I was quite sad to read this piece of news yesterday afternoon!
After 13 years as a mainstay on the British high street Boots UK is today announcing the phased withdrawal of the Ruby & Millie brand from its stores. Ruby & Millie led the way for pioneering fashionable cosmetic brands to break into the mass market driving the trend for the fusion of mass and premium cosmetics .
Ruby & Millie were one of the brands I cut my beauty teeth on. Not quite ‘high street’ (though they are!) but not ‘high end’ either. To be fair, I wasn’t in love with many R&M products, especially in recent times… but the ones that I did fall for, I still use frequently today!
Where am I going to get my i-writers from now huh?!
The press release went on to say (I’m C&P-ing because I can’t say it any more concisely!)
Ruby Hammer and Millie Kendall stepped down from the brand in 2008 and have since focused on new and innovative brands such as Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique, Scarlett & Crimson and Alex Byrne Beauty. 2011 will also see the launch of Ruby Hammer’s eponymous new range.
I still haven’t tried anything from the Andrea Fulerton Nail Boutique… I need to get into a bigger Superdrug to check the range out after seeing Helen’s nails blinged up to the max with the Trio Colour Layering System!
But it’s not all doom and gloom for the Ruby & Millie brand because…
The duo will also look to reinvest their energy into the Ruby & Millie brand bringing back a classic representation of their iconic products and initial concept of affordable luxury to the global market.
I’m pleased that the duo will be looking at ways to bring the brand back to former glory, it’s one of those brands that seems to have lost its way a little in recent times. Also looking forward to finding out more about this new range from Ruby Hammer – every cloud has a silver lining eh?
Will you be sorry to see the Ruby & Millie brand disappear from Boots?
Oh no, i always liked ruby and millie. I will be sad to see them go, i personally think they had some nice, simple products to offer that were’nt all fussed up with tacky packaging! xo
The makeup stand in our Boots was finally replaced before Christmas after being an abandond mess for about a year. So yesterday’s news seams a bit after the event to me.
x
Really? The concessions I’ve seen in my local Boots are always really clean but there is never anyone nearby to ask for help so it just kind of languishes there.
I don’t think many people buy full price from them, the only time I give them a look is when I have the £5 till splits and even then it usually went on the brushes and now I’ve moved onto No7 when spending the vouchers.
I remember the first thing I ever bought from RnM was their powder foundation because it was on offer in the massive Boots in Picadilly Circus. I got my first brushes from them but can’t say I will miss them..I went to Boots over the weekend and their stuff was still up so I might get some i-liners before they totally vanish.
the stand in East Croydon Boots is a tip!!
I confess I never got Ruby & Millie. It’s high street but at even more inflated prices (side note: is it just me or does most high street make up keep getting more expensive?) and with so many brands, I just couldn’t be bothered. Plus, in our local Boots the Ruby & Millie stand was sandwiched between Dior & No 7, at the other side from other high street brands – so very very easy to ignore. Every time I had a look at the products, I just couldn’t get the point and why they cost more than say L’Oreal or Rimmel.
Meh! I remember being in my early teens and drooling over the Ruby and Millie stand but then always going back to my old faithful Collection 2000…I got a bit older and could afford the stuff..but then discovered other, more exciting brands. For a make up junkie, the only “high street” brand of make up I don’t have in my collection is Ruby and Millie. Interesting to see what Boots will replace the stands with now though.
On another note, anyone else heard the rumour that Boots are going to stop stocking Urban Decay?!?! Xxx
Completely agree with Belle! I was never wowed, and especially not for the price. Can’t say I’ll miss it much!
xo
Never stocked it in my Boots. Too expensive for a chemist’s shop IMHO. I got a polish 99p on ebay but I still haven’t used it. I even tried to blogsale it and nobody wanted it!
So I am utterly underwhelmed.
Growing up as an Indian teenager this was the only range that provided exact matches of foundation and concealed for my skin tone. Am now a MAC and Bobbi Brown devotee but am sad to see them go. If it wasn’t for R&M I probably wouldn’t have been able to wear any base as a teen! Looking forward to Ruby’s new line…
I agree with what others have said – I always found that though R&M had some nice products, they just weren’t ‘wow’ enough. I like the liner pencils, but Avon do the same thing for half the price. The stackable eyeshadow pots were a really great idea, but the colours I had were either far too dark or far too light. I had a mascara sample once too, and it was just ‘ok’.
Andrea Fulerton on the other hand, you MUST try. Petrol in Water really is gorgeous.
For the past couple of years, at least, every time I walked past the stand in Boots I’d think “I can’t believe they’re still going…” so I thought this would have come sooner! I’ve never seen anyone looking at the products.
I thought this was coming as the stand in my local Boots has been dirty and poorly stocked for a year or so now. I have been wanting to try i-writers forever and always check the stand when the £5 till spits are on the go but they haven’t had any in stock for ages.
I’ve never seen anybody at the Ruby & Millie stand in my local Boots and must admit I’ve never looked at it myself. I got a few pieces for Christmas once and they weren’t anything particularly special. I say clearing it out makes room for a better brand to come along!
Their brown eye shadow was one of the first single e/s I bought and it was my everyday shade for a long while. It will be sad to see them go, even though in recent years I haven’t really bought much from the brand. Hopefully the future will bring something even better. I wonder what will replace the stand in my local Boots?
I’m relieved! I always feel obligied to buy something from there with those blinking £5 boots brand vouchers, but really although ruby hammer is a fantastic make up artist, the packaging is horrible, none of the products I’ve used (a lot) are very good at all and it is shockingly expensive for the quality. Their brushes are alright though
They don’t sell Ruby & Millie in any of my local Boots so I gave up on them a long time ago. I do own one brush which is fine but nothing special and was only purchaced because of the vouchers.
Let’s hope they replace it with Nivea – that’s a high street brand I really miss in the UK. They do some of the Nivea lotions here, but even they are hit and miss and may or may not be stocked at any one time. I like Nivea Make-Up, it’s about the same price level as No7, no fancy packaging, but good quality and, most importantly, never makes my skin break out.
I have to be honest, I’ve never actually bought anything of Ruby & Millie, but it’s one of those ranges, that I have always picked up and looked at, in Boots, in Meadowhall, purely because my local one doesn’t sell them! I’ll miss “looking” at them, haha!!
Meh, I’m not really moved by that news… I have always like the packaging of a lot of their products but never really fell for the actual product inside. I have a nice metallic liquid eyeshadow but hardly ever use it, and a bright pink sheer lipstick which broke at the base two days after purchase… It’s nice, but nothing special.
And their stand in Bond Street Boots, which is where I often buy goodies, is always disgustingly dirty.
I will be interested to see if some other brand replaces them on the vouchers?
Years ago I bought one of their lipglosses with the £5 Boots voucher and loved it but never went back for another one. It just seemed way too overpriced for R&M as a brand IMO.
I wasn’t overly fussed on their products. I have a liner brush of theirs which is rather nice for using shadow as liner, and I’ve had one of their glosses with the brush tip- that I did really like, but it ran out sooooo quickly! I also had the cream blush in Red, which turned messy and gunky quite quickly, and in Yellow, which I still have, but is just TOO gold to be wearable for my skin tone, and goes on patchily. I did always want to try the blushes that look like gel, but my skin is oily and needs good coverage so they’re not really good for me anyway!!
Been trying to get a reply from Andrea Fullerton on wether her nail varnishes are cruelty free. Not once have the company replied. This makes me wary.
I posted via the actual website and also the facebook.
My local Boots in Brighton had a R&M stand, but it is always messy and never stocked. I literally waited about 8 months for a sheer orange lipstick to come back into stock…shame, because with the right promotion this brand could have done better, there were some nice products and brushes.x
What worries me is that the Urban Decay website no longer lists Boots as a UK stockist…and the stand in my local Boots has disappeared 🙁 I have a sneaky suspicion that UD is going the way of Ruby & Millie but we’ve not been told…which sucks for me as my local Debenhams and HOF don’t stock UD either and I don’t like to buy makeup online as I like to see it first.
thats interesting as urban decay has just been removed from my local house of fraser ;-(
I was totally shocked today when I visited my Big Boots store to discover that Urban Decay had completely gone… where on earth are we supposed to get it now?? 🙁 So relieved I have my Book of Shadows to keep me going and almost every eyeliner they ever did…
Only the odds and ends of Ruby & Millie were left, but noticed more new brands had come in to use up the space formerly occupied by UD… but none of it as exciting…
Any info on for us Urban Decay fans would be greatly appreciated!
Urban Decay have pulled themselves out of Boots because (and this is the official line) they want to streamline their operations in the UK which involves having a full-on “counter” at every retail site they use. I guess that unless they only wanted to be available in select Boots stores, they obv. couldn’t have a counter in ALL of them.
Sucks for me, I don’t have a HoF nearby. As long as they don’t disappear from Debenhams too!
I know UD is nice and everything, but I don’t think I’ll really miss them. At the end of the day, if they don’t want to make their brand accessible, I’m not going to go out of my way to be a loyal customer. It is really annoying when a HG product becomes unavailable though, so sympathy there!
Hey! Everyone looking for a replacement I writer should try playboys felt tip liner. Its awesome! Have had both products and I love then both!