Are Peptides Worth Adding To Your Skincare Routine?

BY CRESCENCIA NGA CHE

From reducing inflammation to brightening skin tone, peptides in skincare may be The “IT” ingredient that you’ve been looking for for that radiant and flawless skin.

As beauty enthusiasts, you may have certainly come across the buzzword “peptides” that has been around for quite some time now. Peptides can do amazingly wonderful things for the skin. They can help reduce inflammation, improve your skin texture. They can even help improve the overall health of your skin and assist with hyperpigmentation and skin ageing concerns such as fine lines and wrinkles. 

However not all peptides are created equal. You just have to choose the right peptide for what you are personally trying to accomplish with your skin and the concerns that you are seeking to address.

To make your life much easier and cut through the jargon, let’s break it down so that you will be able to know how to choose the right peptide cream or serum for your face. Why is it important for us to do it? This is simply because picking a peptide containing product is the equivalent of shopping for a dress. You need to buy the right dress for the right event. 

If you are invited to a cocktail party, you will probably go for an evening dress. For a wedding ceremony where you are a maid of honour, you will definitely need to get an appropriate dress. For more casual outings, a shirt dress or a ribbed dress will probably fit the bill. Well, the same principle applies with peptides.  

Having said that, let’s just understand what peptides in skincare actually are, what functions they play in supporting our skin health, and a few products worth browsing through to elevate your skincare whenever it takes your fancy.

This post contains independently selected affiliate links. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission. See our disclosures here to find out more.

Allies of Skin Mandelic Pigment Correcting Serum – Olay Regenerist Collagen Peptide 24 Hydrating Moisturiser – The Ordinary Multi-Peptide + Copper Peptides 1% Serum – Naturium Multi-Peptide Moisturiser – Skinfix Triple Lipid Barrier Cream – Biossance Squalane + Copper Peptide Rapid Plumping Serum – Crepey Skin Repair Treatment with Resveratrol – Rhode Glazing Peptide Fluid – Kiehl’s Retinol Skin-Renewing Daily Micro-Dose Serum – The Ordinary Matrixyl 10% + HA High-Strength Wrinkle Support Serum – Skinceuticals A.G.E. Interrupter Advanced  Cream

What Are Peptides in Skincare?

Trying to figure out  what peptides actually are can be super confusing when you hear things like collagen cream and peptide cream. At the end of the day, all you want is some simple explanation to find out whether this trendy ingredient is worth your hard earned coins. So, let’s keep it super simple. 

Peptides are made up of small amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of peptides. Peptides function to do many different things in the body .One of those functions is building proteins. The proteins we care most about for our skincare routine are collagen, elastin, and keratin. In a nutshell, peptides are to  collagen, elastin, and keratin what a grape is to wine. 

If you look at amino acids as letters, then peptides would be the sequence of the letters

that makes up a word.  So if you make just a single letter change, this tiny change will change the entire word. What this means is that a single amino acid change completely changes the nature of the peptides activity for your skin. 

Peptides are often named by how many amino acids that are actually bound together. For example, a dipeptide represents two amino acids and a tripeptide is a combination of three amino acids.  As for collagen, it is simply a combination of three polypeptide chains. This is the basic principle that governs the way peptides are structured to improve their effectiveness in skincare.

Benefits of Peptides

When it comes to skincare, there are really five main categories that you want to think about when choosing a peptide, as they deliver different benefits to the skin. These depend on the skincare concerns you are seeking to address. 

Fading Hyperpigmentation

Enzyme inhibiting peptides are found in product formulas that help with fading black spots and brightening your skin tone to give you that sought-after glow.  These types of peptides work by decreasing the production of tyrosinase, an enzyme that controls the production and synthesis of melanin in our bodies (source: 8). 

So when browsing beauty counters on your next shopping trip, look for products containing Tetrapeptide 30 and Nonapeptide-1, such as Allies of Skin Mandelic Pigment Correcting Serum, as they are great for helping with hyperpigmentation and brightening the skin.  

Stimulating Collagen Production

Some peptides known as signal peptides, help to encourage the production of many different things – sometimes it is collagen, elastin, or hyaluronic acid. So they can really help in a multitude of different ways to decrease the breakdown of collagen (source: 7). 

These peptides restore and maintain the skin’s youthful appearance by signalling to your cells to produce more collagen.

The most popular signal peptides for cosmetic use are Matrixyl, a trademarked blend of synthetic peptides that appear on products’ ingredients list as Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 and Matrixyl 3000 that is listed in formulas as palmitoyl tripeptide-1 and palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7. 

Skinceuticals A.G.E. Interrupter Advanced  Cream and The Ordinary Matrixyl 10% + HA High-Strength Wrinkle Support Serum are two high-performing skincare products containing Matrixyl and Matrixyl 3000.  

Combating Signs of Ageing

Commonly known as anti-ageing peptides, a number of peptides have neurotransmitter-inhibiting properties that help reduce your muscle movement for a ‘botox-like’ effect. This is not to the same degree as botox, but they can help even if they will definitely not be able to rival your botox treatments. 

Rhode Glazing Peptide Fluid  with its lightweight gel-like texture has Acetyl Hexapeptide-8 aid, which is one of the ingredients that is considered “the botox in a bottle” and it is marketed as Argireline. So, you’ll see this ingredient in quite a few different product formulas. 

These peptides have a smoothing effect on the look and feel of lines and wrinkles.   They temporarily relax the facial muscles that cause expression lines to form in areas like the corners of the eyes, around the mouth and the forehead (source: 4).

Enhancing Skin Barrier Function

A number of peptides play the role of carrier proteins as they help certain elements like copper, which are essential in collagen production, to get into the skin exactly where they need to be in order to carry out certain activities. 

Some peptides support collagen production whilst others help with hydration and moisturising the skin, which are all essential in strengthening your skin barrier against environmental aggressors and pollution (source: 1)

Think of peptides as the icing on the cake that you have as part of your high-performing skincare routine.

The most well studied carrier peptide is a tripeptide known as GHK or Copper peptide.  The ingredient is highly popular in hydrating serums and anti-ageing creams in light of its collagen stimulation, moisture-boosting, and anti-inflammatory properties. 

Biossance Squalane + Copper Peptide Rapid Plumping Serum and Crepey Skin Repair Treatment with Resveratrol  are two sought-after treatments rich in GHK. 

Encouraging Skin Repair and Healing

Some peptides help reduce skin irritation and calm inflammation due to their antimicrobial effects against things like bacteria, fungi or yeast (source: 2, 3). 

So, if you have a skin condition like acne, or you have sensitive or reactive skin that perhaps has been irritated through bacteria exposure, sunburn, or an allergic reaction causing redness, peptides can help soothe your skin and reduce irritation.  They work by promoting cell regeneration and repair.

Human host defense peptides (HDPs), such as cathelicidins and defensins, are antimicrobial peptides that may help protect your skin from microbial infections and may support wound healing (source: 6). Although more clinical research needs to be done into antimicrobial peptides, they are present in Bacitracin formula, a topical antibiotic ointment that is widely used by the general public and medical professionals alike. 

Best Peptides for Skin Brightening, Anti-Ageing, Hydration and Barrier Repair

When it comes to peptides, some people may wonder whether they actually need to get a brand new product to add as a separate step into their skincare routine, the answer to that is “no”. If you really want to introduce peptides into your beauty regimen, the best way to go about it is to simply find a product such as a serum or moisturiser whose formula already contains peptides, based on your specific skin concerns.

This generally starts by checking out the ingredients list of the existing products that form part of your current skincare routine. If none of your existing beauty products contains the right combination of peptides that you need to treat your particular skincare issues, then it might be worth checking out whether you can invest in the right peptides-containing serum or moisturiser to begin with.  Here are a few of my absolute favourite skincare products enriched with peptides worth investing in.

Signal Peptides

One of my absolute favourite  moisturisers enriched with a blend of signal peptides for barrier repair is Naturium Multi-Peptide Moisturiser . 

This vegan and cruelty-free formula works particularly well for dry skin, and it absorbs quickly into the epidermis without leaving any greasy feel.  I enjoyed wearing it under my makeup. Over time, the deeply hydrating moisturiser has helped improve my skin tone, texture and firmness.

If you are on the lookout for products containing signal peptides that help improve the visible appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, then Olay Regenerist Collagen Peptide 24 Hydrating Moisturiser is definitely worth your investment. 

The Collagen Peptide & Vitamin B3 combination enhanced with niacinamide delivers a deep hydration to sensitive, normal, and dry skin. This fragrance-free little darling quickly absorbs into the skin to improve its firmness and elasticity over time.  I like it as night-time cream.

Anti-Ageing Peptides

Kiehl’s Retinol Skin-Renewing Daily Micro-Dose Serum is a powerful anti-ageing serum combining retinol and niacinamide with the neuro-calming peptide Acetyl Hexapeptide-8 that is great for daily use. This little gem plumps and firms up your skin with minimal to no skin irritation. It is ideal for first-time retinol users and people with sensitive skin. 

Skin Brightening Peptides

With its cult following, the super hydrating Skinfix Triple Lipid Barrier Cream contains pigment inhibiting peptides like Tetrapeptide 30 and Nonapeptide-1 that are great for helping with hyperpigmentation and brightening the skin.  

Enriched with ceramides, hyaluronic acid, and fatty acids such as shea butter, this cream helps to deeply hydrate, firm up, and brighten your skin for a more radiant complexion. The daily moisturiser is ideal for normal, dry, and oily skin. Pair it with your favourite vitamin C, retinoid, AHA/BHA/PHAs, and most active ingredients for a healthy looking skin.

Carrier Peptides

With its water-based serum texture, The Ordinary Multi-Peptide + Copper Peptides 1% Serum is great to plump and brighten the skin over time. The serum works hard to fade dark spots and scars, helping you to have a softer complexion. 

The copper peptide enriched product is hard at work to minimise the look of fine lines whilst improving skin elasticity and firmness. It works well as part of your morning and evening skincare routine. I will prefer to use it in the evening every other day to maximise its effectiveness. 

Peptides can be hugely beneficial to your skin, but you need to choose the right one for what you actually need. Personally, I do not think you need a separate peptide product to do this. Use a product that already has peptides formulated in it. 

Definitely do not replace any of your skincare staples. Stick to your favourite antioxidants like a vitamin c serum or cream in the morning and a retinoid at nighttime. But, I would highly encourage you to pick a product that already has peptides incorporated into the formula to level up your skincare routine.

DISCLAIMER:

This blog post is not intended to provide diagnosis, treatment, or medical advice in any form or shape. Content provided on this platform  is strictly for informational purposes only. This is based on my own research and reading of clinical studies in the beauty industry, keeping updated about new changes in the cosmetics market, and my personal journey of battling for over 25 years with severe skin disorders such as acne, eczema, and hyperpigmentation. Please, consult with a physician or other healthcare professional regarding any medical or health-related diagnosis or treatment options you might have. Information on this platform should not be considered as a substitute for advice from a healthcare professional. The statements made about specific products throughout this video are not to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.

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