What Are the Most Important Benefits of Peptides for Your Skin

Peptides are everywhere from collagen peptides for internal consumption to the newest and most promising skincare products.

I am a firm believer in the good coming from collagen peptides. Ever since I’ve started supplementing with them, my hair, skin, and nails are stronger, firmer, and glossier.

How about using peptides in skincare? I wanted to try and see for myself what are the benefits of peptides for aging skin.

Around Christmas, I bought a promising peptide serum and have been using it religiously for the past three months. This post is to report on my findings and to review the serum. Spoiler alert: I love it!

What Are Peptides?

Peptides are made up of short chains of amino acids. These chains combine together to build larger chains of amino acids called proteins.

Proteins such as collagen, elastin, and keratin start diminishing in our bodies with age. When this happens, our skin starts sagging, wrinkles become more pronounced, we start seeing other signs of aging.

What Are the Benefits of Peptides?

Certain peptides are fundamental for keeping the tissue such as skin firm and youthful.

Recent research indicates that some types of peptides could have a beneficial role in slowing down the aging process, reducing inflammation, and destroying microbes.

Medical News Today

How do they do it? Peptides act as messengers in a way. They send a signal that the body needs to produce a certain protein, like collagen.

For example, when we injure ourselves, peptides signal to start repairing the tissue around the injury. By adding peptides to our diet as a supplement or topically in the form of a peptide serum or cream, we can “trick” the body into thinking that it needs to produce more collagen or elastin.

The mechanism is similar to the collagen induction therapy via mechanical micro-injury.

RELATED POST: Do’s and Don’ts of Collagen Induction Therapy Aftercare

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What Results Can You Expect from the Topical Use of Peptides?

Adding peptides to your skincare (and haircare) routine can help the skin in numerous ways. The tangible benefits of peptides are:

• Skin will is better moisturized
• Skin is healthier and more radiant
• Wrinkles and fine lines become less pronounced
• The texture and tone of the skin is improved
• Hair is stronger and potentially thicker
• The scalp is healthier
• Nails are less brittle and grow stronger

Who Can Use Peptides?

Since our innate production of collagen and elastin starts slowing down in around the mid-twenties, anyone past that age can benefit from peptide therapy.

If you’re looking for anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties in skincare, peptides are definitely your ally.

Peptides are good for people who are interested in decreasing fine lines and wrinkles, decreasing inflammation and making the skin look firmer.

Dr. Downie

Are Peptides Safe?

Although there have not been any large clinical studies into the safety of topical peptides, I have also not seen any warnings about them being considered unsafe.

When using any kind of topical treatment for the first time, however, it is crucial to proceed with caution. Because a topical peptide is applied directly to the surface of the skin, people with very sensitive or reactive skin must watch for potential reactions such as rashes, itching, or redness.

If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, you should ask your doctor whether peptide skincare is right for you.

When Will You See Results From Peptide Therapy?

Peptides will not work overnight. It takes a bit of time and consistency to start seeing results. It is largely due to the fact that peptides are actually helping the skin not only look better but also function better. It is not only about fixing the appearance but about changing the actual structure of the skin.

It might take around three months of daily use (AM and PM) to see actual results from using a topical peptide serum.

Can You Combine Peptides With Other Skin Care Ingredients?

Yes, but it depends on which ones. For example, using peptides with vitamin C and/or hyaluronic acid is a good idea since all three work well synergistically.  

Peptides and retinol on the other hand do not work well together, and using peptides with something like AHA or BHA might actually lessen the effectiveness of the peptide serum.

OneSkin OS01 Peptide Serum for Face

The peptide serum that I have been using since Christmas is termed by the company founders “a topical supplement.”

Normally when I think of a supplement, I think of something you’d take internally in order to improve your health and wellness, reduce stress, or improve performance.

The idea of a topical supplement was intriguing to me. According to the company website, their OS 01 peptide serum for the face is a “Topical Supplement designed to extend skin health on the molecular level by targeting aging from within.”

OneSkin – founded by four female PhDs – sees itself not as a skincare company, but rather as a longevity company, and their idea behind the peptide serum is to extend the lifespan of the skin, which they call “skinspan.”

And this claim is backed by solid science.

Let’s Geek Out on the Science For a Bit

Usually, when trying to do something about skin aging, most effort goes into making the skin look good, but not necessarily into going skin-deep and making the skin healthier in the process.

For example, processes such as microdermabrasion, resurfacing lasers, or harsh chemical peels will make the skin look better by way of stripping one or more layers and revealing the “new” layer of the skin.

In the long term though, at some point, there might not be much left to resurface. The skin becomes thinner and thinner and ultimately might start looking worse than before.

A novel approach to skin aging is to try to slow, or even reverse, aging by focusing on skin’s longevity

This way of looking at skin aging focuses on senescent cells.

Senescent cells are cells that have aged but refuse to die. Instead, they linger in the tissue and cause damage around themselves.

An often-used metaphor to describe this is a bad apple in the basket of good apples. Just one rotting fruit will with time make all the fruit around it rot as well.

Senescent cells were previously considered to only be byproducts of tissue aging, but current studies show them to be active inducers of aging and dysfunction

Senotherapeutic peptide reduces skin biological age and improves skin health markers

What follows is that in order to slow or reverse the process of aging, it makes sense to get rid of the senescent cells by sending them a signal that it is okay to die (in the process called apoptosis).

The researchers at OneSkin looked at over 450 different peptides and evaluated which ones might be helpful in this regard. They found it and made it the star ingredient of the OS01 peptide serum.

Peptide 14 effectively decreased HDF senescence induced by HGPS, chronological aging, ultraviolet-B radiation, and etoposide treatment, without inducing significant cell death, and likely by modulating longevity and senescence pathways.

Senotherapeutic peptide reduces skin biological age and improves skin health markers

The ensuing clinical trials in vitro and in vivo (both animal and human) have shown the efficacy of the peptide to extend the skin’s longevity, function, health, and appearance.

For me, being a bit of a science geek, this kind of research is gold. I had to try this highly promising serum, especially since it is also a very clean product.

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Full Disclosure: I love the serum so much, I decided to become the brand’s ambassador. Below, I will give you an honest review of the product, as well as a coupon code in case you’d like to try it for yourself. If you click on the link and purchase the product I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. For more info see the Terms and Conditions Page.

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Clean Ingredients

First of all, what’s in this serum? The complete list of ingredients is easily found on the OneSkin website but here are just a few that I find particularly promising:

OS01 Peptide – Reduces the accumulation of aged cells, supports DNA repair capacity, increases epidermal thickness, and strengthens the skin barrier.

Oleic Pau Mulato – also known as “the tree of youth” – has amazing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and is praised for its ability to extend longevity and stress resistance in aging.

Squalane – is a great hydrator and moisturizer.

Hyaluronic Acid – the serum features a trio of HA of varying molecular weights to increase skin permeability, stimulate collagen and elastin production, as well as aid in epidermal regeneration, stem cell maintenance, and moisture retention.

Pracaxi Oil – this Brazilian oil is known to provide regenerative and softening properties to the skin, including softening scars and lessening other permanent damage.

Niacinamide – is known for regenerative properties (helping to build new cells in the skin) and the ability to protect the skin from environmental stresses, such as sunlight, pollution, and toxins

Allantoin – skin protector and rejuvenator ad it helps heal the skin and stimulate the growth of new tissue

Tocopherol – AKA Vitamin E, is praised for its antioxidant power and is useful for lessening the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

The Claims

Here is the list of claims that a twice-daily application of the serum promises:

• improved skin barrier
• improved skin elasticity
• improved skin evenness, radiance, and pores
• firmer skin
• fewer wrinkles
• more youthful, bouncier appearance and feel

My Honest Review

After reading the science behind the product and the purported benefits of peptides for skin longevity, I jumped in, and, let me tell you I do not regret it! Here is what happened to my skin after three months of regular use.

Before I started

At base, my 50+ skin was well hydrated (since I’ve been using hyaluronic acid religiously for several years now).

But I did start seeing wrinkles, especially around the mouth (the dreaded smoker’s lines).

Since I turned 50, I also started noticing more sagging around the jowls. Alongside the OS01 serum, I have been also using the microcurrent to combat the sagging, and I am liking the results of this two-prong approach.

My skin’s texture was okay but not great. Especially in the chin and nose area, I had large pores and irregularities, some of them post-acne scars, some just due to extrinsic factors such as pollution and photodamage.

After the three months

The serum is working very well for me. Here are the three key takeaways:

1. The smoker’s lines are much less pronounced
2. The pores are smaller and the general skin tone is much improved
3. My skin seems more bouncy and youthful in general

What I like

• The product comes in a large bottle with a 50 ml capacity which makes it enough for at least two months.
• The pump dispenser makes for a very hygienic application and there is no danger of the product getting spoiled.
• The packaging is opaque so that sunlight is not an issue (it could spoil the formulation or lessen the efficacy of the product)
• A little goes a long way. I find it is enough to use two pumps to cover my face and neck. No need to waste the product by using more.
• The texture of the serum is light and soft, which makes for easy application.
• It absorbs really fast and doesn’t leave any oily residue.
• It is one product in place of many. As a believer in skin minimalism, I always look for opportunities to lessen the number of products I am using. This serum works on the face, eye, lips, and neck area.

BTW, the company is launching the body product soon, since the skin does not end at the neckline, right? I can’t wait to try it!

What I don’t like so much

Only one thing. The product is supposed to be fragrance-free but to me, it has a bit of a not very appealing aroma. It is not something that would make me not re-purchase or stop using but I thought I’ll mention it.

The Takeaway

The OS01 Serum is a relative newcomer on the market, but it already gained popularity and has a lot of cult followers like myself. Not surprisingly so, since there are real benefits of peptides in skincare. If you’re looking for firmer, smoother, and stronger skin, I would highly recommend you try this serum.

Wanna Try it For Yourself?

It might seem a bit pricey at $99, but as a one-in-all product and at a large bottle with 50ml (most sera come in 30ml bottles), it really is not much at all.

And you can also get a 15% off your initial purchase if you use my coupon code JOANNA15 at checkout.

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