Ghk-cu topical data from a 12-week patch test, thoughts?

Question

Ok so i finally finished my own little 12 week run on ghk-cu topical serum, fwiw i used a 2mg/mL concentration on one side of my face every night and left the other side as control, i took photos every 2 weeks under the same lighting and even had my coworker at the lab use our colorimeter on me because i did not trust my own eyes, the treated side showed about a 14% improvement in skin firmness readings by week 12 and the control side moved maybe 2%, the photos honestly looked better than i expected, fine lines around my eye looked softer and the texture felt smoother to me, i will say though that weeks 1 to 4 i saw basically nothing and almost quit, the real change showed up around week 6 to 8 which is interesting because most of the marketing i see online implies faster results than that, my question for anyone who has tracked this stuff more carefully, have you noticed this kind of delayed onset pattern with copper peptides, and does the research on collagen synthesis timelines actually line up with what users are seeing or are we all just being patient and calling it a win, also curious if anyone has paired it with microneedling and if the numbers moved more than mine did.

rachel_ketogen · Accepted Answer

Honestly your timeline matches what ive seen floating around in the lit, collagen turnover isnt a fast process no matter what the serums on instagram want you to believe, like fibroblasts take their sweet time ramping up new matrix 😅 6 to 8 weeks for visible change actually lines up ok with biopsy studies showing meaningful collagen shifts around that mark, faster than that is mostly hydration doing the heavy lifting. The half i find more interesting is you held a control side, that 14% vs 2% is a real gap and the colorimeter doesnt care about placebo so thats cool. Microneedling probably would have pushed it higher just because youre creating the injury signal on top of giving copper peptides something to work with, but it also adds variables you cant easily control in a home patch test.

ivy494 · Answer

Yeah the control side was the whole reason i did it that way, placebo was definitely on my mind since i was the one applying it every night, the colorimeter helped a lot because it took my opinion out of it mostly, fwiw i did not microneedle during the run but i have been curious about combining them, did you do that yourself and if so how did you space it out?

rational_climbs · Answer

Yeah the control side thing is honestly the part that sold me, photos are easy to fake even when youre honest with yourself. Colorimeter cut the bs pretty well there.

ivy494 · Answer

Yeah exactly, and honestly the colorimeter was overkill even for me and i am the person who weighs my food for fun, but the photos were doing weird things to my perception by week 8 so i needed something objective, fwiw i almost wish i had done the same concentration on both sides and varied the frequency instead because i am now curious if daily was optimal or if every other day would have gotten me the same results with less product used, the serum was not cheap and i go through a decent amount since i have a bigger face than most people seem to have based on instagram tutorials so that matters for long term cost.

Ghk-cu topical data from a 12-week patch test, thoughts?

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