Being a royal isn’t easy, especially if you’re a woman! You have to spend your days meeting strangers, attending fancy events, and posing for photographs. And here’s the thing: you have to look elegant and flawless while all that is going on. What’s a royal girl to do? Well, there are a lot of top-secret — but easily accessible — beauty hacks they use.
1. Find a creative way to protect your modesty
From the moment she first announced her engagement to the future King Charles III, Princess Diana was chased relentlessly by photographers. And many of them would do anything for a good story.
Diana knew that if she had even the tiniest wardrobe malfunction, photographs of it would go straight to the front pages, so she needed a clever way to avoid prying eyes when wearing low-cut dresses.
The cleavage clutch
What Diana came up with was to carry a clutch bag whenever she wore a more risqué — well, risqué by royal standards — dress. That way, she always had something to cover up with.
In 2009 her handbag designer Anya Hindmarch told The Daily Telegraph, “We used to laugh when we designed what she called her 'cleavage bags', little satin clutches which she would cover her cleavage with when she stepped out of cars.”
2. Make sure your eyeliner stays put
The current Princess of Wales loves dark eyeliner, but as a royal she needs to be very careful about how she applies it. Even the slightest makeup mishap could wreck a photograph or, even worse, ruin a diplomatic event.
Sure, most of us have had embarrassing eyeliner incidents every now and again, but can you imagine the headlines if Kate did? That's why she developed a nifty eyeliner trick to avoid smudges.
Use gel eyeliner
Apparently one of Kate’s number-one beauty hacks is to wear gel eyeliner instead of pencil. Try it yourself! It doesn’t smudge anywhere near as much, and it looks great, as the princess has neatly demonstrated.
You may have also noticed how she doesn’t put on too much eyeliner — a mistake she made in her younger years — and instead keeps it subtle.
3. Neutral nails for easy elegance
Have you ever seen a royal with nails that look anything less than perfect? Probably not. That’s because there are some surprisingly strict rules about fingernails in the royal family.
This beauty hack may not be for everyone, admittedly. It involves a piece of royal protocol set down by the late Queen Elizabeth II herself, but it’s certainly worked for Kate et al.
Which nude to choose?
By all accounts, Elizabeth wasn't a big fan of colorful nail polish, so members of the royal family usually stuck to tasteful nude shades. The Queen’s favorite one was by Essie and called “Ballet Slippers,” while the one Kate wore at her wedding to Prince William was a mix of Essie Nail Polish and Bourjois So Laque Nail Enamel in Rose Lounge.
Classy!
4. Get the shoes right
For many people, the one big perk of being a royal would be access to the royal wardrobes. All those dresses, skirts, and shoes! But beware: you have to make sure all those beautiful things are actually built for hours of walking, standing, and smiling...
...especially your choice of shoes. After all, if you start getting blisters while on a royal walkabout, you’re doomed. That's why the royals made an executive shoe decision long ago.
Wear one size up
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, her fellow royals, and many of her fellow celebrities have used this great style hack: wear shoes that are one or two sizes too big. That way, you can avoid blisters much more easily.
And yes, people might notice that the shoes are a little too big, but being comfortable when walking around is more important!
5. Keep your hat on
A lot of the time, a hat is the most important part of a royal outfit. And in some cases, the bigger and more extravagant the hat, the better.
But what if you need to wear a hat outside when bad weather is forecast? How do you stop your grand and very expensive headpiece from blowing away in the wind?
Hair combs
Diana had the answer. She would attach small hair combs to the inside of her hats, especially the bigger ones, to make sure they could never fly off.
Whether she put the combs in herself or just had her hats specifically made that way, we don’t know, but this is most likely a hack that would be easy to do at home!
6. Use color carefully
Kate, like many other royals before her, is extremely good at using color in her outfits. You’ll note that she often wears the signature color of whatever country she’s visiting: always a smart diplomatic move.
For example, when she visited Ireland in 2020 she wore a green dress; when visiting China in 2015 she wore red.
Take it tonal
But there’s another aspect to all that. In 2023 fashion expert Miranda Holder said on TikTok, “Kate often dresses in head-to-toe one color, but taking it tonal and very slightly mixing up the shade is a surefire way to look elegant, polished, and expensive.
Just make sure the color suits you in the first place, and you’re good to go.”
7. Always look alert
One of the pitfalls of being a royal is that you have a set schedule. If you need to be somewhere very early in the morning you have to be there, like it or not.
Oh, and you need to look nice and not totally exhausted. Luckily, Meghan knew how to pull that off even before she became royalty, and all because she knew a clever little makeup trick.
Use highlighter
Back in October 2014 Meghan told the website Birchbox, “To open up your eyes, apply a highlighter like Yves Saint Laurent’s Touche Éclat in the inner corner — this trick is especially good when we are filming at 3:00 a.m. and I need to look bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.” Just replace “filming” with “appearing before the press with a prince," and you're good to go!.
8. Be careful what dress you choose
Kate has had a few awkward “Marilyn Monroe moments” over the years: incidents where a gust of wind blew her skirt up and everybody saw, well, everything. On one occasion, a German tabloid even published pictures of one particular wardrobe malfunction, very much without the princess’ consent.
So it’s not surprising that she and other royals have a hack for dealing with billowy skirts.
Weighted skirts
The female royals usually have weights sewn into the hems of their skirts. This is something you can do at home if you purchase some drapery weights from a craft or fabric store! It’s worked very well for Kate and other female royals so far.
There has still been the odd incident where her skirt flew up, but maybe that’s just what you can expect in British weather!
9. Take care of your skin
Queen Consort Camilla has spent most of her life in the public eye by this point, and people have started to notice how great her skin looks for her age. So what’s her secret? Well obviously the fact that she has access to the best healthcare products in the world helps.
But apparently, her healthy diet factors into it as well.
The food you eat goes a long way
Camilla reportedly eats an almost-all-organic — though not vegan — diet. This is quite easy for her to do, since back when her husband was Prince of Wales, Charles actually had his own organic farm and food brand.
Not only is organic food good for the skin, it’s also good for the environment, something the monarch is passionate about protecting. Never underestimate the importance of a good diet!
10. Be practical with your outfits
If you’re an avid fashionista you may have noticed that the royal family repeats outfits sometimes. Kate and Meghan especially have been seen reusing the same pieces multiple times over.
Once upon a time the newspapers used to sneer at this and call it “thrifty,” but now people are much more aware of the importance of sustainable fashion.
Find a piece you love
You too can recycle like a royal if you’re careful about it. Find an item of clothing you really adore — like Meghan and her camel-colored Sentaler coat — and arrange your outfits around that one piece! Take care of your clothes to make sure they’ll last a long time.
You should never be without something that looks stunning on you.
11. Avoid painful shoes
Buying new shoes is always a thrilling thing! But then you walk around in them for a bit: oh no, they’re agony! The pain will go away once the materials break down a little, but when will that happen?
Well, if you happen to be the former ruler of the United Kingdom, there’s one quick and easy thing you can do.
Break footwear in
Elizabeth always had someone to break her shoes in for her! In 2019 the royal dresser Angela Kelly revealed in her memoir The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe, “As has been reported a lot in the press, a flunky wears in Her Majesty’s shoes to ensure that they are comfortable, and that she is always good to go. And yes, I am that flunky.” But if you can’t find your own flunky, you’ll have to do it yourself!.
12. Smooth down those flyaways
There are few things more annoying than flyaway hairs, especially when you have a complicated hairdo almost all ready to go. There are many life hacks out there that will help you get rid of them, but if you look at Meghan’s flawless hairstyles it’s clear she has the best one.
She explained it to the website Birchbox in 2014.
Use a toothbrush on hair
Meghan said, “For my flyaways, I spray hairspray on a small boar bristle toothbrush — a regular toothbrush also works great — to lightly brush them down or smooth the hairline. This is especially good for a sleek bun when I am off-camera.”
And now, she’s known the whole world over for those sleek buns, where not a single flyaway hair can be seen.
13. Don’t take off your coat
One of the more curious rules royal women have to follow is: don’t take your coat off. No, not even if you get warm, or you’re inside a heated room.
Apparently it’s considered “unladylike.” Unsurprisingly this is one of the more controversial royal fashion rules, since the men do take their coats off in public. We imagine there's also a logistical element to this rule, too —putting your coat on a chair can be informal, not to mention a little sloppy.
Wear a coat dress
But Kate at least has found a way around this. She swears by coat dresses, which look like coats but have the practicality of a dress and fit right in with almost any social occasion! Reportedly she usually picks out an A-line style coat dress that shows off her slim waist.
And now, they’ve pretty much become her signature.
14. No fake lashes
The royal family believe in looking as natural as possible, so that means no false eyelashes. After all, what if one of them came off in the middle of something important?! Luckily when Meghan married into the family, she agreed with this philosophy.
She told Birchbox in 2013 that she considered herself “as minimal and relaxed as it comes.”
Curl your eyelashes
And when asked what her favorite beauty product was, Meghan told the interviewer, “The one product I would never be able to live without would be a Shu Uemura eyelash curler. Even if you don't have a stitch of makeup on… you suddenly look a bit more alive.” And in all her life since then she’s never once had a bad-eyelash day, at least not one we've noticed!.
15. Tiara tricks
Unfortunately, most of us don’t get to wear tiaras on a regular basis. But if you’ve got a big event coming up where you could actually get to wear one, like a wedding or a prom, take some advice from Diana! She was very crafty when it came to fashion.
And she wore tiaras better than probably anybody else in the world.
Putting ribbon under the tiara
What Diana did was get a piece of ribbon the same color as her famous blonde locks and then carefully position it under the tiara so it would blend almost seamlessly with her hair. If you’ve ever seen photographs of her in a tiara, then you’ll know it worked perfectly! Who knows, perhaps the other royal women do this sometimes as well?.
16. Make sure to stick to your shoes
It’s almost mandatory in the royal family that all women have to wear pantyhose and never bare their legs. Unfortunately royal women also usually wear high heels, and even the best stiletto-wearer in the world probably can’t handle walking around in them all the time while also having to wear smooth, decidedly slippery pantyhose.
Luckily, help is at hand.
Sticky pads
Kate is here to help you out with this one. According to British tabloid newspaper The Sun, the Princess of Wales wears pantyhose that have a little sticky pad built into the heel, so she never slips out of her shoes! While apparently her favorite brand of these come from the store John Lewis, you can buy them on Amazon.
They’ll only set you back a few dollars.
17. All natural, all the time
It may be the biggest day of their lives, but royal brides shouldn’t go all-out with makeup. Both Kate and Meghan looked perfectly fresh-faced on their wedding days, in accordance with royal fashion protocol.
But of course — as you’ll know if you’ve ever tried it — it takes a lot of products to make it look like you’re not wearing any products!
Mix neutral shades
Kate worked with Bobbi Brown’s Hannah Martin for her wedding day makeup. She’s known to be a fan of Bobbi Brown, although she’s never officially endorsed it.
It’s thought she used three neutral shades of its eyeshadow — Slate, Ivory, and Rockstar — to get her now-iconic bridal makeup look. And she actually applied it all herself on the big day!
18. Stick with what you know
Elizabeth reigned over the United Kingdom for over half a century, yet can you remember her making a makeup mistake at any point? No? Well admittedly, she had a small army of stylists keeping her picture-perfect at all times, but there’s a lot to be said for her approach to beauty products.
She knew what worked on her.
Fall back on your faves
The late monarch’s favorite lipstick was apparently Elizabeth Arden’s Beautiful Color Lipstick in Fig, and among her other fave products were Clarins Ever Matte powder, Clarins Hand and Nail Treatment Cream, and Yardley soaps. And the great thing was, the ruler could give a company a royal warrant, and it could keep making her favorite things forever!.
19. Make sure to keep organized
It’s the age-old question: how do you keep your best clothes organized once you have them? And obviously that’s even more difficult when you’re a royal with a huge wardrobe. A fashion faux pas could be devastating to one's reputation!
Kate and William actually made headlines in 2012 when they accidentally wore Cook Islands outfits to a Solomon Islands dinner.
Color-coded labels
So Kate now has a system for this sort of thing! The Daily Express newspaper reported in 2020 that Kate uses a color-coded system for her traveling wardrobe. If something is marked yellow then it has to go to a residence, if it’s green it’s going to a hotel, and if it’s blue then it’s needed on the airplane.
Simple and easy!
20. Keep your hair unmoving
How do the female royals manage to keep their hair in place all the time? When they’re out on a public engagement they have to wait around in bad weather, shake hands with countless people, do activities — and yet the hairdo never falls apart. Well, it turns out emulating this is easier and cheaper than you might expect!.
Wear a hairnet
If you look very, very closely at certain pictures of Kate, you can see she’s wearing a hairnet! Yep, hairnets are absolutely the answer here: they’re easy to use, they’re almost invisible if you make sure to get the right color, and they’re super-cheap. Who would have thought this most humble of accessories would be so useful to the royals?.