Peptides get the spotlight in our formulas, and for good reason. But no active ingredient works alone. Every Quevae formula also relies on three supporting ingredients — Sodium PCA, Ascorbyl Palmitate, and Tocopherol — that handle two jobs peptides can't: keeping water in the skin, and defending it from oxidative stress. Here's what the research actually says about each.
Sodium PCA: Skin's Own Moisture Molecule
Sodium PCA is the sodium salt of pyrrolidone carboxylic acid, and it isn't an outside ingredient borrowed from a lab — it's the single most abundant component of skin's own Natural Moisturizing Factor (NMF), the collection of water-binding compounds that sit inside skin cells and keep them hydrated from within.
As we age, or as skin is exposed to environmental stress, NMF levels decline — which is part of why skin can start to feel tighter or look less plump over time. Research published in Dermatologic Therapy and the International Journal of Cosmetic Science has documented Sodium PCA's role in binding water within the skin's outer layer, and a 2018 clinical study in Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology found that creams formulated to mimic skin's natural moisturizing systems produced measurable increases in hydration.
For an eye cream specifically, this matters more than usual — the skin around the eyes has fewer oil glands and loses moisture faster than skin almost anywhere else on the face.
Ascorbyl Palmitate: Vitamin C, Reformulated for Stability
Ascorbyl Palmitate is a fat-soluble ester of vitamin C, created by attaching a palmitic acid chain to ascorbic acid. The reason formulators reach for this version instead of pure vitamin C comes down to chemistry: pure ascorbic acid is notoriously unstable, breaking down quickly when exposed to air, light, or heat. The palmitate modification makes the molecule oil-compatible and considerably easier to keep stable inside a finished formula.
In the interest of giving you the real picture rather than the marketing version: the research on Ascorbyl Palmitate is genuinely mixed on a couple of points. Some studies note it has more limited skin absorption than pure ascorbic acid, and at least one laboratory study found that, under UVB exposure specifically, it can promote oxidative stress in skin cells rather than only preventing it. This doesn't mean the ingredient is unsafe at the concentrations used in leave-on skincare — it's widely used and broadly well-tolerated — but we'd rather tell you plainly that "gentler" isn't a settled scientific fact than repeat a claim we can't fully back up. What the research does clearly support is Ascorbyl Palmitate's practical advantage: it holds up in formulation far better than unstable pure vitamin C, meaning the antioxidant benefit you're getting on day sixty is closer to what you got on day one.
Tocopherol: Vitamin E, and the Reason the Formula Lasts
Tocopherol — Vitamin E — is one of the most studied antioxidants in dermatology, with research dating back over sixty years. It works by neutralizing free radicals at the cell membrane level, interrupting the chain reaction that leads to oxidative damage in skin.
There's also a specific reason we pair Vitamin E with Vitamin C rather than using either alone: research has shown the two work as a network. Vitamin E neutralizes a free radical and becomes temporarily inactive in the process — but Vitamin C can donate an electron back to it, regenerating it so it can go to work again. This is a real, documented synergy, not just a marketing pairing, and it's a large part of why Tocopherol shows up alongside Ascorbyl Palmitate in the same formula rather than either ingredient being used in isolation.
Tocopherol also serves a second, quieter function: protecting the formula itself. As an antioxidant, it helps slow the degradation of oxidation-prone ingredients sitting alongside it in the same bottle — including the vitamin C derivative it's paired with.
The Honest Summary
None of these three ingredients are flashy. They're not going to headline an ingredient-of-the-year list. But hydration and oxidative defense are the unglamorous, unavoidable groundwork that everything else in a formula depends on — peptides included. That's why they're here.