Copper peptides: a guide for formulators

A specification that says Tripeptide-1 does not describe the copper complex, however blue the sample looks. Check the INCI name on the certificate before anything else.

The copper makes the powder and its solutions blue. That colour is a useful check on the bench, as the notes further down explain.

• Cosmetic grade, in 100 mg vials, ten to a box. This is the grade for products applied to the skin. GHK-Cu (Copper Tripeptide-1)
• Research grade, in 50 mg vials, for laboratories that sign our end-use declaration. It is not sold for cosmetic manufacturing.

Both are the pure complex as a powder. We do not make or sell serums or ready-made solutions.

A use level is written as a percentage or in parts per million (ppm) of the finished product. 1 ppm is 1 mg per kg, so 10 ppm is 0.001%.

Whatever level your formula specifies, the sum is the same. A 50 kg batch at 10 ppm needs 500 mg of Copper Tripeptide-1, which is five 100 mg vials. If the certificate of analysis gives a peptide content below 100%, divide by it: at 90%, weigh 556 mg.

A mass that small spreads more evenly through the batch if you first dissolve it in part of the formula's water and add that solution in the cool-down phase.

• The US Cosmetic Ingredient Review (CIR) Expert Panel assessed Tripeptide-1 with its metal salts and fatty acyl derivatives, a group that takes in Copper Tripeptide-1, and published its report in 2018. It recorded typical use concentrations below 10 ppm, and concluded that the ingredients are safe in cosmetics in the present practices of use and concentration described in the report.
• Ingredient makers state a recommended range on the technical data sheet for each grade. The manufacturer's data sheet is available on request, where it issues one, and we add no range of our own.

What ingredient makers' data sheets and the published work say, for you to confirm in your own stability tests:

1. pH. Supplier data sheets for GHK-Cu solutions give a working range close to neutral; one we have read states pH 5.0 to 7.0. A preformulation study published in Pharmaceutical Development and Technology in 2014 found the GHK tripeptide stable in buffers from pH 4.5 to 7.4 for at least two weeks at 60 °C, and more easily broken down under alkaline and oxidative stress.
2. Chelators. Disodium EDTA and other ingredients that bind copper compete with the peptide for its copper ion. Data sheets warn that EDTA can turn a copper peptide solution green, and that carnosine, a dipeptide that also binds copper, can turn it purple. If your base needs a chelator, test whether the copper stays on the peptide through the whole stability study.
3. Temperature. Data sheets ask for it to go in during the cool-down phase, below 40 °C.
4. Acids and pure ascorbic acid. Supplier sheets list strong acids and pure ascorbic acid as incompatible. Keep them out of the same formula.
5. Colour as a check. When a Copper Tripeptide-1 product changes colour on storage, the copper's surroundings have usually changed. Record the colour at every stability time point, beside the peptide assay.

The EDA asks for stability evidence as well: under its 2020 registration guide, extending the shelf life of a locally made product needs a full stability study, reviewed by its stability committee.

The EDA's guides ask for a composition statement listing every ingredient by INCI name, with its percentage (w/w or w/v) and its function. For Copper Tripeptide-1 we provide:

• the INCI name and CAS number, with the function recorded for it in the EU's CosIng inventory (skin conditioning);
• the manufacturer's certificate of analysis for your batch. The EDA's 2022 cosmetics decree describes a raw-material certificate as one that gives the product name, batch number, production and expiry dates and the test results, and states conformity with the specification: check ours against that list when it arrives. How to read a certificate of analysis
• the specification sheet, the safety data sheet and the technical data sheet, on request, where the manufacturer issues them.

Your Product Information File and safety report stay with you. If the EDA asks about the ingredient and these papers do not answer it, send us the question and we take it to the manufacturer. Registering a cosmetic product in Egypt

The EDA defines a cosmetic by its purpose: a product for the external parts of the body, used to clean, perfume, protect, keep in good condition, or change and improve appearance or body odour. Its 2023 notification guide asks for a scientific reference or studies behind any claim on the outer pack, and its 2022 decree puts proof of claims in the Product Information File.

So a brand can describe how skin looks and feels, with its own evidence. It cannot describe the treatment of a condition. We make no claims for the ingredient, and cosmetic-grade Copper Tripeptide-1 is supplied only as an ingredient for products applied to the skin.

We supply cosmetic factories, toll manufacturers, skincare brands and distributors that show a commercial register and tax card, and we deliver to your business address in Egypt. Prices are in US dollars, and every product is supplied to order. We do not supply individuals.