Volcanoes in Iceland don’t have the best reputation among us Brits, but the Nordic island’s ash can do more than just clog up our airplane engines; it can enhance your anti-ageing wellness. Iceland’s capital Reykjavik is now home to three greenhouses, in which row upon row of tiny barley shoots sprout out of pots of this 2,000-year-old pumice, in order to create BioEffect’s EGF serum – which has taken the beauty industry by storm.
Though the brand’s decision not to advertise may mean that you’re yet to hear of this wellbeing-boosting product, the sales speak for themselves. In the product’s first year, back in 2010, BioEffect shifted 330,000 units of the serum – which is impressive considering the population of Iceland is 320,000, and 25% of this population is under the age of 12. However, the popularity doesn’t stop in Iceland; 30% of women over 30 in the UK use the serum, and it’s also making waves in other parts of Europe.
According to Guillaume Salmon, a spokesman for Parisian department store Colette, ‘BioEffect is undoubtedly one of our bestsellers — probably the best…I have to confess that we were not expecting such a success.’ Elodie Bohuon, contemporary beauty buyer for Selfridges, which stocks BioEffect’s original serum, a day cream, body serum and 30-day intensive treatment, adds, ‘BioEffect has proved really popular in our new Beauty Workshop space. The brand has proved successful with our customers, especially considering how little is known of it in this country. I think it is sought out by those beauty junkies in the know.’
The secret behind BioEffect’s success lies in EGF, or epidermal growth factor. Sif Cosmetics, the parent company for BioEffect, produces EGFs for the medical community. The growth factors work as chemical messengers, stimulating cell growth and controlling cell differentiation in your body. When you apply EGF to your skin, it signals to the fibroblasts deep within the dermis, which boosts your production of collagen. Dr Björn Örvar, CEO of Sif Cosmetics, explains, ‘When used in this manner, EGF intervenes with the biology of the skin and can actually bluff its chronological age. When we used the product on the skin of a 52-year-old we were able to reduce its age by more than 10 years, giving it the density of a 40-year-old after just four weeks.’