Facelift in a tube. Too good to be true?

(New York -WABC, June 26, 2006) (WABC) -- The manufacturer is calling it a serious alternative to cosmetic surgery, a new product that promises to give you the same results as botox, but without the needles. But what makes it so different? And is it worth a price tag in the hundreds of dollars?

Eyewitness News reporter Michelle Charlesworth is here now with more.

This promises to relax muscles, fill lines, and lift your skin. It's $650 for two ounces, comes from Spain and today goes on sale today at stores like Neiman Marcus.

It is called Inhibit-TensoLift and applied twice a day, according to the company that makes it, it starts to show results in about three weeks.

What makes it so revolutionary?

Michael Rogers, Pierce Mattie Public Relations: "This is the most expensive facial topical serum on the market today per fluid ounce. It works."

Its active ingredients include octamioxyl, kombuchka, hyaluronic acids and cushioning lipids. More on those in a moment.

Michael Rogers, Pierce Mattie Public Relations: "It relaxes the muscles in the skin so that it does not contract as much. Then it will fill the wrinkles and prevents new ones from forming."

That said, their own doctor, flown here from Spain, says the lotion is best used in addition to botox injections, not instead of.

Dr. Javier De Benito, Plastic Surgeon: "Okay, it works a little bit but the effect is to delay the effect of botox and injections."

But $650 for something that works "a little bit"? He also said alone, without injections, the lotion is only 10 to 25 percent effective. An independent plastic surgeon here in New York applauded his honesty and offered this analogy:

Dr. David Rappaport, Plastic Surgeon: "If I give you an antibiotic pill and say 'wash it down with orange juice,' you're going to like the orange juice and you may well think the oranges helped you heal. Maybe the vitamin C did, but the main thing you took was the antibiotic."

Back to those ingredients: he looked up octamioxyl and couldn't find one study, couldn't find anything.

As for something called kombuchka, the only research available pointed to organ failure and one fatality. Not very positive, and leading him to say the claims seem exaggerated.

Dr. David Rappaport, Plastic Surgeon: "I know of no topical product that is going to replicate of even be similar to a facelift or botox."

In looking up those ingredients the doctor used every scientific resource and kindly suggested that if there's no research on active ingredients, there's a reason.

The company says the lotion is FDA approved although it's over the counter so it also falls under less strict guidelines.

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