Queen Elizabeth II’s dresser has shared a cleaning tip in her new book that you don’t need to be royal to replicate.

Angela Kelly has worked as a dresser from the Royal Family since 1994, and recently released a book called The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe.

In this, she details how she’d get the Queen’s clothes ready for engagements – including royal weddings, Christenings, and Christmas Day speeches.

The queen often wears a lot of sparkling jewellery, whether that’s in the form of crowns for bigger events or brooches and necklaces day-to-day.

According to Angela, the best way to keep this sparkling items is a spot of gin.

‘A little gin and water come in handy to give the diamonds extra sparkle,’ she writes, adding, ‘Just don’t tell the jeweller!’

This technique has actually been used for centuries, with olden-day tales recounting how silverware and jewellery would be soaked in gin overnight.

It would then be rinsed to reveal the shine and remove any tarnishing.

Now, most of us aren’t quite rolling in diamonds like HRH, but do have a bottle or two of in the cupboard.

It might seem like an outlandish claim to assume you have ‘leftover’ gin, but it shouldn’t take much to get your valuables looking spick and span.

Simply put a drop of it on a cotton pad and give it a rub over jewellery or other silverware. The high alcohol content should dissolve any grime and bacteria that’s picked up over time.

For pieces that need a little more elbow grease, you can put aluminium foil in a pot with the shiny side up. Then, soak the silver for around 20 minutes in gin and water, and rinse with dish soap afterwards.

This tip also works with vodka.

You do need to ensure that if you use alcohol to clean silver that it’s not plating and is solid silver. Also, if you have anything hugely valuable, it’s usually better to take it for a professional clean,

Still, if you need your sparklers ready in a flash, this could be the boozy cleaning tip that does it.

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