Your smell is one of the first impressions you make on someone, and perhaps it says more about a person than we’re all willing to admit. It might be a controversial mindset, but it’s certainly one that is held by both King Charles and Queen Camilla.
© Getty ImagesGrant Harrold, the King’s former personal butler at Highgrove, and Jack Stooks, who spent over 20 years as a senior gardener for the household, spilled all the details, on behalf of fragrance retailer La Fragrancia, about the King and Queen’s favourite and least favourite fragrances.
King Charles hates the smell of fake tan
The eldest child of the late Queen Elizabeth II once stopped a dinner and dismissed Grant, all due to the pungent smell of his fake tan.
© GettyThe former butler opened up about the incident: “It was soon after their wedding and I had lost some weight, so I decided to get a spray tan. I remember it left my skin with this awful sweet smell and that evening, I went to do dinner service.”
He continued: “As I served Charles the food, he started sniffing and asked Camilla if she could smell something too. She said it was awful and joked that maybe it was me. It was so bad, I was sent to the pantry and given the night and eventually the whole week off!”
Queen Camilla can’t stand this one flower
There’s one smell that is completely revolting to the Queen – so much so that she specifically requested for the plant never to be put in her garden.
© Matthew Taylor / Alamy Stock Photo“I do know that Camilla hates the smell of the fritillaria meleagris plant, as it has a very pungent scent,” Jack revealed. “I recall her once telling me not to put them in her garden.”
He also shared that the Queen is supposedly very “green-fingered” and proud of the garden that she keeps at Ray Mill House.
The one scent that all the royal women love
However, Jack did also unveil one of the scents that Queen Camilla is especially fond of: “She had Lily of the Valley in her wedding bouquet and also has a diamond brooch designed to resemble a spray of the plant,” he said. “The smell is a floral yet fresh smell with sweet notes.”
He additionally noted that both Princess Kate and Meghan Markle included the flower in their wedding bouquets, calling it a “popular choice with the royal women”. See a video of the best royal wedding bouquets below…
King Charles’ favourite smells
Apparently, the King is also a fan of aromatic essential oils broadly, with Jack pointing out that he’s especially fond of lavender oil.
“At Highgrove, there was an area of lavender plants in strips and we used to cut the flowers and send them off for pressing to create oils,” he said.
