A new-generation skincare cream, being hailed the ‘holy grail’ of anti-ageing, is set to take the UK market by storm this week.
Ahead of its launch, 5,000 British women have already pre-ordered the Yves Saint Laurent cream in their haste to hold back the years.
The Forever Youth Liberator range, which has been 20 years in the making, claims to not only give the appearance of a youthful complexion but to actually rejuvenate the skin.
At £50 for a 30g pot of face cream, the price of beauty does not come cheap but if it lives up to its claims, it is thought the range could revolutionise the anti-ageing industry.
The products contain synthetic versions of naturally-occurring sugars in the skin, called glycans, which prompt cells to renew themselves. These play a vital role in the structure of healthy skin but their numbers decline as the skin ages.
The study of the sugars was dubbed 'one of the ten emerging technologies that would change the world' by journal Technology Review MIT in 2003, and it has already led to the development of the Hib B vaccine against fatal infant flu.
A test of 50 women found almost nine out of 10 said their skin looked more luminous after using it while 72% said fine lines appeared less visible after using the cream.
Amandine Ohayon, general manager of Yves Saint Laurent, said: “This is one of the most amazing scientific breakthroughs we have discovered in relation to anti-ageing.
“The products are set to be the holy grail of anti-ageing for many women given their proven efficacy.
“Glycobiology is opening up a whole new area of possibilities when it comes to skincare. “We’re just at the very start of it and are already excited.”
YSL parent company L’Oréal worked with chemist Professor Peter Seeberger of the Max Planck Institute. He said the complexes in the cream had been shown to have “clear beneficial biochemical changes” on the skin.