What Does Peptide Cream Do for Your Skin?
Modern skincare products are effective thanks to their ingredient compositions and special formulas. Keeping track of each skincare cream or serum’s ingredients can be tricky, especially since skincare science is always progressing.
If you’ve used a skincare serum or moisturizer before, odds are you’ve encountered the term “peptides.” These mysterious molecules are actually some of the most common in your body, but you may not fully understand how they work or what they do.
Today, let’s break down what peptide cream does for your skin and explore how peptides can provide your skin with several key benefits.
What Are Peptides?
Peptides are essentially short amino acids. Compared to long-chain amino acids, peptides (also called polypeptides) are much smaller in length, meaning they can be combined to make different amino acids or proteins, or they can be taken apart to be used as structural building blocks.
For example, collagen – one of the most important compound proteins for skin, hair, and nail health – comprises three chains of polypeptides. When you give your skin peptides, you literally give it exactly what it needs to produce new tissue.
Peptides are both produced naturally by our bodies (usually as parts of compound molecules like collagen) and are consumed in our diets. You can also find peptides in skincare products, oral supplements, and other sources.
How Do Peptides Work on Your Skin?
Peptides are often used for skincare products because of how they can penetrate your outer layer of skin (called the epidermis). More specifically, peptides easily penetrate the outermost layer of skin cells due to their small sizes than larger proteins.
In this way, peptides can sink beneath the skin and easily reach other cells to act as messengers or to be used to create collagen and elastin, both of which are necessary for skin health and functionality in both men and women (though collagen is a little different in men than in women). In some cases, peptides just send messages by telling skin cells that they need to produce more collagen and elastin when needed.
Benefits of Peptide Cream for Skin
All told, peptide cream can provide several benefits for your skin depending on the other ingredients, your skin type and age, and other factors. Here are some of the most common benefits you may see after using a good peptide cream for a short while.
Supported Skin Barrier
Firstly, peptide creams carry the potential to support your skin barrier. The skin barrier is best understood as your body’s first line of defense against any invaders or damaging compounds, including toxins, pollutants, and even ultraviolet rays.
Your skin naturally maintains your skin barrier, but it can quickly become damaged or dried out due to over-exfoliation, pollution, exposure to toxins, or physical damage.
Fortunately, peptides can give your skin what it needs to reproduce barrier molecules and remain moisturized, oftentimes just by making your skin cells healthier overall. Peptides can also be used to make a stronger barrier than usual, meaning the skin barrier will be more difficult to dislodge or damage in the future.
Supported Skin Elasticity
There’s also some evidence that peptides can help to support skin elasticity, which naturally decreases as we get older.
In a nutshell, our bodies produce collagen and elastin in plentiful amounts when they are young. But as our skin cells get older, they become less adept at producing both of these compounds in appropriate amounts. When you give your skin peptides, you give it what it needs to build new collagen and elastin molecules, which may increase skin elasticity and firmness.
The result? Younger-looking and feeling skin across the board, especially if you start with a peptide skincare treatment early and before you see some of the effects of aging. Peptides are key parts of elastin fibers (which are also larger types of protein molecules).
So while peptides can’t prevent your skin from aging entirely, they may help your skin age more gracefully than it might otherwise.
Hope Health’s Hydrate skin moisturizer contains peptides like pentapeptide-18, palmitoyl tripeptide-1, and acetyl hexapeptide-8 to bolster collagen production and promote improved elasticity and firmness of the skin.
Reduced Appearance of Wrinkles
Peptides can help to reduce the appearance of wrinkles. Your skin accrues wrinkles as it produces less collagen and suffers wear and tear. If you give your skin plenty of peptides, it will be able to produce more collagen even as its cells make less of the protein natively.
Plus, giving your skin extra peptides means it may help reduce damaged skin cells that may lead to wrinkles or aging spots and blemishes.
Reduced Skin Irritation
There’s also evidence that peptides can help reduce irritation in your skin and throughout your body. While peptides are not antioxidants (which are common compounds that can offset the damage caused by free radicals), they may still help reduce swelling and irritation by helping your skin cells repair themselves and working to prevent further damage.
When it comes to skin irritation, issues are often compounding. For instance, if a small section of skin becomes inflamed, surrounding patches of skin could also become inflamed as the damage spreads from cell to cell. By arresting this, peptides may assist with rashes or skin itchiness in some instances.
Reduce the Appearance of Blemishes
Peptides may help reduce the appearance of blemishes or reduce the chances of future outbreaks.
Most blemishes occur when your pores become clogged with sebum and bacteria (sebum being a natural oil produced by your body to moisturize your skin) — the clogged pores filled with pus, resulting in pimples.
By reducing the concentration of germs on the skin, peptides may also make your skin less blemish-prone over time.
How To Use a Peptide Cream for Skin
Peptide creams are often used in conjunction with moisturizers or face serums. Depending on the cream you use, you can use peptide cream as a moisturizing and soothing agent periodically throughout the day.
Or you can use a peptide cream in the middle of your skincare routine, like in this example:
- Start with a facial and skin cleanser. Cleansers clear away dirt and debris from your skin’s pores, opening them up to receive additional nutrients.
- Use an exfoliating product if you want to scrape away dead skin cells. Just be sure not to exfoliate too frequently, or you may irritate your skin.
- Next, use a facial serum or peptide cream. Using a serum or cream at this stage allows the nutrients and vitamins to reach the deepest layers of your skin's pores, boosting their effectiveness.
- Last, use a facial skin moisturizer to seal in any water and reduce your skin cells’ chances of drying out or becoming irritated.
Summary
Overall, peptide creams can provide many major benefits for your skin and are particularly good choices if you have sensitive skin or blemish-prone skin because of their advantages. When used in conjunction with a holistic skincare routine and other products, peptide creams may help your skin look and feel its best for years to come.
For example, peptide creams combined with Hope Health’s Organic Greens + Supplement may result in phenomenal foundational or overall wellness. This supplement is made with 100 percent organic ingredients and is designed to be healthy from start to finish.
Check out this supplement option and our other wellness gummies today!
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