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Topical Peptide Vehicles: Gels, Serums, DMSO
Serums, base creams and DMSO: what people mix topical peptides into, the two rules that matter, and the copper-peptide colour test.
Last reviewed · written by PepPrep · not medical advice
Some peptides, copper peptides for skin and hair most of all, are used on the skin rather than injected. To do that the powder has to go into something: a "vehicle". People search for penetration-enhancing gels and end up with the wrong thing. Here is what the choices are, what the catalogue includes, and the two rules that matter.
The vehicles, in order of simplicity
- A plain hyaluronic-acid serum. Water-based, fragrance-free, and it is what most people use for a face or scalp serum. The pure HA serum in the catalogue is exactly that: nothing in it but water, hyaluronic acid and a preservative.
- An unscented base cream from the pharmacy shelf. Thicker, stays put, better for a small area. Any fragrance-free moisturiser you already tolerate works; pick one without vitamin C, retinol or acids, which do not sit well with peptides.
- A penetration enhancer such as DMSO gel. It carries what is dissolved in it through skin, which is exactly why it needs respect: it also carries whatever else is on the skin, it must be pharmaceutical grade, and it should be kept well away from eyes and broken skin. Some people react to it. It is in the catalogue as what it is, with those warnings, not as a recommendation.
Two rules
- Mix small, fresh, and cold. Once a peptide is in water it starts to lose potency, and a serum is mostly water. Mix a week or two's worth into a small airless pump or dropper bottle, keep it in the fridge, and make more when it runs out. A month-old serum on the bathroom shelf is mostly serum.
- Weigh, don't eyeball. Powder into a vehicle needs a milligram scale and a clean micro spatula; or dissolve it first in bac water using the calculator and add the liquid with a syringe, which is easier and more accurate. Write what went in on the bottle.
Copper peptides specifically
GHK-Cu is blue, and it stays blue in a proper vehicle; if the colour fades or goes green, it has reacted with something in the base, usually vitamin C or an acid. Keep it in its own bottle, use it at a different time of day from acids and retinol, and patch-test on the inner arm first, because a copper-blue serum is famously good at finding skin that objects to it.
What we will not pretend
None of this is a claim about what a topical peptide does. Whether a vehicle helps a given peptide get through skin depends on the peptide, the skin and the concentration, and the honest answer is that most consumer setups are a best effort. What the supplies can do is make the best effort clean, measured and fresh.
Supplies mentioned: Nasal & Delivery · Measuring & Tracking