Ageless Beauty

A cheery chat with Trinny

Remember it? When Trinny Woodall burst onto our screens in the noughties, performing make-overs with Susannah Constantine. The show was called What Not to Wear and the pair won a Royal Television Society Award, marking its success. Trinny has also written numerous books, which have sold over three million copies worldwide. Her latest is called Fearless and I'm looking forward to putting some of her advice into action.

Never one to rest on her laurels – in fact, she rarely sits still – she's now an entrepreneur who has built her own beauty empire quick-smart - smart being the operative word. Her mission is to bring effortless beauty solutions to all ages. I caught up with her for a quick Q & A. No promo deals involved – I just love her products and her energy.

Q Trinny London is one of Europe’s fastest growing beauty businesses and you’ve built it all in a matter of six short years – it may have started on the kitchen table but now it’s based in bustling offices. Did your younger self ever imagine you’d be a seriously successful entrepreneur and businesswoman?

A No, I never imagined I would. But at different stages of my life, I've had an ambition to push myself. I've had that feeling ever since I left school. So it came down to how far I wanted to take that.

Q You have a gazillion followers on social media – your ‘Trinny Tribe’. What are the positives you try to bring to this community?

A To support one another. Not to be negative with each other. To lift other women who need lifting…we always think about that in our community. And we love to be able to focus on that. To get a sense of what is worrying the community and to talk about it. It might be about global events, or about how to express ourselves. Basically, we discuss things that affect how people are feeling.

Q I’m 61 (nearly 62) and while I say I still feel young, when I look back to when I was in my 30s, I felt very mature then – I’d gone through a lot of angst, including mental health issues and a divorce. It’s easy for me to look at a 30 year old now and just say, ‘Oh you’re so young,’ but I try to remember every age brings its own challenges, highs and lows. Your brand doesn't just appeal to the younger age groups. It's very age inclusive. Was that important to you and if so, why?

A Yes, when we launched Trinny London, it was a conscious decision and fundamentally, we're still a brand for 35-plus women because they are one of the most marginalised in the marketplace and the least addressed. And as you move into older age groups, there's even less inclusivity. So for us, it's very important to champion those consumers. But equally, we want to appeal to anyone who's reached a stage where they feel ‘I'm a grown up’ and by that, I mean, ‘I want to make informed decisions now. I don't want to buy into fads’. We're not about fads, we're about thought-through decisions.

Q How long can it take to create a product from idea to launch?

A It can take four years. With skincare, you’ve got so much testing to do in the lab. We work from scratch, starting with the raw ingredients, building our formulation, checking that all those ingredients work safely and well together. Then we have to scale it up in terms of volume and do compatibility testing. Once we've done that, we have to test it on people for a certain period of time - if it's a serum, for example, we’ll do clinical trials. Finally we're ready to go to market. It’s a long process.

Q I’m very serious about sun protection and I wore your See The Light every day when I received it. It was a great launch and afterwards, you travelled around in an open top London bus decorated with your brand colours and images of your good self. How did that feel?

A It felt like a celebration of what we do. When you are mainly an online brand and people see you in the physical world, for example, in that bus, it creates excitement. We took the bus all over London and people stopped in the street. It made them smile and that's what we wanted the tour to do.

Q I’m bowled over by your energy. How do you pace yourself?

A I always start the day with physical movement and eating something nourishing. If I start the day without movement - and with sugar - I'm not gonna have a great day full of energy. In my twenties, I would wake up and just be recharged with natural energy. But I think as you travel the path of life, you realise your body needs different things at different stages. Now, every day, I have to include some form of exercise. And I need to eat well and take good supplementation.

Q What’s your favourite piece of life advice?

A That generally, everything you worry about doesn’t happen.

Jan says: note to self!

Q What’s the worst fashion or beauty mistake you ever made?

A Wearing orange fake tan. For about six years.

Q As you don’t hide your age, I know you will be 60 next year. How will you celebrate?

A I'll probably go with, like, 12 friends on an adventure where we've never been before.