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Robert Heldfond never meant to make a wrinkle cream. But he did mean to capitalize on it.
Tradition at Heldfond's company, eb5 Corp., has it that the Portland pharmacist in the 1940s simply concocted a greaseless base for a variety of medicinal. ointments. But cus his father's drugstore, downtown Portland's Central Drugs, reported that the ointments not only helped their ailments but smoothed their skin.
Thus was born eb5 facial cream (it includes vitamins E and B-5). Heldfond sold the product at the drugstore until 1980, then established eb5 Corp. to distribute the product nationally Adopting a marketing strategy of print ads featuring the folksy Heldfond (think of an older Gene Wilder) as a trusted neighborhood pharmacist, eb5 has steadily grown in popularity to become a top seller at the cosmetic counters of Sears and J.C. Penney.
"It's a small luxury that people can afford in good times and bad," said Heldfond's son, eb5 Vice President Robert Heldfond Jr.
While cosmetics as an industry is healthly, maturing baby boomers have spent heavily on wrinkle creams and other products designed to mask signs of aging. Indeed, the "anti-age" category experienced an 18 percent boost in sales from mid-July 1998 to mid-July 1999, according to trade publication Drug Store News. Older women are trying to a halt or cover signs of aging, and younger ones are trying to prevent wrinkles from appearing.
The merits of most anti-age products are dubious. The medical establishment sees little evidence that any overthe-counter product actually causes wrinkles to disappear in any permanent sense. But the desire to present a more youthful appearance has...