Queen bee We chatted to the Queen’s facialist, Deborah Mitchell, renowned for her bee venom facials, who has some bridal skincare advice you won’t want to miss Our beauty editor, Kelly Andrews, recently caught up with Deborah Mitchell, A-list beautician, owner of Heaven by Deborah Mitchell and Queen Camilla’s facialist. Famed for her bee venom facials and most recently, her innovative nettle venom formula, she recently received the Royal Warrant for her services to Her Majesty over the past 18 years. Deborah has been an innovator in the industry for more than 30 years, helping celebs, royalty and everyday clients achieve outstanding results. Here, Kelly asks this renowned expert for her top bridal skincare advice, and the answers may surprise you! Tell us about yourself and how you got started in the industry. I started out as a beauty therapist and worked in a salon after completing my training before going mobile. I couldn’t afford any products at the time, so I made my own and gave them to my clients. Eventually, clients started asking me for more, either for themselves or to give to their friends. So, I found myself making more, and that’s where it all started. How did you meet Queen Camilla and become her facialist? Harper’s Bazaar featured me as one of their top six best facialists in the world and I’d done quite a lot of celebrities, so I was quite well known. So, I think she found me via my reputation in the industry. Her team phoned me, and I had to go and do a treatment on her, it was really pretty special. How did you feel when you got the call? Years ago, I’d gone to a medium and she’d said I’d receive an emblem to put on my products and that I might even do a treatment on Camilla. When she told me this, Camilla wasn’t queen, in fact she wasn’t even with Prince Charles then, she was Camilla Parker Bowles. This was back when my son was just two years old, he’s 26 now. But she was right! When I did my very first beauty treatment on a client, I felt like I was home. And when I first treated Camilla, I had a very calm feeling, it was a very natural experience. I don’t get nervous now, but I do feel different every time I come away, so there must have been some apprehension. I’ve been working with her for 18 years now, since 2006. We’re desperate to know: what are the Queen’s favourite products? She’s actually used every single one of my products, so each one carries the Royal Warrant. I can tell you her very favourite product of all time though, which is Age Defiance. I have asked her if she could only have one product of mine, what would it be and I thought she’d say the Bee Venom or the Gold Bee Venom, so I was surprised when it wasn’t. Age Defiance is one of our core products, it’s got no perfume in it at all and gives a soft look to the face; it looks great on anybody’s skin. It’s my favourite too. I wouldn’t like my life without it! It contains a special type of hyaluronic acid that no one else uses called DSH. It’s a very different ingredient – you don’t get spots, your pores close, and it waters the skin. I understand there are strict sustainability policies involved in holding a Royal Warrant, can you tell us a bit about how you go about making your products sustainable? I was 18 when I first made a product and I’ve been creating my Heaven products in their current form since I was 28 when the company was incorporated, I’m 60 now. When I gave them to people, they used to return the containers, and I’d wash them out, refill them and hand them back. Straight away I didn’t believe in boxes because I thought this was throwing away trees. Nobody thought like that then. Even now you take our product off the shelf with no box and for sets we usually offer a bag you can keep. In our company we work four days a week to save energy and electricity, which also looks after our staff. They get paid for a full week but only work four days. This is part of our sustainability ethos, so we’re not turning on the factory on the fifth day but get the same output as it aids the wellbeing of our staff. So, we matched every sustainability “It’s also worth knowing that when you’re going through a period of heightened emotions, your body becomes more allergic to things you’d previously coped with.” 74
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