Signs collagen is working: what women said they noticed

How do you know if collagen is working?

You can tell by watching for the changes women in our 8-week trial reported, such as better-looking skin, more moisture and glow, healthier hair and stronger nails, and by comparing your own photos with the first day. At home, that means comparing notes with women who took a daily collagen drink and said, in plain words, what was different.

There are three places to look, taken here one at a time.

• A trial that asked. 106 women took our liquid marine collagen daily for 8 weeks and answered questions about their skin, hair, nails and routine.¹
• Writers who kept going. Four writers took marine collagen for between two and six months and published what they saw.
• Verified buyers. Verified reviews of our liquid marine collagen, left by people who had paid for it.

Each of these is somebody's own report and none is a schedule for your skin, so read them as a list of things worth watching for.

What did 106 women say they noticed?

After 8 weeks, 95% of the 106 women felt the appearance of their skin improved, 89% reported more moisture and glow, 87% noticed a reduction in fine lines and wrinkles, 81% reported firmer skin, 86% reported healthier hair and 76% reported stronger nails. Each tile below is the share of the women who gave that answer, all about things a woman can judge for herself.¹

Look at the verbs. Women felt their skin looked better, noticed fewer lines, reported more glow. These are the women's own judgements, the same kind you can make at your mirror.

Translated into everyday terms, the questions covered:

• How skin looks overall. The broadest answer, and the highest figure among skin, hair and nails.
• Moisture and glow. 89% reported more of both.
• Fine lines and firmness. Two separate questions, with their own figures.
• Hair and nails. Both were on the questionnaire, alongside skin.

Two answers had nothing to do with appearance. Of the women, 99% found the drink easy to include in their daily routine, and participants also said they had more energy and better joint flexibility.¹

More pairs from our studies, including nails and the skin-imaging study, are in collagen before and after in photos.

When did they notice it?

Women in the trial reported visible results in as little as 4 weeks, with further improvement by week 8.¹

That is a general result for the trial as a whole, not a date for hair or for nails. The percentages in the tiles above are the trial's 8-week figures.

If you want the published research laid out by week, with every study placed at the reading where it recorded a change, that is a separate article: how long collagen takes to work. Here we stay with what people said.

Image slotWoman in a cream linen shirt writing in a small notebook at a sunlit table beside a glass of berry-red drinkassets/img/blog/sg-notebook.webp

What did writers notice, month by month?

Four writers who published first-person accounts of taking marine collagen noticed plumper, softer and more hydrated skin, softened fine lines, thicker and fuller hair and less brittle nails, over periods from two to six months. A questionnaire gives you shares, and a writer gives you something closer to a diary, with each one naming her own months. The cards below keep them apart on purpose, because each woman has her own length of time and her own words.

The useful part is the vocabulary. Plumper, softer, more hydrated, less brittle, thicker and fuller are the words these writers reached for when they described what they saw.

What did verified buyers write?

Verified buyers of our liquid marine collagen wrote of visible changes in their skin and nails, skin that looks great, and liking what the drink does for their hair, nails and skin. Reviews are shorter than articles and say less about timing, but they show which details a buyer picks out in a few lines to describe our liquid marine collagen. The same reviews sit beside the published accounts in our liquid marine collagen reviews.

The first mentions skin and nails, the second fine lines, and the third hair, nails and skin, the same three areas the trial asked about.

What changes that you cannot see?

In two published studies of collagen peptides, collagen density in the dermis and procollagen type I in skin samples changed in ways a mirror does not report. Readings like these only exist because a researcher had the equipment.

• Collagen density in the dermis. A 2015 paper reports two placebo-controlled trials. In one of them, daily collagen peptides significantly increased collagen density in the dermis after 4 weeks, and the effect was still present at 12 weeks.⁶
• Procollagen in skin samples. In a trial of 114 women aged 45 to 65, the collagen group took 2.5 g of collagen peptides a day. After 8 weeks their skin samples held 65% more procollagen type I and 18% more elastin than the placebo group's.⁷

Neither study tested our drink, and neither result is something you could check at home. They are here because the dermis is a layer you never look at directly. The week-by-week article linked above sets these readings beside the rest of the research.

How do you keep track?

Keep track with photos in one mirror and one light, taken on the first day and repeated at 4 weeks and 8 weeks, plus one line of notes a week. The simplest record is one you set up before the first portion, and none of this takes more than a few minutes.

• Pick one mirror and one light. The same spot by the same window, at the same time of day.
• Take a photo on the first day. Clean skin, hair back, no filter. Take one of each cheek and one straight on.
• Include hands and hairline. The trial asked about hair and nails as well as skin, so give yourself a starting picture of both.
• Write one line a week. Note how your skin feels after cleansing, how your hair sits and how your nails look.
• Repeat the photos at 4 weeks and 8 weeks. Those are the two points our trial reported on, which makes them natural dates to look back at the first set.

Then keep the routine itself plain. Core^™ is one portion a day: shake, pour into the cap, and drink it straight or stirred into water or a smoothie. You can see what is in each portion on the Core^™ page.

Questions about signs collagen is working