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By Laura Liebeck<br><br>

Young women in Britain can now take their Cosmo with water.

Cosmo Nutrition, a new multivitamin by U.K.-based Vitabiotics, is available exclusively at the Boots drugstore chain. On shelf since September, the vitamins go into wider distribution in January.

The vitamins are designed to appeal to the active, freewheeling life of twentysomething women, explains Antonia Cuming, marketing manager, The Licensing Co. (London), licensing agent for the Hearst property in Britain. Cosmo is published in the U.K. by National Magazines.

Cosmopolitan Nutrition introduces the Cosmo licensed program to drugstores and supermarkets, a new retailing arena.

The product, however, remains targeted to the traditional Cosmo woman, a 27-year-old single, working lady, who is "footloose and fancy free," Cuming says. "Cosmopolitan vitamins give her that extra dose of vitality to get through the mad life she lives. The vitamins aren't to improve her health but to improve her vitality."

Cosmo currently has eight licensees in the U.K. Coming on line in June '02 are hair styling products such as hair dryers from Helen of Troy, says Cuming. Helen of Troy (El Paso, Texas) does not hold the Cosmo license in the U.S.