How koppā Fits Into My Real Life

At 54, my routine is short. I use a normal face wash, then our GHK-Cu serum on my face and neck, then the capsule cream over it about a minute later, then the balm stick under my eyes and on my neck. Tretinoin goes in around once a week. koppā is the backbone because it is simple enough that I actually stick to it. Those three products are sold together as The GHK-Cu Protocol, and that set is my whole morning and night.

I think one of the easiest things to do when you own a skincare company is accidentally make your own routine sound more perfect than it really is. Mine isn't. I still occasionally use other things if I feel like it, but I do not layer a dozen actives on top of one another. And at 54, a routine I keep up matters to me more than having an impressive shelf.

I am not trying to make my skin look 24 again. I am much more interested in whether it feels comfortable, whether it looks fresh, whether makeup sits well, whether my neck looks healthy, and whether I can keep a routine going without getting bored or irritated by it.

Why does the serum always come first?

The serum is always first. I use our GHK-Cu 2% High Potency Serum pretty liberally on my face and neck.

The thing I love most about it is how little it behaves like what a lot of people expect from a serum. It is light. It sinks straight in. It is almost like water.

That was important to me. There are a lot of very good serums on the market with very good ingredients, but I personally do not like putting something on my face and then feeling it sitting there. I wanted a copper peptide serum that absorbs quickly and leaves no sticky or greasy residue. It makes my skin feel fresh.

If the serum is the only step someone wants that morning, they should be able to put sunscreen or makeup over it and get on with their day. And if they are using the cream after it, I did not want there to be some elaborate waiting period between layers. I usually wait about a minute. That is it. Then the cream goes straight over it.

The cream is the product I really spread around

My husband really likes our GHK-Cu Advanced Capsule Cream. See the cream product page for current availability and delivery information.

I understand why. It is genuinely very hydrating, but it does not feel like a heavy cream. That distinction matters to me. I want my skin to feel cushioned and comfortable, but I do not want to feel as though I have put a thick film over my face.

I use it morning and night, and I am fairly generous with it. I take it over my face and neck, then whatever is left on my fingers gets dragged down onto my chest. I tend to use even more when my skin is feeling dry, and tretinoin is usually the reason.

Where does tretinoin fit?

I use tretinoin around once a week, and I will admit that I am terrible at using the tiny amount I am supposed to. I almost always use too much. Then a few days later I pay for it with dryness, flaking and areas that suddenly feel much more sensitive than they did before. That is when I lean most heavily on the cream, and especially the stick.

I am not trying to build a routine in which every product has to come from koppā. I use what makes sense for my skin, and tretinoin is part of that. For me, the job of the rest of my routine is to stay simple enough that I keep using it.

Tretinoin is a prescription medicine, so how much and how often you use it is a conversation for your doctor or dermatologist. If you want the detail on combining the two, our guide to copper peptides with retinol or tretinoin covers it.

The balm stick has two permanent jobs

The GHK-Cu Face + Body Balm Stick has two places it goes every single day without fail: under my eyes and on my neck.

At 54, the skin under my eyes simply does not behave the way it used to. It feels thinner. Makeup does not sit the same way. Dryness shows faster. I like the stick there because I can put a little bit exactly where I need it without adding a heavy layer over my entire face.

And then there is my neck. The neck does not lie. For me, it is one of the clearest places where age shows, and mine has also spent an extraordinary number of hours bent over a laptop while I have been building this company. So yes, I have lines there.

I was never looking for a 20-year-old neck. But I do think the skin looks fresher than it did before, and the lines I notice from constantly looking down seem softer to me. It also simply feels better. Less dry. Less crepey. More comfortable. Those are the kinds of changes I care about now. (If your neck is your focus too, we wrote a whole piece on the neck and décolletage.)

Some uses only appeared after we launched

The stick is also the product that has surprised me most in how many different ways I ended up using it. One of those came after our initial soft launch.

We had originally talked about post-shave use mostly in the context of men. Face, jaw, neck. That made sense to me. Then, after we had already launched, I had one of those embarrassingly obvious realisations. I shave too, and I shave a much larger part of my body. Why had I mentally filed post-shave care under "men"?

So I started using the stick on my legs after shaving, and that became part of my routine too. It was a useful reminder that skincare uses do not always arrive fully formed in a product-development meeting. Sometimes you only discover them by living with the product.

The balm stick became my travel skincare

The other place the stick has become indispensable for me is travel. I travel a lot, and long flights are probably one of the worst environments for my skin. The air is dry, I am tired, I am touching airport surfaces and airplane seats, and the last thing I want to do is put my fingers all over my face.

The stick solves that for me. I can use it without touching my face with my hands. I take the cap off, glide it under my eyes, over my neck, onto the dry areas around my mouth or wherever my skin suddenly feels tight, put the cap back on and keep going.

As I am writing this, I am actually on a long-haul flight. I have already used it under my eyes. I have used it on my neck. And I have basically slathered it over every area that started feeling dry somewhere over Europe.

That is exactly the kind of skincare I want in my life. Something useful enough that it leaves the bathroom. Something I can use at my desk, on a flight, after shaving, before makeup, or when my skin suddenly feels dry. Something I do not need to prepare for. That sounds like a small thing, but I think it is one of the biggest reasons I use it so often.

Skincare has to fit around life. Not the other way around.

My routine, step by step

Put together, my routine is basically this:

1. Cleanse with a normal face wash.
2. GHK-Cu serum, pretty liberally, on my face and neck.
3. GHK-Cu cream about a minute later, morning and night, over my face and neck, with what is left on my fingers taken down onto my chest.
4. Balm stick where I want it: under my eyes, on my neck, and on my legs after shaving.
5. Tretinoin around once a week.

That is it. The serum, cream and stick come together as The GHK-Cu Protocol: the 45 ml serum, the 80 g capsule cream and the 20 g balm stick, all full size, for $175 rather than $190 bought separately. Check the product page for current availability and delivery information. The order on the box is the order I use them in: serum on clean skin, then cream, then the balm on the areas you want, and SPF 30 or higher to finish in the morning. The full koppā 3-step routine goes through each step in more detail.

Where koppā fits in my routine

koppā is the part of my routine that stays on my skin, and that is deliberate. Personally, I do not see much point in putting an expensive peptide into a product that I am going to rinse off almost immediately, so I wash with a normal face wash and put GHK-Cu into the products that stay on.

That is also why I do not believe every product in a skincare routine needs to come from one brand. I use what makes sense, and tretinoin and a simple face wash sit alongside the three koppā steps.

The serum is 2% GHK-Cu (copper tripeptide-1) with six additional peptides, fragrance-free and silicone-free. The cream has 0.5% encapsulated GHK-Cu with 5% niacinamide, 4% squalane and 3% jojoba, and it is fragrance-free. The stick has 0.5% GHK-Cu with eight additional peptides in a water-free balm with a matte finish. The concentrations are on every product page, with the full ingredient list.

What I noticed after using it consistently

Using the finished versions consistently, the changes I noticed were quiet ones.

My skin felt more comfortable. It looked fresher. It seemed to stay hydrated for longer. My neck looked better to me. The dry areas around my eyes were easier to manage. Makeup sat better. And perhaps most importantly, I stopped feeling as though I needed to keep adding more things. I liked the routine enough to keep doing it.

I think that is the part of skincare we sometimes overlook. An ingredient list can be extraordinary, but if the serum is sticky and you hate putting it on, eventually you stop. A cream can be incredibly rich, but if it feels so heavy that you only use it occasionally, you are not giving consistency much of a chance. A balm can be packed with beautiful ingredients, but if it leaves you looking greasy, it ends up in a drawer.

For me, texture is not separate from performance. Texture is part of what makes consistency possible. And at this stage of my life, consistency is what I am interested in. Not trying to erase the fact that I am 54. Not trying to chase the face I had twenty years ago. Just supporting the skin I have now, and making it feel and look as good as I realistically can.

Frequently asked questions

What is in your skincare routine at 54?

A normal face wash, the GHK-Cu serum, the GHK-Cu capsule cream, the balm stick where I want it, and tretinoin around once a week. That is all of it. I occasionally use other things if I feel like it, but I do not layer a dozen actives.

How long do you wait between the serum and the cream?

About a minute. The serum is almost like water and absorbs quickly, so I did not want an elaborate waiting period between layers. Then the cream goes straight over it.

Do you use GHK-Cu with tretinoin?

Yes. I use tretinoin around once a week, and on the days after, when my skin is dry or flaking because I used too much, I lean on the cream and the stick, which keep my skin feeling cushioned and comfortable.

How do you use the balm stick when you travel?

Without touching my face with my hands. On a long flight I take the cap off, glide it under my eyes, over my neck and onto anywhere that starts feeling dry, put the cap back on and keep going.

What does The GHK-Cu Protocol include?

The full-size serum (45 ml), capsule cream (80 g) and balm stick (20 g), for $175 instead of $190 bought separately. You use them in that order: serum, then cream, then the stick on the areas you want, with SPF 30 or higher in the morning.

The short version

My routine at 54 is a normal cleanser, GHK-Cu serum, GHK-Cu cream, the balm stick where I want it, and tretinoin once a week. I am not chasing the face I had twenty years ago; I want skin that feels comfortable and looks fresh, and a routine I will keep doing. Texture is what makes that possible. If you want to try the same three steps, start with the serum on clean skin tonight.

Chantelle, co-founder, koppā