Before Batch 01
The receipt shows what’s in the formula.
Here are the decisions behind it.
Some of you asked why the serum needed added color. For some, it was a reason not to try it. We listened and removed both colorants before our first batch.
For this update, the other non-water ingredients stay at the same declared amounts. Water replaces the removed colorants. The frosted glass bottle stays the same.
The first version contained perfume. We asked our manufacturer to reformulate it without added fragrance.
Confirmed in writing by our manufacturer on August 4, 2026.
Earlier in development
These changes came before the color decision. Open any entry for the detail.
We raised three peptide amounts during development. The other three were already listed at 0.5% in the earlier manufacturer formula.
| Ingredient | Earlier | Updated |
|---|---|---|
| Oligopeptide-1 | 0.3% | 0.5% |
| Heptapeptide-6 | 0.3% | 0.5% |
| Acetyl Hexapeptide-8 | 0.2% | 0.5% |
Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-8 and Acetyl Heptapeptide-4 remained at 0.5% each. These are declared recipe inputs, not independently verified pure-active concentrations.
As part of adapting the starting formula, we increased niacinamide to 2%. It’s one of the development decisions Julian describes in his founder story.
You can read every ingredient and its declared amount together in the ZUVIE Receipt.
Following the UK laboratory’s recommendation on preservation, we increased phenoxyethanol, a preservative, to 0.45%.
This records the formulation change. The preservation test status is explained on the product page.
We removed ethylhexyl salicylate, a UV-filter ingredient listed in the earlier formula. ZUVIE is not a sunscreen, and we do not claim SPF protection.
The serum does not replace sunscreen.
People kept asking. We didn't know, so for a while we said we didn't know, which satisfied nobody including us. We put the question to the factory.
The answer came back on August 18, in these words: "The sodium DNA in the product is from salmon."
So the answer is no. It isn't vegan, and there's no version of that sentence that reads better.
What we got wrong in this entry, and corrected on September 1, 2026: we wrote that PDRN is salmon-derived and that this is simply what PDRN is. It isn't. There is a version made by fermenting bacteria instead of taking it from fish, and it carries the same name on an ingredient list, Sodium DNA, so a label will not tell you which one you are holding. Ours is from salmon. That is a choice we made, not a fact about the category, and we should have written it that way the first time. If you have a fish allergy, check with your doctor before use.
We did not go looking for a fermented substitute for the first run. The formula is written and the safety work is running on it, and changing the raw material now starts that over.
When we'd reopen it: if a reliable comparison of the two on human skin is ever published, this goes back on the table. It would go into a later batch, not into the middle of the first one, and it would be written here first.
Every answer that clears reading goes up word for word on the drawer, spelling and all, including the ones that make the whole category look bad. The count lives there and not here, so this page can't quietly go out of date on you. A few are always still being read: nothing goes up automatically, and nothing goes up edited. Here is what they were promised:
That sentence is one reason we do not describe this serum as reaction-free. "Safe for sensitive skin. Wont cause breakouts (it did)."
That sentence is the reason Entry 01 above ends the way it does. Safe for sensitive skin is a promise we are not going to make. Removing colorants does not mean the formula will suit every person. Somebody was told that once already, and it wasn't true.
We have not changed the formula because of anything on that list. We're telling you what it did change: what we're willing to write.
A question you can't lose is not a question.
These are the ones we could lose.
You will find people online saying it can't. "The molecules are too big to be absorbed." "It doesn't penetrate. It just sits on top of your skin." "It's a marketing gimmick." We read all of that before you did, and we are not going to argue with it.
Here is the whole picture instead, including the part that flatters us.
PDRN's reputation comes from research that did not look at serums like this one. For a long time the honest sentence was that nothing had ever shown it getting into human skin out of a bottle. That sentence stopped being true in July 2026. A paper published that month in PLOS One reported PDRN moving past 20 µm into the living upper layer of human skin, around 3% of what was applied, after 8 to 24 hours.
Here is what that paper shows, and where it stops:
We describe what PDRN is, not what it does in this serum, and we don't use collagen percentages. Before-and-after photos will only ever come from real customers, and you'll see all of them, including the ones that don't flatter us.
What we will tell you is what is in the bottle, at what concentration, and where it came from. That is on the product page, in full, every ingredient with its number.
Every serum in this category is sold on a promise. This one is sold on a list. If that isn't enough, it isn't enough. And we would rather you knew that now than after it arrived.
A reader wrote to say that on one of our ad images, the four letters PDRN run together and get misread as a different word, one that has nothing to do with skincare. Once she'd said it, we couldn't unsee it.
It affects the image, and it may affect the label, which is a more expensive thing to change. We have not decided. It's written here so it can't quietly go away while we think about it.
These are with the factory. When answers come back, they go here, including the ones we won't like.
The sodium DNA: what is its fragment length?
PDRN is a specification about how long the fragments are. Sodium DNA is not. Once our own number is confirmed in writing, it goes here, so you can match the published research on PDRN against what is in this bottle. That is why the entry above stops where it stops for now.
The six peptides: is 0.5% each the raw material as delivered, or 0.5% pure peptide?
Asked August 17, 2026. An answer came back and it didn't answer the question, so we're asking again. Most peptides are sold diluted, so we expect it's the raw material, but expecting isn't knowing, and the number is on the product page.
Julian