It’s one of the not-so-noble moments in beauty history: Someone, somewhere, desperate to get rid of her puffy eyes, once made the decision to apply Preparation H to her face. The unusual beauty strategy spread by word of mouth, and eventually became, if not standard practice, something that made its way onto more than one fashion magazine’s “tip list.”

A similar, though high-end, situation happened with StriVectin SD, the serum launched in 2003 as a solution to stretch marks. Consumer ingenuity soon opened new doors for the product. “We started hearing that people were using it on their face for wrinkles,” the director of cosmetic development for Basic Research, which distributes the products along with Klein-Becker, Lou Rinaldi, said.

As the buzz built, so did the demand for the $135 serum, especially after the company came up with a catchy, if a bit hyperbolic, tag line: “Better than Botox?” (In January 2005, the FDA sent StriVectin a letter suggesting that it was marketing the product as a drug, not a cosmetic. In practical terms, if the FDA were to call demand that StriVectin be called a drug, it would lose its highly lucrative over-the-counter-status. The FDA said its investigation is “ongoing.”)

StriVectin, which was launched as a single product without a full line behind it, became a hit. The market research company NPG found that StriVectin was the no. 8 skin-care seller in America in 2005 and is now the best-selling skin-care product in France, according to Beauty Business News.

The natural next move was to expand the line, which is why this week three new prod ucts – Hydro-Thermal Deep Wrinkle Serum, Self-Heating NanoExfoliant for the Hands, and Ultra-Concentrate Cream for the Hands – will hit shelves at Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and Saks Fifth Avenue.

“People are spending all this money on looking young. You see women in their 50s today who look 30 or 35,” Mr. Rinaldi said. “But then the hands reveal age.”

The secret formula in the products has been patented as Striadril, a combination of fruit acids, botanicals, and peptides (a “cosmeceutical” buzzword meaning a chain of amino acids). It’s said to mimic viper venom, a paralyzing toxin. According to Mr. Rinaldi, the combination is more effective than retinol and causes less irritation.

The wrinkle serum is formulated for deep wrinkles and claims to work deep beneath the skin’s surface at the dermal-epidermal junction, where serious wrinkles begin.

“We use a tripeptide that has never been available in cosmetics before,” Mr. Rinaldi said. “We are the first to utilize it in very high concentrations. It helps relax the underlying muscle tissue and it also smoothes out surface wrinkles.”

Experts say that although peptide potions aren’t your mother’s tub of Pond’s, you shouldn’t expect them to rival the results of Botox.

“Twenty years ago, it was purely hope in a jar,” a popular Madison Avenue dermatologist, Dr. Steven Victor, said. “Today, we go beyond that. There are ingredients — alpha-hydroxy acids, retinol, peptides, botanicals – that, if formulated correctly, do penetrate into the skin and increase metabolic activity, reduce free radicals, and help revitalize skin.

“But peptides have been around for eight or nine years, that’s nothing new. They can mimic Botox – but only about 30% to 35% [of its effects]; they just won’t do as much as a shot.”

Better than Botox? Maybe not. But it’s likely to help you preserve your skin much better than a tube of Preparation H.

WHERE TO BUY

StriVectin-NE Self-Heating NanoExfoliant for the Hands (1.2 oz) $29

StriVectin-HC Ultra Concentrate Cream for the Hands (3.25 oz) $38

StriVectin-HS Serum (.9 oz) $153

The products will be exclusively launched in separate stores. After May 1, all will be available at Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and Saks Fifth Avenue.