Every morning for the past year, while her coffee brewed and her breakfast cooked, Libby Brodie has poured a glass of water, mixed in a hefty scoop of collagen powder and downed it in one. “It’s probably the only thing I do for my skin,” says Brodie, 42, whose skincare routine otherwise consists of “cleaning my face with a bit of hand wash at night and using some moisturiser in the mornings”.
Her powdered supplement, which costs £32 a month for 40 servings, contains “bovine hydrolysed collagen”, a protein derived from cows. The benefits, according to the manufacturers, include boosted growth for skin, hair and nails, improved joint mobility and “menopause support”. She is unsure if the powder is helping her skin or not, “though people do say I look ten years younger than I am. But what I have noticed is that my hair has gotten much thicker.”
Brodie is not the only one buying into collagen: the powders, gummies, capsules and drinks have mushroomed into a multibillion-pound industry. According to recent YouGov polling, 21 per cent of us had used a wellness supplement in the past six months and collagen led the pack, with 15 per cent of women and 5 per cent of men taking it.
Thanks to A-list fans including Jennifer Aniston and Victoria Beckham, collagen-infused coffee has been one of the biggest wellness trends of the year and supermarkets are cashing in too: Sainsbury’s sells a “collagen raw pressed juice” at £4 a bottle and Lidl has stocked “collagen water”. At Joe & the Juice you can add a scoop of collagen to your £10 smoothie for an extra 95p, if it’s not in there already, and some health food brands are even selling “collagen brownies”. Various mascaras, foundations and lipsticks use collagen too. But does any of it actually work?
What are the benefits of collagen supplements?
Collagen is a protein produced in the body, which plays a crucial role in providing structure, elasticity, and strength to tissue. In short, it naturally helps to keep skin plump, joints and bones strong, and hair and nails healthy. By our mid-twenties, stores of collagen begin to decline, eventually leading to fine lines and wrinkles, plus brittle nails and thinning hair. Factors such as sun exposure and smoking can speed up the decline, which accelerates during menopause because oestrogen plays a key role in collagen production.
The collagen used in supplements and beauty products is primarily from animals (often cows, pigs, chickens and fish), by extracting it from their connective tissues, bones and skin. It is then broken down into smaller peptides so that it can be absorbed by humans in the small intestine, allowing it to enter the bloodstream.
While younger-looking skin, thicker hair and healthier joints are an appealing proposition, the effectiveness of skin creams containing collagen is debated because the full collagen molecule is too large to penetrate the skin’s outer layer.
Jennifer Aniston has promoted collagen products as part of brand sponsorship
JENNIFER ANISTON/INSTAGRAM
Is there evidence for the benefits?
The science behind collagen supplements is not convincing either. “The majority of collagen supplementation trials are small, often enrolling fewer than 100 participants,” says Dr Anjali Mahto, a consultant dermatologist at Self London. She says these trials are often conducted by brands selling the products, so there is vested interest, and even when the data shows improvements “the magnitude of change tends to be modest. A 5 to 10 per cent increase in hydration, for example, may not result in any meaningful change to the skin’s clinical appearance.”
While consumers like Brodie believe that they are seeing a difference, clinicians like Beibei Du-Harpur, a dermatologist and clinical lecturer at King’s College London, are more sceptical. “There is no collagen in your hair or nails; there may be around the cuticles or in the deeper layers of the scalp, but their role in promoting hair or nail growth and quality is not proven,” Du-Harper says. She believes the real key to collagen’s success is marketing: “People love the idea of shortcuts.”
Du-Harper says it’s unlikely that collagen supplements cause any harm, but that “supplements in general operate within a regulatory blind spot and are not well studied for side-effects, or tested to high standards for contamination. People view doctor-prescribed drugs as having risks but rarely perceive supplements they can order online or buy in shops as doing so.”
For those who are convinced that collagen has their skin glowing, Mahto thinks this is more likely because “those who regularly buy these types of products tend to be the same individuals who already invest in their skin through daily sunscreen use, retinoids, a balanced diet and adequate sleep. These habits are more likely to influence skin quality than a powder you add to coffee.”