Uyanda Mbuli scores Creme de la Mer

The first time I heard about Creme de La Mer was when I was watching VH1’s The Fabulous life of Jennifer Lopez and at that time the one thing I picked up is that Jennifer Lopez spent a lot of money on the stuff.

I was surprised to see that Uyanda Mbuli is now South Africa’s face for Creme de La Mer which means that La Mer see’s South Africa as an emerging market they need to tap into which is great for the country.

Face of Creme de la Mer

 
I’ve got a couple of qualms which may be seen as hating but hell that’s why we have a blog where we can write what we think,  so here goes.

For years, it's been one of the world's most talked about and sought-after anti-ageing creams.

Women around the world swear by its powers and are happy to splash out £530 (about R2500 in SA) for just 250ml of this potent elixir.

In these circles of well-heeled and image-conscious women, Crème de la Mer is more than just a face cream - it's virtually a religion.




It is stocked only in the most exclusive department stores, and these women seem happy to pay whatever it costs in their bid to halt the ageing process.

But what would they say if they knew that the ingredients in their £530 pot of cream cost - as the Daily Mail discovered - no more than £25?

After a month-long investigation into the iconic beauty cream, cosmetic chemist Will Buchanan, who has spent years creating topical treatments for skin and hair, was able to deduce that of the hundreds of thousands of pounds spent each year on the cream, no more than about 5 per cent is accounted for by the ingredients.

Creme de la Mer - the name literally means 'cream of the sea' - have done their best to shroud their product in a veil of mystery. The company's website not only refers to a 'heritage' that is 'inspired by the sea', but also devotes entire sections to what it calls 'The Miracle' and 'The Secret.'

Sea Kelp

In fact, the cream is actually a very simple and ordinary cosmetic formula. Under European law, every cosmetic and toiletry product must display a full list of ingredients, in descending order of weight.

Using the ingredients listed on a pot of Crème de la Mer, alongside his knowledge of product formulations, Will Buchanan was able to suggest how much of each ingredient was likely to be in a jar. He then sourced prices for all the individual components.

Some of the ingredients, such as petrolatum (the contents of Vaseline), glycerine and eucalyptus leaf oil are widely available from beauty supply websites.

Other chemicals need to be bought in bulk directly from industrial chemical suppliers.

According to Will's calculations, recreating 100ml of a copycat Crème de la Mer cream from readily available ingredients is likely to cost no more than £9.71. A 100ml pot of Crème de la Mer retails for £160.

'This is a variation on a basic water-in-oil formula,' says Will. 'What I've done is, of course, only an estimate. To give the benefit of the doubt, I've been very generous in my pricing of the sea kelp, which is the main ingredient.

'Ultimately, of course, only the manufacturers know exactly what the recipe is, and how much their ingredients cost.'

Nevertheless, it is a startling discovery - especially considering that part of the selling point of the cream is its unique and hallowed origins.

The makers of the 'miracle' cream, Estee Lauder, claim that its formula was discovered in the 1970s by NASA scientist Dr Max Huber.

Dr Max Huber

An aerospace physicist, Huber was badly injured when a routine experiment to develop rocket fuel went wrong, and an explosion left him with severe burns on his hands and face.

Huber then set about developing a product that would improve his scarring.

Over a 12-year period, he conducted thousands of experiments until he managed - according to the Crème de la Mer website - to 'perfect the art of bio-fermentation [a natural chemical process that breaks down a plant, for example, and allows chemists to make more concentrated versions of the active ingredients it contains], blending a mix of sea kelp with an array of vitamins and minerals, oils of citrus, eucalyptus, wheat germ, alfalfa and sunflower.

'Just as Dr Huber hoped,' the website continues, 'skin appeared dramatically smoother and miraculously improved. Even the driest complexions were soothed on contact.'

While these days it is commonplace to add vitamins and minerals to skincare, in the 1970s, Huber's concoction might well have been considered revolutionary. And although he originally developed it for personal use, as word spread, he began to sell it in small quantities.

After Huber's death, Estee Lauder, which owns Creme de la Mer, bought the rights to it from Huber's daughter, and began developing the brand.

J-Lo lathers her whole body i the stuff

Now that you know a little more about Crème de la Mer. So Uyanda Mbuli is South Africa’s ambassador for Crème de la Mer and I can’t say they made a bad choice expect that Uyanda is a bit old, the public know her as being 32 and after asking around everyone was adamant that there is no way in hell that Uyanda is 32 she’s probably bordering on 34 or so.

It’s a Friday so I’ll keep the hatin to a minimum and congratulate Uyanda Mbuli on being the face of SA Crème de la Mer.

Source: dailymail & sowetan

BCM