A PENRYN business which has existed for less than a year received the royal seal of approval last Thursday.

Beautifully Handcrafted owner Liz Wells spotted Prince Charles at the Royal Cornwall Show and dashed over bearing gifts.

Husband Ian said: "We realised he was walking past because of the hordes of security that were there. Liz ran over with two of our candles and gave them to one of his entourage.

"She was walking away again when she was called back because he wanted to talk to her. They had a really good conversation for a few minutes and he really liked the Cornish sea salt and sage scent."

The couple, both aged 38, moved to Cornwall from the south east four years ago and launched their business at last year's Oyster Festival in Falmouth.

They place heavy emphasis on sustainability in their business, which impressed Prince Charles to such an extent that they were given a mention on the Clarence House twitter feed the following day.

"It is not the cheapest option to be green, but so many people have bought into what we're doing and we now have 30 stockists less than a year after starting up," said Ian.

Liz, a former health visitor for the NHS, has adapted knowledge from her applied science degree to make the business as sustainable as possible.

They use soy wax for the candles and use virtually no plastic, while all the packaging is recyclable. They even use local companies to reduce the amount of miles driven on the roads.

"Since moving to Cornwall we've just found so much opportunity here. The feedback from our customers has been great and we've now taken on two graduates from Falmouth University to help with the marketing. We feel so blessed," said Ian, who now plans to relocate to a bigger premises.