Anti-wrinkle cream that sparked a sales frenzy

FOR women of a certain age, any cream that might iron out their wrinkles is the Holy Grail of skin care.

Which may explain why more than 17,000 had signed up online yesterday to order Boots’ latest version after it claimed the lotion could smooth skin in a week.

Beauty experts have dubbed No7 Laboratories’ Line Correcting Booster Serum, which costs £38 for 15ml, ‘The Avenger’.

There was a frenzy when it went on sale yesterday, following a trial suggesting that within 12 weeks it could turn the clock back on your skin by five years.

Boots claimed it sold a tube every two seconds. The cream is designed to be used alongside regular moisturiser and is applied with a special applicator. Promising to iron out the crepe-like appearance of delicate skin, No7 claimed it was clinically proven to restore elasticity.

The 17,200 customers who joined the online waiting list to be first to get their hands on the cream in the UK and Ireland was the most for a Boots product launch. It said the cream had seven times as much of the key anti-wrinkle ingredient Matrixyl 3000 Plus as other No7 products.

In the first week of a clinical trial, women said they found a ‘visible reduction’ in the appearance of lines and wrinkles on the forehead and around the eyes.

In the second week, crow’s feet allegedly also improved as well as lips, under the eyes and between the eyebrows.

More than 70 per cent of those in the trial said they were less likely to consider Botox after using the product. In a test of women who had undergone Botox, 80 per cent said the serum gave them better results ‘than they thought possible’.