You have to hand it to Trinny Woodall – she’s a woman who commits to her beauty. As the founder of Trinny London, she loves to create products based on her own wishlist, knowing full well that her wants and needs will be shared by her midlife-centric Trinny Tribe. Then, once she’s hit on a new problem-solving idea, she tests the formulas out religiously on her number one guinea pig: herself.
There was the microneedling device she religiously rolled over her own face – and even her legs – for months ahead of launch to ensure her tool truly delivered anti-ageing results without compromising safety. (She kindly told GH exactly how she uses it to stimulate collagen as well.)
Then came last year’s ‘gravity defying’ neck cream, The Elevator. She happily admits it was inspired by a desire to firm up her own neck, which had slackened after being cut into for disc replacement surgery. ‘I feel it’s tightened now from using this. My jawline is, I feel, good,’ she told GH when we chatted at the launch.
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Her latest launch is no exception to the rigorous Trinny testing protocol. Her newbie, the boldly named Take Back Time Elixir, was created for a problem she often experiences and knows that pretty much all women will relate to as well.
‘I wanted to create a product that you put on when you just want an overall taking away of that dull, lifeless feeling that we sometimes get when we catch sight of ourselves in the mirror,’ she tells GH. ‘I can have that feeling on days when I’m really tired or I’m just feeling like I need to turn around my skin.’
She adds: ‘I know that my daily skincare routine from Trinny London is like the medicine for my skin. This is like a treat; this is like a sweet for my skin and it enables me to have that instant feeling that my skin has come back to life.’
Trinny London Take Back Time Elixir
The Elixir, a very light-feeling essence, is designed to reboot fatigued skin in 28 days, boosting hydration, elasticity, smoothness, softness and luminosity. Quicker than that, it’s been shown to repair and strengthen the skin barrier in just 30 minutes – a claim Trinny has most definitely tested on herself.
‘I have an extreme example of that,’ she tells GH, relaying what’s very much a ‘do not try this at home’ story. ‘I went to New York to do [a] facial with Georgia Louise who is a fantastic British facialist based in New York,’ she says. ‘She used our microneedles to do quite intensive microneedling on me in a really professional, in-salon-only treatment.’
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In a classic case of no pain, no gain, Trinny’s microneedling session ‘had temporarily broken the skin barrier’, she says. ‘But within about five minutes of putting my Elixir on, I felt such an amazing transformation; the redness of my skin turned down and it didn’t hurt. Which it had a bit when she was microneedling.’
‘So, even though I’ve seen the clinical trial data on it repairing the barrier significantly within 30 minutes, being a guinea pig in that situation brought home to me how well the product was working.’
Aside from soothing her skin after intensive facials, Trinny tells us she’s enjoying the gentler daily benefits, too. ‘I feel this improvement in the life of my skin – it’s the only way I can describe it,’ she says. ‘It’s this extra layer of skincare I didn’t know I needed. And people are just saying, “You look really well,” when I’m thinking, “I shouldn’t be, because I’m not sleeping enough.” So, yes, I’m beginning to see this daily effect of using the Elixir.’
How to use Take Back Time Elixir
If you’re interested in incorporating Take Back Time Elixir into your own regime, know it’s been created as the hydrating third layer in a skincare sandwich. If serum is the key filling, then the Take Back Time Elixir is the nourishing drizzle of dressing (if that’s not too odd an analogy). Essentially it’s: cleanser, serum, elixir and SPF by day, then cleanser + exfoliant at night, followed by serum, elixir and night cream.
We’ve tried it ourselves, and while the texture is very light to the point of feeling watery, the immediate skin-drink effect is anything but weak. It’s definitely a good one to try if your skin is thirsty and dull-looking – two things that often go hand in hand.
And if we have a particularly punishing facial in the diary, we’ll keep on it on standby, for sure.
Trinny London Take Back Time Elixir
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