Azelaic Acid and Copper Peptides: Can You Use Them Together?

Azelaic acid and copper peptides are compared all the time. But they do very different things. So can you use copper peptides and azelaic acid together in the same routine? Yes!

Azelaic acid can help bring your skin tone back into balance and prevent pores from getting clogged. Collagen peptides - more specifically, GHK-Cu - support skin firmness and texture by encouraging the skin to make more collagen and elastin.

So if your skin needs a little bit of help with everything - tone, congestion, texture, sagging, etc. - it makes sense to combine these ingredients in the same regimen. We’ll walk you through the best practices for layering below. You’ll also learn what separates our copper peptide serum from the rest!

Key Takeaways

• Copper peptides support skin firmness and may diminish the appearance of fine lines.
• Azelaic acid can help with uneven tone and post-blemish marks, balancing complexion.
• They don’t do the same thing, so there’s a chance you could benefit from using copper peptides and azelaic acid together.
• PLU Laboratories has the best topical peptides for skin and hair alike. 

Quick Comparison of Azelaic Acid vs Copper Peptides

Benefits of Copper Peptides

Copper peptides have quickly become one of the most popular ways to help encourage firmer, more youthful-looking skin. The one in particular that has the most research is GHK-Cu, which actually exists naturally in human blood plasma.

GHK-Cu was first isolated in the 1970s. Over the past 50+ years we’ve learned so much about what it can do. It interacts with 4,000+ genes, touching everything from collagen production to elastin maintenance, skin turnover, damage, and more.1 It’s a very versatile skincare product.

The problem is your body’s GHK-Cu content peaks in your 20s and falls off slowly but surely. You have dramatically less of it by the time you’re in your 40s, 50s, and 60s. That’s why it makes sense to start adding it to your skincare regimen.

So what exactly do copper peptides do? A lot. People who use them say their skin looks firmer and more “snatched” than it did prior to incorporating them. Others say fine lines start to become less noticeable over time. There’s even a case to be made for using GHK-Cu for hair. 

It’s worth noting there are many other types of copper peptides beyond GHK-Cu, including AHK-Cu. But nothing has as much research behind it as GHK-Cu, so that’s what we want to focus on for the sake of our comparison of azelaic acid and copper peptides. 

What Does Azelaic Acid Do?

This dicarboxylic acid is naturally found in wheat, barley, and rye. Your skin makes it too, though! This happens through Malassezia yeast, which builds up on the skin’s surface. Most people encounter azelaic acid through a dermatologist’s recommendation for redness or uneven tone, though.

Azelaic acid has become a skincare staple for anyone with sensitive or easily irritated skin. It has FDA approval at prescription concentrations (15% gel, 20% cream). There are also over-the-counter (OTC) formulations that top out at around 10%. 

This is one of the few active ingredients in skincare that does multiple things at once. That’s why it’s so popular. It’s versatile. Redness, post-breakout marks, and uneven texture - you don’t need a different product for each of these ailments.

There’s ample research showing azelaic acid acts on quite a few different pathways. A review of the available research in 2023 found it had:

• Tyrosinase inhibition for pigmentation
• Keratolytic effects that keep pores clear
• Antibacterial activity
• Antioxidant function

It’s rare for one active ingredient to do this many things, but azelaic acid does it.2

Azelaic acid also plays really nicely with other ingredients in skincare. Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Connie Yang says, “Azelaic acid is one of the easiest active ingredients to build a routine around because it's compatible with almost everything.”3

That compatibility is why people are curious about pairing azelaic acid with copper peptides.

Can You Use Copper Peptides and Azelaic Acid Together?

You can see that there’s really no overlap in what these two skincare ingredients do. But they DO share one similarity - each does more than one thing. In this sense, pairing copper peptides with azelaic acid can help cover a lot of the different bases. 

But can you use copper peptides and azelaic acid together? Or are there any adverse effects you need to be aware of? The short answer is they are safe to pair. There are no known interactions between the two. How you use them matters, though. 

One detail you should be aware of, though, is that azelaic acid exerts some of its effects by interacting with copper at the active site of tyrosinase. Tyrosinase is the enzyme responsible for making melanin, or your skin’s pigment.2 We don’t know whether or not that affects the copper ion in GHK-Cu. We can’t say it does or doesn’t. 

That being said, there’s an easy way to completely eliminate this concern. Just separate the two ingredients. Apply them at different times of day. You can use copper peptides at night and azelaic acid in the morning, or vice versa. This is how we pair azelaic acid and copper peptides:

• Azelaic acid after cleansing in the morning, followed by SPF
• Copper peptides after cleansing in the evening, before moisturizer

You can try pairing copper peptides and azelaic acid together yourself - just pick up our GHK-Cu face serum at PLU Laboratories to get started. It’s the #1 choice because it has a 1% GHK-Cu concentration along with meaningful concentrations of Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 and Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7. What’s NOT in the formula, though, is any fluff or filler. Just 6 total ingredients.

PLU Laboratories

The direct route to firmer-looking skin

Just 6 ingredients. 1% GHK-Cu with Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 and Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7

Shop GHK-Cu Face Tonic

Bottom Line on Azelaic Acid and Copper Peptides

We get asked about what not to mix with copper peptides all the time. Fortunately, azelaic acid is not one of those things. Azelaic acid and copper peptides go hand in hand. You can take the next step with GHK-Cu serum today. 

Related Resources

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