Ingredient Desk

Tag: peptides

  • Drunk Elephant Protini: The Peptides Start at Ingredient #10

    Drunk Elephant Protini is sold as a “polypeptide” firming moisturizer with a nine-peptide complex. On the label, the first peptide — sh-Oligopeptide-1 — appears at ingredient number ten, after water, an emollient, glycerin, three emulsifiers, a seed oil, a ferment and a botanical extract. The copper compound in the formula is Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14, which is not the same molecule as copper tripeptide-1 (GHK-Cu), the copper peptide most of the published research is actually about.

    We quote ingredient lists so you can check them yourself. Here is Protini’s, verbatim from the Drunk Elephant product page (drunkelephant.com, fetched 13 October 2026, HTTP 200), and corroborated word-for-word by a major US retailer’s listing for the same product (SKU P427421). Ingredient Desk is published by the team behind Evil Goods, who make a copper peptide serum of their own; we say so here, in the footer, and anywhere an Evil Goods product comes up.

    Water/Aqua/Eau, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Glycerin, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Olivate, Sorbitan Olivate, Sclerocarya Birrea Seed Oil, Bacillus/Folic Acid Ferment Extract, Nymphaea Alba Root Extract, sh-Oligopeptide-1, sh-Oligopeptide-2, sh-Polypeptide-1, sh-Polypeptide-9, sh-Polypeptide-11, Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14, Heptapeptide-15 Palmitate, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, Alanine, Arginine, Glycine, Histidine, Isoleucine, Phenylalanine, Proline, Serine, Threonine, Valine, Acetyl Glutamine, Coconut Alkanes, Coco-Caprylate/Caprate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Aspartic Acid, Linoleic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Lecithin, Butylene Glycol, Polyvinyl Alcohol, Sodium Lactate, Sodium PCA, PCA, Sorbitan Isostearate, Carbomer, Polysorbate 20, Polysorbate 60, Lactic Acid/Glycolic Acid Copolymer, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Xanthan Gum, Isomalt, 1,2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol, Chlorphenesin, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopherol, Sodium Benzoate, Phenylpropanol, Glyceryl Caprylate, Symphytum Officinale Callus Culture Extract.

    What is actually in Drunk Elephant Protini?

    The front of the jar leads with peptides. The first nine ingredients are not peptides. In descending order of how much is in the jar, they are:

    1. Water — the solvent almost every water-based cream is built on.
    2. Dicaprylyl Carbonate — a light emollient ester, the kind of silicone alternative that gives a cream its slip.
    3. Glycerin — a humectant, one of the most reliable and least expensive moisturizing agents there is.
    4. Cetearyl Alcohol — a fatty alcohol that thickens and helps emulsify.
    5. Cetearyl Olivate and Sorbitan Olivate (5 and 6) — a pair of olive-derived emulsifiers that hold oil and water together.
    6. Sclerocarya Birrea Seed Oil — marula oil, a genuinely nice emollient with antioxidants.
    7. Bacillus/Folic Acid Ferment Extract — a fermented folic acid ingredient Drunk Elephant markets as a hero.
    8. Nymphaea Alba Root Extract — pygmy waterlily extract, the brand’s “stem cell” botanical.

    None of this is a criticism. It is a perfectly competent moisturizer base — marula oil and a folic-acid ferment are more interesting than most. The point is only that these eight ingredients, not the peptides, make up the bulk of what you are applying. That is what “descending order of predominance” means, and it is worth knowing before we get to the part the name is selling.

    Nib, a small round pencil-sketch creature, holds a magnifying glass up to a tall jar labelled Polypeptide, squinting at the fine print on the back.
    Nib reads the back of the jar, not the front. The front says polypeptide; the back has fifty-eight lines to get through first.

    Where do the peptides actually appear?

    US cosmetic labels have to list ingredients in descending order of how much is present, down to one percent. Below one percent, a brand can list things in any order it likes. That rule is set out in 21 CFR 701.3 — subsection (a) requires descending order; subsection (f)(2) is the under-one-percent exemption. So ingredient position is not an exact percentage, but above that one-percent line it is a real signal of how much is in the jar.

    Here is where Protini’s nine peptides sit:

    Position INCI name What it is
    10 sh-Oligopeptide-1 growth-factor-type peptide (EGF-style) — the first peptide in the list
    11 sh-Oligopeptide-2 growth-factor-type peptide (IGF-1-style)
    12 sh-Polypeptide-1 growth-factor-type peptide (bFGF-style)
    13 sh-Polypeptide-9 growth-factor-type peptide
    14 sh-Polypeptide-11 growth-factor-type peptide
    15 Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14 the copper peptide — a seven-amino-acid chain with a fatty-acid tail and copper
    16 Heptapeptide-15 Palmitate signal peptide
    17 Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7 signal peptide (often sold as Rigin)
    18 Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 signal peptide — a palmitoylated GHK chain, without the copper

    The peptides occupy positions ten through eighteen. The one directly after them, at nineteen, is alanine — an individual amino acid. On most labels, the appearance of free amino acids marks the point where you have crossed below the one-percent line. The whole nine-peptide complex, in other words, almost certainly lives in the slice of the formula that sits under one percent combined. That is normal for peptides; they work at low concentrations. It is simply not what “polypeptide cream” implies to someone reading the front.

    Nib stands at the foot of a long numbered ladder of ingredients, pencil pointing up at rung number ten where the first peptide sits.
    The first peptide waits nine rungs up the list. Everything below it is the moisturizer most moisturizers already are.

    Is the copper peptide in Protini the one the research is about?

    At position fifteen is Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14. When most people say “copper peptide” they mean something else: copper tripeptide-1, also written GHK-Cu (CAS 89030-95-5), a three-amino-acid chain bound to copper. GHK-Cu is the compound with the long history — a 2025 review of tripeptides in skin calls it one of the most-used peptides in the cosmetic industry and names copper tripeptide-1 as its INCI identity. Protini does not contain copper tripeptide-1. It contains a different, palmitoylated copper peptide.

    That difference matters for how you read the research. A 2026 systematic review of GHK-Cu describes forty-plus years of pre-clinical work, then adds the honest part: the clinical evidence “remains thin and fragmented,” most trials are small, and the findings have not been validated in large human studies. So even for the best-studied copper peptide, the human evidence is promising rather than settled. For Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14 specifically, the published literature is thinner still — which is not the same as saying it does nothing, only that you should not read GHK-Cu’s forty-year file as if it belonged to this molecule. If you want the plain-English version of what a copper peptide even is, we wrote one (that is our site, Evil Goods).

    Nib holds up two labelled test tubes side by side, one marked Copper Tripeptide-1 and one marked Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14, looking from one to the other.
    Two copper peptides, two different names. Nib checks which one the research is actually about.

    What is everything below position eighteen?

    The back half of the list is mostly supporting cast. Positions nineteen through twenty-nine are individual amino acids — alanine, arginine, glycine and the rest — which act as natural moisturizing factors and as the building blocks peptides are made from, but are not themselves peptides. Sodium hyaluronate, the much-hyped hydrating ingredient, sits all the way down at position thirty-two, well below that one-percent line.

    Two preservatives sit near the very bottom: chlorphenesin at position fifty-two and phenoxyethanol at fifty-three. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review panel concluded chlorphenesin is safe at present practices of use and concentration. Alongside that, the patch-test literature carries a handful of case reports of allergic contact dermatitis from products containing it — the CIR report itself cites several. These are rare reactions at low rates, not a reason to avoid the ingredient, but worth knowing if your skin has flagged a preservative before. That is the honest shape of it: broadly safe by the review body’s assessment, with a small sensitization signal in the case reports.

    Nib sits cross-legged at the bottom of the ingredient list reading a tiny footnote next to the word Chlorphenesin, a stack of case-report papers beside him.
    Down at position fifty-two, Nib stops to read the footnotes a few people have left on the preservative.

    So is Drunk Elephant Protini worth it?

    If you like how it feels and it suits your skin, the position of an ingredient does not undo that — a good emollient base is a real thing to buy. What the label does tell you is that you are paying a peptide-cream price for a cream whose peptides sit below one percent, built on a base you could find in far cheaper moisturizers. Whether that trade is worth it is a judgement about your own skin and budget, not something the front of the jar settles for you. If you specifically want copper peptides, it is worth knowing which copper peptide you are buying and how thin the human evidence still is for any of them — including the one in our own Copper Peptide Blue Honey Serum, which uses copper tripeptide-1.

    FAQ

    Where do the peptides start in Drunk Elephant Protini?
    At ingredient number ten, sh-Oligopeptide-1. The first nine ingredients are water, an emollient ester, glycerin, three emulsifiers, marula seed oil, a folic-acid ferment and a waterlily extract.
    What is sh-Oligopeptide-1?
    A synthetic growth-factor-style peptide (an EGF analog) used in skincare at low concentrations. It is the first of Protini’s nine-peptide complex.
    Is the copper peptide in Protini GHK-Cu?
    No. Protini contains Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14. GHK-Cu is copper tripeptide-1, a different molecule and the one most of the published research is conducted on.
    What does ingredient order tell you about a moisturizer?
    US rules require listing in descending order of amount down to one percent (21 CFR 701.3). So an ingredient’s position is a real signal of how much is present — above the one-percent line, at least. Below it, order no longer reflects quantity.
    Is chlorphenesin safe?
    The Cosmetic Ingredient Review panel concluded it is safe at the concentrations cosmetics use. A small number of allergic contact dermatitis case reports exist in the patch-test literature, which is a sensitization note rather than a general warning.
    Nib closes a thick notebook, magnifying glass tucked under one arm, giving a small satisfied nod next to the finished ingredient list.
    The label told the whole story. It just told it in order of how much is in the jar.

  • Olay Collagen Peptide 24: There Is No Collagen In It

    There is no collagen in Olay Regenerist Collagen Peptide 24 Face Moisturizer. Reading its full label top to bottom, nothing named collagen, hydrolyzed collagen, or soluble collagen appears anywhere. The “collagen” in the name is a single peptide — Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 — sitting at position #10, between Pro-Vitamin B5 and a mushroom extract.

    It is one of the best-selling “collagen” moisturizers at US drugstores, and the name does a lot of work. “Collagen Peptide 24” reads like a jar of collagen. So I pulled the label and read it the way I read every label: top to bottom, counting where the hero actually lands.

    Pencil sketch of Nib, a small round creature with a magnifier loupe pushed up on its headband and a pencil behind its ear, holding an empty jar against its chest and smiling hopefully.
    Nib shows up for the collagen cream with an empty jar and high hopes.

    Is there any collagen in Olay Collagen Peptide 24?

    No. Here is the full ingredient list for the fragrance-free face moisturizer, quoted verbatim, with the hero marked:

    Water, Glycerin, Niacinamide, Isohexadecane, Dimethicone, Isopropyl Isostearate, Stearyl Alcohol, Polyacrylamide, Panthenol, Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4, Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp Extract, Tapioca Starch, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Caprylyl Glycol, Dimethiconol, Laureth-7, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Glucoside, Palmitic Acid, Stearic Acid, Cetyl Alcohol, Behenyl Alcohol, Disodium EDTA, PEG-100 Stearate, Titanium Dioxide, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, 1,2-Hexanediol, Phenoxyethanol

    Read the whole thing and the word collagen never appears. What the brand calls “Collagen Peptide” is the INCI name Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 — better known by its trade name Matrixyl. It is a short five-amino-acid chain that signals skin cells to make more of their own collagen. It is not collagen, and it does not contain collagen. That is not a gotcha unique to Olay; topical collagen is a large molecule that does not pass into skin, which is why serious formulas use signaling peptides instead. Olay’s own Canadian ingredient page explains this distinction plainly — the shelf name just does not carry the same nuance.

    Pencil sketch of Nib holding a clear jar up close, tilting its head to read a scribbled handwritten label, eyes half-lidded in a skeptical, unimpressed expression.
    The label says collagen. The ingredients say otherwise.

    Where does the peptide sit on the label?

    Position #10, near the midpoint of the list. It follows five emollients and emulsifiers — isohexadecane, dimethicone, isopropyl isostearate, stearyl alcohol, polyacrylamide — that each typically make up a few percent of a cream, plus panthenol at #9. By the usual reading of an ingredient list, everything below roughly position six or seven is under one percent. So the peptide is almost certainly a fraction of a percent of the jar.

    That is not automatically a problem. Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 is active at tiny doses. The trouble is the label alone does not tell you the dose, and Olay does not disclose it.

    What’s on the front
    “Collagen Peptide 24”
    What’s actually in the jar
    Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 (Matrixyl), a collagen-signaling peptide — no collagen
    Its label position
    #10, around the midpoint of the list
    Disclosed concentration
    None
    Pencil sketch of Nib peering at a tall jar on the ground through a magnifying loupe lowered over one eye, which looks enlarged through the lens, leaning in with a focused, curious expression.
    Position ten of twenty-eight. You have to go looking for it.

    Does the concentration actually matter here?

    It matters, and it is genuinely hard to know. The peer-reviewed work on this peptide is encouraging about its mechanism: a 2025 review of peptides for skin aging describes how Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 prompts fibroblasts to produce collagen and other matrix proteins, and a 2026 mechanistic review notes it activates the TGF-β signaling pathway that builds collagen and elastin. The double-blind studies that showed an effect used it at roughly three to four parts per million — about 0.0003%.

    The catch is disclosure. A dermatology trade piece from July 2026 put it bluntly: most over-the-counter products list Matrixyl without disclosing concentration, and it advises looking for the peptide in the top half of the ingredient list. Here it sits at #10 — around the midpoint — with no number attached. The industry safety review backs up how small these doses run: the CIR assessment of pentapeptides records a maximum leave-on use level of 0.0012% across the formulas it surveyed. So the honest read is not “this is too weak.” It is “the amount is unknown from the label, and the research effect was demonstrated at a very specific low dose this jar may or may not hit.”

    Pencil sketch of Nib sitting at a small table writing on a very long sheet of paper that unrolls onto the floor in a spiral, mouth open in a surprised O and eyes wide, pencil in hand.
    Twenty-eight ingredients to copy out, and still no number next to the peptide.

    What should you look for instead?

    If what you want is a peptide you can actually find on the label, look for a peptide that is both named clearly and sitting high enough that it is plausibly present in a meaningful amount. GHK-Cu — copper tripeptide-1 — is a well-studied example, a genuine copper-peptide complex with a documented role in collagen and elastin synthesis rather than only a signaling fragment.

    Full disclosure, because this site is published by the team behind Evil Goods: our own Copper Peptide Blue Honey Cream is built around copper tripeptide-1 and lists it near the front rather than burying it at #10. That is not me telling you it outperforms Olay in a trial — I have no head-to-head data and will not pretend otherwise. It is me pointing at a formula where the peptide is named and positioned where you can see it. Compare the labels yourself; that is the whole point of this desk.

    Frequently asked questions

    Does Olay Collagen Peptide 24 contain collagen?
    No. The full label contains no collagen in any form. “Collagen Peptide” is the marketing name for Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4, a collagen-signaling peptide.
    What is Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4?
    A five-amino-acid peptide, trade name Matrixyl, that signals skin cells to produce collagen. The CIR notes it is a subfragment of type I collagen propeptide — derived from collagen, but not collagen itself.
    What does the “24” mean?
    Olay’s product copy ties it to 24 hours of hydration. The brand does not publish a formal definition, so treat that as marketing shorthand, not a measured figure.
    Is a peptide at position #10 useless?
    Not necessarily — this peptide works at very low doses. But the concentration is not disclosed, so the label alone cannot tell you whether it reaches the level used in the studies.

    If you are weighing a serum against a cream for peptides, we wrote up how the two formats compare — also ours, and also a label-first read rather than a sales pitch.

    Pencil sketch of Nib tipping an empty jar over a spoon it holds in its other hand, a single drop falling toward the spoon, expression flat and disappointed with eyes half-lidded.
    One small peptide, somewhere under one percent. Nib was hoping for more collagen than that.

  • Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream: Where the ‘Recoverstem Peptide’ Sits on the Label

    Charlotte Tilbury relaunched Magic Cream with a “World-First Recoverstem™ Peptide” at the centre of its marketing. On the current US ingredient list, the item that most likely corresponds to that claim — Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine) extract — sits at position 22 of 47, behind water, a dozen texture and emollient ingredients, and nine other botanical oils and extracts. Charlotte Tilbury’s own evidence disclosure for it says “in vitro testing” only. Two well-studied ingredients, Ectoin (#24) and sodium hyaluronate (#25), sit just behind it with no billing at all.

    Magic Cream is one of the better-known faces of prestige skincare: $105 for 50 ml on charlottetilbury.com (fetched 2026-10-08), which works out to about $2.10 a millilitre, and it is stocked at Ulta, Harrods and Nordstrom. The current pots carry a “NEW! supercharged formula” flag, and the headline ingredient is what Charlotte Tilbury calls a “World-First Recoverstem™ Peptide” — a blend it says contains “over 100 Peptides extracted from the Stem Cells” of the “Eternal Jasmine Youth Plant™.”

    That is a lot of trademark symbols for one sentence. So let’s do the plain thing the packaging quietly discourages: read the ingredient list on the back, in order, and find where the star actually stands.

    How do you read position on an ingredient list?

    US cosmetic labels follow an ordering rule. Under FDA regulation 21 CFR 701.3, ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration down to 1%; below 1%, they may be listed in any order (§701.3(f)(2); see also the FDA Cosmetics Labeling Guide). So a high position means “more of this than the things below it,” a low one means “less,” and the label never gives you an exact percentage. It is a ranking, not a recipe.

    There is one honest caveat for this particular formula. On many products a single, predictable preservative — phenoxyethanol, capped at 1% in the EU — acts as a rough marker for where the sub-1% zone begins. Magic Cream doesn’t use phenoxyethanol; it uses a different preservative system (sodium benzoate, 1,2-hexanediol, caprylyl glycol and ethylhexylglycerin), so there is no clean single marker to point at. What we can say with confidence is narrower: the opening stretch of the list — the water and the texture base — is almost certainly the highest-volume part of the formula, and the marketed botanicals, including the star-jasmine extract, all begin well behind it.

    Nib, a small round pencil-sketch creature, peers through a magnifying glass at a tall pot of Magic Cream, running a finger down the long ingredient list printed on the back.
    Nib does the thing the front of the jar hopes you won’t: counts down the list, in order, to slot twenty-two.

    What is actually in the first twelve slots?

    Here is the current list verbatim, from Charlotte Tilbury’s US product page (charlottetilbury.com/us/product/charlottes-magic-cream, read 2026-10-08), reproduced identically at Ulta and Harrods on the same day:

    Aqua/Water/Eau, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Butylene Glycol, Isononyl Isononanoate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Dimethicone, Cetyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Pentylene Glycol, Polyester-7, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Hydrolyzed Viola Tricolor Extract, Nasturtium Officinale Extract, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Gigartina Stellata Extract, Camellia Oleifera (Camellia) Seed Oil, Rosa Canina Fruit Oil, Rosa Damascena Extract, Michelia Alba Leaf Oil, Trachelospermum Jasminoides Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice Powder, Ectoin, Sodium Hyaluronate, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, Ascorbyl Tetraisopalmitate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Steareth-21, Carbomer, Neopentyl Glycol Diheptanoate, Tocopherol, Hydrogenated Rapeseed Oil, Potassium Cetyl Phosphate, Dimethiconol, Propanediol, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Phytate, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Sodium Benzoate, 1,2-Hexanediol, Linalool, Citronellol, Geraniol, Beta-Caryophyllene

    The list runs to forty-seven lines. The first twelve are water, a run of emollient esters (C12-15 alkyl benzoate, isononyl isononanoate, caprylic/capric triglyceride, ethylhexyl palmitate), a silicone (dimethicone), an emulsifier (glyceryl stearate SE), a fatty alcohol (cetyl alcohol), two humectants (butylene glycol, glycerin, pentylene glycol), and a synthetic texture polymer (polyester-7). None of these is named in the key-benefit panel on the product page.

    That is not a criticism. This is where the cream’s famously cushiony, luxurious feel comes from, and a pleasant texture is a perfectly legitimate thing to build and to pay for. It just means that the “feel” people love is the work of the first dozen ingredients, not of the trademarked plant that gets top billing.

    Nib holds up two labelled cards, a towering one reading Water and Emollients and a much smaller one reading Star Jasmine, weighing them on a set of pencil-drawn scales that tip hard toward the big card.
    Twelve texture ingredients sit ahead of the star. The hero is a long way down the queue.

    Where does the “Recoverstem Peptide” actually sit?

    Count down to position 22 and you reach Trachelospermum jasminoides extract. Trachelospermum jasminoides is star jasmine (also called Confederate jasmine), an ornamental vine native to East Asia. Charlotte Tilbury brands it the “Eternal Jasmine Youth Plant™” and describes Recoverstem as a blend of over 100 peptides extracted from its stem cells.

    One honest note on the identification: Charlotte Tilbury does not publish a map from its branded names to INCI names, so the link between “Recoverstem” and this specific extract is not something the brand states outright. Trachelospermum jasminoides extract is the ingredient in the list that most plausibly corresponds to the Recoverstem claim, and it is the item an independent analysis of the formula pointed to; treat that as a well-reasoned inference rather than a confirmed fact.

    Taking that identification at face value, here is the company it keeps. At position 22, the star-jasmine extract sits behind:

    What comes before it Positions Marketed as a hero?
    Water 1 No
    Texture and emollient base (esters, silicone, emulsifier, fatty alcohol, humectants, polymer) 2–12 No
    Oat, pansy and watercress extracts 13–15 Oat only, as part of a blend
    Shea butter, red algae, camellia oil, rosehip oil, damask rose, magnolia leaf oil 16–21 Some, individually
    Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine) extract — “Recoverstem” 22 Yes — the lead hero

    Nine other botanical extracts, oils and butters — several of which Charlotte Tilbury doesn’t bother to name in its marketing — are present in greater or equal quantity than the ingredient the whole relaunch is built around.

    Nib inspects two folders side by side, a thick one labelled Ectoin stuffed with papers and a thin one labelled Recoverstem holding a single sheet stamped in vitro.
    The marketed hero carries a thin, lab-only folder; the quiet ingredient behind it carries a fat one.

    What does “World-First peptide, backed by research” actually rest on?

    This is where the care matters, so let’s be precise about what is claimed and what is shown. On Charlotte Tilbury’s own Recoverstem explainer page (charlottetilbury.com/us/content/recoverstem-peptides, read 2026-10-08), the evidence is described like this:

    “Through our in vitro testing, results showed that Recoverstem™ Peptide helps boosts the five key biomarkers.” [*Based on in vitro testing on Recoverstem™ Peptide.]

    The asterisk and the “in vitro” wording are Charlotte Tilbury’s own. In vitro means tested on isolated cells or tissue in the lab, not in a trial on people. That is a normal, legitimate early step for a cosmetic ingredient — it is not a scandal, and plenty of the industry works exactly this way. It is simply a different, lighter grade of evidence than a human trial.

    For scale, the FTC’s Health Products Compliance Guidance (December 2022) spells out what the strongest advertising language would require: “In vitro studies look at a product’s effect on isolated cells or tissues and may help identify a possible mechanism of action, but similarly are of limited value to predict benefits for humans,” and such studies, “without confirmation by human RCTs… aren’t sufficient to substantiate health-related claims.” Charlotte Tilbury’s US product page is careful here — it talks about reviving “the look of” skin, an appearance claim, rather than using the strongest “clinically proven” wording that appears on some of its non-US pages. The point isn’t that anyone broke a rule. It is that the in-vitro disclosure, in the brand’s own small print, is a modest footing for a “World-First… 10 years of research” headline.

    What peer-reviewed literature exists on this plant isn’t about skincare at all. The only published body of work on the genus covers calming and pain-related activity studied in a Traditional Chinese Medicine context, and it notes plainly that “information on toxicity evaluations and randomized clinical trials for the genus Trachelospermum plant is very limited” (Sheng et al., 2018, PMC6151751). No public study was found on topical anti-aging peptide use of this extract, and Charlotte Tilbury’s proprietary research isn’t available to read. So the most accurate statement is not “there is no evidence” — the company may hold data it hasn’t released, which is common — but rather: no peer-reviewed data for this ingredient’s marketed benefit is publicly available.

    Nib sets down the magnifying glass and jots a short honest note on a pad that reads a plant extract, called a peptide, at twenty-two, looking thoughtful rather than cross.
    The finding is small and checkable: a plant extract, marketed as a peptide, sitting at position 22.

    What’s the ingredient the label doesn’t brag about?

    Here’s the twist that makes this formula interesting rather than just over-marketed. Directly behind the star jasmine, at positions 24 and 25, sit two entries with a far sturdier evidence record — and Charlotte Tilbury barely mentions them.

    Trachelospermum jasminoides extract (#22) — “Recoverstem Peptide”
    The marketed hero. A botanical extract that the brand says contains plant-derived peptides. Evidence disclosed for the benefit: in vitro only. No public peer-reviewed data for the skincare claim.
    Ectoin (#24)
    An amino-acid-derived osmoprotectant from extremophile bacteria, with multiple published human studies for barrier support. Not named in Charlotte Tilbury’s key-benefit panel at all.
    Sodium hyaluronate (#25)
    The salt form of hyaluronic acid, a standard, well-evidenced humectant for short-term hydration. Marketed simply as “Hyaluronic Acid.”

    Read that back. The ingredient with the thinnest public evidence gets the “World-First” story and the trademark; the ingredient directly behind it with the thickest file (Ectoin) gets no billing. That is the honest tension in this formula — not that nothing in the pot works. Humectants hydrate, emollients soften, and this is a pleasant, well-made cream by most accounts. It’s that the marketing spotlight is pointed at the least-documented item in the jar.

    Do the fragrance allergens at the bottom matter?

    The last four entries — linalool, citronellol, geraniol and beta-caryophyllene — are fragrance components listed individually because EU rules (Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009) require naming them once they pass a labelling threshold in a leave-on product; beta-caryophyllene was added to the labelling list by the 2023 amending Regulation (EU) 2023/1545. A retailer listing notes the cream contains “less than one percent synthetic fragrance,” so in absolute terms the fragrance load is low. For most people this is a non-event; if you patch-test positive to fragrance, their appearance on the label is useful information rather than a verdict.

    What does a formula built on documented peptides look like instead?

    If the reason you were drawn to Magic Cream was the peptide story, it’s worth knowing what a “peptide” can actually mean, because the word is doing a lot of work. A plant extract marketed as containing peptides is a genuinely different thing from a defined synthetic peptide such as copper tripeptide-1 or palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7 — molecules with a known structure and, in several cases, published human studies behind them. Interestingly, Charlotte Tilbury’s own previous Magic Cream formula carried exactly those synthetic Matrixyl peptides; the current one leads with the botanical instead.

    If you want to see how a formula reads when it’s built around the synthetic-peptide route rather than a botanical named as one, our own team at Evil Goods writes about the trade-offs between a copper-peptide serum and cream — this site is published by the Evil Goods team, so treat that as ours, not a neutral pick. We point to it only because it answers the natural next question (“what does a copper-peptide formula actually look like?”), not as a like-for-like comparison: Evil Goods lists curated key ingredients rather than a full 47-line INCI, so lining its label up against Charlotte Tilbury’s full declaration would be comparing full transparency against a partial one. Different disclosure, different thing.

    The short version

    Charlotte Tilbury’s Magic Cream is a well-made, nice-feeling moisturiser whose texture and hydration are doing real, legitimate work. The marketing simply points somewhere else: at a trademarked “World-First” plant extract that lands at position 22 of 47 and whose disclosed evidence, in the brand’s own footnote, is in vitro. Meanwhile the better-documented Ectoin sits one step behind it, unbilled. The INCI is published openly on every retailer’s page, so none of this is hidden — it’s just not the story on the front of the pot. Read the label, in order, and the hero turns out to be a supporting player.

    Nib closes the pot of cream, tucks the pencil behind an ear and gives a small satisfied wave, a note pinned up behind reading read the label, in order.
    Nib’s whole method, in four words: read the label, in order.

  • IT Cosmetics Confidence in a Cream: The Peptides Are #36 and #37

    IT Cosmetics markets Confidence in a Cream on a “Peptide-Lipid Complex,” but the two peptides that make up that complex — Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 and Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7 — are ingredients 36 and 37 in a 38-item list, sitting below the fragrance allergens and just above the perfume itself. Two of the cream’s other headline ingredients, niacinamide and squalane, are near the top and backed by disclosed percentages. The peptides are not. Here is where each one actually sits.

    Confidence in a Cream ($49 for 2 oz) is one of the most reviewed anti-aging moisturizers on the shelf, and its pitch leans on niacinamide, squalane, and a branded “Peptide-Lipid Complex.” Niacinamide and squalane hold up to a reading of the label. The third is the one worth slowing down on — not because anything is hidden, but because the word “complex” does a lot of quiet work.

    Nib, a small round pencil-sketch creature, holds a magnifying glass up to a jar labelled Confidence in a Cream, squinting at the fine print on the back.
    Nib reads the back of the jar, not the front.

    What does the ingredient order actually tell you?

    US cosmetic labels follow a rule most shoppers never learn: ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration, but only down to 1%. Below that threshold, a brand may list the remaining ingredients in any order it likes. That rule comes from the FDA’s labeling regulation at 21 CFR 701.3, and it is the whole reason label position is readable at all. Above 1%, order means something. Below it, order means almost nothing — which is itself a kind of information, because it tells you an ingredient is in the “under one percent” group.

    So the useful trick is to find a marker whose typical use level is known, and read everything after it as “at or below roughly that.” The standard marker is a preservative.

    Nib runs a pencil down a long ingredient list pinned to the desk, counting the entries with the pencil tip.
    Thirty-eight entries. Nib counts them twice.

    Where is the “Peptide-Lipid Complex” on the label?

    Here is the full ingredient list for the standard SKU, read from the IT Cosmetics product page (itcosmetics.com, product ITC_1137, read 2026-10-07) and matched word-for-word against a second major US retailer’s listing for the same SKU (read 2026-10-07):

    AQUA / WATER / EAU, GLYCERIN, NIACINAMIDE, CETEARYL ALCOHOL, HYDROXYETHYLPIPERAZINE ETHANE SULFONIC ACID, GLYCERYL STEARATE, SQUALANE, DIMETHICONE, MYRISTYL MYRISTATE, ETHYLHEXYL PALMITATE, BUTYROSPERMUM PARKII BUTTER / SHEA BUTTER, PHENOXYETHANOL, PEG-100 STEARATE, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, SODIUM POLYACRYLATE, TOCOPHEROL, CITRIC ACID, SODIUM HYALURONATE, CAPRYLIC/CAPRIC TRIGLYCERIDE, PENTYLENE GLYCOL, PENTAERYTHRITYL TETRA-DI-T-BUTYL HYDROXYHYDROCINNAMATE, HYDROLYZED RICE PROTEIN, CERAMIDE NP, ADENOSINE, TRISODIUM ETHYLENEDIAMINE DISUCCINATE, COLLOIDAL OATMEAL, HYDROXYPALMITOYL SPHINGANINE, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, LIMONENE, CARAMEL, CITRAL, LINALOOL, CARBOMER, SODIUM LACTATE, POLYSORBATE 20, PALMITOYL TRIPEPTIDE-1, PALMITOYL TETRAPEPTIDE-7, PARFUM / FRAGRANCE.

    Count to the end. There are 38 entries. The two peptides that IT Cosmetics names as the “Peptide-Lipid Complex” land here:

    Position Ingredient How it is marketed
    3 Niacinamide “4% Niacinamide” — disclosed, and the position agrees
    7 Squalane “3% Squalane” — disclosed, and the position agrees
    12 Phenoxyethanol Preservative. The sub-1% marker.
    18 Sodium Hyaluronate “hyaluronic acid” — below the marker
    23 Ceramide NP “barrier” — below the marker
    29 / 31 / 32 Limonene / Citral / Linalool fragrance allergens, listed individually
    36 Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 “Peptide-Lipid Complex”
    37 Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7 “Peptide-Lipid Complex”
    38 Parfum / Fragrance end of list

    The two peptides are the last two functional ingredients on the label. They sit below the three fragrance compounds the EU requires to be named individually, and above only the perfume base itself.

    Nib points the pencil near the very bottom of the list, eyebrows raised, having found the two peptides sitting just above fragrance.
    The thing on the front of the bottle, found near the bottom of the list.

    Does a low position mean the peptides do nothing?

    No — and this is the part the position alone cannot tell you. Peptides like these work at parts-per-million levels. The CIR safety review of these exact ingredients (Johnson et al., International Journal of Toxicology, 2018) reports typical use concentrations under 10 ppm, with surveyed maximums around 0.002%. A more recent framework paper (PMC, 2026) puts the leave-on maximum for this class at roughly 20 ppm. At those levels, a peptide belongs exactly where it sits — at the bottom of the list, in the sub-1% group. A peptide near the top would be the surprising thing, not this.

    IT Cosmetics’ limited-edition version of the cream discloses a “2.5% Peptide-Lipid Complex.” If the two peptides are each present at ppm levels, then most of that 2.5% is the lipid carrier the peptides are delivered in, not the peptides themselves. That is how peptide raw materials are sold — a trade blend, a small active fraction in a larger carrier. It is not a trick. It is worth saying out loud only because “Peptide-Lipid Complex” on the front of the jar invites you to picture something the number 36 does not support.

    What holds up here, and what to weigh?

    Credit where it is due: IT Cosmetics states 4% niacinamide and 3% squalane on the page, and both sit above phenoxyethanol, which is consistent with those numbers. That is more transparency than most brands offer, and the formula is a genuinely well-built moisturizer on those two counts. The peptides are the one place where the marketing and the label part ways — not in honesty, but in emphasis.

    If you are specifically shopping for a peptide moisturizer — one built around peptides rather than led by niacinamide and squalane with peptides at the end — the question becomes what a formula designed around that active actually looks like. We make skincare at Evil Goods, and we put our copper peptides on their own line for exactly this reason; we wrote up why that was a deliberate formulation choice here (that is our site). Read it as one answer to the question, not as a like-for-like swap: our product page shows a curated key-ingredient panel, not a full INCI declaration, so it is not a fair position-by-position comparison against IT Cosmetics’ complete list. Different disclosures, different claims — judge each on its own label.

    Nib taps the pencil on the word PHENOXYETHANOL midway down the list, drawing a small line to mark the one-percent boundary.
    Nib marks the preservative — the line everything below sits under.

    One note for sensitive skin

    Three fragrance allergens — limonene (#29), citral (#31), and linalool (#32) — are listed separately from “parfum,” which under EU rules means each is present above the 0.001% leave-on labeling threshold. Sensitization to these is real but uncommon, and the clinic figures that exist (around a few percent of already patch-tested patients, per SCCS opinions) are drawn from people who self-select for sensitivity. If you have a known fragrance allergy, this is worth a glance. If you do not, it is just context.

    Frequently asked questions

    Where do the peptides sit in Confidence in a Cream?
    Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 is position 36 and Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7 is position 37 of 38, just above the fragrance base.
    Does that mean the peptides are useless?
    No. These peptides are used at parts-per-million levels (CIR 2018), so a low list position is expected rather than alarming. Position tells you concentration band, not whether an ingredient works.
    Are the niacinamide and squalane claims accurate?
    They are consistent with the label. IT Cosmetics discloses 4% niacinamide and 3% squalane, and both sit near the top of the list, above the preservative, which matches those figures.
    Why does the limited edition say “2.5% Peptide-Lipid Complex”?
    That figure refers to the whole commercial complex, including the lipid carrier the peptides are delivered in — not to the peptide dose itself.
    Nib sets the magnifying glass down, satisfied, next to a tidy note that reads: position is not the same as dose.
    Position is a signal, not a verdict. Nib writes it down and moves on.

  • Drunk Elephant Protini: The 9 Peptides Are #10–18. Then Come 10 Amino Acids.

    Drunk Elephant Protini is named for polypeptides and
    marketed on “nine signal peptides.” On the ingredient list, those nine
    peptides sit together at positions #10 through #18 — genuinely mid-list, not
    buried at the bottom. The catch is not where they sit. It is what comes right
    after them: ten individual amino acids at positions #19 through #28, which the
    brand groups under the same peptide-complex language. An amino acid is not a
    peptide; it is what a peptide is made of. Those are different things.

    Most of the labels we read here end with the marketed hero hiding somewhere
    below the preservatives — retinol at #26, hyaluronic acid at #25. Protini is
    the opposite case, and that is exactly what makes it interesting. Drunk Elephant
    put its nine peptides where you would hope to find them, in one tidy block near
    the top of the list. So the usual gotcha does not apply. The interesting
    questions are different: what are those nine peptides, does the research support
    what they are named for, and what is that long run of ingredients that follows?

    Nib, a small round pencil-sketch creature, holds a magnifying glass to a jar of moisturizer whose front reads Polypeptide, then peers past it at a long ingredient list running down the side.
    Named for polypeptides. Nib turns the jar around to find where the nine actually live.

    Where do the nine signal peptides actually sit?

    Here is the full list, quoted verbatim as it appears on the product page at
    Ulta.com,
    fetched 16 September 2026 (item #2588434). The list on the product’s page at
    a second major beauty retailer, read the same week, is identical word for word,
    down to the spacing.

    Water/Aqua/Eau, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Glycerin, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Olivate, Sorbitan Olivate, Sclerocarya Birrea Seed Oil, Bacillus/ Folic Acid Ferment Filtrate Extract, Nymphaea Alba Root Extract, sh-Oligopeptide-1, sh-Oligopeptide-2, sh-Polypeptide-1, sh-Polypeptide-9, sh-Polypeptide-11, Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14, Heptapeptide-15 Palmitate, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, Alanine, Arginine, Glycine, Histidine, Isoleucine, Phenylalanine, Proline, Serine, Threonine, Valine, Acetyl Glutamine, Coconut Alkanes, Coco-Caprylate/Caprate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Aspartic Acid, Linoleic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Lecithin, Butylene Glycol, Polyvinyl Alcohol, Sodium Lactate, Sodium PCA, PCA, Sorbitan Isostearate, Carbomer, Polysorbate 20, Polysorbate 60, Lactic Acid/Glycolic Acid Copolymer, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Xanthan Gum, Isomalt, 1,2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol, Chlorphenesin, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopherol, Sodium Benzoate, Phenylpropanol, Glyceryl Caprylate, Symphytum Officinale Callus Culture Extract.

    The nine peptides the product is named after run from
    sh-Oligopeptide-1 at position #10 to
    Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 at position #18 — nine names in an
    unbroken block. Above them are eight ingredients that are none of them a peptide:
    water, an emollient ester, glycerin, two fatty-alcohol emulsifiers, a pair of
    olive-derived emulsifiers, marula oil, and two ferment extracts. On an ingredient
    list, where things are ordered roughly by weight down to about the 1% mark, that
    puts the peptide block mid-list rather than at the top. Not hidden, not headline.
    Somewhere in the honest middle.

    Marketed hero
    Nine “signal peptides”
    Position on label
    #10 through #18, one contiguous block
    What sits above them
    Eight ingredients, none a peptide
    Ingredients on the label
    Fifty-eight
    Source of list
    Ulta.com (fetched 16 Sep 2026) and a second major retailer, same week — identical

    So this is not a “the hero is at #26” story. Credit where it is
    due: the peptides are real and reasonably placed. The story is what they are, and
    whether the research backs the word on the front of the jar.

    Nib runs a pencil down a numbered column and rests it on a tight block of nine little peptide tags clustered together between positions ten and eighteen.
    The nine signal peptides sit together at positions ten through eighteen – mid-list, not buried.

    Do the peptides do what the name promises?

    Five of the nine — the sh-Oligopeptide and sh-Polypeptide entries at
    positions #10 through #14 — are cosmetic-grade analogs of growth factors.
    sh-Oligopeptide-1, at #10, is the INCI name for a synthetic epidermal growth
    factor analog. This is where the evidence gets thin, and it is worth being
    precise about how thin.

    A 2023 review in Cutaneous and Ocular Toxicology looked specifically
    at topical sh-oligopeptide-1 and concluded that its preclinical bioactivity as a
    functional growth factor has not been demonstrated, meaning clinical trials that
    treat it as equivalent to functional recombinant growth factor may not rest on a
    valid foundation (Martínez-Carpio,
    2023, PubMed    ). That is an evidence-quality critique, not a safety alarm: the
    question is whether the molecule does the job it is named for, not whether it is
    harmful.

    Zoom out to the whole category and the picture is consistent. A systematic
    review of topical growth-factor preparations — 33 studies, nine randomized
    controlled trials, 1,180 participants — found modest improvements in
    texture and fine lines versus baseline, with three of the comparative RCTs showing
    no statistically significant difference between treatments, and the studies
    limited by heterogeneity and weak placebo controls
    (Quinlan et al.,
    Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2023, PubMed    ). Modest and inconsistent is
    the honest reading — not dismissal, not endorsement.

    The last two of the nine are a different, better story. Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7
    and Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, at #17 and #18, are the two peptides marketed together
    as Matrixyl 3000. A 45-person randomized, placebo-controlled study reported around
    52% wrinkle reduction over twelve weeks — better evidence than the growth
    factor peptides above them, though the trial was manufacturer-commissioned and the
    two peptides are always tested as a pair, so the data cannot separate them
    (peptidings.com,
    2026    ). So within the nine, the picture is mixed: the two at the bottom of the
    block have the most credible support, and the five growth-factor analogs above
    them the least.

    What is that long run of ingredients after the peptides?

    This is the part of the label worth reading slowly. Directly below the nine
    peptides, positions #19 through #28 are ten individual amino acids in a row:
    alanine, arginine, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, proline, serine,
    threonine and valine, with acetyl glutamine at #29. Drunk Elephant groups these
    under the same “Signal Peptide Complex” language it uses for the
    peptides — but they are not peptides.

    Nib stands beside a neat row of ten identical amino-acid blocks, counting them on stubby fingers, with a small sign above the row reading not peptides.
    Then ten single amino acids in a row. An amino acid is what a peptide is made of, not a peptide.

    The distinction matters and it is not pedantry. A peptide is two or more amino
    acids joined by a peptide bond; that bond is what lets it act as a signal. A free
    amino acid on its own is the raw material, not the assembled thing. The ten listed
    here are among the cheapest commodity inputs in a cosmetic chemist’s cabinet,
    and they do a real, modest job as surface humectants — they are Natural
    Moisturizing Factor components, the same molecules your skin already uses to hold
    water. That is fine. What is worth noticing is the effect on the label: the
    peptide-and-amino-acid run stretches from position #10 all the way to #29, twenty
    consecutive entries, which reads as a peptide powerhouse when read for length.
    Ten of those twenty are single amino acids.

    Label positions What sits there What the position implies
    1–9 Water, emollients, emulsifiers, marula oil, two ferments The base and texture — none of them a peptide
    10–14 Five growth-factor analogs (sh-Oligo/Polypeptides) Real peptides, mid-list; cosmetic bioactivity contested
    15–16 Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14, Heptapeptide-15 Palmitate Copper peptide plus a palmitoylated heptapeptide
    17–18 Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 Matrixyl 3000 pair — best-studied of the nine
    19–29 Ten amino acids + acetyl glutamine Cheap humectants; not peptides
    32 Sodium Hyaluronate Below the whole peptide/amino-acid block

    To be fair to the formula: none of this is deceptive on the label itself. The
    list is honest and complete. It is the marketing language wrapped around it —
    counting ten amino acids toward the impression of a peptide complex — that a
    slow read pulls apart.

    Nib holds up two copper coins side by side - one large and dented and labelled old, one small and shiny and labelled new - comparing them through the magnifying glass.
    Two different copper peptides. The one here is the newer, less-studied cousin of the classic GHK-Cu.

    Is the copper peptide in here the one with the research behind it?

    At position #15 is Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14 — a copper-bearing
    peptide. It is easy to assume this is the copper peptide with the long research
    record. It is not. The copper peptide that has been studied since the 1970s is
    Copper Tripeptide-1, better known as GHK-Cu. Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14 is a
    newer, oil-soluble variant marketed on superior delivery, but with a much shorter
    research history. GHK-Cu has been studied since the 1970s across many independent
    papers; Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14 is the payload peptide in a newer
    encapsulated delivery system (trade-named X50), and the evidence cited for it is a
    single 30-person, 28-day manufacturer in-vivo test rather than a body of
    independent work (INCIDecoder,
    Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14    ). Neither is a bad ingredient. They are just
    not the same molecule, and the older one is the one with the deeper record.

    That contrast is worth flagging because we make a copper peptide product and it
    uses the other one. Evil Goods’
    Copper
    Peptide Blue Honey Cream (our product)     is built on Copper Tripeptide-1
    — the GHK-Cu with the longer research record — alongside Manuka honey,
    niacinamide and olive squalane. It is the same product format, a cream rather than
    a serum, which makes it the fair thing to compare against here. In the interest of
    the same scrutiny we just applied to Protini: Evil Goods does not publish a copper
    concentration for ours, so we cannot tell you how much is in there any more than
    Drunk Elephant can tell you about its nine peptides. Ingredient Desk is published
    by the team behind Evil Goods, so read our comparisons knowing that.

    What about the clinical study on the box, and the last ingredient?

    Drunk Elephant’s marketing cites a study: 31 people, eight weeks, with
    high percentages reporting improvement in tone, texture and hydration. A couple of
    points are worth knowing before you weigh those numbers. It does not appear to be
    peer-reviewed — no published paper turns up — and at 31 participants
    with no control arm described, it is the kind of small brand-commissioned consumer
    panel that is prone to the assessment bias these trials are known for. That does
    not make it invalid; it simply cannot be verified, so treat the figures as
    in-house marketing data rather than independent evidence.

    One last note for the completists. The final ingredient on the list is Symphytum
    Officinale Callus Culture Extract — comfrey, but specifically the plant-cell
    callus culture form, which is produced to minimize the pyrrolizidine alkaloids
    that are the usual concern with comfrey root and leaf. At the very bottom of a
    long list, present in trace amount, in the callus form: there is nothing
    here to raise an eyebrow at. We mention it only because a reader scanning the
    label for “comfrey” deserves to know which comfrey it is.

    So is it worth it?

    On its own terms, Protini is a more honest label than most we read. The nine
    peptides are real and mid-list, not buried. Two of them are genuinely
    well-supported. The open questions are the five growth-factor analogs, whose
    cosmetic activity the research does not yet back; the ten amino acids counted
    toward the peptide story that are not peptides; and a copper peptide that is the
    newer, less-studied cousin of the classic one. If you like the texture and go in
    understanding that “nine signal peptides” is a mixed bag rather than
    nine proven actives, it is a defensible cream at its price. Just read it as what
    the label says, not what the front of the jar implies.

    FAQ

    Where do the peptides sit in Drunk Elephant Protini?
    The nine marketed signal peptides run from position #10 to #18 in one block,
    below eight ingredients that are not peptides. That is mid-list — not buried,
    but not the top of the label either.

    Are the amino acids in Protini the same as the peptides?
    No. Positions #19 through #28 are ten individual amino acids. An amino acid is a
    single building block; a peptide is two or more of them bonded together. Free
    amino acids are cheap humectants, not the signal peptides the product is named
    for.

    Does Protini have the copper peptide with the most research?
    Not the classic one. It contains Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14 at #15, a newer
    oil-soluble variant, rather than Copper Tripeptide-1 (GHK-Cu), which has the
    longer, decades-deep research record.

    Is the clinical study on Protini reliable?
    It is a 31-person, eight-week brand-commissioned panel with no control arm
    described and no peer-reviewed publication found. Treat the percentages as
    in-house marketing data rather than independent evidence.

    Do topical growth-factor peptides actually work?
    A systematic review of the category found modest, inconsistent improvements in
    texture and fine lines, with weak placebo controls across studies. For the
    cosmetic-grade EGF analog specifically, a 2023 review concluded its functional
    bioactivity has not been demonstrated.

    Nib closes a small notebook titled Ingredient Desk, sets the magnifying glass down beside the fully-read jar, and gives a satisfied nod.
    Label read, top to bottom. The peptides are real and mid-list. What is unproven is what each one does.

  • Olay Vitamin C + Peptide 24 Serum: The Vitamin C Is the 7th Ingredient

    On the label of the Olay Vitamin C +
    Peptide 24 Brightening Serum, the vitamin C — printed as 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic
    Acid, a derivative that has to convert to active ascorbic acid inside the skin
    — is the seventh ingredient. Niacinamide, the well-studied brightener Olay
    built its Regenerist line on, is the fourth. Niacinamide is not named anywhere in
    the product title.

    “Vitamin C serum” is one of the most-searched things in skincare, and Olay is
    one of the biggest drugstore brands in the United States, so a serum called
    Vitamin C + Peptide 24 is doing a lot of work with its name. The name
    invites exactly one thing: read the label all the way down and see where the two
    named actives on the front — the vitamin C and the peptide — actually
    land.

    Pencil sketch of Nib, a small round creature, holding a magnifying glass up to a slim serum bottle labelled VITAMIN C + PEPTIDE 24.
    Nib picks up the bottle with two actives on the front and starts reading at ingredient one.

    Where does the vitamin C actually sit?

    Here is the full ingredient list, as published on INCI Decoder
    (product entry,
    uploaded 2022-05-27, read 2026-09-15) and matching separate Amazon retail
    listings for the standard 1.3 fl oz serum:

    Water, Glycerin, Dimethicone, Niacinamide, Lactic Acid,
    Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6, 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C),
    Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 (Peptide), Panthenol, Trehalose,
    PEG-11 Methyl Ether Dimethicone, Sodium Lactate, Sodium Benzoate, Fragrance.

    Ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration down to the 1%
    threshold, below which a manufacturer may list them in any order (US FDA, 21 CFR
    701.3). Reading from the top, the vitamin C — 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid
    — is number seven, sitting behind water, two humectant/texture agents,
    niacinamide, an exfoliating acid and a thickener. The peptide is number eight.
    Everything above them, except the niacinamide, is solvent, humectant or structure.

    # Ingredient What it is
    1 Water Solvent — the base of the serum
    2 Glycerin Humectant
    3 Dimethicone Silicone — slip and texture
    4 Niacinamide Well-studied brightening and barrier agent — unnamed on the front
    5 Lactic Acid AHA exfoliant / pH adjuster
    6 Polyacrylate Crosspolymer-6 Synthetic thickener
    7 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid The “Vitamin C” on the label — a derivative
    8 Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 The “Peptide 24” — also known as Matrixyl
    14 Fragrance Perfuming — a documented contact allergen

    None of this is hidden. It is printed on the side of every bottle. But the
    front and the back tell slightly different stories, and the back is the one that
    governs what your skin meets first.

    Pencil sketch of Nib tapping a pencil on the seventh line of a numbered ingredient list, where the words VITAMIN C are circled.
    Seven lines down, past niacinamide and a thickener, Nib finds the named vitamin C.

    Is 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid the same as vitamin C?

    Not quite, and this is the part that makes the label genuinely interesting
    rather than just underwhelming. Pure vitamin C is L-ascorbic acid. What is in
    this serum is 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid, an ether derivative — a more stable
    molecule that the skin has to convert back into ascorbic acid before it does the
    vitamin-C job. A 2024 review in Pharmaceutics
    (Stamford-style derivative review, 2024)
    states plainly that vitamin C derivatives “must be converted to ascorbic acid
    in vivo in order to be effective.”

    The derivative does reach the skin: an in-vitro study on porcine skin
    (Int. J. Cosmet. Sci., 2019)
    confirms 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid penetrates. So this is not a case of an
    ingredient that does nothing. The honest framing is narrower than that: the
    molecule on the label is a derivative that needs converting, Olay does not
    publish how much of it is in the bottle, and its position at #7 —
    just below a thickener, and behind five other ingredients — suggests it is
    not present at a dominant percentage. How much active ascorbic acid results after
    conversion is not disclosed.

    Pencil sketch of Nib holding two small jars side by side, one labelled DERIVATIVE and one labelled ASCORBIC ACID, with a small arrow drawn between them.
    A derivative up front, active vitamin C only after the skin converts it. Nib keeps the two straight.

    What is doing the brightening work, then?

    If you are buying this serum to fade dark spots, the ingredient with the
    strongest evidence for that job is not the one on the front of the bottle. It is
    niacinamide, at position #4 — above both named actives. Niacinamide’s
    brightening evidence is unusually good for a cosmetic ingredient: a split-face
    randomised trial
    (Hakozaki et al., Br. J. Dermatology, 2002)
    found 5% niacinamide significantly reduced hyperpigmented area versus vehicle
    after 4 and 8 weeks. A later mechanistic review
    (Int. J. Mol. Sci., 2021)
    notes it works at roughly 4–5% but that 2% is not reliably effective.

    We cannot read a percentage off an INCI list, and Olay does not publish one.
    But niacinamide at #4 — ahead of the exfoliant, the thickener and both
    named heroes — is consistent with a meaningful level, and it is the same
    brightener Olay’s Regenerist patents are built around. The peptide,
    Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 (Matrixyl), is a legitimately studied anti-ageing
    peptide, though mostly in small studies; at #8 it is present in a low
    position on the list. The upshot: the serum’s most evidence-backed brightening ingredient is
    the one the name never mentions, and the two ingredients the name is built around
    sit seventh and eighth.

    Pencil sketch of Nib weighing a small vitamin C bottle against a larger jar labelled NIACINAMIDE on an old balance scale, the niacinamide side dipping lower.
    Nib weighs the named actives against the unnamed niacinamide sitting three lines above them.

    So what does the “24” mean?

    Not an ingredient count, not 24% vitamin C, and not a peptide
    variant. Olay’s own product copy says the serum delivers “24-hour hydration,” so
    the number refers to how long the marketing says it moisturizes, not to anything
    about the actives. It is a hydration claim wearing the costume of a
    concentration figure — and the meanings people most reasonably assume —
    a strength, or how many things are in the bottle — are exactly what it does
    not signal.

    Reading a peptide as “#8 on the list” is really a question about formulation
    priority: what did the formulator decide to put the most of? Here the answer is
    water, glycerin, silicone and niacinamide, and then the things on the front of
    the bottle. If you would rather buy a serum whose hero ingredient sits at the top
    of its own list, that is the thing we make: our
    Copper Peptide Blue Honey Serum
    leads with copper peptides, hyaluronic acid and Manuka honey rather than
    silicone and thickener. (Disclosure: Ingredient Desk is published by the team
    behind Evil Goods, and that is our serum.)

    Is there anything on the label worth watching for?

    Two points, stated with their real strength rather than as alarms.

    Fragrance. Fragrance is the last ingredient, #14.
    Fragrance is a category, not a single molecule, and US labels are not required to
    break it into its component allergens. It is also among the most common contact
    allergens in cosmetics; a 2024 patch-test review
    (Lynde & Lindberg, 2024)
    puts fragrance contact-allergy prevalence at roughly 4.5% of the general
    population and higher among people already prone to dermatitis. Most
    people use fragranced serums without any trouble — but if you are shopping
    for a face serum precisely because your skin reacts easily, an added fragrance is
    worth knowing sits in the formula.

    The derivative itself. One case report of allergic contact
    dermatitis to 3-O-Ethyl Ascorbic Acid exists in the literature (Yagami et al.,
    Contact Dermatitis, 2014). A single case is not a pattern and should not
    be read as one; it is worth a sentence only because the ingredient is the named
    hero. If a new active irritates you, patch-testing a small area first is the
    ordinary sensible move with any serum.

    If you want the reasoning rather than the pitch, we have also written up
    how to build a copper peptide serum routine,
    which walks through what “hero ingredient first” actually buys you and where it
    does not matter.

    The short version

    Olay’s Vitamin C + Peptide 24 Serum names two actives on the front and lists
    them seventh and eighth. The vitamin C is a derivative that has to convert in the
    skin, at an undisclosed and probably modest level. The ingredient with the best
    brightening evidence — niacinamide — sits three lines higher and is
    not named at all. The “24” is a hydration-duration claim, not a strength. None of
    that is hidden; it is all on the label, in descending order, waiting to be read.

    Pencil sketch of Nib closing a notebook, the serum bottle set down beside a page reading number 7, satisfied at having read the label to the end.
    Label read to the last line. Nib closes the notebook: the front said two, the list said seventh and eighth.

  • Olay Regenerist: Niacinamide Is #4. The Peptide Is #11.

    On the ingredient list read for Olay Regenerist
    Micro-Sculpting Cream on 6 September 2026, niacinamide sits at position
    four — high up, in the range where it does real work — so the front
    of the jar is telling the truth about the B3. But the “Amino-Peptide”
    the marketing leans on, palmitoyl pentapeptide-4, is eleventh, behind a synthetic
    polymer and a silicone, and the hyaluronic acid is thirteenth. Two of the three
    headline actives sit in the trace band near the bottom of the formula. The
    unusual part: this particular peptide is supposed to be a trace, so
    “it’s low on the list” is not the same as “it does
    nothing.”

    Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream — the “Red Jar” —
    is one of the best-selling anti-aging face creams in American mass retail,
    stocked across the big drugstore and supercenter chains. Its whole pitch is a complex: Vitamin B3,
    Amino-Peptides, Hyaluronic Acid and antioxidants, all named on the front. It is a
    tidy, believable list of the ingredients a good moisturizer should have.

    The back of the jar — the actual list, ordered by weight down to about
    the one-percent mark — lets you see where each of those four actually
    lands. We read the whole thing. One of the four earns its billing. Two are near
    the bottom. Here is where everything sits, and why the low positions mean
    different things for different ingredients.

    One note before the list: Olay has more than one formula in circulation.
    This analysis is of the original formula still described on most retailer
    listings, sourced below. A newer “triple collagen peptide” version
    appears on olay.com; if the jar in your hand names three peptides and no
    hyaluronic acid, you have the reformulated one, and the positions here will
    differ. Check your own label.

    Where does each marketed active actually land on the label?

    Here is the full list, quoted verbatim. It was retrieved from the Ulta Beauty
    product listing for Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream (SKU 2147262) via the
    search index on 6 September 2026 — Ulta blocks direct scraping, so
    direct URLs return a 404, but the identical forty-name string appeared across
    four separate Ulta result snippets and is corroborated by the Walmart.com listing
    for the same product, read the same day. Olay notes formulas are subject to
    change, so confirm against the packaging on the jar you buy:

    Water, Glycerin, Isohexadecane, Niacinamide, Isopropyl Isostearate, Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate, Nylon-12, Dimethicone, Panthenol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4, Sodium PEG-7 Olive Oil Carboxylate, Sodium Hyaluronate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Ceratonia Siliqua (Carob) Fruit Extract, Stearyl Alcohol, Polyethylene, Cetyl Alcohol, Behenyl Alcohol, Sodium Acrylates Copolymer, Titanium Dioxide, Benzyl Alcohol, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Dimethiconol, Polyacrylamide, Fragrance, PEG-100 Stearate, Propylparaben, Cetearyl Glucoside, Cetearyl Alcohol, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Disodium EDTA, Citric Acid, Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, C12-13 Pareth-3, Laureth-7, Sodium Hydroxide, Mica.

    Now place the four headline actives on it:

    Niacinamide (Vitamin B3)
    Position 4 — high, likely a functional amount
    Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 (the “Amino-Peptide”)
    Position 11 — trace, which for this peptide is the working range
    Sodium Hyaluronate (Hyaluronic Acid)
    Position 13 — in the ≤1% band
    Tocopheryl Acetate (the antioxidant)
    Position 10 — a cheap, abundant vitamin E ester
    Source of list
    Ulta listing (SKU 2147262) via search index, 6 Sep 2026; corroborated at Walmart.com

    Ingredients are listed in descending order of weight down to roughly the
    one-percent mark, so position is a rough proxy for how much is in the jar. Two
    positions do most of the storytelling here: niacinamide at four, and the peptide
    at eleven with the HA at thirteen. They mean opposite things, and the honest
    version of this piece treats them differently.

    Nib the small round pencil-sketch creature holds a magnifying glass up to a squat red jar labelled Regenerist, squinting at the tiny ingredient type on the back rather than the big Vitamin B3 and Amino-Peptides wording on the front.
    The front sells a whole complex. Nib flips the Red Jar over to read where each name really lands.

    Does niacinamide earn its place at number four?

    Yes, and it is worth saying so plainly before getting to the parts that are
    overstated. Niacinamide at position four, above the emulsifiers, the peptide, the
    HA and the fragrance, is consistent with a meaningful concentration —
    probably in the low single digits by percentage, though Olay does not disclose a
    number, so “probably” is the strongest word warranted.

    That matters because niacinamide is one of the better-supported cosmetic
    actives for the things this cream is sold to do. The anchor study is a
    twelve-week, fifty-subject randomized trial by Bissett and colleagues (2004),
    which reported improvements in fine lines, texture and hyperpigmentation from a
    5% niacinamide formulation. The evidence base sits roughly in the 2–5%
    range. Position four is compatible with that band. So when Olay puts “Vitamin
    B3” on the front and niacinamide near the top of the list, the marketing and
    the formula agree. That is the honest starting point, and it is not nothing
    — plenty of creams name an ingredient on the front that turns up in the
    trace tail.

    Position Ingredient What it does
    2 Glycerin Humectant; the main water-binding workhorse
    4 Niacinamide Vitamin B3; the marketed hero, high enough to be functional
    8 Dimethicone Silicone emollient; the smooth skin feel
    11 Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 The “Amino-Peptide”; a trace ingredient by design
    13 Sodium Hyaluronate Hyaluronic acid salt; a supporting humectant in the ≤1% band

    The base doing the sensory work is conventional and fine: water, glycerin,
    branched-alkane and ester emollients (isohexadecane at #3, isopropyl isostearate
    at #5), an absorbent starch for that dry, powdery finish (#6), a slip polymer
    (nylon-12, #7) and dimethicone (#8). That is a competent mass-market moisturizer
    base. Nothing wrong with it. It is just not the part on the front of the jar.

    Nib runs a pencil down a numbered ingredient list and taps a big drum labelled Niacinamide near the top at position four, nodding approvingly.
    Niacinamide at number four. High up, a functional amount, and the marketing is telling the truth here.

    Why is the “Amino-Peptide” all the way down at eleven?

    This is where it would be easy to be unfair, so here is the careful version.
    Palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 — the ingredient Olay markets as the
    “Amino-Peptide,” better known in the trade as Matrixyl — sits at
    position eleven, behind a synthetic polymer (nylon-12), a silicone (dimethicone),
    panthenol and the vitamin E ester. By volume it is almost certainly a trace
    ingredient.

    The trap is concluding that trace means useless. For this particular peptide,
    it does not. The published clinical work uses it at strikingly tiny
    concentrations: a peptides-in-skincare review tabulates the palmitoyl
    pentapeptide-4 trial formulation at 0.0003%
    (Peptides in
    skincare, PMC, 2025    ), and the industry’s own safety panel reports the
    highest leave-on cosmetic use concentration at 0.0012%
    (CIR
    Safety Assessment, Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4, 2023    ). Three parts per million is
    the dose that showed an effect. So a peptide sitting at position eleven, at a
    trace level, is behaving exactly as the literature says it should. Position eleven
    is not evidence this peptide is inert.

    The fair criticism is narrower, and it is about emphasis, not efficacy. The
    marketing gives “Amino-Peptides” roughly equal billing with the B3 on
    the front of the jar, as though they were comparable pillars of the formula. In
    the list, one is at four and the other is a trace at eleven. Both facts can be
    true — the peptide works at trace levels and the front-of-jar
    prominence is louder than its share of the formula. What you cannot tell from the
    label, because Olay does not disclose it, is whether the peptide is at the
    0.0003% that was studied or somewhere else entirely. The position tells you it is
    small; it cannot tell you it is the studied dose.

    Nib peers through the magnifying glass at a single tiny droplet marked Peptide at position eleven, sitting behind larger barrels labelled Nylon and Dimethicone.
    The Amino-Peptide at eleven, tucked in behind a synthetic polymer and a silicone. Tiny by volume, by design.

    What about the hyaluronic acid at thirteen?

    Sodium hyaluronate — the INCI name for hyaluronic acid — is at
    position thirteen, in the part of the label where everything is present at about
    one percent or less. Like the peptide, HA works at low concentrations, so a low
    position is not proof of a token amount. But there is a wrinkle worth one honest
    sentence.

    Some current retailer pages still market this product as containing
    “Hyaluronic Acid” as a key ingredient, while the newer formula listed
    on olay.com does not appear to include sodium hyaluronate at all. On the original
    formula quoted above, the HA is genuinely present at position thirteen. If you
    have picked up the reformulated jar, it may not be in there despite the shelf tag
    — which is exactly the kind of thing worth checking on your own label
    rather than taking from a retailer’s marketing copy. We could not resolve
    the discrepancy without a physical label read, so we are flagging it, not
    asserting it.

    If what you actually want is a moisturizer where the things named on the front
    are the things doing the bulk of the work — no trace tail to squint at
    — that is a different kind of product. We make a beef-tallow one: here is
    the Evil Goods
    tallow moisturizer    , built from grass-fed tallow, Manuka honey, cold-pressed
    olive oil and vitamin E, with no under-one-percent list to read. Full disclosure:
    Ingredient Desk is published by the team behind Evil Goods, so read that link
    knowing it is ours. The contrast we are drawing is about label structure —
    a short list versus a forty-name one — not a claim that one cream
    out-performs the other, which would need a study neither product has.

    Nib holds a small stoppered vial marked Fragrance up to the light next to an open reference book, eyebrows raised, reading a patch-test chart.
    Down at twenty-seven sits Fragrance, the one line on the label the desk always reads twice.

    Is the fragrance at position twenty-seven worth noting?

    For a leave-on cream applied twice a day, yes, once, with the strength of the
    evidence and no more. “Fragrance” sits at position twenty-seven on
    this list. Fragrance is the most common cause of cosmetic contact allergy, and
    the prevalence is measurable rather than hypothetical: patch-test literature puts
    fragrance contact allergy at roughly 0.7–2.6% of the general population, and
    substantially higher — into the 5–11% range and above — among
    people who get patch-tested for dermatitis
    (Mowitz et al., contact
    dermatitis to fragrances, 2020    ;
    fragrance contact
    allergy review, PMC, 2024    ).

    Read that the right way. Fragrance at position twenty-seven does not mean this
    cream will irritate your skin, and it does not mean it has harmed anyone —
    most people use fragranced moisturizers without any trouble, and the amount here
    is undisclosed. What it means is that a daily-use, leave-on product carries a
    declared fragrance, and if your skin reacts to scented skincare, that is
    information you want before you commit to applying it morning and night. The label
    tells you; the front of the jar, which leads with actives, does not.

    One more label detail for the careful reader: this formula carries three
    parabens — methylparaben (#23), ethylparaben (#24) and propylparaben (#29).
    Parabens are among the most-studied cosmetic preservatives and are permitted at
    regulated levels; their presence is a formulation choice worth knowing about, not
    a verdict. The newer olay.com formula swaps them for phenoxyethanol, which is one
    of the clearer signals that you are holding a reformulated jar.

    How do you read any ingredient list this way yourself?

    The method needs no chemistry background and works on any product. Find the
    real ingredient list — the long one on the back, not the “key
    ingredients” callout the brand writes for you. It is ordered by weight down
    to about the one-percent mark, so where a name sits is a rough proxy for how much
    is in the jar. Then take each ingredient the front is selling and find how far
    down it actually is.

    Two shortcuts help. First, once you hit a run of things at trace levels
    — PEG emulsifiers, EDTA, a single fragrance line, preservatives — you
    are into the under-one-percent tail, and everything from there down is present at
    roughly a percent or less each. Second, and this is the part most people miss: a
    low position does not automatically damn an ingredient. Some actives, like
    palmitoyl pentapeptide-4, genuinely work at trace amounts, so “it’s
    near the bottom” needs a second question — is this an ingredient that
    works low, or one that has simply been added in a token amount so it can go on the
    front of the box?

    For Olay Regenerist, the answer splits cleanly. Niacinamide at four is doing
    real work at a real amount, and the front of the jar is honest about it. The
    peptide at eleven is a trace, which for that peptide is fine, but the marketing
    bills it as a co-star. The HA at thirteen is small and, on the newer formula, may
    be gone. Read the label and it tells you which of the four names you are actually
    paying for. The marketing department writes the front; it does not get to rewrite
    the back.

    FAQ

    Does Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream have niacinamide, and how
    much?
    On the original-formula list read on 6 September 2026, niacinamide is
    the fourth ingredient of about forty — high enough to be a functional
    amount, most likely in the 2–5% range that the research supports, though
    Olay does not disclose the number.

    Where is the peptide on the label, and does its low position mean it
    does not work?
    Palmitoyl pentapeptide-4, the “Amino-Peptide,” is at position eleven.
    That is a trace level — but published trials use this peptide at about
    0.0003%, so trace is its working range. The low position is not evidence it is
    inert; the fair point is that the marketing bills it as a co-star to the B3 while
    it is a fraction of the formula by volume.

    Does the cream contain hyaluronic acid?
    On the original formula, sodium hyaluronate is at position thirteen, in the
    under-one-percent band. A newer “triple collagen peptide” formula on
    olay.com does not appear to list it, even though some retailer pages still market
    hyaluronic acid as a key ingredient. Check your own label to see which version
    you have.

    Should I worry about the fragrance in it?
    Fragrance is at position twenty-seven. Fragrance is the most common cause of
    cosmetic contact allergy — roughly 0.7–2.6% of the general population,
    higher among people patch-tested for dermatitis. That is worth knowing for a
    twice-daily leave-on product if your skin reacts to scent; it is not proof the
    cream will irritate you, and the amount is undisclosed.

    Why are there two different ingredient lists for this product?
    Olay has an original formula (with parabens, nylon-12 and sodium hyaluronate) and
    a reformulated “triple collagen peptide” version (three peptides,
    phenoxyethanol instead of parabens, and no listed hyaluronic acid) in
    circulation. This analysis is of the original. The quickest tell: three parabens
    means the original; phenoxyethanol and three peptides means the reformulated one.

    Nib sets down the magnifying glass, closes a little notebook titled Ingredient Desk, and gives a small satisfied nod beside the fully-read red label.
    Label read, front claim checked against the back. The B3 is real; the peptide is a trace; the HA is small.