You may know Ruth Crilly better as A Model Recommends where the fashion model, writer and beauty insider shares her knowledge on here much revered blog, blog and diary. Ruth is also talks motherhood, fertility and everyday day as a mum of two on her other blog (which she is currently merging into one feed) The Uphill

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We caught up with Ruth as she's just about to launch a beauty box collaboration with Feel Unique. The Best of Beauty boxes are two beauty boxes – one called Rescue and the other Indulge. They make great gifts for female friends, new mums and of course, yourself as both are crammed full of products hand-selected by Ruth that she love's.

Want to find out more? Over to Ruth...

Ruth with Angelica and Ted
Ruth with her two children: Angelica and Ted

Hello Ruth, please tell us about yourself and your family?

I’m a mum of two - Angelica is two and Ted is one. Which sounds extreme, but Angelica is three in June and Ted is only just one, so it’s not TOO bad! I also have a husband, a house cat and a crazy dog and we all live in Somerset in the country.

Your career began as a model – how do you think those days have shaped your life now?

I think that it gave me a huge amount of independence; I had to travel a lot, alone and for quite lengthy periods. I also had to develop quite advanced people skills because I was on different shoots every day, in different countries, and there were difficult characters who would pop up now and then! So all skills that have been put to good use..

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How do you juggle home and work – writing two blogs/websites, a recent move, two young children and as ambassador for Feel Unique?

With difficulty! People always ask as though there’s a magic formula to getting it all done, but you can’t conjure up more time in the day so it’s just a matter of focus and squeezing in whatever you can when you get a moment. I have two nanny days a week and try to plan my time around those so that I utilise them as best as possible, but I’m so bloody knackered by the time those days come around that it’s almost hard to get motivated once I have some peace and quiet!

Describe a typical day for you

Up at 6.30am, depending on whose early shift it is (we take it in turns!) and then it’s full-on with the children until they nap from 1-3. Usually, unless there’s a dire work deadline emergency, I try and sleep when they do, so get some nap time in during the lunch slot, and it makes me feel guilty but it’s OH so necessary!

Then full-on again until 7pm when they go to bed. Angelica has us up and down the stairs until 8, then we have dinner, watch Netflix until 10 ish then bed. During the day I’ll be answering emails here and there and jotting down to-dos and notes for when the nanny days come around!

What does a day-off look like?

LOLZ!

Junior Meets Ruth Crilly of A Model Recommends | 5 Minute Chats

How has motherhood changed your outlook on yourself, your body, your beauty regime? What are your fail-safe mum beauty tips?

Yes, I’m a lot speedier and a lot more ruthless when it comes to rubbish products that do nothing for me. Out into the bin they go. I want fast, effective products that will give quick results and make me look less haggish when I’m tired! I think that acid peel pads are a great quick mum-fix - they gently exfoliate to leave skin brighter and clearer and take about two seconds to apply. No rinsing, no faffing, it’s like the speediest facial known to man.

What’s been your proudest moment? Work? Motherhood? Life?

I’d feel un-mum-ly to say anything other than “having my babies”, but I must say that getting a CEW Achiever Award the other year really took me by surprise and I cried when I read the email. I think that I was hormonal anyway, as I was pregnant, but I had been panicking that I wasn’t working hard enough or was slipping out of the picture (which you always worry about when you’ve had a baby, I think, and Angelica was still so little) and the award gave me such a massive boost.

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Tell us something no one knows about Ruth Crilly? (until now…)

Oh God, I’m such an oversharer, it’s hard to think of something! There’s barely a stone left unturned!! OK.I’d rather have a McDonald’s Sausage & Egg McMuffin meal than some bloody avocado on toast ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. Bring it.

Junior Meets Ruth Crilly of A Model Recommends | 5 Minute Chats
Best of Beauty by A Model Recommends: Rescue Beauty Box
Junior Meets Ruth Crilly of A Model Recommends | 5 Minute Chats
Best of Beauty by A Model Recommends Indulgence Beauty Box
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