PepRank

Melanotan II

Also: MT-2 · MT2 · 'tan jab'

LibidoNasal / Injection

Non-selective melanocortin agonist for tanning; works, but has documented serious harms.

Safety tier
Avoid
strict bar
Positive
51%
of 51 reports
Per month
≈ €27–54
injected
Rank
#33
of 61 research peptides

At a glance

Access
Grey market
InjectionFelt in 7 days – 3 weeks

Builds over days or weeks of regular use rather than with each dose.

Strict case
Documented serious harms (melanoma reports, PRES, priapism) from non-selective melanocortin activation.
Best effects
Deep tan with less UV · less burning · libido increase
Downsides
Nausea, stomach cramps · facial flushing · darkened freckles/moles · appetite suppression
Typical use
Community: 250-500 mcg loading, then maintenance every 1-2 weeks. Users report 71–300 mcg/day (median 130 mcg, n=9).
Stacked with
Stacked with
Melanotan I: The common plan is to build a base with MT2, then maintain with MT1 for a more natural colour, fewer moles and less nausea. · Antihistamine (cetirizine) or ondansetron before the dose: Several users say it largely removes the nausea and flushing; others find nothing helps. · Sun or sunbed right after dosing: The community insists on UV straight after injecting to avoid patchy freckles and moles; the published melanoma case involved sunbeds. · Tadalafil or sildenafil: Taken for the libido effect; the combination and overdoses are where priapism reports come from. · GLP-1 agonists (retatrutide, tirzepatide): Often run together on Reddit; some find the combined nausea much worse, and one first-dose vomiting and muscle-spasm report came a week after starting retatrutide.

Safety

Watch
Melanoma and atypical naevi case reports; masks mole changes · Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, sympathomimetic toxidrome (case reports) · Priapism · Renal infarction reports
Tier by safety barStrict AvoidBalanced AvoidEvidence only Avoid
  • Seen harm3 of 3
  • Mechanism3 of 3
  • Data gap2 of 3
  • Silent harm3 of 3
  • Product3 of 3
Never if
Personal or family history of melanoma, or many or atypical moles · Hypertension or cardiovascular disease · History of priapism · Pregnancy or breastfeeding (no human reproductive data)
Why each score
Seen harm 3/3
Multiple well-documented serious harms of different kinds: four to five published melanomas arising during or after use (UV-confounded), PRES, an ICU stay for a mass-spectrometry-confirmed sympathomimetic toxidrome with rhabdomyolysis, at least three cases of ischaemic priapism, and renal infarction. No death has been attributed to it. FDA: bulk drug substances that may present significant safety risks (category 2 and withdrawn nominations) ↗Habbema et al. 2017: risks of unregulated use of alpha-MSH analogues, review (Int J Dermatol, PubMed 28266027) ↗Hjuler & Lorentzen 2014: melanoma after a 3-4 week melanotan II course (Dermatology, PubMed 24355990) ↗Kaski et al. 2013: posterior reversible encephalopathy after melanotan (Ann Intern Med, PubMed 23648958) ↗Nelson et al. 2012: sympathomimetic toxidrome and rhabdomyolysis, MS-confirmed melanotan II (Clin Toxicol, PubMed 23121206) ↗Mallory et al. 2021: ischaemic priapism after melanotan II (Sex Med, PubMed 33460908) ↗
Mechanism 3/3
Non-selective melanocortin agonism is shown in humans to drive melanocyte proliferation (crops of atypical naevi that regressed on stopping) and, via MC4R, to raise blood pressure; the toxidrome case confirms the sympathomimetic effect. Cardones & Grichnik 2009: alpha-MSH analogue-driven atypical naevi that regressed on stopping (Arch Dermatol, PubMed 19380666) ↗Greenfield et al. 2009: an MC4R agonist raised blood pressure in humans (NEJM, PubMed 19092146) ↗Nelson et al. 2012: sympathomimetic toxidrome and rhabdomyolysis, MS-confirmed melanotan II (Clin Toxicol, PubMed 23121206) ↗
Data gap 2/3
Only small early-2000s trials; everything since is case reports from unsupervised grey-market use. Habbema et al. 2017: risks of unregulated use of alpha-MSH analogues, review (Int J Dermatol, PubMed 28266027) ↗
Silent harm 3/3
Melanoma develops silently over months to years, and the tan and darkened moles it causes mask the changes a skin check relies on. Paurobally et al. 2011: melanotan-associated melanoma (Br J Dermatol, PubMed 21564053) ↗Alsabbagh et al. 2025: oral mucosal melanoma after melanotan II nasal spray (PubMed 40210573) ↗
Product 3/3
All use is grey-market injection or nasal spray; online vials held 43-88% of the claimed dose with unknown impurities, and some vials sold as BPC-157 have turned out to be melanotan II. Breindahl et al. 2015: online melanotan II vials held 43-88% of the claimed dose plus impurities (PubMed 24771717) ↗Mendias & Awan 2026 preprint: 6,441 grey-market peptide samples, 42-71% failed quality criteria, 15% had endotoxin ↗

User reports

All 55 reports →
Users report
It works for tanning, even in skin type 1, and users love the results. Under 10% see nothing. Nausea, stomach cramps, flushing, spontaneous erections and darkening/new moles are near-universal talking points. ER doctors report priapism.
Glowing 11Positive 15Mixed 9Nothing 2Negative 7Bad reaction 7
  • r/Melanotan2· · 192 upvotesOriginal ↗

    I was so doubtful at first, I didn’t even see decent results until 2ish months in. When you are genuinely starch white it takes significantly longer which I feel like isn’t talked about much here.

    Glowing4-5 months

    very pale, Eastern Canada, sun plus some sunbed

  • r/Melanotan2· · 94 upvotesOriginal ↗

    i only use nasals. this is proof it really does work. i have never had a real tan in my life until now!! i am a TRUE skin type 1 btw

    GlowingNasal · 2 weeks

    skin type 1, high-UV holiday

  • @drmarlonperalta· · 77 likesOriginal ↗

    My skin was darker than I’d ever seen it. Patches on my lips had changed colors. New moles were emerging like someone was drawing on me with a permanent marker. ... I wasn’t injecting BPC-157. I was injecting melanotan II

    Bad reactionInjection · about a week

    vial sold as BPC-157 for a knee turned out to be melanotan II

Where to buy

All 8 offers →
Getting it
Never approved anywhere, and regulators (FDA, UK MHRA, Australian TGA) warn against it. Sold as research-peptide vials and nasal sprays online and through tanning salons and gyms.

A month at 250–500 mcg/day costs ≈ €27–54 from Prime Peptides at €3.59/mg, as no shop scoring 4 of 5 on trust lists it. At the 71–300 mcg/day users report, ≈ €7.7–32.

No trusted shop in the EU lists it; every listing is on the buy page.

Studies

Evidence
Small human studies — Early 2000s trials; otherwise case reports
3 more studies and 3 sources

Sources

Molecule

Sequence
DHFRWK
Length
6 amino acids
Modifications
Ac-Nle- N-terminus, D-Phe, cyclic (Asp-Lys lactam), C-amide

Sequence

The peptide's chain of amino acids from its start (the N-terminus) to its end, one bead and one letter for each: A alanine, C cysteine, D aspartic acid, E glutamic acid, F phenylalanine, G glycine, H histidine, I isoleucine, K lysine, L leucine, M methionine, N asparagine, P proline, Q glutamine, R arginine, S serine, T threonine, V valine, W tryptophan, Y tyrosine. A modification such as an N-acetyl cap or a C-terminal amide changes how long it lasts in the body. Length tells related peptides apart, from a two-residue dipeptide like carnosine to a 43-residue protein like thymosin beta-4, and predicts neither effect nor safety.

Report grades

Every first-hand Reddit or X report is graded on its own, from glowing through positive, mixed, nothing and negative to bad reaction, and the bar shows how those grades split. Posts that look vendor-adjacent stay on the peptide's page but are left out of the counts.

GlowingPositiveMixedNothingNegativeBad reaction

% positive

The share of a peptide's graded Reddit and X reports that are glowing or positive, vendor-adjacent posts left out. A peptide with few reports is pulled toward the average of all reports, as if it had eight average ones besides its own, so two glowing posts cannot top the list. Peptides rank by this figure, those with no graded report yet after those with one, and Avoid ones after every other entry.

Researcher estimate

No first-hand report of this peptide has been graded yet, so the figure is the researchers' own rating out of 10 from what they read about it. It ranks after every peptide with graded reports until its own arrive.

Safety tier

Each peptide is tiered Clean, Caution or Avoid from its five risk axes under the chosen safety bar. An Avoid peptide carries a real risk of harm, a plausible route to serious harm rather than mere unpleasantness, so it stays listed with the reason but ranks behind every other entry, however good its reviews.

Safety bar

The safety bar sets how much risk it takes to rate a peptide Avoid. Strict: out on any serious mechanism with little human data, or any documented serious harm. Balanced: out on documented serious harm (unless it is obvious, reversible and from a regulated product), or a serious mechanism whose harm would be silent with no human data at all. Evidence only: out only on documented serious harm in humans that is lasting, delayed or from grey-market product.

Seen harm

Documented serious adverse events in humans, from 0 for none despite real exposure to 3 for deaths or several well-documented serious harms. Serious means a hospital or emergency visit or harm lasting weeks, so a headache or a bad night does not count.

Mechanism

A plausible biological route to serious harm at the doses people use, such as growth-factor signalling, hormone-axis suppression, heart or blood-pressure effects or immune activation. It runs from 0 when none is known to 3 when a dangerous pathway has been shown in living animals.

Data gap

How little human safety data exists for the molecule actually sold, from 0 for an approved drug with large trials and years of use to 3 for no human safety data at all. A modified analogue does not inherit its parent's trials.

Silent harm

Whether the feared harm would show quickly or stay hidden, from 0 when it is obvious and goes on stopping to 3 when it is silent and delayed, like tumour promotion or slow organ damage. User reports cannot reveal a harm that takes years to appear, so a high score here limits what good reviews can tell you.

Product

The risk of what people actually buy, from 0 for a regulated pharmacy or supplement product taken by mouth or on the skin to 3 for a grey-market injectable. In one dataset of 6,441 grey-market samples, 42–71% failed basic quality criteria and 15% carried endotoxin; taken by mouth or in the nose, a pack avoids the injection risks.

Evidence

The strongest kind of study behind the peptide's effects, from an approved drug through human controlled trials and small human studies to animal work or nothing of its own. Animal results often fail to carry over to people.

Access

How people get it: as an approved drug, a compounded prescription, an over-the-counter supplement or from the grey market, where nobody checks the vial. The channel decides both the legal position and the risk of a bad batch.

Price per month

Thirty days of the typical dose, from its low end to its high end, priced at the listing a careful buyer would choose: in stock, from a shop scoring 4 of 5 on trust (third-party tested where no score is set), failing that 3, a pure pack before a blend, a European shop first, then the cheapest per mg. The range is the dose's, not the shops'. A per-dose amount counts once a day unless the dose says otherwise. Prices are in euros at ECB rates of 2026-10-29, before shipping; the shop table keeps each listing's price per mg, per gram for bulk supplements. Where no listing can be priced the researchers' own estimate stands in, and says so.

Dose users report

The middle half of the daily doses stated in at least five first-hand reports, vendor posts left out. Where its middle sits more than twice above or below the declared dose, the month is priced at it as well, since what people take is what they pay for.

Shop trust

Each shop's trust on a 1–5 scale, read from its testing and its reputation: 1 for serious red flags (fabricated COAs, scam reports, impersonation, a closed shop), 2 for no public testing, a new shop or active complaints such as seized parcels, 3 for its own COAs or a short track record, 4 for verified third-party testing or a strong reputation, and 5 for third-party batch reports that name the shop, with years of good independent reputation. A shop without a score counts third-party batch testing as 4, its own COAs as 3 and no public tests as 2.

Best value

Within a category or a goal, a peptide that no other beats on both counts: none is rated more positively for the same or a lower monthly price, and none costs less for the same or a higher rating. The chart joins these into the best-value line; the cheapest of them and the best-rated of them both make it, so the line spans the trade-off from cheap to best. Avoid entries never count, and a peptide needs both a % positive and a price to be compared.

Testing

Whether the shop publishes lab results: third-party tested means an independent lab checks each batch, own COA means the shop's own certificate of analysis, and no public tests means neither. A certificate shows purity, not safety.

Added peptide

Some packs sold under one peptide's name hold a second one, such as 5 mg GHK-Cu in a nasal kit, stated only in the description. Sprayed in the nose or injected it reaches the blood like an injection, so it carries the risk of that route and is tiered as the injectable form, whatever its tier on the skin. A pack whose page gives no contents list may hold more than its name.