“New” Class of Anti-Aging Cosmeceuticals: Cellular Guardians

Cellular guardian ingredients protect cells from harmful influences and guide them in youthful behavior. Cosmeceutical peptides are cellular guardians; but not all cellular guardians are peptides.

I started compiling our Cosmeceutical Peptide Glossary over four years ago and have been adding to it ever since.

Over the past year, I’ve been seeing clinical trial results for ingredients which have age-reversing powers like cosmeceutical peptides; but I wasn’t sure how to categorize them. Further I was amazed to read that ingredients which have been around for ages fall into this new group of skin age-reversing topicals.

Dietary Niacinamide (or Niacin or Vitamin B3) has been considered essential for centuries. When I saw topical Niacinamide starting to appear prominently in Olay’s Total Effects and Pro-X product lines, it caught my attention.

September 2009, I selected Olay Pro-X Hydra Firming Cream as one of the top three neck anti-agers and listed the benefits of Niacinamide.

Niacinamide is a cell-communicating ingredient that:

• Supports the skin’s normal renovation process;
• Increases the skin’s level of ceramides and fatty acids to help the skin retain moisture;
• Promotes exfoliation;
• Improves skin texture, fine lines, wrinkles and hydration; and
• Inhibits the irregular production of melanin.

Further, I wrote, “the more I read about Niacimamide, the more I wonder if it might not be a very good substitute [for cosmeceutical peptides]. It does so many good things for skin.”

Besides the term “cell-communicating”, I’ve come across “cell messaging” and “cell signaling” to describe topical substances which facilitate intercellular communication. These ingredients essentially guide the cells to act in a healthy manner. They tell cells how to act and how not to act. They keep bad influences away.

I’m starting to think of them as cellular nannies or guardians.

In addition to the cosmeceutical peptides, we have Niacinamide, retinoids (Vitamin A derivatives including Retinol, Retinal and Retinyl Palmitate), Lecithin, Carnitine and Carnosine.

It’s time for a major expansion of our Cosmeceutical Peptide Glossary!

Tags: anti-aging ingredients, cosmeceutical peptides, cell-communicating ingredients, Niacinamide, retinoids, effective ingredients, Cosmeceutical Peptide Glossary, cosmeceutical science