Unilever is revelling in a 120 percent rise in sales of Pond's Cold Cream after pop princess Kylie Minogue attributed her youthful looks to the supermarket-stocked cleanser - dubbing the occurrence ‘the Kylie Effect'.

The diminutive Australian has won herself even more fans by revealing the secret of her enviable complexion at the age of 42. ‘It's all I really use,' she said. ‘It's really changed my skin!'

Had she been slathering herself in some elixir of youth containing human placenta and viper venom with a bankrupting price tag it would've met with poisonous grunts. However, her revelations have endeared her to us even more.

Minogue declares that a liberal application of Pond's Cold Cream has kept her looking fabulous - which has led us crawling on our knees back to our mothers and grandmothers who have been swearing by this all along. Oops, sorry Gran.

However, could simple cleansing cream really help keep Kylie Minogue looking so fresh?

Unilever says it's ‘the cool classic that removes makeup as it thoroughly deep cleans'. Today's Pond's Cold Cream contains a blend of paraffinum liquidum, aqua, zokerite, cera alba, sodium borate, paraffin, synthetic wax and behenic acid.

Cold cream itself is rumoured to date back to the second century, when a physician called Galen discovered that you could remove ancient Roman makeup with a combination of beeswax, water, olive oil, rose petals and water. Unilever's version is that it was launched in 1905 but has its roots in the 19th century, when the US harmacist Theron T Pond introduced a witchhazel-based wonder product known as Pond's Golden Treasure.

There's no doubt Kylie looks good for her age; she is a beautiful and well-preserved woman to any appraising eye. A little over a year ago, singer and beauty icon Kylie Minogue admitted she'd tried Botox and other procedures to fight the signs of old age, saying, ‘I've tried it all'. This a story I can swallow more easily (without being labelled a cynic).

Kylie says she has now replaced Botox with one of the most traditional (and cheap) anti-ageing treatments available, which can be bought in Sydney for $4 a jar. She claims she doesn't have the injections anymore and insists she's steered clear of the knife. ‘People want to check behind my ears for surgery scars. But I don't have any. I wouldn't want to go under the knife. You're not yourself if you do that.'

Fact or fiction, it proves the power of celebrity endorsement once again. A single comment has led to many a youngster dusting off an old cosmetic favourite and the older generations hauling their jar out of retirement at the back of the cabinet.

Now to boost our national health by getting Delta Goddrem to admit her lush locks are a product of eating Australian-grown broccoli.

Bella Beauty Magazine #19