Matrixyl Peptides and their wrinkle combatting anti aging capabilities

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I personally can’t help being interested in the idea of slowing down aging. I don’t want to look young, I just want to look like a healthy rested version of myself. Maybe I don’t live as well as I should, I like a coffee and a glass of wine, exposure to sunlight doesn’t help either. It would be nice to erase any damage I’ve done.

I don’t want to be taken advantage of though. I’d like to think I’m canny enough not to be taken in by promises of this weeks wonder ingredient- Matrixyl, Peptides, Glycans, Copper, White tea, Retinol, Alpha Hydroxy Acids, Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin C Fairy Space Dust. How can they all be effective? It seems like beauty companies are just inventing all this stuff to get us to buy cream.

You can definitely improve your skins appearance with Botox and laser treatment and prevent damage using sunscreen. This we know. But what about these creams and serums, how can we figure out what’s snake oil and what has clinically proven benefits. You have to know your ingredients.

I’m going have a little look at pentapeptides (or sometimes called just peptides), also known by the tradename Matrixyl and Matrixyl 3000. You might have heard of them from skincare adverts. No7’s Protect and Perfect line contains peptides. There was a big fuss about Protect and Perfects efficacy when it launched.

What are Peptides?

The peptides the beauty industry is referring to consist of  matrixyl- palmitoyl-pentapeptide 3 and Matrixyl 3000- palmitoyl-tripeptide and palmitoyl-oligopeptide. These are the ingredients to look for on your product label. The closer to the top of the list the better- it means there is more of it. Cosmetic companies never tell you then concentration of the ingredients. It’s almost like they are deliberately trying to confuse us. The studies done on Matrixyl were based on 4% concentration.

These 3 molecules combat aging by signalling to skin cells to produce collagen. Collagen is the protein in skin that holds it together. Increasing Collagen has the long term effect of making skin firmer.

Products which contain Matrixyl and Matrixyl 3000

• Skin Doctors Youth Activating Cream £29.95 from lookfantastic.com
• Protect and Perfect range by No7 from Boots.com
• Olay Regenerist range all contain pentapeptides Boots.com
• L’Oreal Youth Code range also from Boots.com
• Peter Thomas Roth Ultra Lite Antiaging Cellular repair £34.50 from lookfantastic.com. I like the look of this one, it’s stuffed with anti aging ingredients
• Make Yourself Youthful Super Serum by Soap and Glory £20 Boots.com, love love love Soap and Glory

I’m sure there’s many more that I haven’t listed, I found it difficult to fathom all the gobbledegook that the beauty companies put out.

The only one I have personally tried is a serum by Olay, I’ll put the review in another post. I tend to think serums are going to be better than creams for anti wrinkle agent delivery because they are absorbed better.

I think to have an impact on skin quality you need to use a combination of ingredients. Matrixyl peptides have some evidence behind them and that’s encouraging. There’s more to aging than the mere loss of firmness so other ingredients are  needed, not least SPF. I’m going to do a lot more investigation on this and needless to say I’ll keep you informed.

Read more about peptides at Matrixyl Inside