In a remarkable turn of events, arguably one of the strangest in the history of cosmetics, women across the country are putting a stretch-mark reducing emulsion called StriVectin-SD™ on their face to get rid of fine lines, wrinkles and crow’s feet. And, if consumer sales are any indication of a product’s effectiveness, StriVectin-SD is nothing short of a miracle. Women (as well as a growing number of “Boomer” men) are buying so much StriVectin-SD that finding a tube at your local cosmetic counter has become just about impossible. Has everyone gone mad? Well… not really.

Scientific Breakthrough or Dumb Luck? Although StriVectin-SD was already backed by clinical trials documenting its ability to visibly reduce the depth, length, discoloration and roughness of existing stretch marks, the success of StriVectin-SD as an anti-wrinkle cream was “dumb luck,” says Gina Gay, spokesperson for Klein-Becker™, StriVectin-SD’s exclusive distributor.

“When we first handed out samples of the StriVectin formula to employees and customers as part of our market research, the sample tubes were simply marked ‘topical cream’ with the lot number underneath,” Ms. Gay explains. “As the samples were passed to friends and family, the message became a little muddled and some people used this ‘topical cream’ as a facial moisturizer. As we began to receive feedback from users, like ‘I look 10 years younger’ and ‘my crows’ feet are gone,’ we knew we had something more than America’s most effective stretch-mark reducer. The point was driven home as store owners began reporting that almost as many people were purchasing StriVectin as an anti-wrinkle cream as were buying it to reduce stretch marks.”