Maintaining a youthful appearance has always been a desire sought by women, and the top skincare brands have been dedicated to fulfilling this wonderful desire. In recent years, the hot active peptides are used by high-end skincare brands, and due to the complexity of the causes of aging, various peptides play unique effects with different mechanisms. So today we are going to learn about the anti-aging holy grail of skin care ingredients – peptides! What is peptide? Peptide is a small molecule protein, it is composed of amino acids with certain sequence connected by amide bond, for example, 2 amino acids are called dipeptide, 3 amino acids are called tripeptide, and so on. How does peptide anti aging? Collagen in human body has its own life cycle, when it breaks down, it will release small protein fragments, these fragments are peptides, there are some peptide receptors in skin cells to sense the existence of fragments, just like a lock and a key, the key (peptide) opens the lock (receptor) and new collagen starts to be produced. As we age, this process of promoting new collagen synthesis becomes more and more inefficient, and the addition of peptides in skin care products is equivalent to adding more keys, the chance of unlocking the lock becomes much greater, and more cells are awakened to re-synthesize collagen. Four effects of peptides in skin care products Because of different varieties of amino acids, there are different varieties of peptides, so there are various effects and various names of peptides, but there are 4 main effects as below. The first one: neurotransmitter inhibitor–wrinkle loosening Inhibit and locally block the nerve to transmit the message of muscle contraction; relax the facial muscles to achieve the effect of smoothing wrinkles; this type of peptide has six peptides (Argireline ), five peptides (Leuphasyl), seven peptides (snap 7), etc. The second type: signal generator–promoting collagen production stimulating fibroblasts to produce collagen, making skin fuller and more elastic; representative peptides are pentapeptide (Matrixyl), hexapeptide (Serilesine). The third kind of peptide: carrier transport – as a carrier of certain elements, it transports trace elements to the target location, helps collagen synthesis and enhances skin elasticity; this kind of peptide has Aldeline and Copper peptide. The fourth type: melanin blocker–reducing melanin production Blocking the conduction of MSH (melanotropic hormone) and reducing the chance of melanin production.