"FROM a marketing perspective theres something alluring about being a beauty outsider. Just ask Allison Slater the vice president for retail marketing at Sephora about the new antiaging skin care line Algenist  featuring a star ingredient alguronic acid that scientists in San Francisco say they stumbled upon while researching microalgae. Retailing for  to  Algenist moisturizers serum and eye balm are already available at Sephora.com and will go on sale in the companys stores this week. When we saw it we thought it was so unique such innovation something our clients could really understand Mrs. Slater said of the line. The whole story about this being an unexpected discovery. Mrs. Slater added that it made sense to her that alguronic acid a compound that protects microalgae cells according to Algenists maker Solazyme could also protect middleaged faces from environmental assault. Think about how algae can live anywhere live in the coldest of places or the harshest of places and think about translating that to skin care she said. Dermatologists might not wholeheartedly share Sephoras enthusiasm. But a surprising story about a products genesis can be just as important for generating sales as the products demonstrable efficacy. Consider Crme de la Mer which like Algenist contains sea matter and also involves an enterprising scientist an aerospace physicist trying to heal scars he suffered in a lab accident. Its a slightly different story said Nica Lewis the head consultant of beauty innovation at Mintel a market research firm. But its still brainy scientist comes up with cosmetic product.  According to Jonathan Wolfson the chief executive of Solazyme the alternativeenergy company that makes Algenist the product came about after a fortuitous suggestion roughly six years ago by Arthur Grossman a microalgae expert whos now an adviser to the brand. At first Solazyme executives had a good chuckle about the idea of getting into skin care Mr. Wolfson said. I really never thought Id be standing in a store like this he told a gathering of reporters during a preview at Sephora Fifth Avenue amid shiny display cases of primer and volumizing mascara.   It may seem novel for a nonbeauty company to get into skin care but these days it really isnt Mrs. Lewis said. There are ingredient suppliers that provide ingredients to health care food and drink industries and cosmetic companies she said. In Japan food and health care companies have found cosmetic applications for their ingredients so they are creating skin care brands. For example Frutarom http a flavoringredient house based in Israel makes Alguard a purified polysaccharide shield from a red microalgae that it says protects skin from daily assaults and reduces roughness as well as the look of fine lines. There are more than  algaederived ingredients used in cosmetics worldwide Mrs. Lewis said. The patentpending alguronic acid in Algenist is a single purified highly bioactive compound said Tony Day the vice president for research and development at Solazyme and therefore delivers much higher activity to the skin than products using only a microalgae extract. Studies conducted by an independent lab and commissioned by Algenist none of which have been published in a peerreviewed journal showed alguronic acid increased cell regeneration and the synthesis of elastin which gives skin that snapback youthful quality. This testing also demonstrated that alguronic acid provided protection against cell damage induced by ultraviolet rays and inhibited the enzymes that break down elastin. After reviewing press materials and Solazymes page patent application Dr. David McDaniel a dermatologist and the director of the Institute of AntiAging Research http in Virginia Beach Va. said he was impressed by the invitro testing of alguronic acid. In the petri dish their data seems to show some substantial benefits to their active ingredient he said. But he cautioned that invitro testing does not demonstrate how a final formulation works off the shelf. Dr. Dana Sachs an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor wrote in an email after looking at Algenists dossier that the claims on cell regeneration and elastin synthesis are based on in vitro models which is hard to extrapolate to in vivo and again no statistical significance is presented so this is a weak claim. Dr. Day who has a doctorate in biochemistry said that statistical significance was found but not included in press materials. And according to the company a study of  women showed that after  days of using the Algenist serum they had a  percent decrease in wrinkles httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidessymptomswrinklesoverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier as shown by silicone replicas of their faces. Dr. Ellen Marmur the chief of the division of dermatologic and cosmetic surgery httptopics.nytimes.comtopnewshealthdiseasesconditionsandhealthtopicsplasticsurgeryindex.htmlinlinenytclassifier at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan did say Algenist could fairly claim that alguronic acid offers protection against ultraviolet damage to cells and that she might use the product as a nice sun protection on top of S.P.F. protection. Algenist literature touts alguronic acids superiority to hyaluronic acid retinol httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidesnutritionvitaminaoverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier and vitamin C httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidesnutritionvitamincoverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier among other antiaging ingredients in encouraging elastin synthesis and cell regeneration. But Dr. McDaniel who does research into using plantderived products to lengthen the life of cells says he thinks the comparative data must be viewed with caution because the studies that yielded it are challenging to do accurately hard to interpret and not necessarily predictive of final products. Soon consumers will judge whether Algenist products are a breakthrough. In an unusual move Sephora is introducing the line in  locations in  countries all at once in a rollout coordinated with QVC. It was a brand nobody has ever heard of said Allen Burke the senior adviser for beauty strategy and development at QVC. We want to give it a lot of visibility all at the same time. But Mr. Burke knows that marketing has its limits. It can be the most interesting story in the world he said. But if it doesnt deliver its not a business that we can do."