Bizarre conspiracy theories are swirling about the most expensive popular skin cream - and one about Estee Lauder hiring a psychic to contact the dead inventor is true

Estée Lauder's Crème de la Mer is an insanely expensive skin cream beloved by celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

For years, conspiracy theories have swirled about the cream, which costs a whopping $127 per ounce. People have speculated that inventor Max Huber isn't a real person and that the cream is just "expensive Vaseline."

Kathleen Hou at The Cut recently investigated 10 of the theories to see if they were true or false.

The strangest of the lot?

Estée Lauder hired a medium to contact Huber, the scientist who invented the cream after a horrific chemical burn accident damaged his face.

"Estée Lauder research and development head Joseph Gubernick consulted a medium when initial attempts to re-create the La Mer formula following Max's death were unsuccessful," Hou writes, citing an Elle report.

Andrew Bevacqua, head of research and development at Estée Lauder, told The Cut what happened.

"An ex-boss of mine was giving me grief: 'You made me sound like a kooky person!' But it is true. We do a lot of strange things in research and development that don't always sound so scientific. I don't know whether it helped me or not. But it did get information from someone who claimed to have psychic energy."

Bevacqua also said as a result of the medium's opinion, the scientists play carefully curated sounds as each batch is created.

Read more about Le Mer conspiracy theories here.