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I recently had the opportunity to meet with the creators of VENeffect, Becca and Cecil Booth, and catch up with them about their recently launched line of anti-aging products that aim to reverse the signs of hormonal aging. Sold exclusively at Neiman Marcus, VENeffect is not your average anti-aging product. From its phytoestrogen technology to it’s luxurious feel, VENeffect products are not just for the 50+ crowd. Here, Becca and Cecil delve into the importance of having preventative aging regime, the connection between hormones and aging, and why it may not be a bad idea to pick up one of VENeffect’s products before the big 3-0.
What kind of feedback do you get from customers? What’s your most popular product?
Cecil Booth: The best way we get feedback is when we’re doing events, being in the store and being able to talk to the customer. We’ll do an event where we have about 25 women and about a third of them have already been using the line. They were able to tell the other women as well as us, “Oh, I use the eye treatment and I really noticed a difference right away”. One lady had used the intensive treatment and said that even with the packet samples she really noticed a difference on her face. The best type of feedback is live, direct from the customer.
In terms of the popularity of the line, it’s interesting. Our intensive moisturizer is our top selling in dollars but in units it’s our lip treatment. The treatment deals with the fine vertical lines that form around the lip as well as add a plumpness and rose color to the lips. It’s not a balm or a gloss, it’s actually an anti-aging treatment for the lips that can be used on and around the lips. It can be used with your beauty regime or put on again throughout the day. It will help your lipstick stay on longer and help it not bleed into the skin.
Can you tell me about VENeffect’s beginning? How did you develop your products?
Becca Booth: It started with a conversation between two sisters; a sister who has a background in the beauty industry and then myself. I’m a gynecologist and I have a large practice in Louisville, Kentucky. We see several women a day and all of the doctors in the practice are women. As women we do a lot of information sharing and part of that information has been the inspiration for the product; the relationship between estrogen and collagen.
Estrogen is really representative of the hormone of romance and beauty, in fact, almost everything we consider attractive or beautiful that’s feminine is inspired by estrogen. What we did is borrow from nature a mimic of estrogen to create that inspiration in the receptors in the skin. Those mimics are called phytoestrogens. They’re in several of the healthiest foods that we eat such as nuts or seeds, some legumes or lentils, even cocoa. We searched for the most impacted phytoestrogen that would give the greatest results in skin to mimic the effect of estrogen. It literally attaches to receptors in the skin and stimulates collagen.
A lot of people refer to that glow of pregnancy or certain times of the month where women know that their skin is just looking really good. Those days get little attention because what we tend to focus on is when we’re not feeling good and we think that something’s wrong with us. When I was explaining this to Cecil, who was a veteran in the industry, she relayed to me that there’s little awareness about this link and encouraged me to write a book.
I wrote a book called The Venus Week, which refers to a grouping of days in the hormonal cycle during which estrogen peaks. It actually inspires your skin, hair, metabolism, mood. We replicate that to create what women really want, which is the Venus effect. Hence, the product name, VENeffect. We basically packed this product with phytoestrogens to inspire skin and inspire that plumpness in collagen that gives it that glow. Once we did that we took it to Neiman Marcus to present this product for retail.
CB: When you hear about hormonal wellness and anti-aging some people tend to think, “Oh, that’s not for me because that’s for later in life,” but it’s actually really important that women understand this early on because their skin follows (a little bit) the curve of their fertility. It peaks in our twenties because we’re meant to look most beautiful in our twenties. We created this chart that shows the correlation between estrogen’s effect and collagen content in the skin. They follow a similar curve that both peak around the mid twenties. We felt there were many audiences for this line, but it would be relevant for women in their twenties when they really need to knock it up to a higher level of skin care because they’re going to start seeing the decline in their collagen content. It’s also relevant for an older woman because you can always restore this lost connection.
I read on your website that women begin to lose their “glow” from hormonal aging as early as 27. Why so young? Do you recommend women using your product as a preventative measure towards aging?
CB: It’s always better to start when you’re at your peak because then you’re not making up for what you lost. My sister shared this information with me, I was turning 40, and I wish I knew that information in my twenties. But the great thing is that you can restore as well. It’s not just marketing hype that you need to be thinking about anti-aging. There’s scientific reason for why your skin is at its peak. Fairer skin types are going to age a little more quickly than darker skin types but eventually all of us are impacted by this loss of the collagen connection. The phtyoestrogen technology, (the plant technology) is a great mimic for that. The skin is hungry for it and it’s the safest thing you can use. It doesn’t go into the blood stream, it’s topical and it’s luxurious to use. These plant materials have antioxidants and are anti-inflammatory so they calm the skin. There’s just many, many benefits.
It’s all related to the actual effect of estrogen. That is reflective of the egg count in our ovaries. Mother nature designs us to have a peak in fertility and then a gradual decline. There’s a fixed number of eggs that a woman is born with. Those eggs generate after puberty in her estrogen effect. That peaks in efficiency in regard to when puberty and the egg count cross at age 27. After age 27 the egg count decrease starts to affect the overall amount of estrogen effect in the body. So actually that curve reflects not just collagen but also a woman’s fertility.
What sets your product part from other anti-aging products?
BB: Phytoestrogen technology and addressing the need for inspiration; not just increasing cell turnover. This product stimulates the cells through the receptor mechanism and it can be used with other treatments because it would be synergistic.
CB: We have a greater mission than just delivering skin care. We’re two women and part of our platform is sharing the wisdom from both of our careers and being able to give women solutions to part of the problems that we face and we know every woman faces, globally. The “By Women, For Women" is something that is part of our platform.
It’s a company that’s based in the US, made in the US and is something we should be proud of.
