As she’s awarded the Royal Warrant, Deborah Mitchell, Camilla’s facialist of 18 years, reveals how her Bee Venom facial became Her Majesty’s favourite beauty treatment…
Deborah Mitchell has come a long way from giving beauty treatments in a former disabled toilet in a Holiday Inn. The founder of beauty brand Heaven is celebrating being granted a Royal Warrant which marks her officially as a Supplier of Skincare Products and Treatments to HM the Queen.
It’s the culmination of an 18-year relationship which started in 2006, when Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, was one of the first people to try Deborah’s skin plumping, line-erasing Bee Venom Mask, a “wonder product” that she literally dreamed up.
“I asked myself, ‘what can I do to make my face look younger that’s not an injection?’ I went to bed and the next morning I knew how to do it. I made a substance called Abeetoxin, made from the venom of worker bees, so people who are allergic to bees aren’t affected by it.
“It’s very strong – it’s like having a facelift. Straight away when the bee venom goes on the face, the body thinks the skin has been stung and it sends helpers like collagen, elastin and blood to the skin. That tightens and firms the skin, so it not only looks younger but in far better condition – pores are closed, redness disappears and any spots go.”
Heaven founder Deborah Mitchell gives Luisa Metcalfe her signature facial which Camilla has been having for 18 years
Then Deborah was called up by Clarence House (she initially thought that the beauty brand Clarins was on the line), and asked to give Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, a facial. “I did her treatment and she absolutely loved it,” Deborah says. “I didn’t tell anybody about it but I think what happened then was that people started to notice how young she was looking.”
When word did get out about the Bee Venom Facial (from Clarence House itself, Deborah stresses), she practically became a household name. Yet Deborah’s success hasn’t changed her. “If I need to solve a problem in the business, I don’t sit in the office, I go and have a bath,” she says.
At 60, she glows with health and looks years younger than her age. She has a natural warmth and ease that would make anyone feel relaxed and comfortable – it’s impossible to picture her getting nervous around her more famous clients.
Born and bred in Telford, Shropshire, she still lives there, her factory is in nearby Shifnal and her daughter Ella, who’s 28 and the spit of her mother, is also part of the company. “I was trained when I was 18 and I was very lucky that they taught me how to make my own skincare products. There weren’t many skincare brands around then so we had to make it ourselves,” she says.
Queen Camilla has been seeing Deborah Mitchell for her bee venom facials since 2006 and still loves them (
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Getty Images)
“I’m quite an entrepreneur and I love making products and designing products – there’s nothing else I’d rather do. So I worked in a salon, and then I was mobile, and I’d make products and hand them to customers after their treatments. “My first ever proper treatment room was a disabled toilet in a Holiday Inn in Telford. We had to remove the toilet ourselves. That’s how Heaven was born.”
The brand started to appear in department stores and then she gained celebrity clients including Duran Duran – “I’m still friends with Andy Taylor ’s wife, Tracey” – even travelling to LA with them. Other A-list fans included Victoria Beckham, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kylie Minogue (the moisture-boosting Orange Flower Hydrogel is her favourite) and her sister Dannii.
But it’s Heaven’s Bee Venom Mask that really put Deborah on the map. It currently comes in three versions: Silver (£93 for 60ml) made from worker bee venom, Black (£184 for 60ml), which includes rare bee venom, and Gold (£370), containing queen bee venom so rare that only 500 pots are made annually. There is a Nettle Venom cream for vegan clients.
“We limit when you buy it, you’re not allowed to buy too many. For Christmas I gave the Queen the gold venom and she was over the moon,” Deborah says. The crowning glory was receiving the Royal Warrant before Christmas last year. “What’s so important about it is that it’s like a certification to say that she uses it and likes it.
The Queen is associated with a practical, elegant yet no-fuss approach to her appearance. “She’s a natural beauty,” says Deborah. “She won’t have anything that isn’t natural and ecological. Most of my products have ingredients that are organic and all sustainable.”
Deborah Mitchell founded her beauty brand in Telford where she was born and bred
Other members of the Royal Family might be fans of Heaven too, but Deborah won’t confirm, only hinting that, “a lot of products were given at Sandringham over Christmas.”
Despite the support of Chris, her husband of 30 years, Deborah doesn’t sugarcoat what it took for her to become so successful. “If somebody was reading this and thinking, ‘this looks like a charmed life’, I’d say it feels like it was because I loved my job. But you have to make a choice when you’re going to grow something big.
“You have to make a choice about what you’re prepared to lose to have it. There are times that you have to work night and day.”
Deborah is still dreaming big, but keeping her feet firmly on the ground. “I wouldn’t want to just work with famous people, I spend half of my working week doing treatments with customers – I think about my customers all the time.”
Visit heavenskincare.com for more information
Luisa, pictured before her treatment (left) and afterwards (right) – her jawline showed the
‘My fine lines were gone’
Deborah Mitchell gives LUISA METCALFE the royal treatment
It’s not often that the same hands that have touched the Queen’s face work their wizardry on your own – and Deborah Mitchell really does have a magic touch. Full disclosure: my skin isn’t in bad nick. At 47, after decades of using SPF I don’t have too many lines and wrinkles, but thanks to gravity and fast-depleting collagen I have the classic sagging jawline and hooded eyes of middle age.
Deborah also observed that the skin on my cheeks was “quite dry”, explaining that the slight redness is a sign that my skin barrier isn’t in great condition. She then started to apply her products including a light moussey cleanser with a subtle neroli and ylang-ylang scent that removes “zombie” cells from the skin’s surface to help it glow.
When she applied the Bee Venom Mask my skin started to tingle. She then went to work pressing and pummelling every muscle on my face, including around my eye sockets, and massaging my neck, decollete, upper back and upper arms.
When the facial was finished, I was astonished by the difference to my face. The fine lines around my eyes and between my brows were gone; the deeper lines – from my nose to my mouth – were reduced. My skin looked calm, without a trace of redness.
My eyebrows seem to have shot up, my cheekbones seemed higher, my skin was plumper and my jaw line looked tauter and less saggy. Who needs a facelift when you can have a facial?
