Understanding Peptides in 3 Minutes (Or Less)

What are peptides and what kind they do for your skin? 

Peptides are one of the more difficult-to-grasp skincare ingredients. Different types do different things, and they all have funny names. But it's worth getting to know what they can do for your skin, particularly, the ones that fall into these three categories:

- Signal peptides
- Carrier peptides
- Neurotransmitter inhibitor peptides

Signal peptides
Examples: Matrixyl and adenosine

Very simply put, signal peptides communicate messages to skin cells that "trick" them into "thinking" your skin is damaged and needs to repair.

This process triggers the production of collagen, elastin, hyaluronic acid, and other structural proteins that improve firmness and plumpness.

Note: Collagen in skin creams only moisturise the skin. The collagen molecules are too big to absorb through the skin to actually do anything to increase the amount of collagen in your skin.

Carrier peptides
Example: Copper tripeptide-1, manganese tripeptide-1

Carrier peptides support skin healing by carrying important elements for healing like copper and manganese.

Neurotransmitter inhibitor peptides
Example: Argireline

Neurotransmitter inhibitor peptides interfere with muscle contractions close to the skin that create expression lines. They do this by blocking messages between the nerves and muscles.

How to incorporate peptides into your routine

The good news is peptides are easy to incorporate into your routine. They play nicely with other actives and can in fact help the efficacy of some, like Vitamin A and C products and hyaluronic acid. They rarely cause irritation and can be used morning or night.

For best results, apply a serum peptide early in your routine, after exfoliating or toning, and before any moisturisers or oils. This helps the peptides to absorb nicely into the skin.

Pro tip: Apply a peptide-packed product to fine lines around the eyes before applying your under-eye hydrogel patches for ultimate absorption.

Here are some of Incandeskin's Korean skincare products that contain peptides: