3 Steps You're Overlooking When It Comes To Your Collagen Supplement Routine

Once a "niche wellness" supplement, collagen has now gone full-blown mainstream. It's now touted by health experts, beauty enthusiasts, and everyday people alike. Now, using a collagen supplement can be as simple as adding a scoop of it to your smoothie or grabbing a buzzy new "collagen water" at the store. (For what it's worth, we recommend the former, and—ahem—using mindbodygreen's beauty & gut collagen+.)

Collagen peptide supplements work by supporting your fibroblasts, or the things that make collagen and elastin in the first place.* By doing so, they're shown to enhance your natural collagen levels.* (And thus do all of the pretty skin care benefits that we love, like smooth fine lines, improve hydration, and so on.*) And while your body needs the amino acids to do this process, it also needs another important nutrient: vitamin C.*

Vitamin C plays a critical role in the collagen synthesis process. "Vitamin C is a key cofactor in the synthesis of collagen and elastin, [which help] give your skin that plump and youthful appearance,"* says Keira Barr, M.D., dual board-certified dermatologist and mindbodygreen Collective member. The nutrient also protects the collagen you already have by working against collagen-degrading enzymes1₁.*

Unless you're protecting your body's collagen with topicals and smart sun care, all this internal work you're doing may be wasted. That's because UV exposure is one of the primary causes of collagen decline. One study observed collagen under UV light and found that there was a "significant decrease" in collagen structure afterward3₃. This is because UV rays contribute oxidative stress in the skin4₄, which affects skin at the cellular level and leads to photoaging. 

Browse any supplement or beauty aisle and you'll find collagen peppered in gummies, tonics, the aforementioned bottled water, pills, and powders. Depending on said format, you'll get a wide variance on dosage—so if you're using an option that only contains a sprinkle of collagen, you may not see the desired results. (And perhaps even write off collagen as a supplement not worth using.)