Trinny Woodall on how she built a tribe of loyal women

When Trinny Woodall launched Trinny London in 2018, she had a clear vision of who she wanted to sell to. Having spent years at the helm of TV makeover shows and co-authoring books on style with Susannah Constantine, Trinny believes every woman has five moments in her life where she wonders ‘who do I want to be?’

Her online business idea was clever — stackable pots of face colour with everything from lipstick to cheek colour, concealer and shadow that were ‘chosen’ for you with a shade-matching system on her website.

The concept was risky at the time as online shopping and high-tech diagnosis tools weren’t the norm, but Trinny built her ‘Trinny Tribe’ of women across the globe and she sells to 1.3 million people in 180 countries. Trinny told me why she created the distinct brand she’s very proud of at the launch of her makeup and skincare counter in Brown Thomas in Dublin.

‘I hoped that the women I was targeting would come online because I felt some of those women had difficulty at the makeup counter. Maybe they just didn’t know they were being addressed, perhaps. They were 35-plus and all the imagery was models in their early twenties, photoshopped, you know, could they find themselves there?

‘So I thought, let’s bring you to a totally new place and personalise it for you.’

Trinny Woodall has just turned 60 (and looks nothing like it), and she knows her

vast audience and fan base intimately.

‘I think every woman goes through a moment about five times in her life. And I would love us to be the brand that’s there for them in that transition moment. I always say we’re for the grown-up woman. We’re not for the 40-year-old who buys something new every week, thinking ‘I need to change how I feel’, and we’re not for a girl who’s going to Sephora at 18 to buy Tom Ford.

‘We’re for that woman who thinks, “I now need a serious skincare routine, I want to look after my face properly.”’

The online tool and site grew exponentially and she says the reach spread organically. ‘I think when people got their correct colours they told their friends that they were better diagnosed at Trinny London online than in-store.

‘That gave us a strong customer following because they were kind of mesmerised at what had happened to them online.

‘When you make over somebody for a TV show, you start with makeup because that’s the most superficial thing. Every woman has body dysmorphia to some extent so they won’t look at the clothing first. And every woman has a specific relationship with her hair. But with makeup, every woman is open to a “Cinderella” moment. When we did makeovers, and they realised what good skin can feel like, we gave them skincare so they could have it. I always knew that would be the order.’

▪ Trinny London is at Brown Thomas, Dublin, and at trinnylondon.com/eu/