TRINNY LONDON Match2Me Experience

by Sarah Cross

--What does the promo say?—

“Say farewell to overwhelming make-up palettes and hello to a personalised stack.”

BFF SPF 30 CREAM SKIN PERFECTOR £35

“The perfect base product; we set out to create one ultimate skin perfector and so BFF SPF 30 Cream was born.”

EYE2EYE EYE SHADE £18 

“A range of moisture-enriched cream-based eye shades and liners, Eye2Eye is the ultimate eye enhancer.”

Lip2Cheek £25 

“A multi-tasking lip and cheek hero that makes your entire complexion come alive.”

Sheer Shimmer £22 

“A real glow-getter, Sheer Shimmer is our little pot of temptation that adds dewy glow and iridescence to anything it touches.”

--Process— 

Having seen a video on Facebook for a 5-minute make-up routine using TRINNY make-up, I decided to go onto the website to see what I could find using the “Match2Me” procedure. I confess that this is what attracted me the most to TRINNY products - the personal nature of them - and I was not disappointed. I have never seen a make-up company where the products are so beautifully ‘tailored’ to fitso many different types of skin colour. Quite incredible.

Once on the website, you select your eye colour, hair colour and complexion from a range of colour photos and descriptions. The website then keeps your profile in order to recommend the colour tones in all the different product ranges. When searching through to purchase, the website automatically shows the colours ideally suited to you. The website retains this information for whenever you visit it. (You can also have this profile sent to your email address so that you can keep it for future reference.)

The profile selection is quite detailed with descriptions about how your skin tans in the sun and there are varying shades for hair colour. For example: for ‘blonde’, you choose from ‘dirty blonde’, ‘dirty cool blonde’, ‘dirty warm blonde’.

Once you have completed your beauty profile, there are various Stacks to choose from: Softly Smokey, Fresh Face, Statement Lip, Smoky Eye, Starter Stack, Holiday Glow, 5 Min Makeover and Skin First. I chose the 5 Min Makeover, which included a tube of BFF SPF30 Skin perfector cream (Trinny provide an additional pot free so that you can include this in your ‘stack’ should you so wish) and the following stacking pots: Just a Touch foundation concealer, Eye2Eye eye shade, Lip2Cheek blusher/lip colour and Sheer shimmer Lip to Cheek pot of shimmer highlighter.

If you cannot find what you want in one of the proposed ready-made stacks, the profile also gives you the opportunity to shop via the LookBook: a series of photos and ‘looks’ showing models similar to you, for even more inspiration!

--Packaging--

TRINNY products come in a lovely sealable silver bag with the TRINNY logo. This bag is perfect to take away on holiday with you and encourages you to go ‘minimalist’ when travelling. My stack and face cream easily fit into it alongside my mascara and eyebrow brush. Inside the bag you will find silver boxes containing all your chosen products in neat transparent pots with silver lids. Once opened, you can clip your pots together in a stack. A detailed list of your products and what they are is provide with your order, which is extremely useful for remembering which is which, until you have committed it to memory. Made in Italy, the overall result is minimalist, stylish and very good  quality.

However, the pots can be tricky to unscrew if you have greasy fingers from, say, applying moisturiser. 

--Application--

Although the pots seem quite small, a little really does go a long way. Application is easy with a fingertip and works well for blending but, if you have long nails, you will eventually need to invest in a T-kit brush to get inside your pot. (In fact, I’m thinking of getting one anyway as it prevents contamination of the product and I don’t want it wasted in my nails.) Similarly, I have quite thin lips and so I find it hard to apply the cream to my lips with great accuracy as I am used to lipsticks and brushes. T-kit brush definitely on the cards for this reason too! First I apply BFF SPF30 skin protector. Again, you only need a tiny amount for each side of your face and you can blend this in all over. I then apply Trintron concealer.

--Appearance—

From left to right: ‘Trintron’ concealer, ‘Wisdom’ Eye2Eye, ‘Freddie’ Lip2Cheek and ‘Bunny’ Shimmer. ‘Bunny’ has a slightly different texture to the others, and will possibly run out before the others as a result. The colours are natural, with the Bunny Shimmer adding a little extra sparkle.

--Scent—

The products do not have a strong scent at all, which is a bonus. The BFF cream is delicately perfumed and very pleasant. Similar French products - where the cream adapts to your skin tone - have a strong and slightly pungent, unpleasant smell, so Trinny wins hands down on this score.

--Texture and consistency—

The products are superbly creamy and are easily applied. They are extremely blendable and buildable. You can have a light, almost make-up free look for daytime, or a more accentuated look for evening. Just apply as much or as little as you wish. However, the Lip2Cheek is a little dry for those with already dry lips, especially for those users who are already normally used to using extremely moisturising and hydrating lipsticks. 

--Effects on the skin—

This makeup helps to create a natural look and provides good coverage just where you need it. You can use it to conceal blemishes or dark shadows, and the concealer can also be used as an eye primer before applying shadow. The multiple shades give options for different looks and enable you to add as much or as little colour as suits the mood or time of day. All the products leave your skin looking moisturised, fresh and slightly shimmery. They are light, so your skin feels as though it can breathe. No clogged pores. And all of this can be achieved in 5 minutes.

--Value for money--

The products may seem expensive when you splash out on your first stack but since they last for ages and are of a high quality, they are well worth it. Future expenditure can easily be staggered as you gradually increase your stacks. I will almost certainly be adding to mine. I love the concept and it will be great for travelling. Oh to travel again!!

--Additional Information—

Hats off to Trinny for setting up a website so that people like me, living in Europe, can still buy our favourite products without the addition of extortionate customs duties. Even when ordering from abroad, if you order enough (and my 5-Min makeover fitted into this category) delivery is also entirely free! In the dark days after Brexit, this came as a breath of fresh air and was a very pleasant surprise indeed. The company’s website has loads of useful video tutorials and their customer service (e.g. via email) is fast, friendly, helpful and efficient.

You can even book your own personalised make-up appointment (£25 for 30 minutes, redeemable against product, via Zoom).

perfect partners

BFF Eye serum concealer £26 

BFF De-Stress Tinted serum £39

Miracle Blur £26

T-Kit 3-in-1 Brush set £28

The Jubilee Small Travel Bag £24

TAAJ MAHARANI Crème de la reine Anti-âge absolu

 

by Sarah Cross

RRP: €59/£42.60 for 50ml

--What does the promo say?—

“Crème de la Reine” (The Queen’s cream) contains 40 rare, precious and natural anti-ageing ingredients plus hyaluronic acid, collagen and elastin. It contains no silicones. An exceptional face cream, it envelops your skin in a gentle protective veil, leaving a satiny and comfortable finish. Skin is left visibly younger, plumped up and revitalised. Firmness and elasticity are restored, wrinkles are smoothed and the complexion becomes radiant and uniform.

The MAHARANI cream is inspired by the legend of Amrita. The Amrita is the nectar of immortality of the Hindu gods and goddesses. It is said that only the MAHARANIS, queens and wives of the maharajas, held the recipe and poured a few drops into their skin care to preserve their youth. Recommended for mature skin."

--Ingredients--

“Developed in France in partnership with a laboratory in India on the plateaux of the Himalayas, TAAJ beauty products are made from Himalayan spring water and extracts of plants and essential oils whose properties are beneficial to the body.

Himalayan spring water is the company’s star active ingredient. It is particularly pure; its pH of 7.3 respects sensitive skin whilst contributing to enhancing the active ingredients it contains. Its calcium concentration helps to regulate the body’s own pH. Rich in Silicium oxide, a molecule that consolidates the structure of Hyaluronic Acid, Himalayan Spring Water helps to combat ageing skin. The emulsion formed from this spring water and the associated oils is therefore more than a simple excipient and is the solid base for all our skincare products.”

--Company Philosophy—

TAAJ is the first modern French range of beauty products to be inspired by the philosophy of AYURVEDA. It has adapted ancestral principles to the highest standard for international cosmetics. Through its refined galenics and exquisite fragrances, TAAJ offers high quality and effective beauty products to women all over the world.

The website has much information on the ayurvedic philosophy and you can fill in a questionnaire to ascertain your own ayurvedic ‘profile’ to determine your ‘dosha’ (biological humors and psycho-physiological energies described in the Ayurveda) with associated beauty products, lifestyle and food recommendations.

80% of TAAJ products are also certified VEGAN by the Global Vegetarian Certification Services. The rest of the products contain beeswax or honey derivatives, which remain close to the principle of veganism because the beeswax used does not come from ‘domestic’ hives but from wild bee colonies in India.

--Packaging--
TAAJ products are generally in white or transparent boxes/containers with the distinctive TAAJ logo in gold lettering. However, the precious Maharani face cream stands out from the crowd in that it comes in a rich, royal blue box with gold lettering.

I love the fact that the cardboard box contains all the instructions and details of the ingredients printed on the inside, rather than additional folded paper inside the box - representing a saving on packaging. There is also a special card with the legend of ‘Amrita’ printed on it and small colour pictures of all the different ingredients. In a quality product, it was nice to see that so much attention had been paid to the detail of the special ingredients. 

The cream itself is in a cylindrical royal blue pump-action dispenser with gold lettering and has a gold top encased in a clear cap.

Whilst I find this container beautiful, there are two disadvantages. One is that you cannot tell how much you have used; the only way is through the diminishing weight of the container in your hands. (Why don’t the manufacturers leave a thin line section of this type of pump clear at the back so that you can see when you are reaching the bottom?) Secondly, because the tube is hard, you cannot cut it in half, as I do with so many of my beauty products, to scrape out whatever remains of the cream inside once the pump is no longer working. I have often found that I can use products for up to two weeks after the pump no longer works if I can cut the tube open, so I find myself gazing wistfully at this dispenser when I re-cycle it, wondering just how much of that precious cream is still lurking inside.

Only a minor disadvantage, though, as I feel the product benefits from being hermetically sealed in this way.

--Application--

Apply morning and/or evening to freshly cleansed face and neck.

--Appearance--

An opaque white cream that comes out in a small squiggle on your fingertip. The amount dispensed with one pump action is just right for one side of your face and neck. So, two small pumps and you are done!

--Scent—

Hardly surprising, with all these amazing ayurvedic ingredients, that this cream smells totally DIVINE. Aromatherapy in a pot. I would wear this as a perfume.

--Texture and consistency--

Relatively thick and creamy but fluid enough to spread easily over your face. A little goes a long way.

--Effects on the skin—

Blends in easily and leaves the skin silky smooth. Attenuates fine lines. My dry skin loves it.

--Value for money--

Compared to some face creams on the market this is at the top of the range but is, I feel, well worth the money for the quality of the product and the research and care that has gone into producing it. I started using my first tube just after Christmas and I am still using it, morning and night, at the beginning of May.

--perfect partners--

HUILE DELHICIEUSE 100ml 22.40€

EAU MICELLAIRE 500ml 13.20€

EAU MICELLAIRE PEAUX SENSIBLES 500ml 14.50€

LE REGARD DE REINE eye and lip contour cream 44.90€