Matrixyl Dosage: What Was Studied, and Why There Is No Injection Dose
Last updated October 27, 2026 · Reviewed by Grey Peptides Editorial Board · ✓ Primary-sourced · No products sold
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Matrixyl is the trade name of palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 (pal-KTTKS), a cosmetic skin-care ingredient. It is not a drug and has no label dose.
No study has injected it. Searches for a Matrixyl injection dose have no answer in the literature: there is no injected amount, frequency or safety record to report.
The human evidence is topical. The main trial used a moisturiser containing 3 ppm on one side of the face for 12 weeks.
Educational information, not medical advice. The doses on this page come from approved labels, published studies and, where no study exists, amounts reported by users. None is a recommendation for you. An unapproved compound has no established safe or effective human dose, and products sold for “research use only” are not made or tested for people. Talk to a doctor before acting on anything on this site, including before you start, stop or change any medicine or dose. Full medical disclaimer.
What the human trials used
Used in human trials
No manufacturer dose exists for this use: these are amounts given in published trials, not recommendations.
| Use | Dose | Frequency | Duration | Route |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studied dose Human studyPMID 18492182 | 3 ppm (in the 2005 trial cream) | daily topical application | — | topical |
In the 2005 trial, 93 women aged 35 to 55 applied a moisturiser with 3 ppm of the peptide to one side of the face and the same moisturiser without it to the other, for 12 weeks. Image analysis, expert graders and the women themselves found fewer wrinkles and fine lines on the treated side, and it was well tolerated.
A 2023 trial in 21 Indonesian women compared a palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 cream, an acetyl hexapeptide-3 cream and placebo, each applied twice daily for eight weeks; the pentapeptide did better on crow's feet. The authors called it an initial study needing larger numbers.
Why there is no injection dose
The peptide was designed and tested for use on the skin, and the encyclopedia entry lists injecting it as a caution for that reason. Its palmitic acid tail is there to help it enter the outer skin: in hairless mouse skin, only the palmitoylated form was found in the skin layers, mostly the outermost, and neither form crossed full-thickness skin. That is the opposite of what an injection does, and no study has measured what happens when it is injected into people.
A reconstitution calculator can turn any vial and volume into syringe units, but it cannot supply a dose that no study has established. A cream concentration in parts per million is not a dose that converts to an injection.
Animal and laboratory amounts
Laboratory and animal work used the peptide in other forms: in cultured fibroblasts it acted at 0.1 µM, and in rats creams and patches containing it improved wound healing. These are not human doses and do not carry over to people. They are listed in the palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 entry with their papers.
Frequently asked questions
What is the dosage of Matrixyl injections?
There is none. No study has injected palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 into people, so there is no injected amount, frequency or safety record. It was designed and tested as a skin-care ingredient.
What concentration of Matrixyl was studied?
The 12-week split-face trial in 93 women used a moisturiser containing 3 ppm palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 on one side of the face.
How often was it applied in the trials?
The 2023 crow's feet trial applied the cream twice daily for eight weeks; the 2005 trial ran for 12 weeks.
Is Matrixyl a drug?
No. It is a cosmetic ingredient, and in the US cosmetic ingredients do not need FDA approval before sale.
Sources
- "Topical palmitoyl pentapeptide provides improvement in photoaged human facial skin" (2005, PMID 18492182)
- "Double-blind, Randomized Trial on the Effectiveness of Acetylhexapeptide-3 Cream and Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 Cream for Crow's Feet" (2023, PMID 36909866)
- "Dermal Stability and In Vitro Skin Permeation of Collagen Pentapeptides (KTTKS and palmitoyl-KTTKS)" (2014, PMID 25143811)
Educational only, not medical advice. Palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 is a cosmetic ingredient with no drug label and no studied injected dose. Talk to a doctor or dermatologist before using any product on or in your body.