From Diana to Kate: How Royals Care for Their Skin

Society’s (and, truthfully, our) obsession with the Kardashians is driven by their mesmerizing beauty, business savvy, and almost hypnotizing ability to draw the public in with every post on social media, every public appearance, and every episode of their reality television show. We’ve been keeping up with them for over a decade—we’re well versed in their spinoff shows and love lives. They have tens of millions of fans following them, yet we feel like we personally know them. They’re fascinating in a way that they’re both tangible and intangible at the same time—a Kardashian konundrum, if you will.

Then there are the untouchables of society like real-life royalty. (King Kylie may be her pseudonym, but Kylie Jenner is certainly not a monarch.) Which is why we’re dually entranced by the princesses, queens, duchesses, and heirs around the world that also live extravagant, glamorous lives (albeit steeply contrasted from Hollywood’s royalty). And unlike the open book the Kardashian/Jenners have laid out for their fans, royal families are a bit harder to crack, so when we get a piece of information about, say, their beauty routines, we’re taking it as gospel and incorporating it into our own regimens. Below, we’ve compiled some of the most tried-and-true skincare habits of the royals.

Kate Middleton

Days before the royal wedding, Kate Middleton got a bee venom facial from popular English beautician Deborah Mitchell. We can’t say we’d be willing to risk using such a potent ingredient before our own big day, but the pictures say it all—she was a vision. Want to replicate the collagen-boosting effects of bee venom1? Try Mitchell’s own Heaven Skincare Silver Bee Venom Mask ($193).

Grace Kelly

It’s no secret the Princess of Monaco aged exceptionally well, but one area she paid close attention to wasn’t swiftly apparent. According to beauty expert Peter Lamas, Kelly was never without hand cream: “When I asked her why, she replied, ‘A woman’s age shows on her hand much quicker than anywhere else,'” he explains.

Charlotte Casiraghi

Grace Kelly’s granddaughter finds it crucial to keep her skin clean and her routine simple. “The most important thing to travel with is makeup remover—something to cleanse your face well, because that’s the basic of any routine,” the Monaco royal tells Vogue. “You need to have clean skin. That’s something I never travel without. In France, we use a lot of pharmacy products that are very natural, with no chemicals. But a cleanser and a lotion, those are the basics for me.”

Rania al Yassin

The Queen of Jordan has a very modest approach to beauty. As physically beautiful as she is on the outside, her passion for philanthropy shines even brighter than her dewy skin. As such, the royal tells Oprah that anti-aging isn’t exactly on her agenda.

“We’re programmed to believe that time is the enemy, that it takes away from us or that it diminishes us,” she says. “I have found that it’s done the opposite to me. Life is in perfect balance. It’s just that our perception of it isn’t,” she explains.

Diana Mountbatten-Windsor

Mary Greenwell, makeup artist to Princess Di, tells Stylist that the royal took care to properly treat her skin both morning and night. Says Greenwell, “Diana was very aware of her beauty regime, cleansing, toning and [moisturizing] twice a day.” Were the princess still alive today, Greenwell predicts she’d be just as cautious: “She’d be now using serums and definitely using sun block every day.”

Princess Maria-Olympia

In addition to plenty of sleep, Princess Olympia of Greece says that she swears by treatments from Dr. Lancer in L.A. and an Eve Lom facial by Eve Lom at the Sanderson in London.

Meghan Markle

Duchess Meghan Markle uses a natural secret to keep breakouts at bay (among other skin woes): tea tree oil. She once told Allure, “The one thing that I cannot live without when I’m traveling is a small container of tea tree oil. It’s not the most glamorous thing, but if you get a cut, a mosquito bite, a small breakout, no matter what it is, it’s my little cure-all. It’s inexpensive, it’s small enough to carry on, and I bring it with me all the time.”

Markle also swears by intense facial massage to sculpt her cheekbones and jaw, and the good news is you can do it yourself at home.