When Deborah Mitchell received a phone call from Clarence House in 2006, she initially thought it was from Clarins, the French skincare company. “It was an easy mistake to make,” she laughs. But this wasn’t a cosmetics brand on the line — it was the royal residence itself, with an invitation that would change her life forever.
“They said the Queen would like to look at having a treatment with you. She’s heard about your famous facial,” Deborah recalls of that call, which led to her becoming Queen Camilla’s trusted facialist for nearly two decades.
Fast forward to today, and Deborah’s skincare brand Heaven has recently been awarded the prestigious Royal Warrant. This honour is granted as a mark of recognition to people or companies who have regularly supplied goods or services to the Royal Household.
“It’s really quite special,” she tells The Weekly. “It’s not just having an emblem on your products and treatments; it’s the royal family saying that they love these products.”
What’s it like behind palace doors?
Deborah’s journey began as a mobile beauty therapist who created her own skincare products for clients. Her breakthrough came with a cream called Age Defiance that went viral before the term was commonplace. “A lot of famous people said that Age Defiance had made their skin look very much younger but also stopped blemishes,” she shares.
Among early celebrity fans of the brand was Victoria Beckham, who “absolutely loved it” for clearing her skin. But Deborah’s reputation truly soared when she developed a unique treatment called Lia Therapy. This involves a healing facial with a series of movements that make the skin look chiselled and lifted.
This innovative approach caught the attention of Harper’s Bazaar. The publication named her one of the six best facialists in the world. But more importantly, it caught the attention of then-Camilla Parker Bowles. Visiting the palace for the first time was “a definite pinch me moment,” Deborah remembers. “I’m actually at the door of the palace with all the Beefeaters [Yeoman Warders] standing round.”
What strikes her most about working with royalty compared to celebrities is their warmth. “Working with royalty is very different. You’d be amazed because certain celebrities aren’t as beautiful to you as royalty is,” she reveals.
The connection formed over years of treatments has become deeply personal for Deborah. “She always remembers things I’ve told her and asks about my daughter. She’s just lovely,” she says of Queen Camilla. “I love her… I would be lost without seeing her because she really is a lovely person.”
The bee venom breakthrough
It was while treating Queen Camilla that Deborah developed her cult product — the Bee Venom Mask. Looking in the mirror and noticing lines forming, she was reluctant to try Botox. “I’m not against it,” she clarifies, “but it has its limitations.”
The breakthrough came when she incorporated bee venom into a mask formula. “It literally overnight changed my skin completely,” Deborah explains. Her royal client loved it, though early versions containing honey were a little bit sticky. The formula was gradually refined into what has become a hero ingredient in Heaven’s products, Abeetoxin, which works to control the facial muscles to tighten, firm and lift while at the same time penetrating fine lines to give an immediate anti-ageing effect.
“When you apply something to the skin that the skin thinks is a real toxin, it has an action… sending collagen, elastin, and also shrinking the receptors,” she explains. “It actually freezes the lines… but only freezes them a little bit, so you can still move.”
Animal lovers can rest assured: “The bees aren’t harmed,” Deborah emphasises, adding that all the products are made locally in the UK. The premium Gold Bee Venom version contains venom from the queen bee, so rare that only 500 jars are produced each year, reflected in its price of $780.
Among Heaven’s Australian celebrity fans are the Minogue sisters. “Kylie was a fan of a product called Orange Flower Cell Renewal, which is an orange flower hydrogel – that’s her favourite,” adding that “Dannii’s one of my next favourite clients; she’s absolutely beautiful.”
And you can get your hands on them here, too. Heaven products are available through facialist April Brodie, Australia’s only trained and certified Bee Venom Facial expert.
For those looking to invest, Deborah recommends starting with Age Defiance and Bee Venom as the quickest way to see results, along with the more reasonably priced Bee Polish.
Unlike other anti-ageing treatments that require patience, she proudly notes the immediate results of her bee venom products: “People change overnight. They go to bed, they wake up the next morning, they look, ‘Oh my God, my face looks so brilliant.’ And it works on everybody.”
