Peptides
Peptides are an incredible addition to your skincare plan. Peptides help keep skin firm and smooth over time.
There are peptides for inflammation, aging, infection, and even skincare! You've heard of the popular collagen peptide supplements for beauty and creatine peptide supplements for muscle support.
Did you know that Oxytocin, the love chemical responsible for bonding us... is a peptide? There are even "illegal" peptides like Follistatin, among its many values, can be used for potentially unsafe muscle growth (2).
So, peptides have a lot of value. Today we're going to discuss the basics of peptides, how they can be used in your skincare regime, and my favorite professional peptide products!
What are peptides?
A peptide is a short chain of amino acids, and a polypeptide is a long chain of amino acids. When a polypeptide has a bunch of amino acids in its chain, it forms a whole protein (a complete protein is about 50 or more amino acids).
Peptides can be used in therapy to aid skin and immune ailments, cancer, wound healing, and more. Some peptides even help vaccines work effectively! They can be animal or plant-based; some well-known sources of valuable peptides are soy, eggs, flax, fish, and more.
How do peptides affect the skin?
Peptides allow for protein development. Amino acids are your body's building blocks to make essential proteins like collagen (1).
We utilize peptides for their antimicrobial and anti-aging properties. For example, a key part of "aging" is facial fat loss and less overall plumpness. As we age, we create less collagen, so getting more is key. We can reduce our chances of collagen loss by wearing SPF and consuming antioxidants, but adding more collagen also helps!
Collagen itself cannot penetrate the skin. So, how can we get valuable collagen into the skin if the protein is too big? We break it down! Collagen peptides are added to skincare to sneak the collagen into the skin, which will develop into a valuable collagen protein.
Overall, when you are adding skin-loving peptides to your regime, you should expect to see the following:
Firming
Surface smoothness
Recommended peptide-based products
There are so many peptide-enriched products on the market it can be a bit overwhelming to research them all! These are my favorite products, used on myself and my clients!
A natural, plant-based formulation, I love the Earth Harbor Celestine Hydra-Plumping Peptide Serum. It features Seaweed Peptides from Laminaria japonica, better known as Kombu. This kelp-based extract contains nourishing minerals and hydrating agents perfect for healing skin!
For a more professional-grade formulation, the peptide-based products from DRMTLGY are lovely. The Essential Cleanser is an advanced anti-aging, hydrating cleanser that aims to cleanse, condition, and visibly plump your skin with antioxidants, plant extracts, hyaluronic acid, and the potent peptide Acetyl Octapeptide-3.
The Peptide Night Cream is another healthy option. It is a rich, creamy, concentrated cream aimed to immediately improves the look of skin's hydration, texture, and firmness. It has five peptides and three ceramides!
I hope you love these products, and of course, if you have any questions, reach out to me!
The Human Genome Project. https://www.genome.gov/. October 2022.
Chakrabarti, Subhadeep et al. “Food-Derived Bioactive Peptides in Human Health: Challenges and
Opportunities.” Nutrients. 12 Nov. 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6265732/