Carnosine Gel

I wasn't trying to look younger.
I was trying to hurt less.

New here? My full story lives over on my Story page, twenty years as a Cosmetic Dermal Therapist, the illness that changed everything, and the path that followed. This page is about one big discovery along the way that genuinely surprised me.

How I came across it

It started with a total clickbait moment. I was scrolling social media when a friend's post stopped me in my tracks. It wasn't a beauty product. It wasn't being sold for anti-ageing. It was a sports performance and recovery gel made for professional athletes. Normally I'd have kept scrolling, but one ingredient jumped out at me:

CARNOSINE

The reason it caught my eye is that I'd never heard of it. Carnosine is a peptide, and peptides are not new in the dermal therapy world. I thought I knew the ones that mattered for skin. But this one was new to me, and that was enough to make my dermal therapist brain go, hang on a minute.

So I did what I always do. I went down the research rabbit hole, and the deeper I dug, the more fascinated I became. I'm not here to make any claims about it. I'd encourage you to look into carnosine yourself, the way I did, and see what you find.

Eventually curiosity got the better of me, and I added it to cart. Not because I was chasing better skin, but because I was genuinely curious about the ingredient itself and what it might do for my body. When it arrived, I became my own guinea pig again.

And here's the part that surprised me. It worked for me. I felt a difference. And then I started to see a difference in my face too, less puffy, more hydrated, more tight, more fresh, which is ironic, because that's the part I wasn't even looking for.

That curiosity is what led to the rest of it. I kept reading, I kept asking questions, and eventually, through my network, I was invited to sit down and interview the man who co developed the technology. I sold my Clinics believing the career highlights were behind me, and then one of them turned up anyway. That conversation is on The Interview page.

What grabbed me wasn't the marketing. It was the science. After decades in the skin industry, it gave me flashbacks to the early collagen supplement days, back when people thought collagen drinks sounded ridiculous, right before the industry caught up and they went mainstream. I have a feeling carnosine is heading the same way. And I'll tell you this: it's rare these days that an ingredient genuinely grabs my attention. This one did.

There are two versions

One small but important thing to know before you use it: Carnosine Gel comes in two versions, and they suit different people and different uses.

What's in it

I'll always give you the facts on what's inside and let you make your own informed choice. Below is every ingredient in the non-menthol version. Tap any one of them to read, in plain language, what it is and why I'm personally comfortable using it.

One thing I didn't expect, and which matters to a lot of people: the carnosine in here isn't animal-derived. Carnosine occurs naturally in muscle tissue, so that's the assumption most people make, but LactiGo build theirs from corn. In their words, the raw materials that create their L-Carnosine are derived from corn, and the formula is vegan friendly. There's more on that on the carnosine ingredient page.

The menthol version is the same carnosine and magnesium base, in the same patented delivery system, with menthol added.

Listed in true label order, by amount. The two highlighted above, carnosine and magnesium, are the ingredients doing the work I was curious about.

My day one, bare-faced and all

The very first day my first tube arrived, something in me said: "Carla! Take a before photo!". Old habits from my Clinic days. You only ever get one chance at a "before photo". I took it before my shower, then applied the gel and my usual moisturiser over the top, and took the after straight away.

I could see a distinct change. Afterwards my skin felt firmer, plumper and fresher to me. What you can't see in the photos is how good it felt.

In full disclosure: I never intended to share these photos. The lighting is slightly different between the two, and of course I'm in a dressing gown in the before and dressed in the after. I'm sharing them anyway, exactly as they were taken.

I haven't put together a before-and-after like this since I had my Clinic's. For someone who spent two decades looking at skin for a living, and who isn't easily impressed, that should tell you something. This was my own experience on that first day. Everyone's skin is different, so your own results will vary, but I was impressed enough to share it.

Three months on

That first day was one morning and one shower. This is what doing it every day for three months looks like.

I wasn't planning another photo. I'd taken my day one and moved on. It was only when I realised it was three months to the day since I'd started that I thought, maybe I should take a progress photo to compare. A picture can speak a thousand words.

This was the day I knew I had to share this product with my industry, and beyond.

Same corner of the bathroom, three months apart. I can't promise the light was identical, the sun sits in a different part of the sky three months on, and I don't edit my photos, so there's no adjusting the brightness. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. This is my own skin, my own routine, and my own experience. Yours will be your own.

Where do you fit in?

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