Notes on cosmetic formulations
Formula Med Spa: the whole preparation
I trust an ingredient name a little more when it arrives with the preparation attached. With GHK-Cu, the carrier, the skin and the outcome all deserve space on the page.
GHK-Cu and the formula around it
The word formula sounds satisfyingly complete. An ingredient, a preparation, a result. GHK-Cu makes that neatness difficult, and the untidiness makes it worth examining.
There is a concrete starting point: a human fibroblast culture experiment found increased collagen synthesis without an increase in cell number. Fibroblast culture means cells grown in a laboratory; that setting gives the finding its particular force and its particular boundary. The cells changed their collagen production. A face was never the measuring instrument in that experiment.
Then comes the preparation. A review of topical GHK describes poor passage through the stratum corneum, the outer skin barrier. The same review considers ways of improving delivery. The engaging complication follows: the interesting ingredient still has somewhere to get to.
Formulation entries
The collagen culture is the place to examine a sharply defined laboratory result and the much broader gene-expression argument that grew around GHK. The precision of the cell experiment is persuasive; the later argument asks for a larger advance of my confidence.
The skin studies turn to the cosmetic outcomes. A percentage describing increased procollagen synthesis can easily acquire a grander meaning in the imagination. The original outcome has to come back into focus before the number earns my confidence.
The skin-penetration entry follows copper through laboratory skin. Its measurements make delivery tangible, while leaving a separate question about the cosmetic value of what arrived.
Finally, the hair-growth combination supplies the most awkward ingredient list here: a human trial used GHK together with another compound, while a separate laboratory paper tested a different copper peptide. Those particulars are the reason to open the papers.
My pencil goes beside the carrier. The topical review’s delivery problem makes the cream around an ingredient worth taking seriously.
The appeal of a finished formula
The attraction of a finished-sounding name is easy enough to understand. The more interesting research leaves the preparation open to examination: which compound was present, where it went and what changed after it got there.
A trial of a GHK-containing hair formulation is a good example. Its combination and its measured hair counts give it a character of its own. Reducing it to a slogan about copper peptides would throw away the very features that make it useful.
The reading list brings these experiments and reviews together. The about page explains the question behind the title.