Beauty Tips & Inspiration
Trinny Woodall: “Quality is the most important thing for Trinny London and John Lewis”
We sit down with the beauty entrepreneur ahead of her buzzy British brand launching online and in select John Lewis stores
If you’ve done even an iota of research into buying your next beauty product, Trinny London will be a name you’ve encountered time and time again. The sell-out beauty brand offers smart and sophisticated skincare and makeup products with high standards, a sunny outlook and a stackable design. But the true draw of Trinny London is the way the products make you feel: confident, energised and joyful. A TV style guru – remember What Not To Wear? – is now a founder and CEO, but Trinny hasn’t lost her candid and humorous attitude to life. Even her product names are honest (Tip Toe In is their gentlest toner, while Bounce Back is an intense peptide moisturiser).
Here, Trinny talks about her history with Peter Jones, her one piece of beauty advice and teases her brand’s next big launch…
What inspired you to launch Trinny London?
“I felt there was a gap in the market for a brand that gave women information, advice and confidence – and didn’t just try to sell them a product. I noticed women of all ages wanted to try something new, because their current products weren’t serving them, but what stopped them was feeling the beauty industry was complicated and confusing. And it is. More and more products keep launching, so therefore choice is much harder. I wanted Trinny London to be the brand that simplified the concept of makeup and skincare, but never compromised on quality. And if you look at the alignment between John Lewis and us, quality first is the most important thing for both of us.”
Did your interest in skincare grow organically alongside your interest in fashion?
“It was actually earlier than fashion. I was 13 and suffered from really bad acne. Fast forward to 2017 and it led me to create Trinny London’s first product, the BFF SPF 30 – it’s a product that can cover spots but you don’t look like you’re wearing heavy makeup. You don’t feel the weight of coverage but look like you have great skin.”
You don’t like the word anti-ageing, why?
“I don’t. As a brand, we’re not about making you look younger, we’re about making you feel full of energy when you look in the mirror. I’ve spent 20 years of my life making over women, and the first thing they notice is their face. Yes, I’ve had Botox, but I think Trinny London’s approach is quite different in the beauty space, because for so many years it’s been about turning back the clock and anti-ageing. That’s not us. We just want people to fearlessly feel their best self.”
Was accessibility important to you when launching your brand?
“We’re a premium brand because the ingredients I want to use means we can’t be mass market. That said, the brand is accessible premium, because people can invest in one skin concern, for example The Elevator, targeting their neck, even if they can’t commit to the full routine.”
In day-to-day life you bring drama, personality and fun to your outfits, has that transferred into the brand?
“Yes. Colour inspires me, and when I was thinking about what colour the brand should be, yellow was a natural fit because it is my colour of joy. It’s synonymous with the sun, with energy. I wanted people to pick up their products with joy.”
Have customers told you what they’d love you to launch next?
“Everything in our pipeline is what I choose. We listen to the thoughts and feedback of customers on products, but our launches are purposeful and in the order I believe is best. Before the end of the year we’re launching a skincare product that has an ingredient in it which hasn’t really been used before. I hadn’t used a product that worked – but this ingredient made me realise, maybe we could develop one that works and really makes a difference…”
Do you ever have ‘pinch me’ moments when you realise the global scale of Trinny London?
“I do, and I have them when I’m furthest away from the mothership on King’s Road London. I was in a remote area of Los Angeles and the woman working in the car park said, ‘Hey Trinny! Check out my [makeup and skincare] stack.’ And I thought, how superb. Another ‘pinch me’ moment was when we launched in Saks, a luxury department store in America. There was a queue around the corner. Being a British brand breaking America was a real moment.”
What does it mean to you to be launching in John Lewis?
“I grew up with Peter Jones always in my eyesight. I lived two streets away, and it has always been in my life. From school uniform time to toys and then beauty, it’s fair to say I’ve been a long time consumer of John Lewis. I worked around the corner at Partridges, a family-run food shop that used to be on Sloane Square, and I used to cut the meat as my Saturday job. I would take the £23 pounds I made in the day, and spend it in the beauty department at Peter Jones.”
Is there a career moment you’re most proud of?
“It’s a very proud moment to be at your annual staff party and look around and see just how many people work at Trinny London. I remember so clearly starting with eight people sitting around a table. It was so tiny, and now we have 250 people in the business.”
Finally, please share with us one piece of beauty advice…
“Your skin is not your best friend’s skin, so always think about what you should do for yourself, not what your friend has just bought from a well known brand. That’s why we use innovative Match2Me technology to read your skin, because what you see isn’t always what we see.”
