Barely a week goes by without a patient sitting in my clinic chair asking whether they should be taking a collagen supplement. Usually they’ve seen an influencer holding up a tub of powder, or a friend has sworn her skin has never looked better since she started sipping a sachet every morning. I understand the appeal. Collagen is the protein that keeps skin plump and firm, we lose roughly one to one and a half per cent of it every year after our twenties, and the idea that you can simply top it back up by drinking or swallowing more of it is a wonderfully simple story. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of products on the market, it is largely just that: a story.
Let me explain why, and then tell you about the one product I do actually rate.
What happens when you swallow collagen
Collagen is a large, structured protein. When you eat it, whether that’s in a steak, a piece of salmon skin, or a scoop of powder stirred into your coffee, your digestive system does not recognise it as “collagen” and post it directly to your dermis. It breaks it down, like any other protein, into peptides and individual amino acids in the stomach and small intestine. Those amino acids then join the general pool your body draws on to build whatever proteins it needs at the time, which might be collagen, might be muscle, might be an enzyme, might be nothing in particular. There is no mechanism by which your gut says “ah, this came from a jar labelled anti-ageing, better send it to the face.”
This is the central problem with most collagen supplements, and it is worth being blunt about it, because the marketing rarely is. A 2026 meta-analysis pooling data from nearly 8,000 participants across 113 randomised trials did find genuine, measurable improvements in skin elasticity and hydration with hydrolysed collagen peptides, but only with consistent, longer term use and specific peptide formulations. Meanwhile, other reviews of the same evidence base have flagged something less flattering: studies showing a benefit were disproportionately funded by the very companies selling the product, while independently funded, higher quality trials often found no benefit at all. That is not a coincidence I am willing to ignore, and as a doctor I would rather tell you the uncomfortable truth than sell you a nice story.
Format matters more than the label suggests
Even setting the funding issue aside, most of what is sold on the high street or through Instagram ads simply is not built to be absorbed. Standard tablets and capsules have absorption rates in the region of thirty to forty per cent, and you would need to swallow an implausible number of them, something like twenty large tablets, to match the dose used in the trials that actually showed results. Powders dissolved in water fare a little better but still rely on collagen molecules that are often only partially hydrolysed, meaning the peptide chains are too large to be efficiently taken up in the gut. You are, quite literally, flushing a fair proportion of your money down the loo.
There is also the question of what else is, or isn’t, in the product. Your body cannot manufacture collagen from amino acids alone. It needs cofactors, chiefly vitamin C, along with zinc, copper and certain amino acids like lysine and proline, to actually assemble new collagen fibres via your fibroblasts. A supplement that hands you collagen peptides without the raw materials and vitamins needed to use them properly is only doing half the job, if that.
Skinade
Where Skinade fits in
This is why, of the dozens of collagen products I get asked about, Skinade is one of the very few I will actually recommend to patients. It gets several things right that most competitors get wrong.
First, it’s a liquid, not a tablet or powder, and that matters enormously. Because the collagen is already in solution, absorption sits at around ninety to ninety five per cent, compared with the thirty to forty per cent you get from pills. Second, the dose is meaningful: each bottle delivers 7,000mg of hydrolysed marine collagen, sourced from freshwater fish, in a genuinely low molecular weight form small enough to be absorbed rather than simply digested and discarded. Third, and this is the part people tend to overlook, it isn’t just collagen. Each bottle also contains vitamin C, MSM, L-lysine and B vitamins, precisely the cofactors your fibroblasts need to actually build new collagen and prevent the kind of cross linking that makes skin stiff and less supple with age. The formulation also appears to support hyaluronic acid production in the dermis by activating HAS2 receptors, which is a big part of why patients report better hydration rather than just vague claims of “glow.”
In clinic, I’ve had patients use Skinade alongside in-office treatments like micro-needling or radiofrequency, and the ones who stick with it for a full eight to twelve weeks, rather than giving up after ten days because their skin hasn’t transformed overnight, tend to report genuinely improved hydration and a slight softening of fine lines. That tracks with what the clinical data on the product suggests too, with meaningful improvements in hydration and fine lines reported over an eight to twelve week course.
My honest opinion
I won’t pretend a drink is going to replace a good retinoid, a proper SPF routine, or an in-clinic collagen-stimulating treatment, because it isn’t, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something. But if you are going to spend money on an oral collagen product at all, spend it on one that has actually solved the absorption problem and included the nutrients your skin needs to use it, rather than a tub of powder that is mostly going to end up feeding your gut bacteria instead of your dermis.
If you would like an honest, unbiased assessment of what your skin actually needs, whether that involves supplements, in-clinic treatments, or simply a better skincare routine, do come and see us.
