance to win exclusive THE CRAZIES merchandise sets which each consist of an Ogden Marsh t-shirt, mug and notebook.
Directed by Breck Eisner (SAHARA) and based on a screenplay by Ray Wright (PULSE, CASE 39) and Scott Kosar (THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE) THE CRAZIES is a terrifying tale of the American Dream gone wrong, four friends find themselves trapped in their hometown.

David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is sheriff in a picture-perfect American town with happy, law-abiding citizens. But one night, one of them comes to a school baseball game with a loaded shotgun, ready to kill. Another man burns down his house after locking his wife and young son in a closet inside. Something is infecting the citizens of Ogden Marsh…with insanity.

Forced to band together, an ordinary night becomes a struggle for survival as they try to get out of town alive.

For your chance to win this prize, simply answer the following question:

In which fictional Iowa town is The Crazies based?

A: Ogden Marsh
B: Woodsboro
C: Castle Rock

Need a clue?  Go to http://www.ogdenmarsh.com/

Use the competition form below to send us your answer along with your Girlie Gossip Username (You can register here if you haven’t already) and your mailing details. Winners will be contacted at random via the email address they register with.

Good luck! Closes March 12th 2010

Rules
1. Entry to the competitions is restricted to one entry per person please.
2. Multiple entries will be disqualified.
3. Excessive multiple entries from the same email account pertaining to be representative of friends and family will also be disqualified at the judges discretion.
4. No automated entries or third party are permitted!
5. Competitions are open to UK residents only unless otherwise stated
6. Prizes can only be sent to a valid UK address unless otherwise stated
7. Winners will be chosen at random, from all correct and valid entries to the competition
8. Once the competition closes we will email you and you will have one week to claim your prize, or your prize will be forfeit, and offered to the next available winner.
9. We are compliant with the data protection act. Our policy is such that we will not pass on your details to any third party without your prior consent.
10. The Judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered in to.

A rose by any other username would not smell as sweet, says dating expert. Online daters lose out on meeting their perfect match within 20 seconds of signing up to a site – without ever realising where they went wrong.

A survey by ArrangeMeADate.com, the revolutionary online matchmaking site, found that usernames can be the greatest turn-off for online daters.

“Choosing a username is the first step to creating an online dating profile,” says Lexi Proud, founder of ArrangeMeADate.com. “It might be tempting to give this a personal touch, but without potential suitors seeing this in the context of your personality it can come across as weird.

“Some of the worst users names I have come across recently are Sad&Lonely1, Big’n’bubbly, Sweet&Shy, XXXratedguy, Cuddle Monster, WhyNotMe and Desperate4lurve – these all give off the wrong message.”

“Adjectives such as shy, sexy, wild and lonely can typecast people rather than draw in admirers. While putting words like wacky, zany and quirky in front of your name does little more than make you seem odd.

“Two-word usernames are not the place to try and get your personality across. We insist that members fill in all sections of their profiles. We also check all profiles before they go live on the site and have banned fake profiles.”

ArrangeMeADate.com is offering two-months’ worth of complimentary subscriptions to any member who avoids using painful clichés in their usernames.

Flowery and overly descriptive language was cited as the number-one bugbear of online daters.

Lying about whether you drink or smoke was also listed as a popular online dating faux-pas, along with announcements that members have just broken up with someone or already been on hundreds of dates.

“All of these popular online dating disasters are easy to amend but the problem is online daters are oblivious to them,” says Lexi.

Lexi’s top tips to turn daters on rather than off are on ArrangeMeADate.com’s site.

ArrangeMeADate.com offers a personal and friendly approach to online dating. The site’s team of experts offer members key dating advice to help ensure they avoid common online dating mistakes.

Pocket-Sized Perfection For Your Hair (And Your Handbag) Cloud Nine, the newly launched hair styling iron brand that’s literally taken the hairstyling world by storm, has created a mini styling iron – the Cloud Nine micro iron.

Measuring a cool six inches, the smaller version of the mighty Cloud Nine regular iron, provides a whole new spectrum of looks and uses.

The Cloud Nine micro iron, developed by the original founders and creators of ghd*, is perfect for shorter hairstyles, layers and fringes, which will all benefit from the specific focus the tiny yet powerful plate and rounded barrel can provide. Look closely at the iron’s black ceramic plates, and you will see that they contain an element of pearl sparkle. This patented technological element actually adds extra shine to your hair.

Small, but perfectly formed, the design of the Cloud Nine micro iron means it can also be used to achieve dramatic flicks, tight curls, and dramatic and defined shapes. Perfect for the party season.

A fraction of the size of the original Cloud Nine iron, the micro iron is also a must for handbags, suitcases and carry-ons. Weighing in at 169 grams, it allows you to smooth, style and straighten wherever you are.

Top session stylist, James Brown, who used the irons during September Fashion Week says: “I love Cloud Nine irons – they’re amazing. I love the way they glide through your hair”.

The iron also features a hibernation mode. So if you don’t pick up your irons for ten minutes, it automatically switches off, and will only re-heat when you switch it on again.

The micro-iron also comes with a stylish and essential heat resistant sleeve and is available from the finest salons nationwide, priced at £45.00. Cloud Nine is also available to buy at www.cloudninehair.com

Regular and wide iron also available. Please visit the website for more details.

What Girlie Gossip Thought…

These are a must have product for anyone who travels on a regular basis or for if like us you like to keep your fringe straight, sleek and shiny as they are ideal for quickly straigntening the odd loose strands and styling smaller sections of hair.

Easy to use and giving great shine quickly, on the go means that you don’t need to carry full size straighteners with you, simply grab your Cloud Nine micro iron, pop it in your handbag and away you go!

We love ours!

Thinking of taking a day trip to London? We recently took a day trip ourselves to bring you our top suggestions for London attractions, the hottest ‘must visit’ places and some handy hints for those who (like us) aren’t familiar with the hustle and bustle of a big city.

As some of you may know, we’re actually Somerset based but are often in London from time to time either attending press events or catching a theatre show. Whilst there last week we thought that it would be fun to come up with some suggestions for Girlie Gossip readers on how to have the perfect London day trip or short break.

We travelled into London from Somerset on the Berrys Superfast coach. Established in 1920, Berry’s Coaches is a family run business which operates a large fleet of executive single & double deck coaches from its purpose built headquarters in Taunton. The London Superfast Service, with its modern facilities and friendly service, offers the best in quality, reliability and value – thousands of customers have been whisked to the heart of London in a little over 2 hours (dependant on departure points). Whether you want to experience the bright city lights or enjoy a break in the West Country their daily services feature a variety of departure/return times which give customers sufficient choice and flexibility to get maximum value from their travel arrangements. Passengers may travel on any combination of departure/return times and days, either to or from London, in order to facilitate the planning of short or extended stays in either city or country. We had a fast, simple journey both to and from London and couldn’t have asked for more. You can reserve your seats in advance and for a small extra charge you have the option to book a table, which was perfect for us with our 7yr old daughter in tow. Prices are cheap and we’ll be using them again on a regular basis for further London adventures!

Our first stop and a real tourist hotspot for any London short break was Madame Tussauds. We recommend getting here nice and early, especially during the holidays or half term as it is a popular hotspot (and rightly so!) upon entering you are taken care of quickly and without hassle by the staff who point you in the right direction for your first part of the adventure. Get your cameras ready and make sure you have plenty of room on your memory card as you’ll need it in here!

Some of the attractions include:

• A-List Party – the superstar party where you become part of the action
• World Stage – meet the movers ‘n’ shakers that have helped shape the world today
• Chamber Live! – the Chamber Of Horrors with a new ‘n’ improved live action fear
injection – deranged serial killers are out of their cells and out to get you…
• High Noon Saloon – howdy partners! Saddle up for a star-studded Wild West encounter
• Premiere Night – where the legends of Bollywood and Hollywood rub shoulders
• Spirit Of London – take a taxi ride through 400 years of amazing London history
• Warhol’s Women – art icon Andy Warhol and his fabulous celebrity muses
• Stardome – an out of this world experience from the Oscar-winning Aardman Animations
Madame Tussauds London’s visitors are sent on a unique, emotionally-charged journey through the realms of the powerful and famous. The museum-style ropes and poles have gone, allowing guests to truly get up, close and personal with A-list celebrities, sporting legends, political heavyweights and historical icons, reliving the times, events and moments that made the world talk about them….

This is a great attraction for both children and adults as it really does have something for everyone. Highlights of our trip had to be the A list and Premier Night rooms where you could get up close and personal with waxworks of your favourite stars plus whilst my husband took our daughter around on a different route a couple of us chose to experience The Chamber Live which is an absolutely fantastic live action adventure (definitely not for those of a weak disposition or young children though!) we’re big fans of horror so this got a massive thumbs up from us, we’re not going to give too many details away but it really is worth seeing! The actors are utterly convincing in their roles and work hard to ensure that you experience the ultimate experience in exhilarating terror and fun!

For more information on Madame Tussauds, opening times and tickets click here: http://www.madametussauds.com/London/

Next up we headed to Harrods for a spot of shopping! After buying a day ticket for the tube and managing to navigate our way around London with relative ease we hopped off to Knightsbridge and got off the tube right outside Harrods entrance, handy! Obviously this is not the place to come if you are looking for bargains or working to a budget but it is a great experience and they have a gift room on the lower level to pick up some reasonably priced souvenirs.

If you have time for a matinee performance of a theatre show (sadly we didn’t this time) then we’d highly recommend taking one in. With the upcoming release of Love Never Dies (The sequel to Phantom of the Opera) we’re sure this is top of the bill on another upcoming London adventure for the Girlie Gossip team.

After visiting Covent Garden for yes, you guessed it more shopping! We watched the street performers for a while then decided it was time to eat. Deciding to opt for a real London dining experience we made our way to The Hard Rock Café!

Located on Old Park Lane, near Marble Arch The Hard Rock Café is an absolute treat for those wanting delicious food and a fun, exciting dining experience. We’ve visited a fair few places to eat in London and Hard Rock tops them all. So much more than just good food, it is an experience that will leave you buzzing!

We’d advise getting there earlier than you think you’ll need to as at certain times (mainly evenings and lunch) it can get very busy but trust us, it is well worth the wait! The staff are super friendly, helpful at all times and help make your meal an experience on every single occasion. We had our daughter with us and found that there was a great choice of both adult meals and children’s meals on the menu, no matter what you fancy!

We ordered burgers, which were absolutely huge and very delicious! For the adults there are a fantastic selection of drinks and cocktails which we thoroughly enjoyed sampling (purely for research, of course!) all of which come with stunning presentation and in some cases you get to keep your glass as a souvenir (collected from the huge official Hard Rock Café merchandise store next door) there were a great choice of both alcoholic and non alcoholic cocktails to try, making for an enjoyable evening no matter what your preference!

The restaurant surroundings as you eat are utterly jaw dropping. Packed with rockstar memorabilia you become completely immersed in the whole experience. We almost didn’t want to leave!

We must also mention that the guys and girls at Hard Rock Café made our daughter’s evening when they discreetly asked us if we’d like the birthday sundae arranged for her and the whole restaurant got up and joined in a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ as you can see from the pictures, she was beyond happy! (What 7yr old wouldn’t be?!)

The meals and drinks were reasonably priced, given the huge portion sizes and value for money and we think that it is one of London’s top, ‘Must Visit’ places to eat. Highly recommended for top quality food, drink and a night out that you’ll never forget.

Find out more about Hard Rock Café London here: http://www.hardrock.com

After a fun filled day of shopping, tourist attractions and excitement, we made our way back to the coach for the journey home to Somerset. We’ll be returning soon to bring you more exciting news, places to visit and further London attractions next time we’re there. Enjoy planning your own London trip, and don’t forget to let us know how you get on!