Hype and moisturiser don’t often mix, but one scientist is changing that. Prof Augustinus Bader’s succinctly named “The Cream” is the first product of its kind to utilise stem-cell research in a face cream and has captured much attention in the process from a litany of celebrities, and even had a party thrown in its honour at Paris Fashion Week last year.

Sure, this could well sound like hot air: famous celebrity doctor with Hollywood pals uses said connections to promote his wares. Except Prof Bader isn’t a celebrity doctor, and you won’t catch him rubbing shoulders with Tinseltown’s glitterati anytime soon. A soft-spoken German scientist specialising in the field of stem-cell research and well-versed in treating heavily damaged and burned skin, Prof Bader is also the director of Applied Stem Cell Biology and Cell Technology at Germany’s Leipzig University.

“I’m working on mechanisms that allow your skin to repair itself, based on your own intrinsic repair systems, which are your stem cells,” he tells us over the phone. “And I thought, ‘If you’re able to treat burnt skin and develop a gel for that, why not develop a skincare cream?’” It wasn’t as straightforward as that, however. “I got quite frustrated at the beginning, nobody believed me that this will work. It took me 18 months to go from a medical concept to a concept in skincare.”

It was, if you judge by the resulting reaction on the internet, a huge success. Headlines abound about the £205 cream that beauty editors and celebrities swear by to give them luminous, “rich person” skin. Which is great, but what is it, and how exactly does it work?

“There are lots of good creams that absorb into the skin well and hydrate, but there’s one big thing that is different [with The Cream], which is knowing what the stem cells in your skin need, and that’s the research I’ve been working on for the past 10 years,” explains Prof Bader. “It’s a disruptive approach, and nobody has done it before – it’s different in the field of science because it works on your own intrinsic repair systems.” The cream utilises what the professor calls the “ABC approach”, based on the three functions the body uses to repair itself: activate, boost and commit. He says there is no hero ingredient, simply that the formula in the cream is potent enough to cause skin to regenerate at a cellular level.

If that wasn’t enough, Prof Bader also uses it as a shaving gel. “Most shaving soaps dry out the skin and you have to put something on after,” he says. “But when you use the cream it absorbs so fast and you don’t lose a single drop of it; your skin becomes so soft almost immediately.” It comes in a slightly heavier form for drier skin (The Rich Cream) and the brand recently launched a body cream, too.

While it’s an admittedly hefty amount to drop on a product for your skin, with this in your grooming routine, a little goes a long way and you’re unlikely to need much else. Professor Bader didn’t call it The Cream for nothing, after all.