Discover Why Peptides Are the Key to Youthful Skin

Looking for healthier skin with fewer fine lines and wrinkles? Read on and discover why peptides are the key to youthful-looking skin!

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Unless you’re a dermatologist, you probably had to look up this ingredient the first time you saw it on the back of a serum or moisturizer. While it may sound like a high-tech chemical compound, you can naturally source peptides from things like yeast, oat kernels, orange blossoms, and even pomegranate. 

But what exactly are peptides and why do you want them in your skincare products? Let’s just say they’ll give your skin a boost in strength, elasticity, and they’ll even help reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Want more details? Keep reading and discover why peptides are the key to youthful skin! 

What Are Peptides?

A peptide is a small amino acid chain. Did that clear it up? Ok, let’s break it down even more…

Just how protein is important in your diet, it’s important for your overall skin health as well. Peptides, or polypeptides, are made up of amino acids that naturally occur in the skin. In the simplest sense, peptides are tiny pieces of protein that are essential for skin health (a full protein is made up of twenty or more amino acid chains).

You’re probably already familiar with the compound collagen. Collagen helps promote younger-looking skin with more bounce and firmness. Well, collagen is actually made up of three polypeptide chains. So, the more peptides your skin has, the easier it is to produce collagen. 

Over time, collagen production naturally decreases. This is due, in part, to natural aging. However, collagen production can also be affected by nutrition, lifestyle, environment, and stress. When this happens, you might notice an uneven skin tone, dull looking skin, and more fine lines and wrinkles. Unfortunately, you can’t really slather collagen onto your skin to make up for it. 

The collagen molecules are too large for your skin to absorb. You can get around this by adding collagen supplements to your routine, but there’s actually another way that can be just as effective (if not more so).

Why Are Peptides Good For Your Skin?

Your skin might not be able to absorb collagen, but it can absolutely absorb peptides! When you apply skincare products with peptides in them, it stimulates the natural production of collagen. In doing so, peptides accomplish several nifty things...

Peptides Help Create a Stronger Skin Barrier

While it’s always awesome for your skin to LOOK firm and healthy, elastin really does give your skin a healthy boost of strength. Your skin barrier is what keeps in the good stuff and keeps out the bad stuff. 

For example, if your skin barrier is weak you might notice you have a harder time getting your skin to retain moisture. Dry skin is sometimes an indication of a weak skin barrier. Conversely, if you notice that your skin seems more acne prone than normal, it could mean your skin barrier isn’t doing a good enough job keeping dirt and oil out. 

Your skin barrier is what protects you from germs, pollution, UV rays, and more. It can become weak because of age, stress, poor sleep, too much exfoliating, and a variety of lifestyle factors. Luckily, peptides really do promote a stronger skin barrier by creating additional bonds. Seriously, peptides are pretty amazing.

Peptides Promote Skin Firmness and Elasticity

Polypeptides are what give your skin firmness and elasticity. As we age and our skin naturally loses peptides, it also loses the bonds that create collagen. That means your skin will have a harder time staying firm and elastic. This might look like wrinkles, sagging skin, and fine lines. 

Using moisturizers or serums with peptides in them, however, gives your skin the peptides it needs to form peptide bonds. That’s what encourages collagen to reform and what helps your skin look more healthy and youthful. Plus, the bonds that peptides create are also what help make up elastin (the compound that gives your skin more bounce and elasticity).

Peptides Help Reduce Fine Lines and Wrinkles

As peptides encourage your skin to start producing more collagen, you’ll notice fewer fine lines and wrinkles. That’s because collagen is what keeps skin looking smooth, plump, and youthful. Babies actually have a ton of collagen, which is why their skin is so cute and squishy.

Our skin naturally produces collagen proteins, but in order to do so we have to nourish it with a proper diet and lifestyle. Even with that, however, our skin naturally stops creating as much collagen as we age (that’s why our skin starts to wrinkle and sag the older we get). Peptides, however, can help reduce and even prevent fine lines and wrinkles.

By strengthening your skin barrier and providing additional amino acids, your skin can more easily produce and form collagen. That means smoother skin texture, appearance, and fewer fine lines and wrinkles. Yes, please!

Peptide Infused Skincare is the Key to Youthful-Looking Skin

Before you go out and buy every product that lists peptides in the ingredients, there are a few key things you’ll want to remember.

One of the benefits of peptides is that they absorb deep into the skin. This enhanced penetration is what allows them to have such powerful effects. That being said, make sure that your exfoliation routine is solid. If you have dead skin cells sitting on top of your skin, it will make it harder for the peptides to penetrate as deep. So, make sure you’re regularly exfoliating to promote blood flow and to slough away dead skin.

Also, to get the most out of peptides, make sure you’re using peptide products that are designed to sit on your skin for a while. A peptide-infused cleanser that’s meant to be washed off after a few minutes won’t cut it. That’s not enough time for the peptides to do their work.

That’s why we’d recommend a serum or moisturizer like our Second Nature Calming Facial Moisturizer. This botanically infused moisturizer is designed to soak into the skin for maximum moisture. Its Orange Blossom and Pomegranate peptides help boost collagen production while smoothing out wrinkles. Plus, we’ve added another dose of plant magic with terpenes that enhance skin penetration, adaptogens to calm stressed skin, and Full-Spectrum CBD to reduce inflammation and promote balance.

Try Peptide Infused Skincare Today!

You know we’re all about that clean beauty life. We’re obsessed with ingredients that helps us protect and nourish our natural beauty while preventing damage from our busy lives. That means including plant-based peptides in some of our products for some seriously good vibes and glowing skin.

So, get ready for younger, healthier looking skin! Be sure to follow us on Instagram for all the latest updates, and don’t forget to stock up on all your skincare favorites at Ulta Beauty.