We’re just a couple of best friends—a soon-to-be Ph.D in English and a graduated Master of Creative Writing—who love to play with makeup. No contradiction there.

R. is in her 5th year at the University of Oxford, working on a study of Donald Barthelme’s fiction. As she is originally from California, she finds that English weather, custom, etiquette, dress, currency exchange rates, and level of dental attention are more often than not completely baffling. But she loves the UK anyway.

B. is originally from Nova Scotia Canada, and for two years B. and R. lived together in Oxford in perfect harmony. She then graduated from Jesus College and began life in the real world. She now works in London in the magazine industry and beauty products are to her what cookies are to the cookie monster.

Tried, tested, and true: everything we blog about and every product we review has been tried by one or both of us, often many times. We aim to provide honest advice for real women from real women (which can be harder to find than it should be). Often what looks good in the package is a real disappointment upon use, so we want to help people avoid wasting precious time and cash. As we build the site we hope to review a wide range of products and brands, from drugstore to designer, because more expensive certainly doesn’t always mean better.