Cosmeceutical

So this kinda concludes our look at cosmeceuticals. There are just too many of them to research and review, but this doesn’t mean you won’t see more posts on them in the future…I just need to take a break for now and focus on how to use them in our products. (If you don’t know...

Matrixyl 3000 (INCI: Glycerin (and) Water (and) Butylene Glycol (and) Carbomer (and) Polysorbate 20 (and) Palmitoyl Oligopeptide (and) Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7) contains two matrikines – Pal-GHK and Pal-GQPR. It claims that it helps to “maintain skin’s youthful appearance” by offering anti-wrinkling and lifting effects. So what the heck does this all mean? Matrikines are “peptides liberated by...

Palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7 (formerly known as palmitoyl tetrapeptide-3 for some reason) is another polypeptide we can find as a cosmeceutical, although it seems the only place I’ve been able to find it is in Matrixyl 3000 as palmitoyl GQPR (glycine-glutamine-proline-arganine connected to palmitic acid). It’s attached to the palmitic acid to make it more oil solubility...

GHK is a tripeptide that has a strong affinity for copper, so it’s often called copper peptide or GHK-Cu. It occurs naturally in our blood, urine, and saliva and it is used in our bodies as a wound healer, anti-oxidant, and anti-inflammatory that can stimulate collagen and glycosaminoglycans (or GAGs), which bind water in the skin,...

Pepha-Tight (INCI: Algae extract from Nannochloropsis oculata and pullulan) makes claims that it can protect human fibroblasts from oxidative stress, increase the formation of collagen in our skin, and promotes a long term tightening effect. Nannochloropsis oculata is a phytoplankton that contains high levels of B12. It is fermented to produce more of the good...