We all know Queen Elizabeth loves her cocktails (because, same). But did you know the 93-year-old monarch’s team has a whole other use for the palace’s spare booze that won’t give you a hangover?
This week, Queen Elizabeth’s right-hand gal, Angela Kelly, who serves as her senior dresser and personal secretary, dropped snippets of her forthcoming memoir, The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe ($25 on Amazon), via Hello! magazine. Among the many surprising secrets and quirks we learned about Her Majesty through the shockingly intimate tell-all memoir was a hidden gem about what the staff uses to clean QEII’s precious diamonds. No, it’s not traditional jewelry cleaner or the finest cashmere, it’s gin!
That’s right—in between revealing Queen Elizabeth’s longest-held wish and her true feelings about that Michelle Obama hug, Kelly revealed that a combination of gin and water is handy in the royal treasure trove to keep the queen’s diamonds looking sparkly. Can’t wait to use that tip at home? Same.
As for other royal-approved cleaning methods, Kelly also said that a drop of “washing up liquid” (we’ll assume this is a fancy British way of saying soap) and water helps get rid of hair spray stains. It’s interesting to know that Queen Elizabeth uses hair spray and that it even stains her clothes and gets on her jewels sometimes.
