The product was launched in Augusts 2004 at Sephora's flagship Champs Elysees boutique and according to Klein-Becker, the company that produces StriVectin-SD - it has become the number one selling skin care product throughout French Sephora stores.
"We were a bit surprised by the overnight success of StriVectin in France," said Gina Gay, spokesperson for Klein-Becker.
"StriVectin had already set sales records in the United States so we expected great results in France," she said, but added that the company was not expecting the same results in France because of the range of skin care products already on offer there.
According to NPD Beauty - a division of the NPD marketing information company - StriVectin is the number one selling skincare item in US department stores based on dollar sales in 2004.
StriVectin was originally sold in maternity shops and high-end specialty stores as a superior anti-stretch mark cream. Indeed, the formula is still labelled as "intensive repair for existing stretch marks". But women started to share their success stories about StriVectin's ability to reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and crow's feet.
Today, the stretch mark reducer is popular in France, the UK, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal and the Czech Republic.