After spending hours on airplanes to help run her family’s photography business, Sonia Deasy was desperate for a quick solution to her dehydrated skin. “I’m a mother of five,” Ms. Deasy said. “I don’t have time for a fuss.”

So Ms. Deasy, who lives in Dublin, enlisted her sister, a biochemist, to help make a hyaluronic acid serum. Within a week of its release last year, the product, Pestle & Mortar Pure Hyaluronic Serum, sold out.

Cameron Silver, who owns Decades, a vintage boutique in Los Angeles, described the serum as being “like Xanax for your skin: It kind of takes the edge off.”

Mr. Silver, who often appears on television, added: “It’s like Vaseline around the lens. It just makes the skin a little bit smoother, a little bit dewier.”