Collagen: the truth, the hype, and what works

Let's talk about collagen.

Not in the "drink this magic powder and wake up looking 21 again" way that Instagram would like you to believe, but in the "what is it, why does it matter, and what genuinely helps" way that hopefully you’re beginning to associate me and my newsletters with!

So, settle in, grab a cup of tea and let's get into it.

What is collagen, actually?

Collagen is a protein, and it's the main structural protein in your body. It's what gives your skin its firmness, your joints their cushioning, and your connective tissue its strength. In your skin specifically, collagen makes up the vast majority of the dermis, the deeper layer beneath the surface, and it's what keeps skin looking plump, supported and bouncy.

It's made by cells called fibroblasts, and when you're young, they're churning it out at a steady rate. But collagen production naturally declines with age, by around 1 to 1.5% a year once we're past our twenties. Sun exposure speeds this up further, breaking down existing collagen faster than your skin can replace it.

So you're making less, while losing more. Urgh.

And if you're going through menopause, it's worth knowing this speeds up considerably. Oestrogen plays a big role in stimulating fibroblasts to produce collagen, so when it drops, women can lose up to 30% of their skin collagen in the first five years after menopause.

The result, over time, is thinner skin, less bounce, more visible lines, and a dermis that simply isn't as structurally supported as it used to be.

So yes, collagen matters. But the real question is: what actually helps you keep hold of it?

Oral collagen… the honest version

Like so many things in the wellness world, the actual science has got a bit lost underneath the marketing.

Oral collagen supplements have been studied a fair amount, and for a while, the story seemed genuinely promising. Several meta-analyses (studies that pool the results of lots of other studies) found that taking hydrolysed collagen improved skin hydration and elasticity, particularly when taken consistently for 8 weeks or more.

However, a rigorous 2025 analysis specifically looked at where the funding for these studies came from, and at study quality. The findings were, frankly, less than ideal for the collagen industry: when only independently funded, high-quality trials were considered, the benefits for hydration, elasticity and wrinkles largely disappeared. The studies showing the biggest, shiniest results tended to be the ones funded by the companies selling the product. Funny that.

More recently, the largest review of collagen research ever conducted, published in January 2026, pooled 113 trials and nearly 8,000 participants worldwide, and rated the evidence for skin elasticity and hydration specifically as high certainty, using a globally recognised evidence-grading system. But there is a caveat, as there always is, and that is that most of the individual reviews feeding into that bigger study were themselves rated as low or critically low quality by the researchers' own standards, so it's not quite the slam dunk the headlines suggested either.

So where does that leave us? Somewhere in the honest middle. There probably is a real, modest benefit for skin hydration and elasticity for some individuals, particularly with consistent, longer-term use, but the quality of evidence underneath it is still shaky.

If you enjoy taking a collagen supplement, and your budget allows for it, there's no harm in it, it appears genuinely very safe, with essentially no reported side effects across the research. I drink it myself, every day. For years I mixed mine with water, on the basis that even if it wasn't doing much, it at least meant I started the day with a large glass of the good stuff. These days it's a matcha collagen, partly to cut back on coffee, partly because it comes with a few other good bits thrown in too.

But, if you do decide to take one, here's what to actually look for. Across the trials that have shown a benefit, most used somewhere between 2.5g and 10g of hydrolysed collagen a day, with the majority sitting around the 2.5-5g mark, taken daily for at least 8 to 12 weeks before any changes were assessed. So check the label. Hydrolysed (sometimes labelled "collagen peptides") is the form that's been studied, as it's broken down into smaller molecules your body can actually absorb. Consistency matters more than the source - marine, bovine etc.

A quick word on how this is even meant to work, since "drinking a protein and having it end up in your skin" sounds a bit far-fetched! Normal digestion breaks protein all the way down into individual amino acids, but a couple of specific collagen peptide fragments survive digestion more intact and turn up measurably in your bloodstream. The theory is your fibroblasts detect these fragments and take them as a signal to ramp up their own collagen production, rather than the collagen you've drunk going into your skin. It's less "topping up the tank" and more "sending a nudge", which is part of why the results tend to be modest rather than dramatic.

Which brings us to what I'd actually prioritise.

Topical support: Vitamin C and Retinoids

This is where the evidence gets a lot more convincing.

Vitamin C is essential for collagen production. It's not just supportive, it's a required co-factor for the enzymes that stabilise and cross-link collagen fibres into their strong, rope-like structure. Without adequate vitamin C, your body simply can't build collagen properly, which is why chronic deficiency causes scurvy, quite literally a disease of collapsing connective tissue!

Applied topically, at the right concentration and pH, vitamin C has been shown to increase collagen-1 and collagen-3 production, and to inhibit the enzyme that breaks collagen down. Studies using 5 to 10% L-ascorbic acid over several months have shown real, measurable improvements in wrinkling and photoaged skin. It's also a genuinely useful antioxidant alongside your SPF, helping mop up free radical damage that UV exposure causes.

Retinoids is the other big one. It works by binding to receptors in skin cells, and among its many jobs is switching on collagen production while switching off the enzyme (MMP-1) that breaks collagen down. So it's working both ends of the problem at once. Decades of research and hundreds of published studies back this up.

A word on actives

Vitamin C and retinoids are what we call active ingredients, and I don't use that word loosely. They're not sitting on top of your skin doing a gentle, passive job - they're genuinely changing your skin's biology, altering cell turnover, switching gene expression on and off, affecting how your barrier behaves. That's precisely why they work as well as they do. But it's also exactly why I wouldn't want you adding them into your routine without proper guidance from a skin professional. The right strength, the right frequency, the right order to bring them, as well as the existing skincare ecosystem you’re introducing them into matters enormously, and getting it wrong doesn't just mean wasted product, it can mean irritation or a compromised barrier that takes weeks to calm back down. If you're not sure where to start, please come and have a proper skin consultation rather than guessing based on what's trending, that's genuinely what we're here for.

Skincare that "contains collagen"

Worth addressing, because "contains collagen" on a label is one of the more misleading claims going, not because it's a lie, the cream probably does contain collagen, but because of what collagen actually is. It's a large protein molecule, far too big to pass through the skin barrier intact. There's a well-established principle in dermatology, sometimes called the 500 Dalton rule, which says that molecules need to be under roughly 500 Daltons in size to penetrate the skin. Collagen weighs in at around 300,000 Daltons. So when it's applied topically, it sits on the surface rather than sinking in to rebuild anything underneath.

That's not to say a collagen cream does nothing, on the surface, it can act as a humectant, drawing in and holding moisture, which genuinely does improve how skin looks and feels in the short term. But it isn't triggering your own collagen production, and it isn't replacing what you're losing in the dermis.

What actually does that job are peptides, small fragments of amino acids that are tiny enough to penetrate and act as signals, telling your skin's fibroblasts to get on with producing more collagen themselves. So if you're drawn to a product because it says "collagen" on the front, flip it over and look for peptides, retinoids or vitamin C in the ingredients list instead, those are the ones doing the actual work.

Treatments that support collagen

Beyond your daily routine, there's a lot that can be done in clinic, and this is where I get to talk about one of my favourite bits of kit.

Microneedling creates thousands of tiny, controlled micro-injuries in the skin. This sounds alarming, I promise it isn't, but it triggers the skin's own wound healing response, which significantly increases collagen types I, III and VII, along with elastin, over the following weeks and months.

It's genuinely one of the better evidenced in-clinic treatments going, precisely because it works with the skin's own repair mechanisms rather than fighting against them, though results build gradually over a course of treatments, not overnight, and it works best paired with the vitamin C and retinol prep we've just talked about.

Chemical peels are another tool I use regularly. Superficial peels work by adjusting the skin's pH, encouraging the outer, older layers to shed and prompting epidermal renewal underneath. Beyond the immediate glow, this exfoliative process also stimulates collagen production. The depth of the peel determines the results, but superficial peels, done consistently, make a genuine difference to tone, texture and the visible signs of ageing.

Both of these work best as part of a considered plan rather than a one-off. Skin needs consistency, whether that's your evening retinol or your course of treatments in clinic.

So, where does that leave us?

If you're going to spend money on collagen this year, here's how I'd prioritise it: SPF first, always. Then a well-formulated vitamin C in the morning and retinol in the evening, both of which have genuinely strong, independent evidence behind them for supporting your skin's own collagen production. Then, if you want to go further, in-clinic treatments like microneedling or peels, which work with your skin's biology. Oral collagen supplements sit lower down that list for me, a genuine, modest support rather than a foundation, and still not the miracle the marketing suggests.

As ever, the goal isn't to panic about collagen loss, it's a completely normal part of ageing. The goal is simply to explain where your effort and money will actually do something.