How Amino Acids Benefit Your Skin

You may have a vague memory of learning about amino acids in high school that you immediately forgot once you aced the test. We know we did! But once we started hearing mentions of amino acids and skincare—that got our attention.

We’ve long known the importance of eating amino acid-rich foods for your overall health, but what happens when you apply that to skincare? Come to find out they’re incredibly beneficial to skin and should be the next ingredient you prioritize in your skincare routine (and continue to beyond the trend).

What are amino acids?

Type of ingredient: Varying

Who should use it: Everyone

How often you should use it: Gentle enough to use every day

Works well with: Pretty much everything

Amino acids are the building blocks of all proteins—including the key proteins in skin like keratins, collagen, and elastin. There are two types of amino acids: essential and non-essential. The “non-essential” ones your body can create on its own, while the “essential” amino acids are the ones you must obtain from food or supplements.

Both types play a role in nearly all processes in our bodies so are therefore vital components in making our bodies work. The short of it is that they’re essential to your body’s health and function, so we can assume they would be essential to skin, too.

How do they benefit skin?

Our skin naturally contains amino acids. Overall, they help support skin’s barrier. But adding them to your skincare routine can deliver many benefits for your skin’s overall health and appearance.

• Hydrates & retains moisture: Amino acids work to keep skin hydrated by pushing moisture into the skin. When used with other hydrating ingredients, this can result in a plumper, healthy appearance.

• Reduces redness: By increasing and retaining hydration, amino acids help maintain the skin’s pH, which ultimately helps soothe visible redness.

• Builds collagen: Being the building blocks of all proteins, they are also a key component in the skin’s natural collagen levels. Adding amino acids to your routine when thus help build collagen.

• Promotes visible repair: Since they help boost collagen production, they also help visibly repair skin from everyday and environmental stressors.

• Smoothes fine lines: The stimulation of collagen helps firm and smooth the look of those pesky fine lines.

Adding amino acids to your skincare routine

Lucky for you, one of our best-selling products contains amino acids. Soy pH-Balanced Hydrating Face Wash’s is formulated with soy, an amino acid-rich ingredient we researched and found that it is known to help with skin’s elasticity and suppleness. Teamed with soothing aloe vera, cooling cucumber extract, and nourishing borage seed oil, this gentle-yet-effective formula will deliver all the benefits of amino acids while deeply cleansing your skin and removing all traces of makeup and grime.