CeraVe Skin Renewing Night Cream is among the most-searched named creams on this site's list, at about 19,000 US searches a month (clickstream estimate, October 2026). The brand's page says it “features a complex of biomimetic peptides, hyaluronic acid, and 3 essential ceramides”. This page reads the ingredient list the brand publishes, as of 15 October 2026, and asks where those peptides sit and what their research contains. It does not judge the cream, and nobody here has used it.
The list, as published
CeraVe's US product page lists 40 ingredients and sells the cream at $21.99 (cerave.com, read 15 October 2026). The page adds that ingredient lists “are updated regularly” and that the package is the authority, which is the right caution for any reading of a web list. Grouped by job:
| Positions | Ingredients | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | water, glycerin, caprylic/capric triglyceride, shea butter | solvent, humectant, emollients |
| 5–12 | silicones, glyceryl stearate SE, cetyl alcohol, saccharide isomerate, stearic and palmitic acids | texture, emulsion, humectant |
| 13–17 | soybean sterols, allantoin, ceramide NP, AP and EOP | barrier lipids, soothing agent |
| 18–19 | carbomer, niacinamide | thickener, vitamin B3 |
| 20–30 | emulsifiers, pH adjusters, sodium benzoate, sodium hyaluronate (27), cholesterol, phenoxyethanol (29), tocopherol | structure, preservation, humectant |
| 31 | tripeptide-1 | peptide |
| 32–33 | laureth-9, citric acid | solubiliser, pH |
| 34 | caprooyl tetrapeptide-3 | peptide |
| 35–40 | biosaccharide gum-1, phytosphingosine, xanthan gum, dextran, ethylhexylglycerin, butylene glycol | film-former, barrier lipid, thickener, carriers, preservative booster |
The cream's architecture is visible in that table: occlusives and emollients at the top, the brand's signature three ceramides with cholesterol and phytosphingosine, niacinamide, and a hyaluronic-acid humectant. The peptides are the last actives on the list. Dextran and butylene glycol at the very end are common carriers in which peptide raw materials are supplied, which fits two peptides added in dilute solution.
What the positions say about amounts
US rules require ingredients above 1% to be listed in descending order; at or below 1% they may follow in any order (21 CFR 701.3(f)(2)). Phenoxyethanol at position 29 is the useful marker: the EU caps it at 1% as a preservative, and it is routinely used at or under that level. Both peptides come after it, so both are at or below roughly 1% — and, given how such peptides are used, very probably far below. The Cosmetic Ingredient Review panel's 2014 report on tripeptide-1 and its relatives recorded industry-survey concentrations from 0.0000001% to 0.002% for the ingredients it reviewed, and one submission it cites calls use below 10 ppm customary (CIR final report, 30 June 2014). CeraVe does not state an amount for either peptide.
Tripeptide-1: GHK without its copper
Tripeptide-1 is the three-amino-acid peptide glycine-histidine-lysine, GHK, at 340.4 daltons (PubChem CID 73587). The CIR panel describes GHK as a fragment of type I collagen, and it binds copper readily; the copper-bound form is listed as copper tripeptide-1, the GHK-Cu sold as “copper peptide”. This cream lists the copper-free form.
That distinction matters for reading claims. Most of the research quoted for “copper peptides” — and the small set of topical human studies — concerns GHK-Cu, set out on our copper peptides page. Free GHK can pick up copper from its surroundings, and some literature treats the two together, but a study of GHK-Cu does not test a cream that declares GHK. A PubMed title-or-abstract search for “tripeptide-1” returned 34 records on 15 October 2026, most of them about GHK or its copper complex in laboratory settings, not about finished creams. The CIR panel concluded tripeptide-1 is safe in cosmetics as used.
Caprooyl tetrapeptide-3: a sequence with a known relative
Caprooyl tetrapeptide-3 is, in PubChem's record, hexanoyl-glycyl-glutaminyl-prolyl-arginine: C24H42N8O7, 554.6 daltons (PubChem CID 71599291). Its four amino acids, GQPR, are the same sequence as palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7, one half of the Matrixyl 3000 blend. The difference is the fatty acid on the front: a six-carbon caproyl group here, a sixteen-carbon palmitoyl group there. Fatty-acid tags are added to help peptides enter the skin's oily outer layer, so the length of the tag is not a cosmetic detail; it changes how the molecule behaves.
PubMed returned no record for “caprooyl tetrapeptide-3” or “caprooyl tetrapeptide” on 15 October 2026. The closest literature is the palmitoyl form's, which is small and mostly laboratory work on cultured cells, summarised on our palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7 page. That literature cannot simply be transferred to the caproyl form, for the reason above.
What the brand says the peptides do
The page lists peptides fourth among its key ingredients and says they “can help stimulate collagen production to improve the appearance of aging skin”, with an asterisk; its feature list says the “unique complex helps reduce the look of tired skin overnight”. The page we read gives no study of the cream, no percentages and no description of any test behind those lines. The collagen sentence is a general claim about peptides as a class, phrased as appearance — the form a cosmetic, rather than a drug, is allowed to make.
What the list cannot tell anyone
It cannot tell anyone how much of either peptide is in the jar, beyond the position evidence above. It cannot say whether either peptide does anything at that level in this base, because no study of the cream is published. And it cannot say how the cream feels or performs, which would take use and measurement that this site has not done. What it does show is a barrier-style formula — ceramides, cholesterol, niacinamide, humectants, occlusives — with two low-level peptides at the tail, one of which has no published record under its own name. For how the peptides in other night creams compare, see our peptide night cream census, and for how to read any list like this one, our guide to reading a peptide ingredient list.
Sources
Opened 15 October 2026: CeraVe US product page (ingredient list, key-ingredient text and price); PubChem records CID 73587 (tripeptide-1) and CID 71599291 (caprooyl tetrapeptide-3); PubMed searches "tripeptide-1"[tiab] (34), "caprooyl tetrapeptide-3" and "caprooyl tetrapeptide" (0 each); Cosmetic Ingredient Review final report on tripeptide-1, hexapeptide-12, their metal salts and fatty acyl derivatives, and palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7 (30 June 2014); US labelling rule 21 CFR 701.3(f)(2). Corrections go to the contact page.