Every facialist has her signature moves, but there can’t be anyone beside Deborah Mitchell who includes a curtsey as part of their treatment protocol. That’s the truly unique position that Deborah now finds herself in, thanks to being Queen Camilla’s skin therapist for the past 20 years and counting.
The Queen continues to squeeze in regular professional treatments since she and King Charles ascended the throne in 2022, and each appointment now requires the customary level of royal etiquette, much to Deborah’s delight.
‘I love to curtsy to her, because it’s so special,’ she tells us. ‘If there’s one person I feel is even better than a friend, it’s her. She’s my favourite person.’
Deborah’s famous bee venom facial is a known royal favourite, and the Queen also ‘absolutely loves’ her Heaven Skincare range; a fact she officially rubber-stamped last year with a royal warrant. ‘It was an incredible honour,’ Deborah says. ‘She was over the moon for me that she could do that for me.’
Being endorsed by royalty (‘royals,’ says Deborah, stressing the plural – Kate is also among her known HRH fans) is selling point enough, but Deborah herself is perhaps the biggest testament to her products.
‘I’m 60 now, I was looking at some old pictures and I look younger now in my face than when it was 2014,’ she says. ‘So I know I’ve managed to go back 12 years.’
Today, we’re chatting to Deborah ahead of her ‘very, very exciting’ top-secret skincare launch for Heaven Skincare, which we can’t share details of yet, beyond the fact she briefly welled up sharing the response she’s had. (Oh and yes, the Queen is using it already.)
What we can tell you about now, though, are Deborah’s ‘non-negotiable’ rules for looking good at 60 and beyond. ‘Each one of these really will turn back the clock,’ she tells us. ‘Together, they really add up.’ Here’s how to get a bit of her royally approved wisdom.
Always remove makeup
You’re old enough to know better, but midlife women aren’t immune from the temptation to skip the cleanser. ‘You don’t take makeup off for one night, you age,’ Deborah says, kindly but firmly. ‘Leaving traces of makeup in folds of skin and pores causes even more havoc when you’re older. It means your skin has to heal itself.’
That’s because harmful microbes build up on dirty skin, which Deborah explains in colourful terms. ‘Those nasty microbes can’t go to the toilet, they burst, your skin gets irritated and it starts to age your skin rapidly.’
‘Some women think they never need to cleanse their face because they don’t wear makeup, and they’re actually the worst ones. You always need to do it every day.’
Soap is a no-no as it’s too drying for anyone but especially for older women, Deborah tells us. ‘You must do it with a cream-based cleansing lotion. My favourite is my Hydro Cleansing Milk, because it kills all those nasty microbes that build up on skin and could break down collagen.’
Go to bed early
Optimal ageing isn’t just about quantity of sleep. ‘Getting to sleep early enough is very important,’ stresses Deborah. ‘Every extra hour you can get before midnight is better. Personally, I like going to bed at 9.30-10pm. My skin looks five years younger from this.’
She often follows a special bedtime regime to lower hormonal stress. ‘I like to go into my bathroom at 8pm, take my makeup off, get into my pyjamas and then that’s my signal to start to getting ready for sleep. I do it early, rather than last thing at night, so it lowers my cortisol, ready for when I go to bed. It’s very good for anti-ageing.’
Never cloud bathe
‘Don’t get me started on SPF!,’ says Deborah. ‘I was always a sun worshipper and I probably would’ve always stayed that way until one day, I was massaging a client and I noticed an area of skin that had never seen the light of day and looked so good. The rest of the skin didn’t look quite so good. And that is an understatement. So, it got me thinking how I’d destroyed my skin.’
Frying on the beach is an obvious skin ager, but Deborah points the finger even more firmly at day-to-day exposure in the UK. ‘Cloud bathing is the worst way to get rays on your skin,’ she says. ‘You need protection more in the winter because in the summer, at least you know when you’re burning yourself. In the winter, you don’t realise it – you go for long walks and you’re not burning – but you’re ageing. If you’re skiing, you need it especially because the sun reflects and bounces up on to your skin.’
Skip daily SPF and you’ll see it staring you back in the mirror, she says. ‘It’s making the sugar in your skin turn to glycogen and that’s thickening in your face, your eyelids, causing brown patches called chloasma as the melanin tries to cover and protect the skin. You get blotches that start off as freckles and end as big round blobs that take a hell of a long time to go, if at all. So it makes common sense not to get them in the first place.’
So whatever your age, ‘start now with SPF, it’s not too late,’ she says. Her brand’s new Prism Protection SPF uses cotton stem cells to hold water in the skin. ‘It releases peptides on contact with damaged skin,’ she says. ‘It’s so hydrating, I actually have clients who use it to go to bed in, and they look younger the next morning.’
Make time for beauty self care
‘I do no-makeup Sundays so that when I cleanse, I’m not having to scrub all the makeup off as well,’ says Deborah. ‘I think you should choose a day every week to make yourself feel amazing. Just say: “No, this is my time”. Caring about yourself is very, very important for happiness and ageing well.’
Get rid of ‘zombie cells’
Exfoliation is another of Deborah’s must-do mantras, particularly with her Bee Polish. ‘It removes horrible dead old zombie cells on the skin that look older. That’s really, really important, and it’s a really easy thing to do. Just pop it on, wash it off and your skin looks instantly younger.’
Exfoliation is a money saver as well as a face saver, she adds. ‘If you have old, damaged cells on the surface, your skin will look dry and bad but also they’ll also soak up your moisturiser so you’re having to put more on. If I didn’t sell an exfoliant to people, they’d use far more moisturiser and waste money.’
Drink crystals
Deborah isn’t just a believer in drinking water; she’s passionate about giving it an anti-ageing supercharge. ‘People say, “I drink loads of water,” and they might well do, but it’s not getting into their cells properly,’ she says. ‘You need to add just one little crystal of salt. The water doesn’t taste salty. But it has to be a good-quality salt crystal, such as a pink Himalayan salt or natural sea salt crystal. It can’t just be your shaker from the table. I do it whenever I can.’
Eat yourself younger
A colourful plate of food is key. ‘The more colours on your plate, the more vitamins and minerals in your diet,’ says Deborah. ‘I take collagen supplements every day, but it has to be in a liquid form, so it goes into my system quickly. I don’t want to wait six months for something to work.’
She uses her own Collagen Drops orally but also mixes them into her haircare for younger-looking locks and better growth (they are designed to be used topically, too). ‘It holds the colour in your hair and it keeps it vibrant.'
Don’t sweat the small stuff
‘Being happy and contented is the biggest improvement you can make to yourself. Let other people worry about problems – you enjoy you,’ says Deborah. ‘See the best in anything you can, it will make you feel happy. A smile can help you to look five years young but the attractiveness in you in ten-fold. No-one likes a grump.’
