K18 Peptide Prep™ Pro Chelating Hair Complex

K18 Peptide Prep™ Pro Chelating Hair Complex K18 Peptide Prep™ Pro Chelating Hair Complex ingredients explained: Water (Aqua) (Eau), Polysorbate 20, Carnosine, Trisodium Dicarboxymethyl Alaninate, Sodium Phytate, Sodium Gluconate, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Gluconolactone, Sodium Carboxymethyl Inulin, Sapindus Mukorossi Peel Extract, Lactic Acid, Sodium Benzoate, Calcium Gluconate, Fragrance (Parfum), Benzyl Salicylate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Limonene Show all ingredients by function Water (Aqua) (Eau) solvent Polysorbate 20 emulsifying, surfactant/​cleansing 0, 0 Carnosine antioxidant, cell-communicating ingredient goodie Trisodium Dicarboxymethyl Alaninate chelating Sodium Phytate Sodium Gluconate chelating, moisturizer/​humectant Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate Tetrasodium EDTA Gluconolactone exfoliant, chelating superstar Sodium Carboxymethyl Inulin chelating, viscosity controlling Sapindus Mukorossi Peel Extract Lactic Acid exfoliant, moisturizer/​humectant, buffering Sodium Benzoate preservative Calcium Gluconate moisturizer/​humectant Fragrance (Parfum) perfuming icky Benzyl Salicylate Hexyl Cinnamal Limonene perfuming, solvent Good old water, aka H2O. The most common skincare ingredient of all. You can usually find it right in the very first spot of the ingredient list, meaning it’s the biggest thing out of all the stuff that makes up the product. It’s mainly a solvent for ingredients that do not like to dissolve in oils but rather in water. Expand to read more Once inside the skin, it hydrates, but not from the outside - putting pure water on the skin (hello long baths!) is drying. One more thing: the water used in cosmetics is purified and deionized (it means that almost all of the mineral ions inside it is removed). Like this, the products can stay more stable over time. 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. Though its name does not reveal it, Carnosine is a peptide, a small, two amino acid (β-Ala-His) one. It is naturally present in high concentrations in muscle and brain tissues, but the one used in cosmetic products is biomimetic, meaning that it is synthetically produced in a lab to copy the natural thing. A 2017 review paper on topical peptides writes about Carnosine that it is a "well-documented aqueous antioxidant with wound healing activity". Other than that we can write about manufacturer-done in-vitro (in the lab, not on real people) studies that show Carnosine to have anti-glycation properties. Glycation is the not-so-nice process that happens when we bombard our body with too much sugar that results in damaged body proteins and eventually in more wrinkles. Also, a manufacturer done in vitro study shows that carnosine might have collagen-boosing magic power. However, the 2017 research paper also mentions that even though Carnosine is a small molecule, it is water soluble and does not penetrate the skin past the top layers so we have some doubt if the collagen-boosting works in real life. We could find one anti-aging study made on real people that mentions Carnosine, but it was combined with a bunch of other anti-aging actives so it is pretty much impossible to know what Carnosine did or did not. One last thing to mention is that there is also a manufacturer done clinical study (done on real people) that shows carnosine being effective against the damages caused by infrared (IR) radiation. (source) We don't have description for this ingredient yet. It’s one of those little helper ingredients that makes sure the product stays the same over time. No color change or anything like that. It does so by neutralizing the metal ions in the formula (that usually get into there from water) that would otherwise cause some not so nice changes. 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. It can also be a pH regulator and a humectant (helps skin to cling onto what‑it‑does emulsifying | surfactant/cleansing irritancy, com. antioxidant | cell-communicating ingredient chelating | moisturizer/humectant exfoliant | chelating chelating | viscosity controlling exfoliant | moisturizer/humectant | buffering moisturizer/humectant perfuming | solvent