Oligopeptide-1

Irritancy: unknownComedogenicity: unknownSkin Conditioning

The details

Oligopeptide-1 is another name for Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF). In a formula, EGF works as a signaling ingredient. EGF binds to receptors on your skin cells and tells keratinocytes/fibroblasts to divide, move, and rebuild the skin's support structure. A 2012 open-label study on a barley-derived EGF serum reported statistically significant improvements in fine-lines, skin texture, pore size, and uneven skin tone, with changes showing up within the first month of 2x/daily use. And a 2023 review found generally positive but modest results for growth factor products while pointing out that most trials are small, often industry-funded, and rarely test EGF on its own. So, a fair summary of this ingredient would be "promising with real mechanistic backing, but not yet large-scale proof". Concentration-wise, EGF is biologically active at very tiny amounts so finished products use it at low levels (think parts per million). Raw material supplies usually sell a pre-diluted EGF solution and recommend adding roughly 1-5% of that solution to a formula. Another practical catch: EGF is a fragile protein so it reacts badly to heat and the wrong pH. This just means it relies heavily on good packaging and a solid delivery system to stay active in a bottle. Oligopeptide-1 and Sh-Oligopeptide-1 . The "sh-" prefix just means "synthetic human" and it tells you that it's the lab grown version.