Product and ingredient reference
Zena Caviar + Copper Peptide Ampoule
Zena Caviar + Copper Peptide Ampoule Zena Caviar + Copper Peptide Ampoule ingredients explained: Purified Water, Hyaluronic Acid, Copper Tripeptide-1, Soluble Collagen, Phenoxyethanol Show all ingredients by function Purified Water solvent Hyaluronic Acid skin
Zena Caviar + Copper Peptide Ampoule Zena Caviar + Copper Peptide Ampoule ingredients explained: Purified Water, Hyaluronic Acid, Copper Tripeptide-1, Soluble Collagen, Phenoxyethanol Show all ingredients by function Purified Water solvent Hyaluronic Acid skin-identical ingredient, moisturizer/humectant goodie Copper Tripeptide-1 cell-communicating ingredient, soothing, antioxidant Soluble Collagen moisturizer/humectant Phenoxyethanol preservative Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product. It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water. Expand to read more Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying. One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time. It’s naturally in our skin and behaves there like a sponge It can bind up to 1000 times its own weight in water It is a big molecule from repeated subunits (polymer) so different molecular weight versions exist (unfortunately there is no way to determine MW from INCI list only) High-molecular-weight-HA (>500 kDa) is an excellent surface hydrator, skin protectant and can act as an osmotic pump helping water-soluble actives to penetrate deeper into the skin Low-molecular-weight-HA (< 500 kDa) can hydrate the skin somewhat deeper though it is still a big molecule and works mainly in the epidermis (outer layer of the skin) Low-molecular-weight-HA might also help the skin to repair itself by increasing its self-defense (~ 200kDa used in the study) Ultra-low-molecular-weight-HA (<50kDa) is a controversial ingredient and might work as a pro-inflammatory signal molecule GHK-Cu is a copper-peptide complex found naturally in yucky bodily fluids (plasma, saliva, and urine) It has unique wound healing properties by stimulating the breakdown of unhealthy, too large collagen in scar tissue and stimulating nice and healthy collagen production afterwards It stimulates the production of several important skin-identical ingredients (e.g. collagen, elastin, and glycosaminoglycans) It has significant anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effect There are a few promising studies showing GHK-Cu can improve skin elasticity, clarity, firmness and reduce lines and wrinkles It can improve hair growth by enlarging hair follicles (and bigger follicles produce longer, thicker hair) There are some urban legends about possible overdosing or facial hair problems (read more in geeky details) Soluble Collagen refers to the big, natural collagen molecules mostly extracted from fish or bovine skin. Spotting collagen on the ingredient list, you might think that, aha, this must be there to supplement the collagen content of our own skin, but you have to know that collagen is a huge-huge molecule that cannot absorb to the middle layer of the skin where collagen is and even if it could, it cannot just magically go the right places to become part of the skin's own collagen network. Putting collagen on your skin for anti-aging purposes is like throwing tent poles onto a ramshackle tent and expecting the tent to magically become nice and firm ag what‑it‑does skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant cell-communicating ingredient | soothing | antioxidant moisturizer/humectant