What users saw in 4 weeks

Photography of an individual user following twice-daily use for 4 weeks. Individual results vary.

Consumer perception study over 4 weeks of twice-daily use.

The ingredient evidence — in vitro

Unlike our peptide heroes, the evidence for this formula’s actives is in vitro: measured in human cell cultures, not on volunteers. It describes what these ingredients do in the laboratory. We publish it because it is real, and we label it because it is not a measured outcome on skin.

The anti-glycation peptide

A complex built around the copper tripeptide (tripeptide-1), stabilised with hydrolysed wheat and soy proteins, and clinically dosed to its supplier use level. It has two documented functions.

1. It captures reactive carbonyl species (RCS). RCS such as HNE are produced when skin is exposed to sunlight and pollution. Keratinocytes normally neutralise them using glutathione — but UVB depletes glutathione by around 25% within four hours, after which the cell can no longer detoxify and dies. The supplier, working with the University of Milan, showed that the copper tripeptide captures RCS directly.

2. It boosts Collagen III. In a test on human fibroblast cultures, the plant proteins in the complex increased Collagen III synthesis by up to 300% in one week. Collagen III is abundant in youthful skin and is progressively replaced by Collagen I with age.

It also inhibits glycation — the cross-linking reaction that stiffens collagen and is a principal mechanism of skin ageing.

The antioxidant

A pure synthetic antioxidant, carried at the top of its recommended use range. Supplier testing shows dose-dependent inhibition of nitrotyrosine formation and of lipid peroxidation. Again: in vitro.

The barrier system — the real point of this product

What makes this formula unusual is not a headline peptide, it is the lipid architecture. It contains all three lipid classes of a healthy stratum corneum, at meaningful, barrier-relevant levels rather than as label decoration:

Ceramides	The lamellae’s structural backbone
Phytosterols	The cholesterol-equivalent component
Linoleic acid	The free fatty acid component
Squalane	Skin-identical emollient
Glycerin	Humectant

Ceramides, cholesterol/phytosterols and free fatty acids are the three components of the intercellular lipid lamellae. Supplying all three, rather than ceramides alone, is what distinguishes a barrier-repair formula from a moisturiser that merely occludes. That is a formulation fact, not a claim — and the classes are verifiable from the ingredient list.

Also in the formula

An infrared-defence active, coenzyme Q10, carnosine and allantoin. We claim no figures for these: their supplier use levels have not been confirmed to us in writing, so we cannot say they are dosed at a studied level.

The ingredient evidence on this page is in vitro — human cell cultures, not volunteers; no human clinical study has been run on this formula. Sources: Lipotec S.A. in-vitro data (Cebrian et al., Int J Cosmet Sci, DOI 10.1111/j.1467-2494.2005.00279.x) and supplier technical dossiers.