About US
We’ve known each other so long we can’t even remember when we met – at a beauty launch probably somewhere in London, back in the 1980s. We discovered that we were both passionate about beauty, scent and natural health as well as gardening and walking.
Then one day, a friend of Sarah’s grilled her over lunch in a little Italian restaurant in London: what exactly were AHAs? What was the best long-lasting mascara? Which scent would suit her? Did cellulite creams really work? What would cure dry flaking nails? Cappuccinos came and went, the questions went on – and on. The waiters got fed up but the germ of an idea was born: a book which would explain all these things and (the big USP) test out lots of products on real women and report the results.
Sarah rang Jo. What about it? Jo said yes and the rest is history. The Beauty Bible – much of which is now found on this site – went on to become a global bestseller after its launch in 1996, and now The Anti-Ageing Beauty Bible is the seventh title in the series. We’re delighted that our books have become the biggest-selling series of beauty books in the world. And we’ve now had more than 20,000 women trialling products for us to date – making this the biggest-ever consumer beauty survey ever carried out, and giving us (and through our books and App, our readers) a unique insight into what works and what doesn’t.
We launched this website in 2001, and it’s been completely overhauled in 2012, dusting off a fair few cobwebs so that we can bring you breaking beauty news, from wherever we are.
We are eternally grateful to the beauty industry for their ongoing support, generously providing the product which is the subject of our rigorous testing programme on real women with real beauty challenges. And we’re grateful to our amazing team of helpers: Amy, Jessie, Dave, Kahrina, Andrew, Ben and Lily, who’ve helped make it all possible.
Jo juggled the early Beauty Bible books with running Green & Black’s, the chocolate brand she founded in 1991 with her husband Craig Sams. She lives in Hastings, by the sea, where she opened an organic bakery and one-stop organic food store (Judges Bakery) and a 9-room wellbeing centre, The Wellington Centre. Passionate about perfume, Jo also writes an acclaimed fragrance blog, The Scent Critic, which you can read here.
Sarah divides her time between West London and the West Country, where she lives with her husband Alex. (She married for the first time in May 2012!) She cares for rescue horses and truly loves gardening.
We are both contributing editors to the Mail On Sunday’s YOU magazine and have written for most of the major newspapers and magazines in the UK and worldwide, and appear on TV and radio. On Sundays, you can read our column Beauty Bible Beauty Clinic at www.mailonsunday.co.uk.
One last word: our Beauty Bible Executive Assistant, Amy Eason, also shares her beauty insights with our readers in Amy Loves. A valued member of our team (and co-ordinator of all parcels!), Amy’s 26 and is a vintage-obsessed eBay addict (self-confessed) with a fresh, young perspective on the beauty world she loves as much as we do…