Bakuchiol

Bakuchiol is a meroterpene phenol isolated from the seeds of *Psoralea corylifolia*, a plant used in Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. In modern cosmetic chemistry it has emerged as the first plant-derived ingredient with credible retinol-equivalent activity on collagen and pigmentation.

The practical advantage of bakuchiol is tolerance. Retinoids work, but a meaningful fraction of users cannot stay on a retinoid regimen because of irritation, sun sensitivity, or pregnancy contraindication. Bakuchiol has none of those constraints, with comparable efficacy at the doses studied.

We use bakuchiol at 1% in our peptide body serum — slightly above the studied dose, well within the supplier’s recommended ceiling of 2%.

The science

A 2019 *British Journal of Dermatology* trial (Dhaliwal et al.) compared 0.5% bakuchiol against 0.5% retinol over 12 weeks. Both produced statistically equivalent improvements in wrinkle surface area and hyperpigmentation. Bakuchiol caused significantly less scaling, dryness, and stinging. The mechanism appears to be downstream gene-expression effects similar to retinoids — modulating retinoid-responsive genes without binding the retinoic acid receptors directly.