MY LIFE IN BEAUTY
Trinny Woodall has built a career on making over women. She spoke to HOLLY O’NEILL about her make-up must-haves, setting up a brand and her beloved skincare routine.
Holly O’Neill learns all Trinny Woodall’s secrets
WHAT FIVE BEAUTY PRODUCTS DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE WITH YOU? I always have my ring, which a girlfriend of mine gave me, and it will always have the two latest colours in it. It’s a Trinny London pot, which is stuck on to a solid silver base. I’ll always have Trinny London BFF Cream, €41, because it’s never a heavy base, so I do BFF over my face, and then I do under the eye. I wear BFF Eye, €30, every day. I generally wear a Lip2Cheek, €29, and I’ll wear any colour, especially Phoebe, which is named after my partner’s daughter and it’s a little hint of red. My latest one comes out next year, which is called Rossi; it’s slightly like you’ve bitten your lip, and then you put it on your cheek. I wear Wisdom on the eye, which is a very neutral eye, and then Miracle Blur, €30 – that’s my stack. WHAT’S YOUR SKINCARE ROUTINE? In the morning, I might cleanse with Sarah Chapman, €57, or Emma Hardie, €59, or if I’m treating myself, de Mamiel, €50 – all cleansing balms. Then I will do Biologique Recherche’s exfoliating toner P50, €59.50. Then, a vitamin C – SkinCeuticals, €135, or the Allies of Skin phenomenal 30%, €131 – a brilliant vitamin C. Then I might do an antioxidant, a more semi-hydrating serum, so I might do de Mamiel antioxidant, €101, or Antipodes Plumping Serum, €35.95, which is beautiful, or I might do the All-in-One Concentrate by Venn, €175, which is a great new brand trying to reduce the number of products we use. Then I’ll use a very general moisturiser, or I’ll go straight to BFF. At night, I do a little microneedling, so I clean my skin probably with a glycolic cleanser, it might be NeoStrata, €29.25, or my favourite is Julia T Hunter MD Skin Therapy Maximal Strength Cleanser, €50 – which is not too stripping, then I’ll use a peel, also from Julia T Hunter. It’s a very finely tuned peel that stays on. Before I do it, I’ll do microneedling three times a week with very light feathering movements and a 0.5 needle, then I do the peel. Then I do a vitamin A, €135, and Night Regeneration, €148, from Julia T Hunter – it’s an amazing regime, very active. I end with some tretinoin, which is roaccutane, and I’ll do that three times a week; it’s a prescription retinol tretinoin – I do a tiny pea size, and I always do neck, hands and face.
DO YOU HAVE ANY WEIRD MAKE-UP HACKS? I do all my make-up with my fingers, and I always want to have a synergy between my lip, cheek and my eyes, so I will sometimes even put what I put on my lip and cheek as a wash over my eyes. I do it in two seconds.
“Once I had the product, I thought, how can I make it easy for women to buy make-up online?”
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO SET UP TRINNY LONDON? I had spent 20 years making over women. I travelled the world when I did a show after What Not to Wear and I would always have different make-up teams, and they always put the same make-up on women. For probably ten years, I would decant my things in little Muji pots and I would make formulas that I loved. Before you make the commitment to be the entrepreneur and build a brand, there’s a moment that it’s safe inside your head. You don’t have to expose it to the world. I spent a long time with Trinny London inside my head and then sometimes circumstances make you think, this is the time. I went through a divorce, my TV work dried up, Susannah was wanting to write a book, and I was thinking I want to do something by myself that I’m 100 per cent responsible for its success or failure. So I thought, I’ll do this. WHAT WAS YOUR VISION FOR THE PRODUCTS? I had the pictures, how it was going to be: it was airtight, the pots should be beautiful on their own but stack beautifully, they should open easily but not break in your handbag. The first prototype that came back was so ugly and horrible, I thought, “Are we ever going to get to a beautiful pot container?” Then no less than 11 prototypes later, we got it.
HOW DID YOU SET UP THE ONLINE PERSONALISED COLOUR MATCHING PROFILE MATCH2ME? Once I had the product, I thought, how can I make it easy for women to buy make-up online? Building Match2Me came out of making over about 500 women. Charlotte, who is our chief make-up artist, would sit in my bathroom and we’d get women in – my friends to begin with; a lot of the products are named after my friends. We’d put make-up on them and see what from the range suited them and then we’d put that on a big board and write it down and then from that, we got the Match2Me algorithm.
DO YOU HAVE A SIGNATURE SCENT? I have decades. In the 1980s, I went for Fracas by Robert Piguet. In the ’90s, it was Vetivert by Guerlain. In the noughties, it was Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet, and now I’ve found one called Woody Fig, €70 for 50ml, by a guy called Samuel Gravan. I feel that when you kiss somebody, you should smell their fragrance, but when they leave the room, they should take it with them. I never want to feel it linger. It needs to be so personal to you.
IS THERE ANY TREATMENT THAT YOU HAVEN’T TRIED THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY? I said about a month ago that I’ve never tried Prof hilo. I just tried it on my hands. My hands were really lined, you saw the veins a lot, and my hands are closer to the camera than my face, so I was really aware of my hands. When you are a woman who is not 20 anymore, it’s important that your hands, neck and face stay the same. It’s just great. I don’t know how long it will last; it’s basically just hyaluronic acid, added in just under the skin.
WHAT WAS THE LAST BEAUTY PRODUCT YOU BOUGHT? Last week, I was at the airport and I bought La Mer The Moisturizing Lotion, €220. The touch of it on the skin and that feeling afterwards if you’ve prepped it right is just great. Moisturiser, to me, should not be about active ingredients, it should only be about comfort, because you should have done all your active ingredients in your serums. DO YOU GO FOR FACIALS? I do facials at home, every Sunday or every couple of Sundays. I love dry sheet masks. I have a portable LED mask I always take with me, from The Light Salon. There’s a woman called Teresa Tarmey, who’s an incredible facialist in London, and I have fractional radio frequency with her quite regularly, which I find very good for acne scarring – I have vague acne scarring still and I find the radio frequency treatment helps the skin tone to regenerate and stimulates the collagen.
WHO WOULD YOU LOVE TO SEE WEARING TRINNY LONDON? I would love women who maybe wore too much make-up or never wore make-up to find that when they wear Trinny London, people come up to them and say, “Have you changed your skincare routine?” That, to me, is the biggest compliment you could ever get wearing make-up.
“I went through a divorce, my TV work dried up, Susannah was wanting to write a book...”