mr bear british shorthair

This is me, Ruth Crilly: erstwhile fashion model, dedicated beauty insider and prolific writer of nonsense. (I’m the one on the right in the photo.) I started this blog in 2010 after ten years as an international fashion model and I’ve been a full time content creator ever since, making what I hope is highly entertaining and useful stuff for you to read and watch.

I write regularly about beauty and fashion but many of my most popular posts steam from completely random and mundane thoughts. Pondering the mystery of the free hotel loofah, for example, or listing the various creepy things that small kids do.

I was a Londoner for over a decade but now live in rural Somerset with my husband, two small children, house cat and crazy dog. And so I also write about my house (I’m borderline obsessive when it comes to interiors) and my family life and make videos on all of these subjects too – you can my videos on Youtube here.

I have spent an inordinate amount of time moving homes and renovating houses and you can follow some of my projects on my little interiors Instagram account @casacrilly. One of my best projects was the renovation of a gorgeous seaside holiday cottage on the Dorset coast and this can now be booked for short stays or longer holidays, you can find the bookings page here.

If you’d like to work with me, please use the contact page or get in touch with Gleam Futures; if you’d like to know a bit more about me then hang on just a second, I’m almost finished with a very short biography and I’ll put a link to that here when it’s finished.

Now on to the rest of the site and a marathon reading session. And if you don’t know where to begin then may I suggest clicking here for a selection of random tales?

How To Grow Out A Bob

I'm growing out my shorter hair so that it will sit just above the shoulder and am told by my hair stylist that what I am officially doing is going from a "bob" to a "lob". For the past two years I've swung between these two comically-named hair lengths and have had...

Camo Is A Neutral (And Also Makes Me Manspread)

In a surprise turn of events, I've become rather attached to a pair of camo-print cargo trousers. In fact I've barely taken them off for an entire week, wearing them with everything from cashmere jumpers to pretty blouses and cotton t-shirts. It's a surprise turn of...

February Favourites

Five February Favourites, including the very timely rediscovery of an absolute skincare marvel and an incredible book of short stories. But let's start with the boots I've fallen for. Oh, the boots. If I told you that I'd been searching high and low for the perfect...

Sézane Try-On: Dress Me Like A French Girl

Well, I was seduced again. I went on the Sézane website, saw that absolutely everything on there would almost definitely make me look like a twenty year-old Parisian sex-kitten from the seventies and then ordered a load of stuff. It arrived, I unwrapped my haul from...

3 Best Beauty Buys: February 2024

My three best beauty buys this month - picked out from the quagmire of new launches for their excellent performance, high quality and price-tags that won't cause immediate heart palpitations. Ad info: no paid or sponsored content. Contains press samples and affiliate...

How (Not) To Be Sexy In Bed

Do you want to know what I wear to bed these days? I'm going to tell you anyway, so you may as well say yes. Don't worry, it's nothing that's going to make you blush or feel awkward about life if we suddenly bump into each other outside Tottenham Court Road station -...

January Favourites: I’m A Stampfluencer Now

January "favourites" and what an eclectic mix we have going on here! Family photo albums, rubber stamps and a stand-up show that will have you chortling away and wishing for more. As per monthly favourites tradition, there's a video to accompany this post - it's right...

What’s In My Mystery Makeup Bag?

I took a little makeup bag with me on an overnight trip a couple of months ago and then when I got home again from my travels I forgot to unpack it. I only happened upon it by total fluke, the other week, when I went searching for one of those sticky clothes rollers...

Six Week Invisalign Update: Permanent Low-Key Crossness

I'm six weeks into my Invisalign treatment (read this if you need to catch up on why I'm doing it) and despite the experience being relatively drama-free, so far, I've realised this week that never in my entire life have I felt such a permanent sense of...

Cropped Trousers and Gargoyle Shoes: Why I Can’t Get On With Trends

As part of my ongoing attempt to smarten myself up and streamline my wardrobe I have been trying out new fashion trends. I say trends, they're really just things that many people have been wearing for ages yet I still find hilariously novel: cropped wide-leg trousers...

Foundation Review: Lancome Teint Idole Care & Glow

I think that one of my all-time favourite foundations has been knocked from its winner's podium: I've finally found a longwear makeup base that I love more than Lancome's Teint Idole Ultra Wear. It's - wait for it - Lancome's Teint Idole Ultra Wear Care & Glow....

My Most-Used Skincare Products: 2023

In February, it'll be fourteen years since I posted my first blog on this website. Back then, in 2010, the website was called A Model Recommends and each post was a couple of hundred words long, if that. I just wrote exactly what I thought of a product in the...

Why I Don’t Want Invisalign

I have to have Invisalign and to say that I'm not massively keen would be an understatement. I'm viewing it as a necessary evil and in this post I wanted to outline a few things about the whole process that I'm not too enthusiastic about. But first, some backstory: A...

Best Christmas Gift: Books and Chocolate 2023

It's the Best Christmas Gift: Books and Chocolate 2023 Edition. I write this post every year and - despite always preparing it at the start of November - it never gets published until a couple of weeks before Christmas. I sort of like it that way - it's my very own...

What’s In My Travel Bag?

A quick little beauty post to break up the contact lens content. I mean, I'm verging on becoming an eye blogger at this point. There are two or three posts on laser eye surgery to come yet and who knows what eye-related things I'll find to write about after that?...

Contact Lens Update: Ocular Sabotage

I know you've all been waiting for contact lens news with bated breath so here's my update: I went for my second lesson and didn't do too badly. I have to say that at one point it did feel as though I was in a weird version of the Hunger Games, especially when I was...

Skylark Treehouses Review: The Mind/Soul Reset

This week I did something that felt possibly a bit batshit crazy and stayed, on my own, in a treehouse in the woods. I know. The person who gets spooked in her own garden. It is testament to just how desperately I needed to remove myself from all noise and distraction...

I Ordered Plants from Hortology: Here Are My Thoughts

I've been meaning to add to my collection of cacti for a while now. I have two big window ledges at the front of the room known lovingly as the "Oil Baron's Sunken Lounge" and though one of them was filled with a row of the cacti I've been lovingly killing since 2007,...

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