Royal approval for Deborah Mitchell's bee venom cream

A businesswoman from South Staffordshire boasting famous celebrities as customers has been credited with keeping Kate Middleton's skin looking fresh.

Shifnal-based mother-of-two Deborah Mitchell's alternative to Botox - a face mask containing bee-sting venom – became a hit within the Royal Family when the Duchess of Cornwall started using it.

Shortly before her own wedding to Prince Charles, Camilla discreetly began using the organic alternative, which Mrs Mitchell claims to be a needle-free shortcut to youthful, line-free skin. She gave Kate her first pot of the Heaven Bee Venom face mask soon after her engagement – and later encouraged Kate to have her first £165 bee venom facial with Mrs Mitchell herself.

She was on hand to treat Kate at Clarence House a few days before the wedding and treating Camilla on the morning of the ceremony itself.

The Royals are the latest to be added to the long list of celebrities using Mrs Mitchell's products, including Kylie and Dannii Minogue, Victoria Beckham, Gwyneth Paltrow and pop mogul Simon Cowell.

Speaking for the first time about some of her clients, Mrs Mitchell, from Oaken, said watching Kate and Prince William's wedding was extraordinary, knowing she had been chatting to Kate just a few days beforehand. "What I still find amazing was the lack of tension at Clarence House in the run-up to the ceremony," she said.

"It just shows how perfect the couple are for each other and how happy the Duchess of Cornwall was to be gaining a new daughter-in-law. Everybody was just so excited."

Mrs Mitchell, who has two children Ella, 14, and Christopher, 13, studied at Telford College of Arts and Technology, travelling from house to house in the Midlands as a mobile beauty therapist, before opening her first salon in 1998. Her beauty firm Heaven is based in Shifnal.

Her first celebrity client was Tracey Taylor, the wife of Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor, who introduced her to the other band members and their wives. She was a regular visitor at Taylor's home, the Grade II listed mansion Beckbury Hall in Shropshire.

But Deborah's big breakthrough came when she was summoned to treat the Duchess of Cornwall.