/ 28 June 2018

Everything You Need To Know About Trinny London

Known best as TV’s most revered fashion advisor on What Not To Wear, it’s no surprise Trinny Woodall knows a good thing or two about beauty, too. Having launched her own cosmetic brand last year, we asked the style guru and entrepreneur to fill us in on her new venture, Trinny London…

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You launched Trinny London last year. How did it come about?

For the last 20 years, I’ve worked with women all over the world, helping them find the most flattering styles, the best skincare, and the most hard-working, perfectly matched, fool-proof make-up. I’ve spent my life carting around a heavy kit and have been on a quest for the perfect tone and consistency. I would mix a stick foundation with a liquid, blend a lip tint with a gloss – mushing up colours and decanting them into little pots.

Then the big idea was born: a portable, versatile range of makeup, with colours to suit every woman. Finally, after three years of experimenting, planning, developing formulas and state-of-the-art technology to pinpoint which makeup truly suits you, it’s here.

Who’s the range for?

It’s for time-starved women who want premium products that are portable. It’s for someone who thinks intelligently about suggesting colours that complement their skin, hair and eye combination.

You’re known as a fashion expert – why beauty?

I’ve always been obsessed with make-up and skincare – from age 13 to 30 I had spots, so was endlessly trying to hide my face with make-up. And as makeover expert for 20 years, I noticed that the first thing women see is their make-up. Combined with my lifelong beauty obsession, it was a natural thing for me to start Trinny London.

What was your first memory of make-up?

Smelling my mother’s Guerlain lipsticks aged six.

How does the collection work? The stacks are interesting…

The entirely cream-based range uses only the highest quality ingredients and pigments. Every product is formulated for fingertip application, has remarkable staying power, and colours are buildable and blend-able. It’s essentially the easiest make-up range for busy women.

Contained in a clickable T-pot, each product snaps together in a smart, simple system we have christened ‘The Stack’. Click together as many or as few products as you need to refresh your look throughout the day.

How do you find out which products or colours are for you?

We’ve developed technology to ensure that you’re never misdiagnosed at the beauty counter again. In just five clicks you can fill in the Match2Me survey, which finds the make-up that perfectly suits your unique combination of skin, hair and eye colour. Match2Me is a tool that uses research based on 3,000 different women.

What’s the most popular product?

Our BFF cream, which comes with our tiny T-pot to add to your stack. It transforms to the colour of your skin, giving you a glowing, natural look – like you’ve had the best sleep of your life.

My inspiration is all the women I have ever made over. Their voices permanently sit inside my head and I think of solutions for all the questions they’ve asked me.

And your favourite in the collection?

The Lyla Lip Glow, as it’s named after my daughter. I use it on my lips and cheeks.

Who’s your beauty inspiration?

My inspiration is all the women I have ever made over. Their voices permanently sit inside my head and I think of solutions for all the questions they’ve asked me.

Who do you think always has great make-up?

Cate Blanchett has the best makeup – I stalked her make-up artist, Morag Ross, recently!

What are your five golden rules of make-up?

1. Only ever cover up your blemishes and imperfection when applying foundation – don’t feel you must cover your entire complexion.
2. The best contour is when it just looks like a shadow on your face to enhance your cheekbones. It doesn’t need to look like you’ve piled on make-up.
3. Find products in a flattering shade that you can use on your eyes, lips and cheeks (mine is Munchkin Lip2Cheek from Trinny London).
4. I like a really good, undone, strong lip, so I don’t use lip liner as it can look too overdone.
5. When doing a smoky eye, soften the edges so you don’t make your eye look smaller.

You decided to use cream formulas for all products in the line – why?

I like the idea of applying makeup where you can build the colour as I always found I made too many mistakes when applying a powder: I would drop it under my eyes, apply too much and not be able to move the colour, and I feel it can age my face. Cream-based products give you the best natural make-up look but, equally, you can build them up to a dramatic night-time look.

There’s only one BB cream, foundation and concealer product in the line. Why did you decide to make it an all-in-one?

So many face creams – BB, CC, DD – are all so confusing, so we vowed to create one ultimate skin perfector. Worn alone, or beneath foundation, BFF is the secret to subtly radiant skin: it uses your body heat and oxygen to develop the perfect pigmentation for your skin tone, creating a flawless, natural glow.

Its multi-tasking formula works hard for you on so many levels too. Its SPF30 protects skin from UV rays, pollution and helps prevent hyperpigmentation – Sun protection is the most important part of any skincare regime. Light-reflecting extracts of porcelain flower also boost radiance, tone down redness, and makes light work of dark circles.

When it comes to foundation, what are your rules?

Less is more. Only cover your imperfections, not your entire complexion. Blend, blend, blend until the oil in the product mixes with the natural oil in your skin and the product becomes an extension of your skin. If you have the right foundation you shouldn’t notice where you skin ends and your foundation begins.

I also see many women in their 20s who are still wearing the make-up they used to cover their adolescent skin, but they now have great skin, so they shouldn’t be covering it up.

It’s for time-starved women who want premium products that are portable.

There aren't any tools in the range but are there any you personally can't be without?

When I’m creating a smoky eye I will use a very narrow brush from Real Techniques.

If you're heading off on a summer holiday, what are the best products to pack?

My holiday stack consists of Golden Glow which is a fabulous gel-based bronzer, as I do let my body tan a little bit and I want my face to match that colour. Then I add on a Lip2Cheek in the summer – I love Cha Cha – and a Lip Glow.

What’s the feedback on the collection been like?

We thought women would slowly buy one or two products but we have a 40% return customer rate and people want to turn their stacks into towers!

The brand is huge on Instagram and Facebook. Tell us more about your social media…

Our social media channels focus entirely on our Insta and Facebook followers, who compromise of our #TrinnyTribe models. Our models for the website come from our following and generally have a day job, so if you want to see real people with mak-eup on there is no better place to get tips and tricks and before-and-afters.

Yellow is the emblem colour of Trinny London – why so?

Yellow and silver are my favourite two colours; they’re incredibly happy and outgoing, and that’s what I feel the brand represents.

For Trinny London newbies, where should they start?

BFF and a Lip2Cheek could be an entire capsule collection, but people start with all different things, depending on which part of the face they usually focus their make-up on.

How do you create…

Smoky eyes: We like to teach women to put a wash of neutral colour all over the eyelid and build it up in the outer V of the eye, to add definition. Then take a darker shade, add a little bit on the lash line and smoke it out with a cotton bud or a brush.

Bold red lips: By using Match2Me, you’ll find the bold lip shade that suits you the best. For me, it’s far more important to get the colour right first. If your lipstick tends to bleed, use our BFF first as a primer over your lip line and then apply with a little lip brush or your finger with a confident swipe.

A natural glow: I apply two pumps of BFF and then a little Starlight, which is our highlighter, on my eyelids and the top of my cheekbones. Then I add a little Lip Glow so the focus is still on the skin rather than the lips.

An ‘awake’ look: Mix together a little of your Just A Touch Foundation and Starlight. Take a cotton bud or brush and dab a little into the inner corner of your eye, blending outwards – this will open up and widen your eyes. Plus, two pumps of BFF and you’ll look like you’ve had a ten-hour sleep.

Bright under-eyes: Take an extra pump of BFF and use it as a light reflector under your eyes. Add on top Just A Touch concealer in your shade to even out your skin tone.

Flawless skin: If you have a bad blemish, then take a tiny concealer brush and gently paint Just A Touch over your spot, brushing outwards. Take your finger to blend around the spot into your skin.