EXCLUSIVE: Trinny Woodall reveals her favourite makeup hacks and tips

When I think of Trinny Woodall, one of the first words that pops into my mind is ‘energetic’, because that’s exactly how she was during my Instagram Live chat with her to celebrate the launch of her new Trinny London Mother Earth range of makeup.

My chat with the beauty and fashion guru began began with the 56-year-old very animatedly telling me she'd just had some clothes from Zara altered by her seamstress of 20 years, whom she described as "like my drug dealer".

As you can probably tell, I knew this was going to be quite the entertaining chat and we were less than a minute in.

"I've had somebody in to alter my clothes because I do this thing where I buy Zara and then I spend £30 altering it so it fits really well,” Trinny explained.

“So, she's like my drug dealer, she's called Esusannah. She's been in my life for about 20 years and she's Colombian and... we've seen each other through tremendous pain, we've had huge rows over the years because she'll always say, 'Oh you look so nice, Trinny!' And I'll be like 'Esusannah, let's be honest, the shoulders are wonky!'"

"But she's mad and she works really hard... and she's great," she said, jokingly adding, "And I paid her today and it's like paying your dealer – I pay her cash, it's only cash!"

Trinny is likely the most lively and fun person I've ever interviewed. We were already a few minutes in and I hadn't even asked a question yet.

She continued on a tangent about how designers like Stella McCartney create clothing for their own body shape but not the average woman, but a few minutes later she remembered the reason we were chatting: Trinny London, her beauty and makeup line and more specifically the Mother Earth Eye2Eye Collection.

The Mother Earth range features intense, rich pigments which are buildable and blendable to help make the eyes pop. If you go on the Trinny London website, you'll also be given the opportunity to personalise your products using Trinny London’s diagnosis tool ‘Match2Me’. The tool assesses skin, hair, and eye colour combinations to recommend a specifically tailored product that is perfectly matched to you.

“Show off your best skin!”

The presenter was barefaced and ready to do her makeup for us live using all Trinny London products. And let me tell you, there is a lot to learn from this woman when it comes to makeup – even if you think you might know it all already.

"There are so many women who are in a time warp of makeup," she told me. "I always put it down to the decade in which you learned to do your makeup."

"I learned in the '80s and in the '80s it was Dynasty, it was bronzer, it was matte, it was black eyeliner, and it was a bit of kind of – motorway blusher. So lots of women, when they feel their most appealing, you know, when they discover their appeal, is, I think, the decade in which we stick to our makeup.

“Because we have the memory of how good it made us feel and how empowered it made us feel," she explained, adding that she thinks that this decade things are changing and rather than painting yourself with foundation, it's time to instead show off your best skin.

Watch the video here:

Trinny applied her BFF Cream to her skin, saying all it really does is even out her skin tone, and then rather than wearing a face full of foundation – which we don't actually need everywhere on our faces – she can then fill in any places she wants to cover up with her concealer.

"It's such a habit to just get take that bottle of foundation and just do that all over our face," she explained.

"But there's so many places that you don't need to cover!"

She then used her Just A Touch foundation/concealer to touch up the places she actually needs a little bit of coverage.

Trinny revealed that on the Trinny London website, there are actually 83 different women of different backgrounds ranging in age from 18 to 83 so that when customers choose the right colours for their skin tone, they have a range of people who would look similar to them, making it easier to choose the correct shades. And let me tell you, it really is easy.

She then revealed more of her favourite beauty hacks, telling me that women don't actually need to worry about how to use bronzer and contouring; all you need to do is use it where the sun would naturally burn you if you weren't wearing sunscreen – not that she would ever suggest you don't wear sunscreen!

"Forget about all this 'where you contour', because that contouring malarkey, you should just [think] 'where does the sunshine burn you when you used to go in the sun?' So, I used to burn my nose, and I used to burn a bit where my cheeks most are," she said as she applied her bronzing kit, saying it was now much more convincing that she had a tan, rather than looking like she had contoured.

"I just think, be convincing!" she said.

Trinny’s beauty hacks: “Blend, blend and blend some more!”

However, if you are keen to do a little bit of contouring on your cheeks, Trinny revealed another hack, which involves taking your bronzer and just following your hair line near your ears and thinking to yourself, "Where would you naturally have a shadow?"

She added, "Only take it where the shadow would be, and it would never go further than the end of your eyebrows, so never bring that shadow right into here," she said, gesturing closer to her mouth in line with her eye, "Because that's so unnatural, you want to just do where you think you would get the hollow and go as if you're just about to go over the top."

Trinny then showed that she was then blending the bronzer upwards slightly, "And then at the end I go up like you're doing a J curl fake lash, so I go up here at the end," she said gesturing to her cheek.

She added that she would then take her highlighter and do that just above on her cheeks and blend in together with the bronzer. Then she takes her concealer, saying that most people when they contour, go too far down on the cheek, so she uses her concealer to make it lighter again.

"So you get that lovely sense of a good bit of shadow, but without it being a motorway. You want it to be, 'Oh my goodness, look at your cheekbones', so it's created that," she said.

"The other thing I always say is, 'Blend, blend and blend some more,' with cream it's very easy just to blend."

Watch here to see more of Trinny’s makeup and beauty hacks (trust me, they’re good!):

Trinny London's new Mother Earth range feature the perfect shades for the cooler months.

The range works effortlessly as both an eyeshadow and eyeliner with its cream-based formula and will help enhance the eyes. Inspired by Mother Earth, the new energising shades are: Hope, Courage, Truth and Fortitude.

These intense, rich pigments are buildable and blendable to help make the eyes pop. Ranging from soft peaches to vibrant copper tones, they can be worn alone, together and with other Eye2Eye shades.

Most importantly, all products are cruelty-free and vegan and available online.

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