Queen Camilla arrives ahead of the Official Dinner and Reception for the Commonwealth Heads of Government and Delegation, set in the grounds of the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum on Oct. 25, 2024 in Apia, Samoa.Photo:Chris Jackson/Getty
Chris Jackson/Getty
Beauty is more than skin deep, according toQueen Camilla’s facialist.
“The Queen is just amazing,“Deborah Mitchell, the British facialist and skincare expert whose healing hands are regularly called upon at the palace, tells PEOPLE. “I’ve known for 18 years what a beautiful person she is.”
“She’s beautiful on both the inside and outside and always has been,” she adds.
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“It’s just such a wonderful feeling, and to have it for both my products and my treatments, it’s so special,” says the 59-year-old businesswoman, who started her company as an 18-year-old beautician making beauty products from her kitchen table because she couldn’t afford the premium brands.
“I’m flying high!” Mitchell exclaims.
Mitchell has built a global beauty brand with clients that includeGwyneth Paltrow,Michelle PfeifferandVictoria Beckham.
“It’s honestly not a job for me, I love it. I don’t actually know what to do on a day off,” she says from her home in Telford, Shropshire in the Midlands, where her flagship salon is located.
“When I first met the Queen, I couldn’t even tell my Mum! I would go off to Clarence House and all these other places in secret,” she says. “She thought I was doing another celebrity! Nobody knew, I couldn’t say a word, but occasionally she would say how much she loved my bee venom products, and eventually the palace confirmed it to the press.”
Deborah Mitchell.Heaven
Heaven
In fact, Camilla was one of Mitchell’s first ever clients to try her signature anti-aging bee venom products, which combine honey and her patented ingredient — organic Abeetoxin, derived from milking bees to extract their healing venom.
“When she first had my Bee Venom Facial, she absolutely loved it, and it’s still her favorite,” Mitchell says. “She buys everything from the range!”
Camilla’s ultimate favorite is the Gold Bee Venom Mask (which is made in limited supplies of 500 pots per country), which contains rare venom from the Queen bee.
“There’s a little tingle when it goes onto the skin, but it doesn’t hurt and it doesn’t harm the bees,” Mitchell says. “It’s an incredible ingredient as it’s smooths your face, even the static lines, something even Botox can’t do. It’s pretty astounding.”
In between appointments — which Mitchell reveals occur “more than once a month” — she says Camilla has an impressive at-home beauty routine, using her entire range of products.
“I can do a treatment and so many weeks later, I’ll go back and just go ‘Wow’ because she really looks after her skin,” she says. “I honestly think she is going back in time! She has incredibly young skin.”
In addition to Camilla, the beauty expert says she does have other clients within the royal family.
“I do see the King, and when I get a royal warrant from him, I’ll be allowed to say more!” she laughs, noting that every time she sees them both, she can’t help but practice her curtsy.
“I think you are supposed to curtsy once, but I probably do at least three curtsies,” Michell says. “I love it! And I love to curtsy to the King, too.”
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Aside from her glowing skin, Mitchell says it’s Camilla’s personality that really shines, something that hasn’t changed in the many years she has known her: “It’s a hard job she’s doing, and she’s so incredibly thoughtful, she really does remember people and try to help them,” Mitchell says. “[I] think the more people get to meet her, they just fall in love with her.”
source: people.com