What Are Peptides?

Pep­tides are the new buzz­word in skin care, and the newest anti-aging ingre­di­ent to receive a lot of atten­tion. But what are pep­tides and how to they work? 

Lit­er­al­ly, pep­tides are defined as two or more amino acids linked by a pep­tide bond. Two or more amino acids com­bine and form a pro­tein. They are nat­u­ral­ly occur­ring in the skin, being a major build­ing block of ker­atin. Pep­tides also occur as col­la­gen pro­teins break down, and research shows that these pro­teins send mes­sages to the skin that col­la­gen has been dam­aged and needs to be replen­ished. When we apply these pep­tides top­i­cal­ly or syn­thet­i­cal­ly, they send the same mes­sage to our der­mis, basi­cal­ly, ​“trick­ing” the skin to believe too much col­la­gen has been bro­ken down which stim­u­late the fibrob­last to pro­duce more col­la­gen. The use of pep­tides can be remark­able, espe­cial­ly since they don’t cause any irri­ta­tion to the skin like oth­er anti-aging ingre­di­ents such as retinol. 

Dif­fer­ent pep­tides can act as neu­ro­trans­mit­ters or con­trol hor­mone activ­i­ty, while oth­ers stim­u­late the pro­duc­tion of col­la­gen and cap­il­lary repair and growth. Some of the most pop­u­lar pep­tides are: 

Acetyl Hexa­pep­tide — The trade­mark name for Acetyl Hexa­pep­tide is Argire­line. It is also called a neu­ropep­tide. This is the prod­uct that is mar­ket­ed as ​“an alter­na­tive to Botox”, because it claims to relax cer­tain types of facial wrin­kles by inhibit­ing the release of neurotransmitters. 

Palmi­toyl Pen­tapep­tide — Palmi­toyl pen­tapep­tide is also known as Matrixyl. It is the main ingre­di­ent in anti-aging prod­ucts like Strivectin and was orig­i­nal­ly devel­oped for use on stretch marks. It works by stim­u­lat­ing the deep­er matrix lay­ers of the skin to increase the pro­duc­tion and syn­the­sis of col­la­gen and hyaluron­ic acid. (It ​“tells” the skin to make more col­la­gen.) This action also helps the skin to heal wounds faster.

Palmi­toyl Oligopep­tide is sim­i­lar to Palmi­toyl Pen­tapep­tide, as it also stim­u­lates the syn­the­sis of col­la­gen and hyaluron­ic acid in the deep lay­ers of the skin. It also pro­vides mild UV pro­tec­tion that helps pro­tect the skin from sun damage. 

Cop­per Pep­tide is also called cop­per glu­conate and it is all about the cop­per, not the pep­tide. The cop­per is attached to a pep­tide so the cop­per can be deliv­ered to the deep­er lay­ers of cells in the skin. Cop­per helps to accel­er­ate col­la­gen pro­duc­tion and also acts as an antioxidant. 

At Duly Aes­thet­ics, we rec­om­mend using a pep­tide serum in your dai­ly rou­tine. Our Only Yours RX Max­i­mum Regen­er­at­ing serum has a high con­cen­tra­tion of Acetyl Hexa­pep­tide and Palmi­toyl Pen­tapep­tide. We espe­cial­ly rec­om­mend it after any facial treat­ment like micro­der­mabra­sion, pho­to reju­ve­na­tion and chem­i­cal peels. 

It is also an add-on treat­ment to our Hydrafa­cial as a mul­ti­pep­tide anti-aging serum. It includes three pep­tides, Acetyl Octapep­tide 3, Palmi­toyl dipep­tide 5, and Diamino­hy­drox­y­bu­trate that reduces appear­ance of wrin­kle and expres­sion lines, enhances skin elas­tic­i­ty, and improves skin tex­ture. After a thor­ough exfo­li­a­tion, the skin eas­i­ly absorbs the mul­ti­pep­tide serum, giv­ing a long last­ing anti-aging ben­e­fit to the skin. We rec­om­mend hav­ing a hydrafa­cial with the mul­ti­pep­tide serum when­ev­er you want to look your best for a spe­cial occa­sion or as an anti-aging reg­i­men every 6 weeks.