Palmitoyl tripeptide-1 (Pal-GHK) is GHK, the same three-amino-acid peptide found in copper peptide (GHK-Cu), with a fatty acid attached to help it into the skin. It is one of the two peptides in Matrixyl 3000 and is used in anti-wrinkle products, but a 2024 review found a surprising lack of clinical studies of it.
Also known as: Pal-GHK, Matrixyl 3000 (with palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7).
There is no standard strength, and the studies below do not give a concentration in the abstract.
Skin-care peptides are sold as cosmetic ingredients. FDA does not approve cosmetics before they go on the market. FDA says a product that only moisturizes so lines look less noticeable is a cosmetic, but a product intended to remove wrinkles or increase the skin's production of collagen is a drug or a medical device, even if it is sold as a cosmetic.
A 2024 review of GHK (Mortazavi) says GHK works as an anti-wrinkle ingredient in cell studies, and that adding a fatty acid helps it through the skin, but that published data on how well Pal-GHK gets in and how well it works are insufficient, with a surprising absence of clinical studies. In three women (Trzaska 2026), Pal-GHK was found throughout the outer skin layer, between the cells.
The human studies we found tested it only in mixtures. A 12-week eye-cream study led by a company research center (Yang 2024) combined it with palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7 and two other actives. A 4-week open-label study of a two-step lip treatment in 32 women (Trookman 2009) included a palmitoyl-GHK complex alongside growth factors, hyaluronic acid and niacin; there was no comparison group.
We could not find a published half-life or time to peak for palmitoyl tripeptide-1. It is applied to the skin, and the studies we found measured the skin, not levels in the blood, so we do not list one.
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