Peptides and skin research
This corner has an unusually long publication history compared to the rest of the catalogue, and it also contains the one compound European regulators have issued explicit warnings about. Both facts belong on the same page.
Copper, collagen and pigment
Two very different research threads sit under this heading. The first is dermatological: a copper-binding tripeptide that has been studied since the 1970s in the context of wound healing and extracellular matrix turnover. That literature is genuinely substantial and predates the current peptide market by decades.
The second concerns melanocortin receptors and pigmentation. It is a much shorter literature, and it is the one where several European regulators have published safety notices. We link to those notices rather than summarising them, because the wording matters.
Treating those two threads as one subject, which most supplier pages do, obscures the fact that one is well documented and the other carries active regulatory attention.
What is being investigated- Copper binding and extracellular matrix turnover
- Fibroblast activity and collagen synthesis in vitro
- Melanocortin receptor signalling and pigmentation
- Published regulatory positions in the EU
Where this sits legally
The copper peptide has decades of dermatological literature and no approval as a medicine. The pigmentation compound has both a shorter literature and published regulatory notices. Those are different situations.
Compounds studied here
Three items across two research threads with very different track records.
What this page leaves out
No claims about appearance, and no before-and-after anything. The dermatological literature on copper peptides used routes and preparations that differ from what we supply, so comparing across them is already a stretch. For the pigmentation compound we point at the regulators’ own wording instead of writing our own.
Read before you order
One long dermatological literature, one set of regulatory notices. Both linked in full.
GHK-Cu
A tripeptide bound to copper, with one of the longest publication trails in the catalogue.
Read CompoundMelanotan 2
Including the safety notices several European regulators have published, quoted in full.
Read CategoryCollagen peptides
A food ingredient rather than research material, and why it sits under different rules entirely.
Read FrameworkResearch use only
What the label permits, what it forbids, and who carries the responsibility.
ReadQuestions about this area
Mostly about telling the two threads on this page apart.
Why does GHK-Cu have so much more literature than the rest?
What are the regulator warnings about melanotan 2?
Are collagen peptides part of this area?
Why are there two GHK-Cu pens?
Does topical research tell you anything about a pen?
One old literature, one with warnings
We supply both and we say plainly which is which. The compound pages carry the regulatory notices in the regulators’ own words rather than ours.
For laboratory and research use only. Not for human or animal consumption. Not a medicine and not a food supplement. Sold to persons aged 18 and over. Compounds named on this page may appear on the WADA prohibited list.



