Watch Out For This Advertising Trick In Skin Care, Says A Derm

Once you hit around your mid-20s (the exact age varies from person to person), your collagen production decreases by about 1% each year1. So, yes, it’s a great idea to maintain the balance of production and degradation through supplementation, but this requires your body to absorb the collagen you’re feeding it. 

Here’s the thing: In order for collagen-infused skin care products to work, the collagen molecules have to be able to actually enter the skin—which is where problem No. 1 comes into play. “Collagen is a huge molecule that sits on the surface of the skin and cannot be absorbed into the dermis," board-certified dermatologist Dendy Engelman, M.D. once told mbg. 

Engelman further explains that this is a common marketing tactic in the skin care industry and confirms that any topical product with collagen in it will likely not provide the claimed benefits. Some topical active ingredients can stimulate your natural collagen production, but not by the same mechanism as layering collagen onto the skin. 

As stated, retinoids (plus exfoliants, like glycolic acid) have the ability to stimulate collagen production and thus serve as a worthwhile topical ingredient for encouraging healthy skin aging. However, the only way to increase the actual collagen in your skin is not to layer it on but rather to ingest it. 

So it’s safe to say taking an oral collagen supplement is the way to go, rather than spending money on topical collagen products that won’t actually penetrate the skin. Be sure to look for something with hydrolyzed peptides, as that’s where the bulk of beneficial research comes from. If you don’t want to look high and low for a tried and tested product, let us recommend our superstar: mbg beauty & gut collagen+. 

As a quick summary: This collagen supplement contains hydrolyzed peptides from grass-fed, pasture-raised cows. There’s a long list of other skin and gut-loving ingredients blended in to make it worthwhile.* A few of these include hyaluronic acid, biotin, vitamins C and E, and L-glutamine.