Anita Roddick lambasting the cosmetics industry? Nothing new, surely. Barely newsworthy but for a sneaky inference that having all but cut the umbilical cord with the politically correct Body Shop chain she founded, she is now setting about undermining it.

"It was one of those typical tabloid things," she shrugs. "A 20-minute chat at a book launch and suddenly, boom - there's this huge furore. "I wasn't saying `all cosmetics don't work'. Of course some do. I was saying `anti-wrinkle creams don't work' - which, of course, they don't. But I've been saying that for years."

Roddick's widely reported remarks will have jangled nerves in an industry that has turned the war against ageing into a multimillion pound cash cow over the past 20 years. Criticised periodically for preying on women's insecurities - the big-name companies, Estee Lauder, Revlon, Olay, have targeted the seven signs of ageing: fine lines and wrinkles; poor skin texture; poor skin tone; lack of radiance; enlarged pores; blotches and age spots; and dryness.

They claim you can reverse the ageing process with specialised ingredients that come suspended in (invariably expensive) lotions and potions. Currently, the most effective of these are said to be vitamin A derivatives, vitamin C and AHAs (alpha-hydroxy acids), which are said to speed up the natural process of desquamation (the shedding of dead skin cells) - by loosening the cement that holds the cells together.

This chemical form of exfoliation is said to then reveal younger (and therefore younger-looking) skin.

"Lines and wrinkles are produced by psychological reaction (laughing, crying); environmental stress (pollution, sun damage), and the passage of time. "If you truly believe that a pot of cream can halt the physical signs of ageing then really, you deserve to be ripped off," Roddick said.

Trouble is, though, millions of us are seduced by the ads.

Revlon's latest anti-ageing product is "age defying all day lifting foundation" which "lifts fine lines up, up and away" "an incredible 30 per cent reduction in just two weeks!" and contains "soy extracts and vitamins A, C, and E". The asterisk, it says in very small print, means "based on clinical testing".

Similar claims are made on the labels of countless other products but doesn't it make your teeth itch?

Eve Lom, whose facials and skincare products at Space NK have won her the loyalty of the celebrity set, wouldn't give these women the time of day.

"Women need wrinkles. And even if you could get rid of them, how do you hide the crippled posture, the sagging neck, the worn hands? Anti-ageing products are a waste of time. I just think, `don't you have anything better to do - because I do'."

As Roddick puts it: "Anti-ageing cream is God's little way of punishing the stupid."