Ruth Crilly

Summary

Episode Summary: "Ruth Crilly" on Glad We Had This Chat with Caroline Hirons

Release Date: November 25, 2024

In this engaging and candid episode of Glad We Had This Chat with Caroline Hirons, Caroline welcomes Ruth Crilly—a veteran model, Sunday Times bestselling author, and influential beauty blogger. The conversation spans Ruth’s transition from modeling to writing, her experiences in the beauty industry, personal anecdotes, and skincare routines. Filled with humor, honesty, and insightful discussions, this episode offers listeners a deep dive into Ruth's multifaceted career and life.

---

1. Introduction and Background

Timestamp: [00:59] - [02:21]

Caroline introduces Ruth Crilly, highlighting her journey from the modeling world to becoming a standout voice in the beauty community. Ruth is praised for her relatable and inspiring content, which has garnered a loyal following.

Notable Quote:

• Caroline Hirons: “My guest this week began her journey in the modeling world where she first developed her passion for beauty and individuality… Please welcome to the pod, my mate Ruth Crilley.”
  [01:15]

---

2. Lighthearted Banter and Personal Preferences

Timestamp: [02:21] - [16:03]

The episode begins with playful banter between Caroline and Ruth, discussing their favorite movies and TV shows. They humorously debate Ruth’s preference for darker comedies like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Dexter over Caroline’s love for more uplifting films like Love Actually.

Notable Quotes:

• Ruth Crilly: “Love actually would be way up here in terms of Hallmark movies.”
  [02:21]
• Caroline Hirons: “How dare you like Love Actually, you.”
  [02:25]
• Ruth Crilly: “I prefer Till the Cows Come Home.”
  [02:27]

The conversation shifts to discussing Ruth’s and Caroline’s favorite TV shows, highlighting their contrasting tastes and humor.

---

3. Ruth Crilly’s Career Transition

Timestamp: [16:03] - [26:30]

Caroline congratulates Ruth on her bestseller, How Not to Be a Supermodel. They delve into Ruth’s transition from modeling to writing and blogging. Ruth shares her struggles with literary agents who wanted her to pivot to more commercial topics like lipstick, despite her passion for fiction and memoir writing.

Notable Quotes:

• Ruth Crilly: “I have zero common sense. I’d say pretty street smart.”
  [09:39]
• Ruth Crilly: “They all said, we want you to write something that harnesses your audience. Why can't you write about literature your audience will relate to.”
  [12:09]

Ruth discusses her academic pursuits, including a master's in creative writing, and how her blogging platform helped her secure a book deal. Caroline highlights the challenges Ruth faced in keeping her content authentic while meeting market demands.

Notable Quote:

• Ruth Crilly: “It's not your typical memoir. It reads a little bit like fiction. You could take me out of it and put in anyone else and it would not matter who it happened to me.”
  [13:28]

---

4. Personal Anecdotes and Relationships

Timestamp: [26:30] - [39:30]

The conversation takes a personal turn as Ruth shares a harrowing experience from her book, recounting a troubling holiday with a wealthy photographer named Rich. Ruth describes how Rich deceived her about the presence of friends during the trip to Morocco, leading to an uncomfortable and unsafe situation. This story underscores the complexities and dangers Ruth navigated during her modeling career.

Notable Quotes:

• Ruth Crilly: “I had loads of pin pricks all over me because I went bareback horse riding… When he crawled into the bed with me… I just planked.”
  [19:43]
• Caroline Hirons: “How did you get out of that?”
  [23:23]

Ruth also humorously discusses her interactions with Rich, including their dynamic as parents and their collaborative work in photography. They touch upon maintaining their relationship while raising two children and managing careers.

Notable Quote:

• Ruth Crilly: “We always joke that it's a bit like being, you know, managers at the Ritz… How did we get here?”
  [26:32]

---

5. Skincare Routines and Beauty Insights

Timestamp: [39:30] - [52:00]

As beauty experts, Caroline and Ruth delve into their skincare routines. Ruth shares her current regimen, emphasizing the importance of gentle exfoliants and retinoids. She discusses her transition from glycolic peels to more sustainable and skin-friendly products, aligning with Caroline’s philosophy on skincare.

Notable Quotes:

• Ruth Crilly: “I just want my skin to feel strong, healthy, and sort of resilient.”
  [35:03]
• Caroline Hirons: “If you were going on a desert island and you can only take one skincare product, what's it going to be like?”
  [50:00]

Ruth also highlights her favorite skincare products, including Philip Kingsley’s scalp treatments, and shares her thoughts on minimizing unnecessary skincare steps while maintaining skin health.

Notable Quote:

• Ruth Crilly: “I am the biggest convert [to LED masks]. I love them. I love the relaxation… Having this underlying anxiety that the LED lights are somehow, you know, it's really relaxing, basically.”
  [36:24]

---

6. Reflections on Blogging and Content Creation

Timestamp: [32:28] - [43:46]

Ruth reflects on the early days of blogging alongside Caroline and other beauty influencers. They reminisce about the tight-knit blogging community and the collaborative efforts to promote beauty initiatives. Ruth acknowledges how these experiences shaped her career and fostered long-lasting professional relationships.

Notable Quotes:

• Ruth Crilly: “I can't remember a time when I didn't know you.”
  [32:24]
• Caroline Hirons: “We met through that [blogging initiative].”
  [32:33]

Ruth discusses the evolution of her content creation strategies, including her ventures into YouTube and social media. They humorously explore the challenges of maintaining authenticity while expanding their online presence.

---

7. Humorous Interactions and Tangents

Timestamp: [43:46] - [52:49]

The latter part of the podcast is filled with amusing exchanges between Caroline and Ruth. They engage in light-hearted discussions about favorite makeup products, hypothetical scenarios, and entertaining anecdotes. Ruth’s playful demeanor and quick wit create a lively and enjoyable atmosphere.

Notable Quotes:

• Caroline Hirons: “You can only wear one item of makeup for the rest of your life. What's it going to be like?”
  [44:35]
• Ruth Crilly: “It's called M A U L I. Sacred Union.”
  [38:07]

Their banter includes playful teasing about makeup routines, product preferences, and personal quirks, providing listeners with both laughs and relatable content.

---

8. Conclusion and Future Endeavors

Timestamp: [52:49] - [53:15]

As the episode wraps up, Ruth promotes her book, How Not to Be a Supermodel, available in ebook and audiobook formats, with the paperback scheduled for release the following year. Caroline encourages listeners to connect with Ruth on Instagram and Substack, maintaining the community’s engagement.

Notable Quote:

• Ruth Crilly: “They can find me at wreathcrilley, on Instagram and on Substack… Or Model Recommends.”
  [53:06]

Caroline teases an upcoming episode where listeners can submit their questions, ensuring continued interaction and value for the audience.

---

Key Takeaways

• Career Transformation: Ruth Crilly’s journey from modeling to successful author and beauty influencer highlights the challenges and triumphs of reinventing one’s career.

• Authenticity in Content: Both Caroline and Ruth emphasize the importance of staying true to oneself while navigating the beauty industry and content creation landscapes.

• Skincare Philosophy: The discussion reinforces Caroline Hirons’ and Ruth Crilly’s commitment to effective, gentle skincare routines that prioritize skin health over trends.

• Humor and Relatability: The episode’s light-hearted moments and candid conversations make it both entertaining and insightful, offering listeners a genuine glimpse into Ruth’s life and career.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Caroline Hirons: “We have this conversation every time.”
  [04:05]

• Ruth Crilly: “I have zero common sense. I’d say pretty street smart.”
  [09:39]

• Caroline Hirons: “How did you get out of that?”
  [23:23]

• Ruth Crilly: “It's not your typical memoir. It reads a little bit like fiction…”
  [13:28]

• Caroline Hirons: “If you were going on a desert island and you can only take one skincare product…”
  [50:00]

• Ruth Crilly: “I am the biggest convert [to LED masks]. I love them.”
  [36:24]

---

This episode of Glad We Had This Chat with Caroline Hirons with Ruth Crilly offers a blend of professional insights, personal stories, and humorous exchanges, making it a must-listen for beauty enthusiasts and those interested in personal career journeys. Ruth’s authenticity and Caroline’s expertise create a dynamic conversation that is both informative and entertaining.

Transcript

[Indeed Advertiser]

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[Caroline Hirons]

Strap yourselves in people. I'm going on tour for the first time ever and I am so here for it, bringing our wild and wonderful Glad we had this chat podcast to a venue near you, promising you an unforgettable night of unbridled honesty, unfiltered opinions, f bombs and fearlessness. Come join me and a stellar lineup of special guests as we talk all things skincare and beauty along with frank discussions about life's adventures, challenges, highlights and joys with exclusive on stage skincare demos, entertaining Q&As and a healthy dose of unscript. This is Caroline Hirons, Me live and apparently on steroids. It's happening. Get your tickets [e-mail] and secure your spot. Welcome to Glad we had this chat with me, Caroline Hirons. It's your one stop shop for all things skincare, beauty and beyond. My guest this week began her journey in the modeling world where she first developed her passion for beauty and individuality. She is now a Sunday Times bestseller and a standout voice in the beauty community who is praised by her loyal followers for her relatable, mad and inspiring content. Please welcome to the pod, my mate Ruth Crilley. And before we do, you should know that we went off on a complete tangent and I have absolutely no idea how we made it through the hour. Enjoy Love actually, I wouldn't bother Shardia. We're already rolling babe.

[Ruth Crilley]

Love actually would be way up here in terms of Hallmark movies.

[Caroline Hirons]

How dare you like Love Actually, you.

[Ruth Crilley]

Prefer Till the Cows Come Home.

[Caroline Hirons]

Well you are already have. Who hasn't watched Love actually 50 times even when it's on. I feel annoyed with myself that I'm watching it again.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah, but you can't help it, can you?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, I'll happily turn it over for. I'd turn it over for Nobody Wants It.

[Ruth Crilley]

No, you wouldn't.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yes, I would. Yes, I would. I'd turn it over for Darling Buds and May. I would turn it over for Law and Order and Poirot and Ms. Marple.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah, but you're comparing apples and pears, aren't you?

[Caroline Hirons]

Well, whereas you're just hating everything that's joyful. So what's your favorite TV show then? Hi, everyone. Ruth's on the pod this week.

[Ruth Crilley]

Hi. Hi. Curb youb Enthusiasm.

[Caroline Hirons]

Obviously. Oy vey.

[Ruth Crilley]

Dexter.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, I didn't do Dexter. I should. Cause everyone I know loves Dexter.

[Ruth Crilley]

Mr. In between.

[Caroline Hirons]

What the fuck is that? Oh, here we go. This is gonna be an hour long podcast.

[Ruth Crilley]

It's about an Australian hitman.

[Caroline Hirons]

Oh, it's. What is it with you and hitman?

[Ruth Crilley]

There's just something about them.

[Caroline Hirons]

But you're not cynical about that. No.

[Ruth Crilley]

Right, so it's dark. It's really dark comedy. It's so funny. You'll love it. You'll love it.

[Caroline Hirons]

Who's in it?

[Ruth Crilley]

It's really born just one man, this bald man. Can't remember his name. Sorry. He was in something else called who's Mr.

[Caroline Hirons]

In between? Anyone know?

[Ruth Crilley]

Can somebody Google?

[Caroline Hirons]

I mean, it's clearly really popular.

[Ruth Crilley]

You won't know his name, but what's it on? It's niche. It's brilliant.

[Caroline Hirons]

Scott, Ryan.

[Ruth Crilley]

Scott, Ryan.

[Caroline Hirons]

No clue.

[Ruth Crilley]

It's proper Australian chili.

[Caroline Hirons]

Is he a hot rabbi?

[Ruth Crilley]

No, and I'm not interested. No, no, no, no, no. You'll like it. I tell you what, when you watch it this weekend and you message me.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, I want it on.

[Ruth Crilley]

Edit this podcast.

[Caroline Hirons]

I will. I'll put Disney. Disney. Disney, yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

It's so not Disney. I mean, it's on Disney, apparently.

[Caroline Hirons]

Kardashians. That's not exactly little girl content, is it?

[Ruth Crilley]

No, that's true. Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

Let me just ask Ruth how not to be a supermodel. Krilly, when did you become a cold hearted, cynical? We have this conversation every time.

[Ruth Crilley]

25 years ago.

[Caroline Hirons]

Here's my theory, right? My theory is that you and Rich have this pathological need, psychotic need to dislike anything that's popular. Yes, you do.

[Ruth Crilley]

Honestly.

[Caroline Hirons]

Right, what's the last show you really liked that isn't 25 years old? See?

[Ruth Crilley]

No, hold on. No, go on.

[Caroline Hirons]

Curb you enthusiasm. That irritated me. I had to turn it off. Why Because I think they're guilty as shit.

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh, this is controversial now.

[Caroline Hirons]

No, it's not. Everyone I know in LA says guilty as sin. They are.

[Ruth Crilley]

I didn't even realize it was a true thing until halfway through, which when.

[Caroline Hirons]

You know this is true.

[Ruth Crilley]

Right.

[Caroline Hirons]

So how did you not know it was true?

[Ruth Crilley]

Because I don't like to. To read around the subject where I like to go in cold.

[Caroline Hirons]

This is why, you know that there was that time, right, where we were big in the blogging world when that used to exist. Like blogspot.

[Ruth Crilley]

When. Okay, blogging world, substack, bestseller.

[Caroline Hirons]

I'm talking about blogspot.co.uk right.

[Ruth Crilley]

Okay.

[Caroline Hirons]

And when people said, would you two do celebrity goggle box? This is why we could never do it. Because you don't like to know anything and I to IMDb everybody.

[Ruth Crilley]

But that's why it'd be brilliant.

[Caroline Hirons]

I'd get really annoyed and go, I know the end now. I don't want to watch it.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah, but I bet you watch on your phone the whole time. I bet you watch TV with your phone in your hand, don't you? We're not. We leave ours in a separate room.

[Caroline Hirons]

We properly engage Mr. And Mrs. Bright.

[Ruth Crilley]

We properly engage with what we're watching. Do you, though? Do you watch with your phone in your hand?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

And I bet you're doing other things at the same time. Yeah, I didn't. I'm not going to listen on things I didn't with.

[Caroline Hirons]

Nobody wants this. Because I was engrossed.

[Ruth Crilley]

Right. To be fair, I've only done three of them. Maybe it gets better. The kiss, though. Everyone was like, oh, my God, the kiss made me go funny inside. And I was thinking, oh, it didn't.

[Caroline Hirons]

Make me go funny inside. You have not had a snog, you know, you haven't had a model photographer snog like, you have. Clearly. I never look at you two like that. It's so weird.

[Ruth Crilley]

No, that's because we know there's no public display of affection whatsoever.

[Caroline Hirons]

You don't even acknowledge each other in public.

[Ruth Crilley]

I would.

[Caroline Hirons]

I wouldn't.

[Indeed Advertiser]

No.

[Caroline Hirons]

Do you know what we should do at Christmas, right? You should. We should. I'll be. I'll be filming it. No, you should. Like, I'll hold. I'll hold the mistletoe. We'll make him really uncomfortable.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

And you. Or you should just walk up and try and hold hands with him and see how he jumps. Like, literally just try and link.

[Ruth Crilley]

He would just look as important. It would be, you know, if you went up to someone and sort of put an orange in their hand or something and they would look at you like, what the hell are you doing?

[Caroline Hirons]

What are you doing?

[Ruth Crilley]

That is the look that I would get. So monsters really enjoyed.

[Caroline Hirons]

I. I got to like episode six seven. I got sick of them winging Perfect couple. What's that? Oh, that really annoyed me.

[Ruth Crilley]

I enjoyed that though, because it had.

[Caroline Hirons]

Leave sugar in it, that's why. Sorry, was that a guttural you right.

[Ruth Crilley]

There, Ray Donovan all day long. Face has got rounder and rounder, hasn't it?

[Caroline Hirons]

Chipmunk.

[Ruth Crilley]

He was like a chipmunk. But still you were about to say.

[Caroline Hirons]

Still I would then in your pause thinking we were on something like how to fail or something really high end or table manners. Lenny and Jesse were sitting there and then you would. And then you went, I will. I would.

[Ruth Crilley]

I'm gonna have to remember that we're not actually on our own.

[Caroline Hirons]

They already know you love that. Jig is up. I wouldn't worry. So, Ruth, welcome to the podcast. Oh, than me got anything to promote?

[Ruth Crilley]

Hold on, let me rack my brain. Just the book.

[Caroline Hirons]

Sorry, Are you a Sunday Times bestselling author?

[Ruth Crilley]

I don't know. Let me just check. Oh, yes, I am, Caroline. Yes, I am. An instant, instant bestseller.

[Caroline Hirons]

Well done, mate.

[Ruth Crilley]

Your favorite book of the year.

[Caroline Hirons]

My favorite book of the year.

[Ruth Crilley]

Apart from the.

[Caroline Hirons]

Well, now I'm reading Riley Keough and I'm not gonna lie, she's pitage number one. Because there it's very, very like. I can't put it down. Yours I put down when I got to bits on you.

[Ruth Crilley]

Right, can we cut that bit out, please? Because you need the full. The full endorsement.

[Caroline Hirons]

It will be a full endorsement.

[Ruth Crilley]

I bet you've read. And with your phone in your hand as well.

[Caroline Hirons]

No, I didn't because you've got. You didn't give me a light book. It's a heavy one. And you gave me like a proof and it weighs 4 pounds, so I had to hold it with both hands. And you wrote a lovely note in it that said, I hope you love this as much as I love you. And I just thought, you liar.

[Ruth Crilley]

I know. As I wrote it, as I wrote it, I was like, oh, you know when you get halfway through and you can't think of something good to say. And also the pen. The pen. Well, no, I didn't want it to be soppy and I didn't want it to be offensive. Why?

[Caroline Hirons]

That's how we communicate.

[Ruth Crilley]

I didn't know whether it would be lost if it's a signing of something that's supposed to be special. I didn't know whether it would be sort of.

[Caroline Hirons]

It wasn't even the real book.

[Ruth Crilley]

I know special. Was it finished? They made me do it. They made me sign all of those proof copies and the pen was massive and that really put me off my stride. Honestly. Every single. Every single book I signed of those proof copies.

[Caroline Hirons]

I want to know who else cheated into Sally. Sally Catelyn Moran, obviously because she got the COVID quote.

[Ruth Crilley]

Paperback.

[Caroline Hirons]

Always time for paperback folks. Always time for the paperback.

[Ruth Crilley]

And they sell more, don't they?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, paperback. So you know, also easier to hold when your mate gives you one and you can't hold it in bed because it's heavy.

[Ruth Crilley]

Also, you're all all over the audiobook.

[Caroline Hirons]

I am all over the audiobook. They didn't really know what to expect. When we sat down to record the audiobook that there was like, okay, we're ready start. We're like, well, we've been talking for 25 minutes. I don't know what you've been recording.

[Ruth Crilley]

I feel as though they were slight be terrified, overwhelmed.

[Caroline Hirons]

I don't know why I was surprised that this came out before your novel because you wrote a novel ages ago.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

And you're trying to get it published and I think people this my. I was like, well, it's because they think you're a blonde model.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

Like Dolly Parton says, I'm not dumb and I'm certainly not blonde. Right. So what was the. What happened? How did you get it to here?

[Ruth Crilley]

I'd really.

[Caroline Hirons]

Because you is quite clever in it. How many unique degree things have you got that kind of education?

[Ruth Crilley]

I don't know. Is that a. Is that an indication of.

[Caroline Hirons]

In your case? No, but it's not impressive for people at home.

[Ruth Crilley]

I have zero common sense. I'd say pretty street smart. I mean I've been around and around the world.

[Caroline Hirons]

Quite love. Don't swag yourself off.

[Ruth Crilley]

Don't have any common sense. What we talking about?

[Caroline Hirons]

So education book and ting.

[Ruth Crilley]

At the end of my modeling career, which was when sort of tapering off. 2009, 2010 Just because I met you.

[Caroline Hirons]

Clearly you thought there are better things ahead for me.

[Ruth Crilley]

I met you and I thought I've got no chance now. I may as well give up. Okay. Now. So that was all tapering off and I had done. While I was modeling I'd done a load of Open University courses. Creative writing as one does and a degree, a literature degree.

[Caroline Hirons]

See, I wasn't lying.

[Ruth Crilley]

First Class honours. Then I went back and I did some journalism stuff and some more creative writing stuff. And then as my modeling career petering out and I was thinking, what. And Rich was saying, are you planning on having another job at all in your adult life or you can take care of yourself? Is this it? I was, I was thinking, God, you know, all I want to do is write. But how? You know, in those days, it wasn't as though you could go online and there were a million other people saying, this is how I got my book deal. Or, you know, go get it, Queen, you can do it. It just wasn't like that.

[Caroline Hirons]

That's what they do now.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah, go get it, Queen. I mean, virtually, isn't it? It's that thing of everyone can be a winner. There wasn't anyone out there saying, you know, you can go in, you go and do it, you know. And so I started a master's in creative writing at Royal Holloway. Or was it English or something like. Anyway, it was stuff.

[Caroline Hirons]

Something highfaluting.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah. And as I was doing that, I started the blog, but I was writing a novel then in a way, I feel like if I had gone with that literary agent before the whole blog thing had ever happened, that, that it. That would have happened. That could have happened then. But then when I started sending it out through different literary agent when I had the huge blog following, everybody loved it. But they all said, we want you to write something that harnesses your audience. Why can't you write about lipstick? So many people, quite literally, that's what it said in the email back. Love your writing. It's perfect. It's the most polished manuscript we've seen in years. It's perfect. But, but you need to write about literature your audience will relate to.

[Caroline Hirons]

As if women wouldn't relate to a novel. Or don't.

[Ruth Crilley]

But they want, you know, they. The sales people who seem to be more in control of it than people that actually do the editorial side of it. You know, they've got to see where they're going to sell it. Right, Yeah. I mean, you know all this from doing your book.

[Caroline Hirons]

Books, plural, sorry.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah, they've all got the same title though.

[Caroline Hirons]

Books. Sorry. Thank you, best mate. Jesus Christ.

[Ruth Crilley]

Anyway, so, yeah, anyway, that's. This came first and Because I really, really wanted to write fiction, all I ever wanted to write was fiction. When they start saying non fictional. Because the least interesting person I think is myself.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

But actually when I started writing the stories about things that happened, I quite liked the structure of having to keep to the truth. So it gives you these quite handy boundaries. So you know how you have to structure a chapter because that's what happened. But it's still, you know, it's still allowed for this huge breadth of creative interpretation of things that happened.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah. Because it's not like you just sort of. You didn't sort of just record it into a voice note and then just have it transcribed because it's. You set the scene.

[Ruth Crilley]

It's not your typical memoir.

[Caroline Hirons]

It's like you talking.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

Which is very entertaining.

[Ruth Crilley]

And it's stories, you know, it reads a little bit like fiction. You could take me out of it and put in anyone else and it would not matter who it happened to me.

[Caroline Hirons]

And also it's broken up in a way that makes it easy to read. It's not like some kind of long, you know, Moby Dick where you're like, Jesus, make this end.

[Ruth Crilley]

It's not too self centered.

[Caroline Hirons]

There are a few things in life that just keep on giving. For 3.99amonth, a floppy fuel station sarnie? One small cup of bougie? Overpriced coffee? I don't think so. Or for the same price, you could be getting a month's worth of skincare insights and know how from yours truly. A wealth of fresh, expertly written articles on all things skincare and beauty. From our free to download version for essential educational content to our elevated premium experience, the Skin Rocks app will revolutionize how you shop and learn about skincare. Whether you're a novice building your first routine, an aficionado wanting deep scientific expertise, or someone looking for the inside scoop on beauty newness, it's all in one pocket. Friendly place on the Skin Rocks app with simple to use functions that let you filter for your personal profile, save your favorite content, and explore a vast product library with ease. It's no wonder it's called the Google of skincare. Unlock a world of incredible premium content for just 3.99amonth $34.99 a year. Or get a special discount via the podcast with code chpod to get £10 off your annual subscription.

[Indeed Advertiser]

As humans, we're naturally driven by the search for better. But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed When I was looking to hire someone, it was so slow and overwhelming. I wish I had used Indeed if you need to hire, you need Indeed Indeed is your matching and hiring platform. With over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. Ditch the busywork. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. And Indeed doesn't just help you hire faster. 93% of employers agree Indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other job sites, according to a recent Indeed survey. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com podcast. That's Indeed.com podcast podcast. Terms and conditions apply.

[Caroline Hirons]

Congratulations. You are now a Sunday Times bestseller. Your book is entitled how not to Be a Supermodel. Very apt, knowing you, I must say. Do you think you're going to get this made into a miniseries? Is it going to be like Rivals Part 2? I can see Jackie Collins written all over it.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah, it would be so good.

[Caroline Hirons]

It would be very funny. I mean, that we'd have to find a red fur number one.

[Ruth Crilley]

Do you know, I went on ebay and vinted the other day looking for that coat.

[Caroline Hirons]

Who made it again?

[Ruth Crilley]

Ghost. I'd love to buy that back.

[Caroline Hirons]

You'll just have to read the story, guys. It's very entertaining.

[Ruth Crilley]

It's just a succession of bad decisions and I think I've got that thing. Is it Sunk Cost Fallacy? Have you heard of this? Sunk. Is it called Sunk Cost Fallacy? Oh, my God. If I just made up. This entire phrase also sounds like phallus. So I'm really worried.

[Caroline Hirons]

God's sake.

[Ruth Crilley]

So you get three quarters of the way through a really bad film and you think, well, I may as well finish it.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

Rather than just letting it.

[Caroline Hirons]

I did that with cooking. I'm like, well, I've made it now I might as well finish making it.

[Ruth Crilley]

Exactly. So this is the thing with a lot of my decisions. This is what I struggle with. I think I've started it now and I start. It's all finished. To go on with it, you know, like the other week I was trying on this ring that I knew did not go on. This finger will not go on. Has never been able to go on it. And I thought, I'll just. Just see if I can get it on this time. It was on for a week, just couldn't get it off. And it was massive. It was this vintage Bulgari ring that I never wear because it's ridiculous. It looks like I'm sort of some oil baron's wife. And because it's so massive and it's just got diamonds all over it, it's ridiculous. I can't put my fingers together.

[Caroline Hirons]

Nice.

[Ruth Crilley]

So I spent a week not clenching my face like this, not being able to hold anything because my hand was stuck like this. That and that.

[Caroline Hirons]

How did this, how did this affect you when you were modeling?

[Ruth Crilley]

This is what the book's about. It's the fact that I would make a split second decision. I think, no, I won't get the cab. I'll just get on the metro in Paris. And then I'd end up getting lost on the metro. I'd be late.

[Caroline Hirons]

Or maybe getting on an airplane and going on holiday with a complete stranger.

[Ruth Crilley]

Right. I know you've got a big problem with this.

[Caroline Hirons]

I've really got a big problem.

[Ruth Crilley]

So there's a chapter in the book where I went on a five day luxury holiday with a man.

[Caroline Hirons]

This is really good. You're gonna love this.

[Ruth Crilley]

Now, the thing about it was I'd met him a couple of times before, but he lied and said that all the people that we knew in New York were going to be there. Let's call the place Morocco. I've changed a couple of things because I didn't want. I don't even. It's not even about being sued. I think he had quite a powerful dad and I just don't want to get killed. So I had said, look, everyone else is coming, aren't they? I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bought my ticket, landed in Morocco. I text all the people that I knew on the way to say, see.

[Caroline Hirons]

You there, see you there.

[Ruth Crilley]

And then as I landed and turned on my phone, all these messages came through saying, see you where? Got out, it's just this guy. And I said, where's everyone else? And he was like, oh, they'll be coming now.

[Caroline Hirons]

At that point.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

Was there not a matador in front of you with a big red flag?

[Ruth Crilley]

Right. So first of all, I was very used to going all around the world and just being met by a random guy and then being driven somewhere. So that. Okay, so poor mother, but okay, she just didn't know. Secondly, I did genuinely think that they were all going to turn up. Wasn't until about one or two nights in when I thought, ah, they're not coming, are they? I mean, they're just.

[Caroline Hirons]

But their text to you saying we're not coming didn't also raise a red flag.

[Ruth Crilley]

Some of them didn't text back, which.

[Caroline Hirons]

Is also not a red flag. Okay, you're clinging on for hope at this point that you're not about to be murdered, like taken.

[Ruth Crilley]

I told you about his Girlfriend that didn't speak as well. Didn't I?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yes, I did, because she didn't have permission to speak.

[Ruth Crilley]

So I'd always thought that he was slightly strange because a couple of times I've met him, he had this girlfriend. She was a very young model and she didn't speak or respond to anything. And so I thought that she couldn't hear or speak. Turns out when I said, how's your girlfriend? And he said, oh, we're. No, we're no longer together. And I said, oh, you know, it must have been quite hard with, with her not being able to hear or speak.

[Caroline Hirons]

Deaf and mute. Yeah, but she wasn't. No, nor was she mute. She.

[Ruth Crilley]

I just don't think that he ever let her speak. So anyway, he's massively rich, this guy. He's got a yacht, jet skis, knows how to use the right knife and fork for everything. I'm from Redditch. I had been working in McDonald's until about, you know, a few years before that driver, Metro GTI have no clue. Didn't grow up with any money. I managed to wear the wrong outfit to every single thing we go to.

[Caroline Hirons]

Shocking. Knowing you as well as I do that I find that utterly shocking.

[Ruth Crilley]

But do carry on so bad. So I end up on this holiday, to be fair to him, doesn't try it on at all. Not really. But then he says, we're gonna fly to Libya today on a little extra trip on our private island. I can't remember whether it was Libya. I'm sort of changing things around a bit. I thought, okay, this is getting weird.

[Caroline Hirons]

Didn't have a friend called Epstein, did he? I just want to check.

[Ruth Crilley]

That was like, no, it wasn't that kind of island. There was actually nobody on this island.

[Caroline Hirons]

Take. Right. Even better.

[Ruth Crilley]

That night, on the last night, he did try and crawl in with me. I didn't put that in the book. I thought my editor said, you know what, Ruth, this gets a bit too dark, so let's leave this bit out.

[Caroline Hirons]

Your friends were already having panic attacks, your mother's crying.

[Ruth Crilley]

Thing is, I'd already seen his willy. Wait, he was. He had his feet up on a. On the coffee table and we were chatting over breakfast. You know when someone shorts in the Gap and it was just all little and coiled like. Right. It was really small. Oh, no.

[Caroline Hirons]

And that's when you don't want to find out if he's a grower, not a shower.

[Ruth Crilley]

I didn't want to find out anyway. He was actually quite a good looking Guy. He was very groomed, put together. I mean, anyone would have thought eligible, right? Massively rich.

[Caroline Hirons]

But you left all of this out of the book.

[Ruth Crilley]

I did. I left so much out of the book. The book was about half as long again, but I was only allowed 90,000 words, so I had to chop, chop, chop. A lot of it. But when he crawled into the bed with me.

[Caroline Hirons]

Wait, where were you sleeping? Where was he sleeping?

[Ruth Crilley]

I was in my own room.

[Caroline Hirons]

And he came into your room.

[Ruth Crilley]

He crawled in. No, got in behind me. I have never planked so hard in my life. If you had been able to get a crowbar into my buttocks, you couldn't have got a Rizzler paper in there. I was clenched as tight as a clam.

[Caroline Hirons]

He's trying to spoon, and you're like, this is absolutely not going to happen.

[Ruth Crilley]

It was after the horse riding incident. I had loads of pin pricks all over me because I went bareback horse riding. And I had these jeans on that had. They wore. Ripped, right? Oh, my God. They were so hideous. And they had about a thousand tiny golden safety pins all the way up the inside.

[Caroline Hirons]

And you put. You put your legs on a horse while you were wearing them. I wore those with a poor horse.

[Ruth Crilley]

No saddle. Because I said, yeah, I've done bareback riding.

[Caroline Hirons]

But the poor horse with the safety pins. Ruth.

[Ruth Crilley]

That's maybe why he galloped along the beach. Maybe one popped open. Anyway, by the time I got off, they'd all just gone, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. They had all stuck into my legs. So when he crawled in and tried to do this, whatever. I don't know what he was really trying to spoon, but.

[Caroline Hirons]

How'd you get out of that?

[Ruth Crilley]

I just planked.

[Caroline Hirons]

I've been in that situation where someone has crawled into a bed next to me, and I've gone, oh, this is abs. Not my husband, obviously. Pre. My husband.

[Ruth Crilley]

I've done it with Rich.

[Caroline Hirons]

I do it now, but. And I've been like, oh, this is. This is absolutely not gonna happen. Thank God. I was in pajamas, though.

[Ruth Crilley]

In. I mean.

[Caroline Hirons]

And you went home after that? Yes. Can we just.

[Ruth Crilley]

This was the last day he sort of slunk off, and that was fine. It wasn't. There wasn't. I mean, how lucky is that, though, that. It could have been very different.

[Caroline Hirons]

It could have been very different. Which is why when I read it, I was like, how?

[Ruth Crilley]

There's a whole ch. There's a whole chop.

[Caroline Hirons]

There's a whole chapter.

[Ruth Crilley]

There's a chapter called Ways I could have died. Because when I was writing it, I was thinking, how did I not die then?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

How did I live through that one?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah. And people wonder why a book about not being a supermodel would be interesting. How was the process for Rich when he read the chapter about him, which I read first, obviously.

[Ruth Crilley]

It's the only time I've seen him cry, and I only.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay. I find that really weird that you don't see Rich cry. He's not a crier.

[Ruth Crilley]

He's not crying.

[Caroline Hirons]

Kids.

[Ruth Crilley]

Nope. Yeah. But I was off my tits on whatever. They wouldn't know anyway, so I have no idea.

[Caroline Hirons]

But it's not even that soppy. The last couple of lines you write are soppy, but in a lovely way.

[Ruth Crilley]

Do you think, though, that reading two chapters of a book that directly talk about you through the eyes of somebody you love and that you know, loves you must be quite. When I was writing, I was thinking, this will be quite a weird thing to read in a way, maybe, because you relive all of those memories, don't you?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

And there's so much sort of heart that's gone into it to remembering and knowing the way that someone remembers something as well.

[Caroline Hirons]

So for context, for those who don't know and have not got your book, you met Rich on the job because he's a photographer?

[Ruth Crilley]

Yes. He shot my first ever pictures. We didn't get together then.

[Caroline Hirons]

No.

[Ruth Crilley]

Took years and years of dicking around.

[Caroline Hirons]

Well, maybe you dicking him around.

[Ruth Crilley]

Really? Yes. Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

Fair enough.

[Ruth Crilley]

And.

[Caroline Hirons]

And how many years ago that would have been?

[Ruth Crilley]

24 years ago.

[Caroline Hirons]

And how many children?

[Ruth Crilley]

23 years ago.

[Caroline Hirons]

And how many children'?

[Ruth Crilley]

Two children.

[Caroline Hirons]

And how old?

[Ruth Crilley]

Nine and seven.

[Caroline Hirons]

Who'd have thought?

[Ruth Crilley]

I know.

[Caroline Hirons]

Camo Rich, what was the strangest transition from both working as, like, photographer, model to then giving up and doing blogging and writing and then becoming parents? That journey must be quite weird.

[Ruth Crilley]

I don't know. It does. It all melds into one.

[Caroline Hirons]

It's just what you do, isn't it?

[Ruth Crilley]

Well, because we've always been at home together full time.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah. Which could make a lot of people split up.

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh. I mean, the amount of time that. That's why we've always said our house is the most important thing to us. And we would spend money on nothing else. So long as we spent it all on the house. Because we spend all our time in the house. Yeah. And so in a way, that's just lovely, though. Yeah. Yeah. We just sort of pootle around and get on really well. But because of that I think there wasn't any transition. We just spent a lot of time together with no free time. I mean, with. With all free time, I suppose. And now we spend a lot of time together with no real.

[Caroline Hirons]

With absolutely no free time.

[Ruth Crilley]

And you do start to feel like. We always joke that it's a bit like being, you know, managers at the Ritz or something. That you're looking after these two really high profile, really demanding guests and you're just sort of swapping over. Rich is there with an apple sliced perfectly so that, you know, one of them will eat it. And I'm going the other way with something else. Warmed milk or whatever for table three. And you're thinking, how did we get here?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

But in a way it doesn't feel. I suppose. Cause it's been so gradual. It doesn't really feel that different. And because I'm always shooting mad shit, let's face it, at home.

[Caroline Hirons]

I mean, did he know he was gonna have a second career shooting you doing like, ads for sky where you're hanging out the roof at 11p pretending to be a beetle.

[Ruth Crilley]

Do you know what? A lot of the time he doesn't get involved. So I set up the tripod because my thing is, I don't know whether this happens with Jim. Does your voice change when you talk to Jim?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, obviously. Usually, like hot.

[Ruth Crilley]

So I. I hear my voice change. Yeah, it's a different. It's one that is only for them, isn't it? Not in that way. I find that if he's recording, I don't.

[Caroline Hirons]

You turn into a model photographer sitch.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah, it's just. I can't do it.

[Caroline Hirons]

You can't be as goofy.

[Ruth Crilley]

And also what I don't want to happen is sometimes I. Most of the time I don't even tell him the ideas that I've got now because I don't want him to do the face where he does the eyebrow. Really. And then I think, oh, maybe it is a bad idea.

[Caroline Hirons]

It's the most ridiculous thing you've ever done.

[Ruth Crilley]

The giant poo coming out of the colon. Remember that one? I feel like we need to link to that.

[Caroline Hirons]

We'll link to it. Don't worry.

[Ruth Crilley]

I had to do a Sky job and it was for MC Grammar. Have you heard of him? Oh, my God, he's amazing. This guy who wraps kids books.

[Caroline Hirons]

Right. That would be why he was a teacher.

[Ruth Crilley]

And now and. And it, you know, Sky, I think, bought his entire catalog of videos, but he'd done one about the digestive system and it was how to teach kids about digestive. Sky said to me or my agency, can Ruth do something about wrapping? And she can choose volcanoes digestive system. So I sent back my creative and said, can I dress as a giant poo? I bought a brown sleeping bag and I just had my face poking out of it like this with the thing tight. And I'm gonna make a kid's tunnel. You know those play tunnels. I'm gonna wrap it in red, it's gonna be a colon, a rectum, and I'm going to emerge from it. Rapping. They went, yeah, right then, yeah, I learned the rap. I lip synced. That was the hardest part. But apparently they still use it internally.

[Caroline Hirons]

No pun intended.

[Ruth Crilley]

I mean, I don't think it's like an example of best practice, but they use it just to show what can.

[Caroline Hirons]

Be done can be done.

[Ruth Crilley]

The world your oyster, guys. Look at what you could be doing.

[Caroline Hirons]

Model to poo. Here we are, folks. The most insanely efficacious, sensorial, luxurious cleansing balm in the world has landed. I don't need to tell you what it takes to put my name to a cleansing balm. And this one had one mother of a brief. The skin rocks cleansing balm is the best balm ever created and one I would choose every single time over anything I've ever used. Five rollercoaster years of fearless ambition, sky high expectation, tears, triumphs and F bombs. No pressure then. But what a result. Undoubtedly my most anticipated product. This was by far the hardest to make. The texture and crunch that took four years to perfect. Its ability to decimate literally everything on your face. The R in a jar scent, the paperweight, heavy hot pink glass. I mean, literally everything I had door in a cleanser has been distilled into one glorious jar. And it is absolutely spectacular. Transforming from a solid balm to a rich replenishing oil, this barrier nourishing balm is formulated with the same innovative lipid advanced complex as the support oil to deliver supreme skin barrier support and help improve skin firmness, elasticity and hydration. There is simply nothing like it. It's £55. It's ready and waiting and there is no dupe. I'm trying to remember how we met because I know people are gonna. They ask and I how did we meet?

[Ruth Crilley]

I can't remember. It's obviously amazing, wasn't it?

[Caroline Hirons]

It was obviously mine.

[Ruth Crilley]

You were beauty Mouth.

[Caroline Hirons]

I was beauty Mouth. I was mother's mouth then Beauty mouse.

[Ruth Crilley]

Were you?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah. But then I quickly realized the kids would not let me Publish any of the stories that I wanted to because they'd be embarrassed. And I thought, fair enough. So I changed it.

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh, my God. You were a mumfluencer before.

[Caroline Hirons]

No, no, no. I'd only posted like three times before. Before I thought, this isn't going to fly. They're not gonna let me do this.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

Thank God I did, because there's no way I could have published any of the stories about Ava.

[Ruth Crilley]

No.

[Caroline Hirons]

Where did we meet? Must have been a blogger blogging event, or I think we were. There was about 10 of us, maybe, that we were all invited to all the same days.

[Ruth Crilley]

It was the days of the OG bloggers.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

Very, very few of us.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

I mean, it was like Jane Cunningham.

[Caroline Hirons]

Jane Cunningham. British beauty blogger, London makeup girl. Yeah, yeah. Salmon Nick. Pixie Woo. London beauty queen.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

A model recommends. I became Carolineirons.com a couple of years in. Yeah. There was Louise. Get lippy.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

Helen. Just nice things like proper old school beauty blogs as. I mean, we're talking nearly 15 years ago and we would all just be going to the same thing. And then you bought. I did the Give and Makeup charitable initiative. And I remember you bringing a load of product to where I was working in North Orderly Street.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yes.

[Caroline Hirons]

Because we all had jobs, we were all working. None of us were doing it for, like, you know, as a living.

[Ruth Crilley]

We. I can't remember a time when I didn't know you.

[Caroline Hirons]

This is the problem in the blogging world.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah. So the blogging world was really small.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

A couple of dozen of us really.

[Caroline Hirons]

At the most, doing beauty.

[Ruth Crilley]

So we met through that.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

And then we just had a laugh, didn't we?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah. And then just started hanging out. And then you helped me film my first YouTube video, which we'll get into.

[Ruth Crilley]

Right.

[Caroline Hirons]

Which I was very, very nervous on.

[Ruth Crilley]

That's right. I remember now.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

Did we do it in someone's flat that we borrowed?

[Caroline Hirons]

We did it in Susie's flat that we borrowed because I was working out of that Notting Hill office at the time. Yeah. There you go. Well, there we go. And here we are all these years later, still that making absolutely no sense whatsoever. Right, let's do some skincare, otherwise I'm in trouble. Biggest beauty or skincare disaster.

[Ruth Crilley]

When I was in Germany once, the makeup artist said, I need to bleach your eyebrows off. And I said, no, do you remember? There was that real trend and then everyone looked like aliens and you sort of have this eyebrow bone hump rather than an eyebrow. I said, Absolutely not. Anyway, ended up peer pressure. Not peer pressure, but pressure from the people on the crew and the photographer. I let them do it. And then just before I went home. This is in the book, actually. They dyed them back in my natural color and it dyed every single tiny hair around the eyebrows so I had these big rectangle things. I didn't even notice till I got to the airport. That was pretty bad. I think all of my biggest beauty disasters have been at the hands of other people.

[Caroline Hirons]

People doing things to you as a model, like haircuts.

[Ruth Crilley]

I think it made me actually more safe and more cautious with my skincare because I'd had things happen to me.

[Caroline Hirons]

Nice dodgy haircuts.

[Ruth Crilley]

So many dodgy haircuts.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, what's your current skincare routine, Ruth?

[Ruth Crilley]

Current skincare routine is. I know this always really winds you up, but I never do a proper cleanse in the morning.

[Caroline Hirons]

I don't care if you don't do a proper. As long as you've taken off at night.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yes, I do my big cleanse at night. Yes. And you know what? I do, and you probably won't like this, but the flannel that is still damp and smells lovely from the night before. I do a cursory. I just can't stand running water on my face in the morning.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay.

[Ruth Crilley]

I don't like it. So I do a cursory thing over with that. Then I do a gentle exfoliant wipe over.

[Caroline Hirons]

What kind of gentle exfoliant, please, today?

[Ruth Crilley]

Acid. I've got yours on the go at the moment.

[Caroline Hirons]

Well, thanks very much.

[Ruth Crilley]

Very lovely. I used to be into the whole really glycolic peel things, right. Like the. The. The peel pads and stuff like that. Now I'm just like, no, let's keep the face on an even keel. I don't want down time. I don't want dryness, flakiness. I don't want to have to purge it and see it through. I just want my skin to feel strong, healthy, and sort of resilient. So I'm finding that these gentle acids. Oh, my God. So much better. Little and often.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

Rather than these huge peels. Yeah. I feel like there was a real thing for them, wasn't there?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

Now.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

It's like no one's got any skin barrier left. So I do gentle exfoliant, antioxidant, and then in with my moisturizer Stroke SPF normally is one product, because nighttime when you wash your face, Mega Cleanse LED face mask. Well into it.

[Caroline Hirons]

Nice.

[Ruth Crilley]

Which one do you use the current body.

[Caroline Hirons]

Right.

[Ruth Crilley]

Disclaimer. Add current brand partner.

[Caroline Hirons]

But you didn't have to mention them in this.

[Ruth Crilley]

I didn't have to mention them, no. So no obligation to post. But you asked me what brand. I wasn't going to say what brand.

[Caroline Hirons]

And then I was like, course people want to know. We'll just put a little disclaimer across the bottom. It'll be absolutely fine.

[Ruth Crilley]

Red light one only. Now, when I first had that, I thought, people have gone mad with these gadgets. There's no way any of them work. It's just another way of making people spend money. I am the biggest convert. And good. Yeah. Love them. I love the relaxation of the sort of feeling like you're kind of on the beach, but not.

[Caroline Hirons]

How long did you leave it on for?

[Ruth Crilley]

Shuts off after 10 minutes.

[Caroline Hirons]

Right. It's quite a long time.

[Ruth Crilley]

My dog, I don't know whether it must emit some kind of high frequency noise or it's just that I look like I'm psycho. Probably the dog. As soon as I now pick it up off the floor, he runs.

[Caroline Hirons]

Done. Yeah, Legging it.

[Ruth Crilley]

So I do that. So cleanse. LED mask. Retinoid.

[Caroline Hirons]

Nice.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yes. That's it. Three steps. Three steps. Morning. It's like Clinique in the 90s.

[Caroline Hirons]

But not 60s.

[Ruth Crilley]

No. Come on. The three step was bad, wasn't it?

[Caroline Hirons]

Not bad.

[Ruth Crilley]

The soap.

[Caroline Hirons]

So, I mean, I love clarifying lotion.

[Ruth Crilley]

Clarifying lotion.

[Caroline Hirons]

I mean, it still sells the Soap. Clarifying lotion. 1, 2, 3, 4. Yeah. And DDML. Dramatically different moisturizing.

[Ruth Crilley]

I wasn't into any of those steps.

[Caroline Hirons]

No.

[Ruth Crilley]

However, I mean, like, if you could change the three steps now and do.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

Take the day off. Any of the serums which will take.

[Caroline Hirons]

The day off, or an acid and.

[Ruth Crilley]

Moisturizer and any of the moisturizers. Yeah, that would be three steps.

[Caroline Hirons]

If your bathroom is on fire for one product, you're gonna have a job.

[Ruth Crilley]

Because it's all tiled.

[Caroline Hirons]

Oh, for God's sake.

[Ruth Crilley]

But okay, you don't have to be so literal. Well, I was just trying to imagine how that would work.

[Caroline Hirons]

Good to know. Tiles can't go on fire.

[Ruth Crilley]

I've got a stack of magazines, though, so.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, great. So let's assume that the magazines have gone up in flames.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yes.

[Caroline Hirons]

Your bathroom cabinets on fire. What are you saving one product? Yep.

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh, this was going to be my question for you for the thing.

[Caroline Hirons]

Well, you can ask me later.

[Ruth Crilley]

Okay, fine. All right. As in one category or one actual product?

[Caroline Hirons]

No, one actual thing.

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh, for God's.

[Caroline Hirons]

Sake. It doesn't have to be skin. It can be anything that's in there. What else is in there?

[Ruth Crilley]

So I've got this. Oh, I'm blushing even thinking about this. Hold on. I've got this oil spray, right? And it's called. It's from Maoli. Skin rituals.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah. Right.

[Ruth Crilley]

And it's called something like sacred.

[Caroline Hirons]

Not sacred, Fanny. Or just. It's along those lines.

[Ruth Crilley]

It should be called sacred. Funny, right?

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay.

[Ruth Crilley]

Because if I ever want it, if I spray on a bit. He doesn't know this.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, of course.

[Ruth Crilley]

If I spray on a bit.

[Caroline Hirons]

We all have our secrets.

[Ruth Crilley]

It works every single time, this stuff. Really?

[Caroline Hirons]

We'll put a link. Everyone. Don't worry. We'll put a link. Oh, everyone's paying attention now.

[Ruth Crilley]

It's called M A U L I.

[Caroline Hirons]

Sacred Something something Spray.

[Ruth Crilley]

Sacred Union. Sacred Union.

[Caroline Hirons]

No way.

[Ruth Crilley]

Does what it says on the tin.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, this is. I just want to. Want you to make sure that you're looking on Ruth's face when I tell her that. You do know that my son Max edits these videos.

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh, Max, I'm so sorry. He'll be all right.

[Caroline Hirons]

He'll be like.

[Ruth Crilley]

He's heard me say worse.

[Caroline Hirons]

He probably has had you say worse for a long time. Points.

[Ruth Crilley]

Seeing that Max is going pulse points. I'm just gonna say.

[Caroline Hirons]

So you don't actually go.

[Ruth Crilley]

No.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay.

[Ruth Crilley]

I'd be too scared of getting cystitis.

[Caroline Hirons]

Well, yeah, fair enough.

[Ruth Crilley]

I want to put anything directly.

[Caroline Hirons]

So you'd save the sacred Union spray.

[Ruth Crilley]

I would say, because then if the.

[Caroline Hirons]

House is unfurlies, you can have a shag around the back.

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh, my God, what an image.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, this is going swimmingly. What is your buy it for life product. But I think you've just answered that buy it for life product. Oh, by. You're never without Philip Kingsley.

[Ruth Crilley]

Flaky, itchy scalp shampooing conditioner.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, we're right back down to earth with a bang now. Because there's nothing sexy about that.

[Ruth Crilley]

No.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, great.

[Ruth Crilley]

Well, I don't know. They sent me when I was doing something for them last year, a scalp camera. Really? Really. So you put it through. Oh, my God, it was amazing. The difference between having. I mean, to be honest, you could just wash your hair and it would, you know, do the same thing. It's just having flakes and then it being clean. But it's one of the only. When I was in the shower the other day, I was thinking to myself, you know, do you formulate posts in the shower? And it will catchphrases and stuff.

[Caroline Hirons]

Catchphrases. More product. I'm like, oh, I should do that. Oh, I'll do this today. Oh no, I should text live.

[Ruth Crilley]

I think of complete sentences that I'm then going to write into posters. Oh, no, I have to come straight out. And then I'll.

[Caroline Hirons]

But you're a writer.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah. So I thought things, ideas come to me. And I was using that shampoo and conditioner. And then in my head I was saying, you know, I will buy this until my dying day. Unless I was thinking of all these different sentences that I.

[Caroline Hirons]

Dramatic.

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh, yeah, it was quite dramatic. But it's one of the only. It's just. I go back to it again and again and again. I used to have a really bad scalp when I was modeling. And I remember a hairdresser saying to me, because there was just so much product build up all the time, and there was something in certain dry shampoos as well that just, I mean, still does in some of them. Just makes my scalp just flare and go really sore and really itchy. And this hairdresser said you need the clearest shampoo you can find. And then he recommended a couple. And I think that's always been the thing for me is finding something that, oh my God, this has gone really boring, doesn't it?

[Caroline Hirons]

Well, people who want to know about shampoos and a flaky scalp, we're sorted. I feel like I know the answer to the next one too.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah, go on then.

[Caroline Hirons]

But I think it might different product.

[Ruth Crilley]

For each, to be quite honest.

[Caroline Hirons]

What is your favorite smell of a product? But I think that might be Rich's favorite smell of a product without him knowing.

[Ruth Crilley]

L'occitane. You know the almond range.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

But not the shower gel. For some reason, the shower gel always smells different to me.

[Caroline Hirons]

You could kill yourself with that shower gel. I've had many slip.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah, many a slip.

[Caroline Hirons]

Many a slip. No, I've got the. The tiny little pot of the body lotion on today. Very nice. Good choice.

[Ruth Crilley]

And I just, I like the packaging. It all feels very old school French, doesn't it?

[Caroline Hirons]

It's just gorgeous. Beautiful.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

They're also on to a winner because they own Sol de Janeiro. So they are raking it in.

[Ruth Crilley]

And who else do they own that I found out the other day. Elemis.

[Caroline Hirons]

Cha Ching. Yeah, big Cha Chings all around. Okay, next question. Focus. What is your favorite self care activity? Keep it clean.

[Ruth Crilley]

I mean, when you say activity, where does my mind go to? Where Would.

[Caroline Hirons]

How do you relax? Like, I get on the sofa, fire on. On the sofa with a blanket, watch telly.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

Don't even know if I've got the effort to drink a brew at that point. I'm just like.

[Ruth Crilley]

My favorite thing that just makes me so happy is knowing that I'm going to be at home for at least, least a week. Stretch in front of me.

[Caroline Hirons]

Nice.

[Ruth Crilley]

I never get that because then I'm in the routine with the kids and then I'm in my routine with Rich. We cook, we get our plates, we sit in front of the TV hour. We do our hour, connect. Do you ever watch a film Sometimes.

[Caroline Hirons]

Like, what if it's longer than an hour?

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh, I do it. Yeah. But two hours. I mean, I'm really pushing it. If he ever says a film and it's a weeknight, I'm like, you do realize it's half past eight and that's not going to finish for at least two hours.

[Caroline Hirons]

So when would you binge watch something then?

[Ruth Crilley]

Never.

[Caroline Hirons]

You don't binge anything.

[Ruth Crilley]

So I've always got a book on the go. So in the back of my head, I cannot wait to get in bed, get into bed, do the. So I scroll the Internet while I've got the LED mask on, which is probably going to eventually make me go blindly.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, great.

[Ruth Crilley]

But I've got those little goggle things that you stick through.

[Caroline Hirons]

Right.

[Ruth Crilley]

So I look at my phone.

[Caroline Hirons]

It's through.

[Ruth Crilley]

I do. I do my bit of scrolling, like thinking, God, I'm gonna go blind. I'm gonna go blind all the time. Having this underlying anxiety that the LED lights are somehow, you know, it's really relaxing, basically. It's really relaxing. And then I finish off all my stories of whatever I've got to do for that night. Put my phone down and then I read. And then I read until I go to sleep.

[Caroline Hirons]

Wow. Sounds.

[Ruth Crilley]

And that is self. Is that self care?

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

I just love being at home, though.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

That's my thing.

[Caroline Hirons]

Just if we ever leave. Oh, we're leaving the house. Okay.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah. Same.

[Caroline Hirons]

This is novel makeup just to touch on because you do like doing your little, you know, routines on Insta.

[Ruth Crilley]

Do you think, though, it's always the same makeup though, isn't it? I'd very rarely deviate from my look.

[Caroline Hirons]

If you look at something, anyone deviates.

[Ruth Crilley]

From their look at Case Jane Hughes.

[Caroline Hirons]

But she's a makeup artist.

[Ruth Crilley]

I know it's different when you, when.

[Caroline Hirons]

You know, Case J. Hughes does things with the brushes. I don't Think Picasso could do when she goes, she'll just put this hideous stripe of something horrible on her face and then she'll get a brush and go, piss off. Can't be done with it. Get someone else, frankly.

[Ruth Crilley]

And Sam and you know, all of them. I know. And they do all these different looks and I think, oh, God, I should, you know, if I'm gonna do makeup routines, up a bit. But I feel like I do that. I do. Keep it real.

[Caroline Hirons]

You can only wear one item of makeup for the rest of your life. What's it gonna be like? Mine has to be blusher, which you found out, sadly to your.

[Ruth Crilley]

However. Have you ever tried? Yeah, I know. I just did my makeup and I needed to blend out my makeup and I. And I was in the room and.

[Caroline Hirons]

Ruth said, can I use your brush?

[Ruth Crilley]

Can I use your big brush?

[Caroline Hirons]

And I said, yeah.

[Ruth Crilley]

For some reason I thought it would be just without product, but it was preloaded with about 5,000 applications of really pigmented, bright pink blusher.

[Caroline Hirons]

I'm a northern nan. What do you expect?

[Ruth Crilley]

So. Right. But what would it look like if you did no other makeup? This is what I think people don't think of.

[Caroline Hirons]

If I didn't put any blusher on.

[Ruth Crilley]

No. So people do this question. They go, well, yeah, I'd just do, I don't know, eyebrows. Right. How would you look a freak if you only did eyebrows, Nothing else and just your eyebrows or nothing else and just blush. Have you thought this through?

[Caroline Hirons]

All right, then. Mascara.

[Ruth Crilley]

So mine would be a toss up between mascara and just something like the vive complexion balm, like a really lovely. Because let's face it, you wouldn't if you picked foundation.

[Caroline Hirons]

Why'd you have to be. This is why. Why you like this?

[Ruth Crilley]

What do you mean?

[Caroline Hirons]

Why can't you just answer the question? Why are you like this? Sorry, you have to go down this whole tangent of intelligent thought. It's a podcast asking you about your favorite makeup item. Just answer the question.

[Ruth Crilley]

Do you know, I feel like owe it to people. I owe it to people to have thought about it carefully, though. I mean, I want them rushing out and going, oh, I'll just go and buy a blush brush.

[Caroline Hirons]

That's not going to happen.

[Ruth Crilley]

And they'll go around with no makeup on.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, if your makeup bag smashed on the floor, what would you be most gutted about breaking? And you can't say, well, my lipstick wouldn't break. Just work with me here, Ms. Analytical. You were going to say that when you're going to say, well, I'd still have all my blushes.

[Ruth Crilley]

I was thinking, what would break? None of it. I mean, it'd be a hard cushion.

[Caroline Hirons]

Can you see what it's like trying to be our friend? Can you see what it's like trying to have any kind of conversation whatsoever? It's just like. Well, no, but that wouldn't happen because in 1832.

[Ruth Crilley]

Because it all works in tandem, doesn't it? If you just saved one thing.

[Caroline Hirons]

So you're going to save your makeup bag. Save your makeup bag. There you go. No one's ever said that I'd save my makeup bag. I've taken care of it for you. Now she can't even answer yes to that. Do you feel like, you know, are you constipated or what? What is going on?

[Ruth Crilley]

I was really thinking, do you know what my most used makeup product is? I reckon.

[Caroline Hirons]

Steady. We might get an answer. Go on.

[Ruth Crilley]

The Vive I Wand in either mahogany or coffee. So I've got on now. Just do a little. Since my eyes have started going in the downwards direction, Drooping, you might call it. I find that I can cheat them right by applying the darkness blending out, but cheating it upwards at an angle and it just about creates an optical illusion that counteracts.

[Caroline Hirons]

Lucky you. I can't do that at my age. I've got to get surgery. They're hanging off. Hanging by thread. Right, let's just wrap this up. I think what's interesting is if people like this lot are going, going. I can't understand anything that's happened here. No one's going to listen to this. But if you remember our very first.

[Ruth Crilley]

YouTube video, I feel it's quite disordered.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, that's us.

[Ruth Crilley]

Okay.

[Caroline Hirons]

But I've had so many requests. When people says, oh, you're doing second episode, you know, second season of the pod. Can you and Ruth please film another YouTube video like you used to when you pulled a pair of high heels and a candle out of your handbag and just put them down as if it was just perfectly normal for that to happen.

[Ruth Crilley]

Did you see that video the other day in a mat, this guy on the radio is going through his. His, I think his co host bag and he's just crying, he's laughing and.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yes, that would be you.

[Ruth Crilley]

I properly laughed.

[Caroline Hirons]

That would be you. And I pulled out a bag of £60 worth of change because I was using meters at the time because there's no apps on phones. And you were like, this is a weapon. Because it was literally pound coins.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah. You could put it in a sock.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, Rhys.

[Ruth Crilley]

I feel like no one's gonna have any context to me, though, if they don't know me.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, so describe yourself in five sentences.

[Ruth Crilley]

No. Ruth Crinney is a British veteran model writer. We didn't even talk about Sunday Times best selling.

[Caroline Hirons]

We didn't even talk about, like, the photographers we've worked with, all of them.

[Ruth Crilley]

Prolific blogger.

[Caroline Hirons]

Prolific blogger and writer.

[Ruth Crilley]

Beauty insider.

[Caroline Hirons]

Sunday Times best selling author and mother. No one cares.

[Ruth Crilley]

I feel like it's the least interesting thing about it.

[Caroline Hirons]

No, it's really not, because your kids are immense.

[Ruth Crilley]

Well, no one wants to hear about other people's kids.

[Caroline Hirons]

No. And I know for a fact when I get the phone out, out, I can feel people around me grow, knowing they're gonna have to look at my grandchildren.

[Ruth Crilley]

I can feel them. Because I do. I do, actually. But they're only selected people.

[Caroline Hirons]

Only selected people. I do try and wind my neck in. I don't go to people on the tube. Do you want to see my grandkids? But you know.

[Ruth Crilley]

But it's when people you don't know very well, then they start doing it and you think, I don't care. Zero interest.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, your kids got their names and.

[Ruth Crilley]

It was only 10.

[Caroline Hirons]

Kids are ugly. Like, you shouldn't. You shouldn't have bred. Like, God.

[Ruth Crilley]

Why do you have to take it one step further?

[Caroline Hirons]

Because I know it makes you go outraged and it's good for the visuals.

[Ruth Crilley]

Never think that.

[Caroline Hirons]

You're such a liar. I. You absolute. Don't you dare sit there and say we have never discovered. We have never discussed how unattractive other people's kids are.

[Ruth Crilley]

What? I've never discussed that. I feel like children grow into their faces.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, we'll leave it there. Do you have a burning question for me? I feel like you could get your revenge if you really thought about it.

[Ruth Crilley]

Right. Do you know what? I was going to ask you a serious question.

[Caroline Hirons]

Oh, no.

[Ruth Crilley]

But this takes us off on a real tangent, though.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay. Thank God. That hasn't happened before.

[Ruth Crilley]

Right. If you didn't want to have any kind of injectables or aesthetic treatments, what's the best thing you can do for. I can see these lines starting to come on my lips now. What can I put on that?

[Caroline Hirons]

Retinoids.

[Ruth Crilley]

Yeah, do that already.

[Caroline Hirons]

Retinoids. There's no, like, intensity, like the zip halo. You could try and keep that round there.

[Ruth Crilley]

Okay. But have you seen that thing that people put in their mouth? And then it's like a giant pair of Lips on top.

[Caroline Hirons]

You could, you could try, I mean, they're trying to rejuvenate. But ultimately, if you have spent, spent 40ish years talking, smoking, which you did for a long time. How long did you smoke for?

[Ruth Crilley]

10 years. That's what it is.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah. Because I don't really have those, but I've never smoked and I spend so much talk, so much time talking. I feel like when people go, oh, do you do face sugar? I'm like, no, I just nag sucking cocks.

[Ruth Crilley]

Do not put that in.

[Caroline Hirons]

So that was your burning question? Yes.

[Ruth Crilley]

No. If you were going on a desert island and you can only take one skincare product, I've thought this through so much to various scenarios. I just want to know if you're on the same wavelength, what product would you take? There's no shade, but you're surrounded by seawater. There's maybe a freshwater spring, like, and there is a coconut tree. This is very important that you know this because I've thought all this out. I, I actually, I'm so proud of myself. Last night I was going to sleep, I was thinking about my burning question, right? And I thought about a whole skincare routine I could design using nature. But there would be only one thing.

[Caroline Hirons]

I'd take you then.

[Ruth Crilley]

Okay, could tell me, though, See if you can get through my conundrum.

[Caroline Hirons]

I, I, I wouldn't take an spf.

[Ruth Crilley]

Why?

[Caroline Hirons]

Because I'm gonna die. I've got no food. What's the point?

[Ruth Crilley]

It's coconut tree.

[Caroline Hirons]

How long do you think coconut water can sustain you? How many biohackers are you following?

[Ruth Crilley]

Flesh of the coconut. That fish from the sea.

[Caroline Hirons]

I'm not fishing. Sorry. Are you gonna eat it raw? Come on.

[Ruth Crilley]

Sushi.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay. I would take some kind of a balm that I could use to wash the salt water off my face, but also to nourish it afterwards when it's dried out from the salt water.

[Ruth Crilley]

Wasted product. Coconut oil, nature's cleanser.

[Caroline Hirons]

Right.

[Ruth Crilley]

So you don't need to take your balm. Go on, you've got free.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay, but how are you going to extract the oil? Ruth?

[Ruth Crilley]

Sharp stick.

[Caroline Hirons]

Okay. Got a Bunsen burner anywhere. Or any kind of heat or the sun.

[Ruth Crilley]

Okay, magnifying.

[Caroline Hirons]

Because at the moment you've got coconut.

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh, balls. Look, don't, you don't have to take it so literally.

[Caroline Hirons]

For God's sake, Pete Kettle, big fucking black. I'm sorry.

[Ruth Crilley]

Okay, all right. What would you take? Spf, you liar. Because it's the only thing I can't cover with everything else. Only for my face. My body would be burnished. I'd be like Giselle by the time I got back.

[Caroline Hirons]

With a white face.

[Ruth Crilley]

With a white face. But I can do some tanning drop. Oh, tanning drops.

[Caroline Hirons]

Yeah, because you really need tanning drops.

[Ruth Crilley]

Can you imagine if that's what.

[Caroline Hirons]

Jesus Christ. I need a break and I'm absolutely exhausted. Thanks for joining us, Ruth.

[Ruth Crilley]

That's all right.

[Caroline Hirons]

Your book is available now, ebook and.

[Ruth Crilley]

Audiobook from all good booksellers.

[Caroline Hirons]

All good booksellers, yeah. How not to to be a supermodel. And when's the paper back out?

[Ruth Crilley]

Oh, God, like next year. Next year sometime. Yeah.

[Caroline Hirons]

And where can people find you?

[Ruth Crilley]

They can find me at wreathcrilley, on Instagram and on substack. A model recommends brought back the old amr, the AMR brand name or in.

[Caroline Hirons]

Your bathroom spraying Sacred union on your V. You can hear much more from our chat this Wednesday in our Listeners Questions episode, so make sure you tune in. Send your questions for me and my guest to answer to pod Caroline hirons.com Until then, I'm glad we had this chat. New episodes are available every Monday and Wednesday. Follow us. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Glad we had this Chat is produced by Wall to Wall Media.