Drunk Elephant
Protini™ Polypeptide Cream
Uploaded on 01/08/2023
Protini polypeptide cream protein moisturizer combines signal peptides, growth factors,
supportive amino acids, and pygmy waterlily for immediate improvement in the appearance of skin's tone, texture, and firmness.
The Inkey List
Peptide Moisturiser
Uploaded on 02/04/2020
A rich, daily, age-defying moisturiser uniting two forms of peptides
(chains of amino acids) to support skin's natural proteins, helping to keep skin looking healthy and youthful.
Ingredients
what‑it‑does | solvent |
Normal (well kind of - it's purified and deionized) water. Usually the main solvent in cosmetic products.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
A very common emollient that makes your skin feel nice and smooth. Comes from coconut oil and glycerin, it’s light-textured, clear, odorless and non-greasy.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
A real oldie but a goodie. Great natural moisturizer and skin-identical ingredient that plays an important role in skin hydration and general skin health.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | antimicrobial/antibacterial |
An often used emollient with a light and silky feel. It's very mild to both skin and eyes and spreads nicely and easily. It's often used in sunscreens as it's also an excellent solvent for sunscreen agents.
what‑it‑does | emollient | viscosity controlling | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
irritancy, com. | 1, 2 |
A super common multitasker ingredient that gives your skin a nice soft feel (emollient) and gives body to creams.
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what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
irritancy, com. | 2, 3 |
An oily ingredient that can magically blend with water all by itself (called Self Emulsifying). Other than that it’s a nice emollient that gives a smooth and soft appearance to the skin.
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what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant |
A sugar beet derived amino acid derivative with nice skin protection and moisturization properties. Its special thing is being an osmolyte, a molecule that helps to control cell-water balance.
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what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant | solvent |
irritancy, com. | 0, 1 |
An often used glycol that works as a solvent, humectant, penetration enhancer and also gives a good slip to the products.
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what‑it‑does | preservative |
Pretty much the current IT-preservative. It’s safe and gentle, and can be used up to 1% worldwide.
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what‑it‑does | preservative | perfuming | solvent | viscosity controlling |
It's one of those things that help your cosmetics not to go wrong too soon, aka a preservative. It can be naturally found in fruits and teas but can also be made synthetically.
No matter the origin, in small amounts (up to 1%) it’s a nice, gentle preservative.
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what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
irritancy, com. | 0, 1 |
A handy white powder that magically converts a liquid into a nice gel formula.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
Shea butter that's considered to be a magic moisturizer and emollient. It is also soothing and rich in antioxidants.
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what‑it‑does | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
An amino acid-based emulsifier that helps water and oil to mix and stay that way. It is considered as natural, environmentally friendly, and hypoallergenic.
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what‑it‑does | buffering |
Lye - A solid white stuff that’s very alkaline and used in small amount to adjust the pH of the product.
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what‑it‑does | preservative |
It can boost the effectiveness of phenoxyethanol (and other preservatives) and as an added bonus it feels nice on the skin too.
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what‑it‑does | chelating | moisturizer/humectant |
The neutralized form of gluconic acid. It's a great ingredient to neutralize metal (especially iron and copper) ions in a cosmetic product. This helps to prevent discoloration of the formula over time or rancidity of cosmetic oils.
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what‑it‑does | antioxidant |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
A form of vitamin E that works as an antioxidant. Compared to the pure form it's more stable, has longer shelf life, but it's also more poorly absorbed by the skin.
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what‑it‑does | preservative |
A preservative that works mainly against fungi and has only milder effect against bacteria. Popular in natural products.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | emulsifying |
It's the chemically chopped up version of normal lecithin. Most often it's used to create liposomes and to coat and stabilize some other ingredient.
A colorless liquid used in small amounts as a so-called masking ingredient, meaning it can hide the natural not-so-nice smell of other cosmetic ingredients.
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what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant |
It's a little helper ingredient coming from corn, rice or potato starch that can help to keep skin mat (absorbent), to stabilise emulsions, and to keep the product together (binding).
what‑it‑does | emollient |
A clear, colorless, almost odorless oil that spreads nicely and easily and gives a velvet dry skin feel. It is good friends with sunscreen agents and helps to solubilize them.
what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
Part of Olivem 1000, a natural emulsifier duo that is known for forming biomimetic liquid crystal structures. It doubles as an active ingredient with barrier repairing and soothing properties.
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what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
An ester coming from sorbitol and the fatty acids of olive oil. It often comes to the formula coupled with Cetearyl Olivate and the two together help water and oil to blend (emulsifier). It's a natural and Ecocert approved duo.
what‑it‑does | emollient |
Marula Oil - a really nice nourishing and moisturizing oil that can improve skin hydration and smoothness and it can even reduce skin redness. It's a rich source of fatty acids (mainly oleic - 73%) and antioxidant vitamin E.
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what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
Epidermal Growth Factor - a smallish protein that works as a potent cell signaling molecule. It stimulates cell proliferation, wound healing and skin renewal. Do not use if you have psoriasis or high skin cancer risk factors.
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what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
Sh-Oligopeptide-2 is also called Insulin-like growth factor 1 and it belongs to the same group of ingredients (Growth Factors) as its better-known sister, Epidermal Growth Factor or Sh-Oligopeptide-1.
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what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
Sh-Polypeptide-1 is a cell signaling protein also called Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor and is twin sister to Acidic Fibroblast Growth Factor.
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what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
Sh-Polypeptide-9 is a cell signaling protein also called Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor. As its name suggests, its main function is to stimulate the formation of blood vessels.
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what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
Sh-Polypeptide-11 is a medium sized cell signaling molecule also called Acidic Fibroblast Growth Factor. It belongs to the same group of ingredients (Growth Factors) as its better-known sister, Epidermal Growth Factor or Sh-Oligopeptide-1.
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what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
Copper Palmitoyl Heptapeptide-14 is the payload peptide (a short chain of amino acids) in the encapsulated copper peptide technology trade named X50 Antiaging. The delivery system (called The Cosmetic Drone) is a high-tech capsule where our peptide is wrapped in a biocompatible polymer shell (created from Lactic Acid/Glycolic Acid Copolymer, Polyvinyl Alcohol) and another peptide, which has an affi
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what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
Heptapeptide-15 Palmitate is the targeting peptide (a short chain of amino acids) that is part of the encapsulated copper peptide technology trade named X50 Antiaging.
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what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
The pal of Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 in Matrixyl 3000. A four amino acid peptide that works by reducing the production of the signal molecule, inteleukin-6 (IL-6) that promotes inflammation in the skin.
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what‑it‑does | cell-communicating ingredient |
A three amino acid peptide that is part of famous peptide duo, Matrixyl 3000. It's a type I collagen fragment that might be able to trick the skin to think that collagen broke down and it's time to create some new one.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
A non-essential amino acid (a building block of skin proteins like collagen or elastin) that hydrates the skin.
what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
An amino acid that is one of the primary building blocks of hair keratin and skin collagen. It's a natural moisturizing factor and might also help to speed up wound healing.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
An amino acid (the building blocks of skin proteins, like collagen) that hydrates the skin and might help wound healing and improve wrinkles.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant |
An amino acid that is important in regulating the immune defense and inflammatory processes in the body. It's a skin moisturizer that might protect from skin infections.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
An essential amino acid that hydrates the skin and might be also a barrier repair ingredient.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
An essential amino acid that is used in the treatment of vitiligo.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
A non-essential amino acid (meaning that our body can produce it) that might be able to improve wrinkles combined with other amino acids, glycine and leucine.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
Serine is an amino acid that most often comes to the formula as part of a moisturizing complex. It's a non-essential amino acid (meaning that our body can synthesize it) and serves as a water-binding ingredient.In general, amino acids are great skincare ingredients that play an important role in proper skin hydration but there is not much info out there about what specifically serine can d
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
An essential amino acid (important building block of collagen and elastin) that hydrates the skin.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
An essential amino acid (a building block of skin proteins like collagen) that is a skin hydrator.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | solvent |
A volatile naturally derived vegetable alkane coming from renewable sources. It works as an emollient that gives smooth skin feel.
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what‑it‑does | emollient |
A light emollient ester (C8-10 fatty acids connected to C12-18 fatty alcohols) that absorbs quickly and leaves a dry but silky finish on the skin. In terms of skin feel, it is similar to Dicaprylyl Carbonate, another commonly used light emollient.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
It's the salt form of famous humectant and natural moisturizing factor, hyaluronic acid. It can bind huge amounts of water and it's pretty much the current IT-moisturizer.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient |
A non-essential amino acid (important building block of collagen and elastin) that hydrates the skin.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | emollient | surfactant/cleansing |
The famous omega-6 fatty acid, the mother of all ω-6 fatty acids in our body. It is a so-called polyunsaturated fatty acid meaning it has more than one (in this case two) double bonds and a somewhat kinky structure that makes LA and LA-rich oils a thin liquid.It is also an essential fatty acid meaning our body cannot synthesize
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | emollient | surfactant/cleansing | perfuming |
The famous omega-3 fatty acid, the mother of all ω-3 fatty acids in our body. Next to linoleic acid, it is the other essential fatty acid that our body cannot synthesize and we have to ingest it from our food.
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what‑it‑does | emollient | emulsifying |
It's quite the multi-tasker: an emollient and water-binding ingredient but also an emulsifier and can be used for stabilization purposes. It's also often used to create liposomes.
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what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
what‑it‑does | buffering | moisturizer/humectant |
The sodium salt of lactic acid. It's a great skin moisturizer and also used to regulate the pH value of the cosmetic formula.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
It's an important skin-identical ingredient and great natural moisturizer that helps the skin to hold onto water and stay nicely hydrated.
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what‑it‑does | skin-identical ingredient | moisturizer/humectant |
PCA stands for Pyrrolidone Carboxylic Acid and though it might not sound like it, it is a thing that can be found naturally in our skin. In fact, after amino acids, it is the second biggest NMF component of the skin with 12% being PCA of the NMF composition of normal skin. So similar to other NMFs, it's a skin goodie that
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what‑it‑does | emulsifying |
irritancy, com. | 0, 1-2 |
A handy helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix nicely together.
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what‑it‑does | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
irritancy, com. | 0, 0 |
It's a common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together. Also, it can help to increase the solubility of some other ingredients in the formula.
what‑it‑does | emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing |
A common little helper ingredient that helps water and oil to mix together, aka emulsifier.
what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
A helper ingredient that's good at stabilizing water-based formulas and also serves as a thickener.
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what‑it‑does | viscosity controlling |
A super commonly used thickener and emulsion stabilizer.
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what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant |
what‑it‑does | solvent |
A multi-functional helper ingredient that acts as a humectant and emollient. It's also a solvent and can boost the effectiveness of preservatives.
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what‑it‑does | moisturizer/humectant | emollient |
A handy multi-tasking ingredient that gives the skin a nice, soft feel and also boosts the effectiveness of other preservatives.
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what‑it‑does | preservative | antimicrobial/antibacterial |
A little helper ingredient that works as a preservative. It works against bacteria and some species of fungi and yeast.
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what‑it‑does | antioxidant |
irritancy, com. | 0-3, 0-3 |
Pure Vitamin E. Great antioxidant that gives significant photoprotection against UVB rays. Works in synergy with Vitamin C.
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what‑it‑does | preservative |
A preservative that works mainly against fungi. Has to be combined with other preservatives.
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what‑it‑does | perfuming | solvent |
A naturally occurring floral component with a delicate scent that can mask the odor of other raw materials. It also has remarkable antimicrobial and preservative boosting abilities.
what‑it‑does | preservative |
A natural multi-functional ingredient that has emollient and moisturizing properties, can work as a co-emulsifier and has a strong antimicrobial activity.
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