Glow Simplified
Check your shelf
Evening

How much palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 do you need? 0.0003%+

The effective palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 percentage, by the vehicle-controlled trials, starts at 0.0003%; no published dose comparison sets a ceiling.

Give it eight to twelve weeks, and possibly less: that is simply when it was measured.

how it was measured

Measured on fine line and wrinkle reduction by quantitative image analysis and expert grader assessment; measured at the trial's end, so possibly sooner.PMID 18492182

See it on the timeline, beside the others →

Written by Maya Faour, founder and sole writer; not a dermatologistHow we work →Published Reviewed

Dose line for Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4: the trials worked from 0.0003% with no measured ceiling; ticks at 0.0003% where the named trials worked; only one strength has ever been tested, 0.0003%: tolerated. Linear scale.0.0003%, the only strength tested in leave-on use on human skin (Robinson 2005): tolerated0.0003%toleratedonly strength tested, Robinson 20050%
The rose band is where the vehicle-controlled trials worked, open to the right because no dose comparison sets a ceiling; each tick is a concentration a named trial used, with its author and year; only one strength has ever been tested, 0.0003% (Robinson 2005), where the paper reports: tolerated; no product in our catalogue declares a percentage on the name. The scale is linear.

What palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 percentage is effective?

One vehicle-controlled trial, run by the maker of the product: a moisturiser with 3 ppm pal-KTTKS, which is 0.0003%, against the same moisturiser without it, split-face and double-blind in 93 women aged 35 to 55 for 12 weeks, reduced fine lines and wrinkles on quantitative image analysis and expert grading (Robinson 2005, Procter and Gamble).

0.0003%+

The trials, and what they used
  • Products that name a percentage sit between 0.0003% and 0.003%, ten times the trial's level, and no trial compares the two, so the floor is 3 ppm and the ceiling is unmeasured.
  • A 4-week P&G study of finished products containing Pal-KT and Pal-KTTKS against no treatment improved crow's-feet smoothness in 42 and 35 women but mixes several actives (Kaczvinsky 2009).
  • No dose comparison found.

Is more than 0.0003% palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 better?

Nobody has measured it: no published dose comparison sets a ceiling for palmitoyl pentapeptide-4, so a percentage above 0.0003% is above the trials' floor, not above a measured maximum. Only one strength has ever been tested, 0.0003% (Robinson 2005), and it was tolerated.

Pal-KTTKS was well tolerated by the skin and provided significant improvement vs. placebo control for reduction in wrinkles/fine lines by both quantitative…

The highest dose tested, in the paper’s words
  • Pal-KTTKS was well tolerated by the skin and provided significant improvement vs. placebo control for reduction in wrinkles/fine lines by both quantitative technical and expert grader image analysis.

No published dose comparison sets a ceiling for palmitoyl pentapeptide-4. A declared percentage above 0.0003% is above the trials' floor, not above a measured maximum: the trials say from 0.0003% it works, and say nothing about whether more does more.

What does the palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 percentage on a label tell you?

A name that states a percentage ("Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 0.0003%") is the only amount a cosmetic label ever declares, so it is the one number that can be read against the trials: at or above the 0.0003% floor, or below it.

A name without a percentage leaves the position. The rules make a brand list ingredients in descending order of amount down to 1%, and in any order below it, so palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 above the 1% line is at least 1% and palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 below it can be any trace the brand likes. The floor the trials worked from is 0.0003%, and a position alone cannot tell you whether a label reaches it.

The palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 percentages in our catalogue

The 2 products in our catalogue that carry palmitoyl pentapeptide-4: the number is the percentage the name declares, or the position on the label where it declares none.

2 labels carry it without a number, so the position is all there is:

Read on

Other actives with a dose the trials pinned:

The range column was researched and verified in September 2026 (this row last changed 22 September 2026). The number is the trials' and the reasoning is the knowledge base's; neither is advice about your skin. How we score.