Do you ever wonder if all the weird ingredients in fancy skincare products actually DO anything?
Kakadu Plum, blue cactus, OS-1 peptide… the list goes on! Half the time when I’m looking at a skincare ingredients list I feel like someone went into a fancy organic grocery store, chose some items at random, and blended them into a cream.
Well with the right equipment you can actually measure if they work to help the skin! More on that soon.
In this article (and accompanying video) I’ll talk about one particular ingredient and brand, but let me know if you guys want a more detailed high-level coverage of the topic, or an in-depth analysis of any particular ingredient.
What Happens When a Skincare Brand Approaches Me
I’m a slightly self-conscious scientist who’s done a lot of research on skin health, so when a skincare brand recently approached me they did NOT expect what I’d put them through.
My initial response was what I tell most brands. I need to:
- See the scientific research behind it
- Try it myself
- Be able to OBJECTIVELY measure its effects, and speak truthfully about the results.
At which point most brands walk away. These guys? They got excited!
The brand is OneSkin, and soon I was on a call with Alessandra Zonari, PhD–their Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer–nerding out about a cool molecule that she and her team of all-female PhDs developed.
How OS-01 Peptide Works
Speaking about a laboratory study on their newly discovered peptide OS-01:
Alessandra: “OS 01 (aka peptide 14) showed ability to reduce accumulation of new senescent cells and associated inflammation in tissue, leading to increased collagen production, hyaloronic acid production, skin barrier function, etc.”
Senescent cells are ones that have aged and permanently stop dividing, but don’t die, instead sticking around and gumming up the healthy machinery. So OS-01 essentially stops skin cells from going bad–as more and more do with age or sun exposure. The effect is akin to reducing biological age.
But thats was shown in skin cells in a lab- is there actual human data?
They did a 12-week clinical trial!
“half of the face was using the formulation with the peptide and the other half was without it”
On the half with the peptide, almost everyone showed less wrinkles, improved elasticity, smoothness, etc.
Which is great!
But now for the most important part: will it work for ME? And can I measure it?
My OS-01 Peptide Experiment
I went and got a hi-tech Visia skin scan, where they flashed light across my face across a wide range of frequencies (including UV) and then use a combination of high-res cameras and AI analysis software to measure a whole bunch of different metrics. The results were… a bit scary. In the visible spectrum my skin looks ok! Except for those pores.
But UV light showed that I actually have a lot of spotting from past sun exposure.
That’s a whole lot of no good. Thankfully, OS-01 has shown some pretty solid ability to help DNA repair, helping heal from sun damage.
The Experiment
So here’s what’s gonna happen. I’l be using one skin for the next 6 months, taking periodic skin hydration measurements with an admittedly low quality skin hydrometer. I’ll be doing another full scan in the middle and end. I’ll report back to you guys, but if if you trust the clinical trial data and want to join my experiment, I’ve got a discount code for ya here (AVISHA15). If you give it a try, make sure to report back to me with your results!
P.S. After hearing me talk about my initial research and trial with OneSkin, my own mother went out and bought some! Even before I had a discount code to give her 😡