KOÍLOS

The formula

Two peptides, chosen for skin a quarter as thick as your cheek.

The skin under the eye is thinner than skin anywhere else on the face — so KOÍLOS uses two peptides picked for exactly that: one that signals at the surface, one that anchors in oil and stays put.

A peptide is a short chain of amino acids — the same building blocks proteins are made of. At cosmetic size they’re used as messengers and conditioning agents: they don’t rebuild what’s gone, they help the surface they sit in behave better. Here’s the two in the jar, and what each is documented to do.

Ingredient 01

Hexapeptide-11

A six-amino-acid chain. Small enough to work as a surface signal.

A small signalling peptide built from alanine, phenylalanine, proline and valine. In leave-on skincare it’s documented to help the outer layer hold onto water and to support a smoother, more elastic-looking surface — which is why it turns up so often in eye treatments, where the skin is thinnest and dries out first.

What it isA six-amino-acid oligopeptide (INCI: Hexapeptide-11).
Documented forThe look of a smoother, more supple, better-hydrated surface.
Why hereUnder-eye skin is thin and dries quickly — a surface conditioner earns its place.

Ingredient 02

Dipalmitoyl Hydroxyproline

Hydroxyproline anchored to fatty tails — it dissolves in the cream’s oils, not the water.

Hydroxyproline — an amino acid the skin already uses — joined to palm-derived fatty acids. That oil-soluble build means it settles into the surface film rather than washing off, and it’s documented to support the look of firmer skin and to soften the appearance of fine lines. It pairs with Hexapeptide-11 rather than repeating it: one works with water, one with oil.

What it isHydroxyproline esterified with palmitic acid (INCI: Dipalmitoyl Hydroxyproline).
Documented forThe look of firmer, more resilient skin; softer-looking fine lines.
Why hereOil-soluble, so it stays in the surface it’s meant to condition.

The rest of the jar

What the peptides sit in.

Peptides don’t work in a vacuum. Sodium PCA, Glycerin and Propanediol are humectants — they hold water in the upper layers, so the skin looks plumper and fine lines from dryness soften. Jojoba, borage and mango seed butter support the barrier, so the surface stops looking papery. And a trace of mineral tint (CI 77491) corrects the shadow on contact — the part you see the day it arrives.

What peptides can’t do.

They can’t put back the fat pad that rapid weight loss drew down from under the eye. Nothing topical can. What they do is condition the thin skin sitting over that hollow, so the surface holds up more on its own.

We don’t run our own clinical trial, and we won’t borrow an ingredient supplier’s lab figures and print them as if they were ours. What we can tell you is exactly what’s in the jar, and why each thing is there. Give it a full eight weeks — that’s when to judge it.