Trinny London, a brand of stackable, clickable, portable and personalised makeup, is the brainchild of Trinny Woodall, the fabulous fashion expert who starred on the TV series What Not To Wear in the early 2000s alongside her best friend Susannah Constantine.
While you probably associate Woodall with the fashion world, she is now firmly entrenched in the beauty industry since launching Trinny London in 2017. The founder and CEO has always had a love of beauty and spent years mixing her own products, long before Trinny London was realised.
“I have always mixed up my products to get the perfect consistency that I felt was the most flattering. All the formulas I would mix together were cream-based and mixed to get the right colour for my skin, hair and eye combination,” Woodall told TheLatch—.
“After years of doing this and people commenting on my sort of put together creation, there came a time in my life when I thought ‘I now have to do it.'”
As someone with a well-respected voice in the beauty industry, the recent Black Lives Matter conversations have caused Woodall and her team to pause and take note, especially regarding the lack of representation of BIPOC in the industry as a whole.
The Trinny London team is working on increasing the shade ranges available in its face products, while Woodall says there is also a focus on education within the business.
“We’ve teamed up with a company called Creative Access where we offer our employers the opportunity to mentor Black and minority ethnic backgrounds who are on the career ladder,” she said.
“Between us as a company, we have a channel now where people put up books they are reading and everything. There is continual education around being really aware of where we are today in the world and what needs to be done.”
We chatted to Woodall about how Trinny London pivoted in the early days of the pandemic and how she’s spent her last few months in lockdown.
Alexandra McCarthy: Many people know you for your work in the fashion industry, but these days beauty is your main focus. Have you always been a fan of beauty?
Trinny Woodall: Ever since I started to have chronic acne aged 13, I have been really interested in having a good beauty routine. I’ve always researched products and loved looking at the ingredients list.
AM: What inspired you to create Trinny London?
TW: For many years, I have always mixed up my products to get the perfect consistency that I felt was the most flattering. All the formulas I would mix together were cream-based and mixed to get the right colour for my skin, hair and eye combination.
After years of doing this and people commenting on my sort of put together creation, there came a time in my life when I thought ‘I now have to do it’ — Trinny London was born.
“For many years, I have always mixed up my products to get the perfect consistency that I felt was the most flattering.”
AM: Trinny London has pivoted during the COVID-19 pandemic to offer online consultations — how has this been received by customers?
TW: We’ve increased our customer base by introducing online content. I think this really helps the woman who’s very used to shopping in-store and has been very reticent to buy makeup or skincare online.
It’s all about creating what she gets in-store in an online environment, which is really that emotional connection with an expert who can give her the confidence to make the right choices in her makeup routine and teach her things at any age.
AM: How have you been spending your time in lockdown?
TW: Lots of focus work on new product development, which has been great. Usually, I’ve got so many things juggling that my team and new product development don’t get all the time they should get.
I’ve had the space in my head to think through things. I’ve never been so busy though, so my days are very long because I’m also doing a lot on social media.
I now feel a balance. I think there were a few weeks after staying home where I felt I was doing way too much social and not enough stuff on the business but feel the balance is right now.
AM: Has makeup still been a part of your routine in lockdown?
TW: Whatever happens in my day, I put on BFF Cream first thing. If I’m running to calls that I don’t expect, I would apply Sheer Shimmer because it gives me the brightness, the shine, the lip and cheek coverage and an immediate fix.
AM: What’s the Trinny London product that you always have in your handbag when you’re out and about?
TW: I always have the Lip2Cheek and BFF for my daily routine and Sheer Shimmer when I’m out and about.
AM: Given recent events in the world, what is Trinny London doing to support the Black Lives Matter conversation?
TW: We’re looking at increasing our shade ranges. From day one of Trinny London launching, we’ve wanted to create coverage for every skin shade.
By February, we had made a commitment that we will have increased our foundation ranges and our BFF ranges to really feel we have considered every skin tone.
We already had some in development during the Black Lives Matter conversation. Our products have a 20-week development time and we were always going to aim for February. We made this commitment on our feed to put those products out there by 2020.
I feel with our Trinny London feed, we’ve are incredibly inclusive on skin tone and age too. Age is very important for us, so we ensure we have a mixture of all ages.
“We’re looking at increasing our shade ranges. From day one of Trinny London launching, we’ve wanted to create coverage for every skin shade.”
AM: What steps is Trinny London taking to do better by BIPOC within your business and the beauty industry?
TW: It’s education internally as a business and education about hiring and giving the opportunity to people.
We’ve teamed up with a company called Creative Access where we offer our employers the opportunity to mentor Black and minority ethnic backgrounds who are on the career ladder.
Between us as a company, we have a channel now where people put up books they are reading and everything. There is continual education around being really aware of where we are today in the world and what needs to be done.
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You can shop Trinny London products online, including the new Mother Earth range that are perfect shades for the cooler months. The cream-based formula works effortlessly as eyeshadow and eyeliner and helps enhance the eyes thanks to the rich pigments that are buildable and blendable.