Log Your GHK-Cu Skincare Routine
Copper peptide serums rarely arrive in an empty bathroom. They land in a routine that already has six steps, and then something stings (or doesn’t), and nobody can remember whether it was the new serum, Tuesday’s acid toner or the fact that you slept four hours.
That’s the gap this log fills. If GHK-Cu is in a cosmetic product you use, Pinnacle Pulse records which product, when, where it went in your routine and how your skin felt, next to your sleep and the rest of your day. It doesn’t grade your skin. It makes no promises about it either.
One boundary up front: this page is about topical cosmetic products. Injectable GHK-Cu isn’t an approved medicine in the EU or the US, and we don’t cover it here.
Regulatory and anti-doping status · Status as of 16 October 2026
- EU: Listed in the EU cosmetic ingredient database CosIng as Copper Tripeptide-1 (function: skin conditioning). Cosmetics fall under Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, cosmetic claims under Regulation (EU) No 655/2013. EMA’s medicine data have no GHK-Cu medicine.
- United States: Not an FDA-approved drug. Topical cosmetic products are regulated as cosmetics. For pharmacy compounding, GHK-Cu for non-injectable routes sits in FDA’s 503A Category 1 (under evaluation). The injectable-route nomination was withdrawn in April 2026 and is on no list. FDA plans to consult its compounding advisory committee before the end of February 2027.
- Sport: Not named on the WADA Prohibited List. The 2027 List adds “peptides” as examples in class S0, and WADA warns that peptides it doesn’t name may still be prohibited. Tested athletes should check with their anti-doping organization.
Sources (checked 16 October 2026): WADA 2027 List announcement · WADA 2027 explanatory notes (PDF) · FDA 503A category list (PDF) · CosIng: Copper Tripeptide-1 · EMA medicine data · Drugs@FDA
A routine log that remembers the order
Skincare has a quirk most trackers ignore, which is sequence. A custom entry holds the product name, the time and a note, and the note is where “after cleanser, before moisturizer” goes. Log the whole evening routine as one entry or each step on its own. Pick whichever you’ll keep doing in month three. (For most people, that’s one entry.)
How your skin felt, in your own words
You won’t find a skin score anywhere in the app. We left it out on purpose, since an app grading your face before coffee helps nobody. Use the notes and the daily check-in to write down what you noticed: tight, flaky, itchy, fine, “no idea, bad bathroom lighting”. If something irritates, a dated record is exactly what a dermatologist will ask for, and it beats trying to reconstruct a week from the bottles on your shelf.
New products get their own start date
When you open something new, log the first day as a separate entry. Three months later, “when did I start this one?” is a single search instead of an argument with yourself. It also makes patch tests easier to keep straight when two products arrive in the same week.
Your skin’s week, with everything else in it
Plenty of things that aren’t skincare show up on skin. Long-haul flights. Short nights. The first week the heating comes on. Sleep, HRV and resting heart rate from a supported band sit on the same timeline as your routine entries, along with anything else you choose to log. That won’t tell you what caused what. It does stop you blaming the newest bottle by default.
Reading list
GHK (glycyl-histidyl-lysine) is a tripeptide that binds copper. It has been studied in cell and wound-biology research for decades, but clinical studies on topical cosmetic use are scarce. A 2025 review called their absence “surprising”. If you want to read further:
- Pickart & Margolina, International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2018. Review of GHK-Cu research, including gene-expression data: PubMed 29986520
- Mortazavi et al., BioImpacts 2025. Review of topically applied GHK covering skin permeability, formulation problems and the lack of clinical studies: PubMed 39963574
- All PubMed records for GHK-Cu
Our editorial take is at /research/ghk-cu.
What we won’t do
We won’t tell you GHK-Cu is going to change your skin, and we don’t recommend products, brands or concentrations. There’s no shop link on this page and there never will be. You also won’t see before-and-after photos from us, on this site or in our social posts. We make a log, and we’d like to keep it that way.
Privacy
Trend views are computed on your phone. We run no ads, ship no analytics SDKs in the app and don’t sell data to anyone. Synced logs are encrypted, and anything you’ve entered can be deleted in Settings → Privacy, down to a single note.
FAQ
Is GHK-Cu a medicine?
No GHK-Cu medicine appears in EMA’s medicine data or in Drugs@FDA. It is used as an ingredient in cosmetic products, which are regulated as cosmetics.
Does Pinnacle Pulse analyze or score my skin?
No. You write down what you notice. The app keeps it dated and searchable and draws no conclusions from it.
Is GHK-Cu prohibited in sport?
It isn’t named on the WADA Prohibited List. From 2027 the List names peptides in general as S0 examples, and WADA warns that peptides it doesn’t name may still be prohibited, so tested athletes should check with their anti-doping organization.
Will the app recommend skincare products?
No products, brands or concentrations, ever. We have no affiliate links.
Can I export my routine log?
Yes, with dates, entries and notes. Useful before a dermatology appointment.
Pinnacle Pulse is a general self-tracking and visualization app. It is not a medical device and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment or dosing recommendations. Trend views are illustrative and based only on data you log. Listing a substance is not a recommendation to use it.
Last updated: 16 October 2026.