Wrinkle Free for $150

Here’s the latest wrinkle in skin care: Elizabeth Arden, the cosmetics giant, and Allergan, the $2.2 billion maker of Botox, have teamed to bring you the first-ever cosmetic version of a pharmaceutical product. Until now, Prevage, Allergan’s topical antiaging treatment, has been available for purchase only at a dermatologist’s office or medical spa. By December, a creamier and less concentrated version of the wrinkle cream will be on sale at select U.S. department stores ($150 for 1.7 oz.). Overseas customers will be able to find it beginning in March. This cosmeceutical alliance is a harbinger of a new market segment. “This is opening up an entirely new category of skin-care products,” says Arden’s chairman and CEO, Scott Beattie.

In a world of aging boomers, both companies see vigorous opportunity. Says Allergan vice president Bob Rhatigan: “Our product [will get] more brand exposure.” For the $920 million Elizabeth Arden, which two weeks ago cut its 2006 fiscal earnings forecast because of depressed consumer spending in Europe, Prevage could help it break through the cluttered $7 billion antiaging skin-care market–and give its sagging profits a lift.