EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: The jobs loss blemish on Trinny Woodall’s beauty empire

She was best known as one half of the acerbic chic couple who advised ‘fashion disasters’ on the BBC makeover show What Not To Wear. But then Trinny Woodall underwent a transformation of her own: she became one of Britain’s most successful beauty entrepreneurs.

Last year it was revealed that her brand, Trinny London, had more than tripled turnover in 12 months to a whopping £44.2 million. One of her most popular products, a £35 sunscreen, was sold every ten seconds.

However, now the first blot on the company’s face has appeared.

I hear that key staff at Trinny London’s head office were made redundant last week as part of a major restructuring.

“Many tears were shed,” I am told. ‘People who thought they had a dream job have been given their marching orders. It’s very sad.’

A source at the company confirms that staff have been laid off. “The nature of the business is changing,” says the source. ‘It is making a transition from a start-up to a medium-sized company.

‘As a result, 16 employees will lose their jobs. That is seven percent of our total workforce. However, 35 new roles will be added.’

The company, which Woodall founded in 2017, grossed £27.4 million in the year to March 2021, a huge increase on last year’s £8.5 million. Sales outside Europe rose from £1.9 million to £13.4 million, according to reports filed with Companies House.

Social media has been key to the success of Trinny London, which calls itself a “digital brand.”

Woodall posts hours of content to her Instagram account, sometimes multiple times a day, promoting her skincare and makeup products to her million followers. She gets tens of thousands of YouTube views per week.

By often appearing with bare faces and not being afraid to make bizarre expressions to hilarious effect, she has won legions of fans.

Describing social media as ‘essential’, she said: ‘When someone leaves a comment on my channels, I ‘like’ it and respond. The more you can create a two-way interaction, the better.”

But it wasn’t all plain sailing, with the company losing £800,000 in its first year.

Woodall, 59, has spoken of her tears at the first “terrible” prototype of Trinny London’s make-up products, which went into a stack.

“It looked cheap and clumsy,” she told The Mail On Sunday’s You magazine. ‘It was a terrible moment and I really cried. But I kept going. Eleven prototypes later we got it right.’

Described by friends as ‘the most self-sufficient person they have ever met’, she launched herself into the business by selling her 20-year collection of designer clothes, raising £60,000 to keep the business afloat while raising money from investors.

The daughter of a banker and educated at boarding schools from the age of six, she ventured into business for the first time at the age of sixteen, selling velvet hair bows decorated with brooches with a friend. out,” she said.

She later co-wrote a weekly newspaper style column with Susannah Constantine, which was turned into What Not To Wear. The show went on to win a Royal Television Society Award.

Woodall, who split from super-rich art dealer Charles Saatchi, 80, earlier this year after a decade together, said the suggestion he was funding her business behind the scenes “affected her more than anything because it is the furthest thing from the truth ‘. .

Saatchi was previously married to television chef Nigella Lawson, who claimed she was the victim of “intimate terrorism” during their 10-year marriage.

Woodall’s ex-husband, Johnny Elichaoff, father of her daughter Lyla, fell to his death in a London car park in 2014 aged 55 after ‘losing everything’ in a series of failed oil investments.

A spokesperson for Trinny London declined to comment.

Poppy takes the party whip

Poppy Delevigne enjoyed a quirky Halloween – and brought her dad along to the party.

Chelsea property developer Charles Delevingne dressed up as shady, late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. He is pictured with Game Of Thrones actress Jazzy de Lisser and model Lady Mary Charteris.

Socialie Alice Naylor-Leyland hosted the party in the basement of her country house near Cambridge. Alice, 37, dressed as Catwoman, pretended to whip actress Poppy, also 37, who was in pigtails as Batman’s opponent Harley Quinn.

Lord Bridgerton’s secret lover reveals her new man

She played Lord Bridgerton’s secret lover in the racy Netflix costume drama Bridgerton, but in real life Sabrina Bartlett loves going out with her new man.

The actress, 31, who was rumored to have joined celebrity dating app Raya earlier this year, appears to have met her match with an Australian strategist named Lachie Stewart. And she shared this selfie of them together online.

The London-born star, who left her role in ITV’s The Larkins last year, previously dated Peter Rabbit actor Tom Greaves for three years.

Officials in Downing Street have desperately insisted that Rishi Sunak and his staff have kept their distance from Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s foul-mouthed former right-hand man.

So a photo making the rounds among Westminster insiders has caused quite a stir. It shows Cummings at the wedding of Sunak’s chief of staff, Liam Booth-Smith, and Olivia Oates, a special adviser to the government.

Cummings claps eagerly as the couple perform their first dance at the reception, weeks before Sunak entered Number 10 with Booth-Smith by his side. The 36-year-old was dubbed the Travolta of the Treasury after he wore a leather jacket while working with Sunak when the Prime Minister was chancellor.

A blessing for Carol Thatcher after her Las Vegas wedding to Marco Grass – from her first love, Cabinet Secretary turned prisoner and prison chaplain, Jonathan Aitken.

“I’m very happy to hear the good news about Carol and Marco’s wedding,” he tells me. “I wish them both the best of luck.” Aitken, who spoke movingly last year at the funeral of Elizabeth Harris, his second wife, whom he married in his 60s, adds: ‘Late marriages can be great marriages – as I well know…’

John Boyega hasn’t appeared in a Star Wars film in four years, but the power is clearly still with him.

I hear the Peckham-born actor has added another £1m to profits at Upperroom Entertainment Ltd, the performing arts company where he sends his income.

Financial statements filed at Companies House show £12.5 million in cumulative income held for him as of January. The company is one of five that Boyega, 31, founded in the wake of his big-screen success.