The Body Shop is taking a stand against beauty’s anti-ageing narrative by renaming one of its best-selling skincare ranges, ‘Drops of Youth’ to ‘Edelweiss,’ the namesake of the range’s star ingredient.

‘Drops of Youth’ concentrate serum is one of The Body Shop’s best-selling products in the range, with a bottle sold every 20 seconds around the world. So why rebrand such a successful product? The British beauty brand states it is about returning to its activist roots and moving away from what it calls harmful ‘anti-ageing’ branding.

Lionel Thoreau, global brand vice president of The Body Shop, said in a statement: “We are taking a huge commercial risk in changing the name of our most popular range, but it is worth it to stay true to our purpose.

“We are a change-making, B Corp, activist brand. It is our duty to ensure we aren’t sharing the wrong message. Everyone who uses our products has the right to feel powerfully, radiantly themselves. The Body Shop believes that ageing is a joy and a privilege, and our job is to lift people up, helping them age powerfully, rather than wish they were in a time-machine.”

Image: The Body Shop

The new ‘Edelweiss’ range also comes with a new formula for stronger, smoother skin, and an extended line-up, with two new additional products, a cleansing concentrate and an intense smoothing cream for overall daily skin needs.

The new formula centres around Edelweiss, a resilient flower grown in brutal Alpine conditions with antioxidant power. The Edelweiss flower protects and repairs itself, thanks to its natural antioxidants, including Leontopodic acid, which have been shown to maintain skin barrier health, as well as smooth the skin’s surface.

The product is also being made within strict ‘green chemistry’ principles, with Edelweiss organically farmed and harvested by hand by The Body Shop’s trusted supplier to respect the Alpine biodiversity. It is then extracted using zero chemical waste, first through drying the plant and then distilled using a renewable process.

The Body Shop’s Edelweiss range starts at 6 pounds.