'It's an incredible honour': Successful skincare business awarded ‘seal of approval’ by royal family
A Wolverhampton-based entrepreneur is ‘over the moon’ after receiving a ‘seal of approval’ from the royal family.
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Deborah Mitchell was just 28 years old when she launched Heaven Skincare while working as a mobile beauty therapist in Telford.
Now, 32 years later, the business, which has a factory in the town and a shop in Shifnal, has been awarded the Royal Warrant of Appointment by Queen Camilla.
The warrant, which recognises companies and individuals who provide goods or services to members of the royal family, is a testament to the hard work Deborah has poured into her craft over the last three decades.
Deborah said receiving the “seal of approval” is an “incredible honour”.
Deborah, who now lives in Wolverhampton, said: “We're really, really, really over the moon about getting the Royal Warrant of Appointment by Her Majesty The Queen. It's an incredible honour.
“I got the letter before Christmas, on the 19th, and it was like the best Christmas present I could have had.
“It’s a seal of approval.”
While Deborah said she has had many highs in her long and successful career, there’s nothing that quite compares to treating the royal family. It all began in 2006 - and it was a difficult secret to keep.
“It was a really exciting thing to do, to own and set up my own business, and I've just loved working in the beauty industry all my life,” Deborah said.
“And it's been amazing, we've got some loyal customers all over the world.
“At different times, the business has had very good successes. We were in House of Fraser stores and things like that so the business had grown really, really well.
“One of the reasons my business has been so successful was an article that was put in the Express & Star many years ago.
“A young girl from Taiwan saw it and came over and wanted to buy £1,900 worth of products.
"This little girl's father had just sold Shiseido, he invested in the business over there and they spent loads of money with us, and that made me really, really successful.
“But one of the highlights was obviously starting to treat Queen Camilla and meeting the royal family, spending time with them and doing treatments on several members, not just Camilla.
“I didn't tell anybody about it. Nobody knew, not even my mom. I couldn't tell anybody that I was going to the palace. I was bound to secrecy. It was amazing and special.”
Despite keeping it hush-hush, Deborah and Heaven Skincare made headlines a few times over the years.
Shortly after developing a bee venom mask, which was designed to make the skin appear more youthful with a radiant glow, and using it on Queen Camilla, the brand was named in a number of newspapers and magazines.
Deborah said she was floored by the amount of attention she was receiving.
“People were phoning from everywhere wanting to buy my bee venom mask, so although business was successful before, money didn't actually flow in as quickly.
“I was then traveling all over the world but still, I wasn't really allowed to say that I had been treating the Queen.”
Now permitted to be as loud and proud about it as she wants, Deborah is looking forward to putting up the emblem at her sites in Telford.
It’s an accolade of a lifetime, but Deborah said it has also assured her the future of Heaven Skincare is safe.
Deborah said: “People said to me about that, ‘I bet you feel like if you could clone yourself, it'd be really good.’
“I'm nearly 60 now and I thought, ‘well, that's impossible’, but with my daughter, I feel like I have got a clone in her.
“She can grow the business alongside me. It's a lot easier now, and it's really valuable for her that we have a business that's got these credentials.”
Find out more information about Heaven Skincare via the brand's official website and social media channels.
