When Lev Glazman, CEO of Boston-based Fresh cosmetics, was growing up in Russia, sea buckthorn berry oil was a popular home remedy his mother applied to scrapes and burns. "It helped the healing process tremendously," he says. Today it has become the star component of Fresh's newest antiaging product, Elixir Ancien. Sea buckthorn, along with a host of other arctic berries, is the miracle medicine du jour in the fast-paced world of skin care.
Arctic berries, which grow in arctic regions, come in about 20 varieties, but only 10 or so—including arctic raspberry, cloudberry and blueberry—are commercially important. And while the...