Rhode publishes its full ingredient declaration, which makes this a formula that can be read rather than guessed at. Twenty-seven ingredients are listed. One of them is a peptide.
The list, and where the peptide sits
| Position | Ingredient | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hydrogenated Polyisobutene | Synthetic emollient hydrocarbon, film-forming |
| 2 | Diisostearyl Malate | Emollient ester, standard in lip products |
| 3 | Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter | Occlusive plant butter |
| 4 | Polybutene | Tacky synthetic polymer, gives lip products their cling |
| 5–13 | Waxes, esters, structuring agents | Microcrystalline and synthetic waxes, octyldodecanol, polyglyceryl-2 triisostearate and others |
| 14–16 | Tocopherol · Tocopheryl Acetate · Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate | Vitamin E, and a stable oil-soluble vitamin C ester |
| 17 | Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 | The only peptide in the formula |
| 18–27 | Babassu oil, cupuaçu butter, lactic acid, stevioside, mica, preservative | Remaining emollients, texture and preservation |
Read as a piece of structure rather than as a shopping list, this is an occlusive lip balm — a wax-and-butter base with a vitamin pair, a single peptide and a colourless finish. That is not a criticism. It is what the first four ingredients say the product is, and under 21 CFR 701.3(a) ingredients above 1 percent must be declared in descending order of predominance, so the top of a list is the one part of it that reliably describes the bulk of a formula.
The claims divide cleanly in two, and only one of them needs the peptide
The brand states four things on the product page: that it helps immediately lock in moisture; that it nourishes, hydrates and replenishes dry lips; that it leaves lips feeling pillowy-soft; and that it smooths fine lines on the lips and visibly plumps lips over time.
The first three are barrier claims, and the top of the ingredient list delivers them. A continuous film of hydrogenated polyisobutene, polybutene, shea butter and waxes reduces water loss from the surface it covers, which is the whole mechanism of every occlusive lip product ever sold, including ones whose ingredient list is a single substance. Nothing about those three claims requires a peptide to be in the bottle.
The fourth is a structural claim — smoothing lines and plumping over time — and it is the one the peptide would have to carry. So that is the claim worth checking.
What is published about palmitoyl tripeptide-1
Our evidence entry for the molecule has the census in full, and its finding is blunt: eight PubMed records, and no clinical trial of the peptide by itself. The single randomized study in that set tested an eye cream with four actives in it, made by the company employing its authors, so no result in it can be assigned to the peptide. The parent molecule GHK has most of the underlying science and is a different compound.
Then there is the surface. Our category page on peptide lip treatments ran the search for randomized trials of any peptide applied to the lips for a cosmetic outcome and found one record, which measured graded shine, texture and vermilion border rather than volume, in a product combining peptides with hyaluronic acid in a delivery vesicle. The only study that has ever quantified a plumping effect in millimetres used ginger, worked by vasodilation, produced 0.50 mm of extra protrusion and had faded within two hours.
And there is the arithmetic the whole category runs into. Palmitoyl tripeptide-1 is 578.8 g/mol (PubChem CID 10231864), above the 500-dalton threshold our skin-peptide page works through. Lip vermilion has a thinner stratum corneum than facial skin, which cuts both ways and has not been studied for this molecule either way.
About those percentages
The four figures the brand publishes are 100 percent, 100 percent, 97 percent and 90 percent. They are agreement percentages from a consumer study — participants are asked whether they agree with a statement about a product they know they are using — and three of the four statements are about how the product feels or applies. "Agreed it reduces the appearance of dry lips" is a self-report about appearance. "Agreed formula glides on smoothly" is a texture judgement.
These are legitimate figures of their type and the brand labels them as consumer results rather than clinical ones. They are simply not measurements, and a reader converting 97 percent into evidence about lip structure is converting the wrong quantity. Notably, none of the published percentages addresses the fine-line or plumping claim at all — the claim that would need the peptide is the one with no number attached to it.
What the formula does and does not establish
It establishes that the product contains one peptide, at 1 percent or less, in a base built from occlusives and emollients. It establishes that the moisture and comfort claims have a well-understood mechanism sitting at the top of the list. It establishes that the structural claim rests on a molecule with no trial of its own, on a surface with one trial in the whole literature.
It does not establish what the product does on a given pair of lips. Nothing in a list can do that, and we have not used it. The honest summary of a formula like this one is that the parts of it doing recognisable work are the parts nobody advertises.
A second lip formula on the same shelf makes the point from the opposite end: OLEHENRIKSEN's Pout Preserve carries two peptides rather than one, and the pair looks like a well-known supplier blend while containing only half of it.
Sources
- Rhode, Peptide Lip Treatment, published ingredient declaration and product claims — rhodeskin.com, read 2026-09-16.
- 21 CFR 701.3, Designation of ingredients — eCFR, paragraphs (a) and (f)(2), read 2026-09-16.
- PubChem CID 10231864, palmitoyl tripeptide-1 — molecular weight 578.8 g/mol, read 2026-09-16.
- Bos JD, Meinardi MMHM. The 500 Dalton rule for the skin penetration of chemical compounds and drugs. Exp Dermatol 2000 — PubMed 10839713.
- Peptide lip trial census and the ginger plumping measurement: our own peptide lip treatment page, searches run 2026-09-08.