Let start with Peptides, Peptides is a purely chemical product from synthesis. Many forms of peptides for the Skin Care industry; where first developed by scientists in Switzerland, France and Spain under different forms. Peptides are chains of amino acids. For example insulin is a polypeptide. Very often you will see on the Skin Care labels: Polypeptide with is a generic name with no specific reference to the length of the chain. Other time you will read dipeptide (two amino acids) tripeptide (three amino acids) and so on, pentapeptide has a chain of five amino acids. They are usually followed by a name, telling by which method they where synthesized. What must interest you is that: they are in the product you are buying. Some peptides have the ability to regenerate collagen other to regenerate skin cells and other will act on your blood glucose level like insulin.



Do not spend money on products which do not contain at least one form of peptides, those are old formulations and old products or raw material in stock in the manufacturer warehouse. Changing the manufacturing process will necessitate the scraping of tons of unusable raw material which is not compatible with peptides formulations; and also the need to take in consideration the millions of dollars already spent on packaging and advertising contracts which cannot be changed. The peptides pose formidable formulation problems in their adequate absorption and retention under skin surface, and stability. The copper peptides are very sensitive to other chelating ingredients in the formula and strong oxidizing-reducing ingredients. The bioinorganic chemistry of peptides is complex. The peptides generally work in one of their three different specific intracellular forms and any disruption of this property can hinder their efficiency or alter their intended benefits. Your best bet is to found products which contain one or more form of peptide. A small but very good company is The Skin Society. All their products contain one to three forms of peptide.

Another point to be aware is the number of peptides in the chain is not a factor in the in the effectiveness of the product. Often the advertising material for your skin care product do not exactly match the labels, this is because the labeling requirement is governed by the INCI "International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients" which often use chemical name instead of the name of the product. But the owner of the trade name of the product often spend considerable among of money to advertise their product to create a demand and thus pushing the manufacturer to use it. So the manufacturer use in is products he advertise it on is printed material, often with a percentage paid by the supplier of the raw material to perpetuate the demand. Their is approximately 2 dozen of suppliers and the most commons are those one.

As an example of products you should look for with their INCI name?

SYN®-AKE = dipeptide, Swiss manufacturer

ARGIRELINE = hexapeptide-8 Spanish manufacturer

MATRIXYL = Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-3 French manufacturer

VIALOX = Pentapeptide-3 Spanish manufacturer

Products which are claiming Botox replacement with no needles are formulated with VIALOX.

But these claims are at the limit of what is acceptable as the truth in labeling is concerned. It's true that Vialox act similarly to components like curare a naturally derived substance that is as active Botulinum neurotoxin type A.Vialox is a peptide that acts in a manner similar to that of Tubocurarin, main active compound of curare although is composition is different from curare Vialox act at the same point of action: the post synaptic membrane where it blocks the release of sodium ions. As a consequence of this the muscles stay relaxed. Already a new promising product is lurking in the corner of cosmetic labs everywhere: A Swiss apple stem cells to protect skin stem cells.

This is the first in a series of reviews of cosmetics and cosmetics products. There will be additional articles in this series where additional insightful facts and tips will be provided on the topics of cosmetics, cosmetology and women's beauty and skin health.