How Amino Acids Benefit Your Skin

Essential for your health and essential to all skin types too.

Throwback to science class when you aced that amino acid test in high school! If you’re anything like us, you didn’t really think about them for a while after that. However, once we heard aminos mentioned again, particularly with new research on their skin benefits – that grabbed our attention.

We’ve known about the benefits of amino acids for your overall health for some time, and eating foods rich in amino acids is an essential aspect of a good diet. But what happens when you apply this to skincare? Turns out, they’re wonderfully beneficial to skin and should absolutely be prioritised in your daily skincare routine.

What are amino acids?

Type of ingredient: Varies

Who should use it: Everybody

How often you should use it: Gentle enough for daily use

Works well with: Almost everything

Known as the building blocks of all proteins, amino acids are essential for your overall health and well-being. Importantly, they are also the foundation of key proteins in skin, like elastin, collagen, and keratins.

Amino acids can be broken down into two types: essential and non-essential. The “non-essential” amino acids are made by your body, while the “essential” types must be acquired from supplements or food.

Don’t let the labels fool you, however, as both are needed by our bodies, albeit in different ways. Both play a role in almost every process in our body and are vital components in helping our bodies function optimally. This extends to the skin, too.

How do they benefit skin?

Amino acids are naturally contained in our skin, and their main function is helping to support the skin’s barrier. By adding more amino acids to your skincare routine, you may supercharge their benefits and improve your skin’s overall health and appearance.

Here are some of the ways amino acids benefit skin:

• Attracts and retains moisture: Amino acids help to keep your skin hydrated by pushing moisture into the skin and helping to retain it. When used with other hydrating products and ingredients, the skin can look healthier and firmer.

• Reduced redness: Redness is often a result of poor skin resilience to everyday stressors, and this can come down to a poor water-oil ratio or dry skin. By maintaining moisture levels in your skin, amino acids help to balance the skin’s pH and soothe visible redness.

• Builds collagen: We all know how important collagen is for healthy skin, and amino acids are an essential building block of this critical protein. Adding them to your routine helps build collagen.

• Promotes visible repair: Collagen plays a key role in skin repair, and since they help boost collagen production, amino acids help to visibly repair skin from everyday stressors.

• Smoothes fine lines: Collagen helps to firm and smooth skin texture, visibly reducing the signs of those pesky fine lines.

Adding amino acids to your skincare routine

At fresh, we always strive to deliver the best skincare products, and our innovative research is always one step ahead. One of our bestselling products, Soy pH-Balanced Hydrating Face Wash, is formulated with soy, which is an amino-rich ingredient that helps with suppleness and skin elasticity. Combined with nourishing aloe vera, soothing cucumber extract, and hydrating borage seed oil, this is a gentle but effective cleanser that delivers all the benefits of amino acids while removing makeup and other impurities.