LONDON: A riotous rush of women seeking the salve that promises eternal youth caused a wrinkle on the age-old image of the UK being a blasé land of orderly queues.

On Thursday, women past the first flush of youth fought their way into Boots shops across the country to get their hands on the ‘miracle’ cream, which is supposed to make them look years younger.

Queues winding out of the shops did not deter the faithful as they waited covetously to grab the 30ml bottle of beauty serum. Some Boots branches had to call in security to stop the squabbling and prevent stampedes.

So what is so special about an anti-ageing cream that joins the expansive slush of balms making similar claims? ‘Protect and Perfect’ beauty serum, produced by Boots’s own brand No 7, has been in the market for the past four years.

Then in March, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) slathered the product with its approval.

Horizon, a popular BBC investigative programme, announced that ‘Protect and Perfect’ actually does what it claims to do – removes wrinkles and the signs of ageing. The next day, shoppers cleared the shelves: sales were up from 1,000 units a week to 60,000 in 10 days. And Boots was running frantically to refill stocks.

The 30ml bottle that comes for £16.75 (circa Rs1300) began exchanging hands on eBay for £100. Boots stopped production of other creams to divert capacity to ‘Protect and Perfect’. The wait was over on Thursday, albeit briefly.

Boots made an unprecedented decision to open stores at 7am instead of the usual 9am to allow working women to have a fair shot at elixir hunting. “Most women don’t even know the name of the product,” said Graham Hardy, head of customer care at Boots. “They call it the miracle cream, vanishing cream, or simply that cream.”

Men, don’t despair! It can work for you too. Steve Barton, the biologist who created the cream, uses it daily and swears that his 56-year-old skin is looking younger. “Wrinkles won’t disappear. This is not Botox, but they are significantly improved.”

He said it takes four to eight weeks of regular use for, well, the wrinkles to improve.

DNA.INDIA.COM