Shoppers scramble for Boots' anti-ageing cream

LONDON (Reuters) - Crowds of shoppers besieged Boots stores on Friday morning in search of the Holy Grail of cosmetics -- an anti-ageing cream that actually seems to work.

In the latest of a series of High Street stampedes for must-have products, they stripped the shelves of Boots' No.7 Protect & Perfect anti-wrinkle serum within minutes.

"We had a big queue of people waiting for us to open and they all rushed in," said one assistant at Boots' Fleet Street store in central London. "It was amazing."

Although a one-per-customer policy was in force, dozens of bottles soon popped up on Web site eBay, with prices as high as 75 pounds for the 30 ml container, compared with the 17-pound store price.

The high-street retailer had rushed 200,000 extra bottles of the lotion to its stores across the UK after running out of supplies following a BBC television "Horizon" programme in March which reported that the cream actually worked and appeared to improve skin wrinkles.

Boots itself says Protect & Perfect produces younger-looking skin in just four weeks, "enlivening your complexion, helping to reduce the appearance of pores and smoothing lines and wrinkles."

Sales of the product, which had run at an average 10,000 pots a month since early 2005, soared after the programme.

The company said it sold 21 weeks' worth of stock in just three days after the programme.

It now plans to deliver fresh supplies as soon as possible after this weekend's Bank Holiday.