The hottest topic in skincare and wellness right now isn’t a new version of yoga, a green powder concoction, or a massage tool. Rather, it’s short chains of amino acids ready to collagen-maxx your skin. Wondering if the hype around peptides is real? We asked Dr Barbara Sturm.

Being really into skincare is a blessing in disguise. Sure, there’s the great skin, but also a heightened need to try every single budding ingredient that slowly creeps into the industry. The promises I gravitate towards: glow, toning, and the oh-so-timid collagen stimulation. It’s a constant cycle: a new, beautifully packaged product lands on my desk, I add it to my routine for a couple of weeks, give my verdict – but even when I enjoy it, chances are I’ll go back to the same routine I’ve had for years. There’s joy in trying out different formulations, sure, but also in knowing, almost ten years into my skincare-obsessive journey, what works for me and what doesn’t. I’m committed to my heroes. Which takes me to asking, when was the last time a single ingredient genuinely disrupted the conversation? 

A great temperature check that a new beauty invention has burst the bubble is when colleagues from different desks approach me to ask about a topic uninvited – I haven’t quizzed them about their skincare routines or whether they’re applying the right amount of suncream. Suddenly, it feels like we’ve slipped back into the early days of hyaluronic acid fever. Everybody’s talking about peptides.

Peptides aren’t necessarily a new ingredient, but over the past two years they’ve invaded the cultural lexicon and become an industry-wide buzzword. The name slowly started taking over product labels, but the question still lingered: should I be opening space in my very concise routine for a peptide serum?

It was the moment Dr Barbara Sturm said so that I knew the time was right. As the celebrity favourite, anti-inflammatory mastermind and beauty mogul introduces her first peptide-based serum to her stellar skincare line, she sits down with Wonderland to unpack the moment.

Peptides are such a buzzword right now. I’d love if you could give us a rundown of this product, and what the ingredient is all about.
This serum could also be called the collagen serum. Collagen, for example, is a very large molecule, and it’s hard to even ingest, let alone bring something collagen-similar through the skin and skin barrier. It’s almost impossible. But I get asked so often about collagen. You know, “what do we take? The powder? What do we do with our collagen?” Because obviously, in our 20s, when we start ageing, collagen production goes down, elastin production goes down, and then the structures of the skin [change]. And, you know, the sagging starts, and you get your nasolabial folds, and you get your cheeks coming low… all the things you don’t like.

But it starts basically when you’re 20 years old. And we started developing this serum years ago because, you know, I’m also big in the biohacking, longevity field. I’m talking years ago. Now these terms really bore me. Longevity bores me. Biohacking bores me.

And why is that?
It’s so oversaturated, it’s cheesy. Everybody’s an expert, everybody has something to say. It just became very mainstream, and I’m not good with mainstream anyway. But my background is orthopaedic science, and in my work as a doctor in orthopaedics, we were taking and using methods like exosomes, telomerase activators, you know, your own blood anti-inflammatory proteins, to protect your joints and heal your joints.

So if we looked at what’s out there, it’s exosomes, we have Exoso-metic, we were the first skincare brand to use exosomes. We have the hyaluronic serum. We have the telomerase activation ingredients. And we should have a Peptide Serum where we really focus on creating or putting together the peptides that really focus on collagen production.

Peptides are chains of amino acids, and they’re also quite large. So it’s not that the peptides go through the skin, but the peptides start signalling chains on the surface of the skin. So as soon as the peptides hit your skin, it starts a cascade of information going down into deeper layers of the skin. And this is where we produce the collagen and the elastin.

And we found a bunch of peptides that go together super, super well. And what we added to the serum as well – we added peptides and amino acids that create a medium for these peptides to work, you know, in the best possible way. So it’s not just the peptides, but also amino acids that help to promote these peptides to work super well.

And then we added OxyPeptide-3, which helps relax the fibres of the muscles on the surface to have a Botox-like effect. I don’t know if you noticed that, that you kind of feel a little more, you know, ironed.

I definitely did.
And when you start using it, it’s not that you see a difference in like two seconds. It makes sense that those peptides go to work and create basically the effect in the long term, because you have to see these peptides – I always compare it with your personal trainer for collagen. Or I like the comparison with the hamster who stores the nuts for the winter in their cheeks, you know, or like a bank for collagen. And we did the clinical testing that basically says that elastin production is up 90% and collagen production up 63%, so it really does work.

It’s really important to me that these [products] actually work. And when you create a Peptide Serum, when you put all these peptides together, they’re like little kindergarten children. They’re doing so much mess and creating so much drama that these peptides react, and then the serum isn’t stable.

So we had so much delay because the serum just wouldn’t stay stable. But I wanted all these peptides in, so we had to redo it and wait, and redo it and wait. So that’s why it took us a while to bring this serum to the market. But now it’s, I mean, it’s probably the best you can find in terms of quality, composition, what peptides are in there, obviously also from the hydration level, because it also needs to feel like a serum that not only has these peptides, but from the formulation gives you the plumpness and the hydration and the lipids you need.

So I think it has it all, and that’s why I love the serum. And for me, this is like a hero product already because it’s just so well done.

Why do you think it took the industry so long to really spotlight peptides, and why does it feel like the conversation is everywhere right now?
Because, as I said, you know, there’s so much out there on social media, and everybody is talking about peptides to inject in your system, and oh, we need the peptides for this and the peptides for that. I did all this years ago. And, you know, I think it’s just like a hype. Like exosomes is a hype now, but wasn’t four or five years ago when I created it. Now, we probably would have been way faster with the serum, but I want to say quality matters over the buzz.

So I really only do the things that are effective. And these serums are not equally formulated. There’s so many products out there where it says, oh, peptides, peptides, and then there’s so little in there, you know. It doesn’t make sense either.

And who would you recommend this product to? Does it slot into a general skincare routine, or is it more targeted?
Everyone. Obviously, women or men in hormonal changes, you know, women in menopause, they would harshly see the decrease in collagen. You know, all of a sudden everything hangs and gets bigger. It’s like a dramatic change. They will want to run for it in two seconds. You know, when you’re younger, in your 20s, you think, oh, maybe I don’t need it, but it’s a great prevention product. So I think everybody should have that product. It’s not limited to a certain age group.

I’m also curious to zoom out a bit – when it comes to health more broadly, what does that look like for you right now? Beyond the buzzwords, what actually matters in your day-to-day?

It’s oversaturated. And I also think you need to have street smartness to find the right things for you. And, you know, when I was younger, I was just travelling, sitting in the office… you forget a little bit about your own self-care. So when I turned 50, I moved to Switzerland and I added nature into my life on a daily basis. Nature in combination with sports, hiking, skiing, whatever it is. We have sun every day, we live in a very happy, healing place.

That was one thing for me, to really bring back sports and nature into my life. But then also, since I was 16, I eat a super healthy diet. I really believe what we put inside and outside of your body makes the difference in everything. And I’m also talking about your clothing. You know, if you wear synthetic clothing all day long, wear cotton T-shirts. You know, we should really think about what we sleep in, what we breathe, what we eat. You know, do we wrap stuff in plastic, in aluminium foil? What touches our body from the inside and out.

And then obviously, you need to have a good sleep attitude and hygiene. So I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I go to bed early. Obviously, there are social events where I go, but I’m not staying until 1am. I leave at 11pm. And, you know, I’m living in a really supportive, beautiful, loving community that I never saw anywhere in the world. These things matter to me.

Obviously I do yoga, Pilates, breathing, red light, PMF, I do oxygen, I do hydrogen. Obviously all these things as well. I have a healthy way of supplementation. I do like a lifestyle that is healthy and maintainable, without feeling exhausted from health.

Words – Sofia Ferreira