First of all, I’d just like to point out the glaringly obvious, that I’m not a scientist, so my thoughts on these collagen supplements are literally just my own views – however, I must say that before I was offered the Absolute Collagen protein rich marine collagen oral liquid supplements for review, I’d actually read quite a lot about collagen supplements and was quite keen to give them a go.  Here’s how I got on.

What is collagen?

Collagen is the ‘building block’ of our bodies and makes up 75% of our skin.  In simple terms, collagen is the stuff that holds us together: our hair, nails, and joints all contain collagen: it gives strength to our bones, muscles and skin, and so if our levels of collagen start to deplete – either through ageing, illness, sun damage, smoking, stress, or other factors, the signs start to show in our body: our skin becomes less firm and plump, wrinkles appear and cartilage and tendons are weakened.

Why take a liquid collagen supplement?

As we age our natural collagen levels decrease. Many scientists and beauty editors believe that the best way to increase and maintain our collagen levels is to ingest it, and this form of type 1 fish collagen (it doesn’t taste fishy!) is easily absorbed into the bloodstream ready to be whooshed around your body to plump up your skin and smooth out those wrinkles.    For me,  I take supplements to support and enhance the work that my diet does to to provide me with the best possible nutrition, so I take glucosamine and chondroitin for my joints, and a daily vitamin C to keep me healthy and bolster my immune system.  I feel similarly about the collagen: we ingest collagen naturally in our diet, but if I can optimise those levels, then I’m doing the very best to support my skin and hair, and as a new runner, I’m interested in the benefits of collagen for my bones and joints too.

How did I get on with absolute collagen?

Absolute Collagen is a little 10ml sachet of liquid high grade marine collagen.  You just tear the top off and pop the liquid into your mouth.  I didn’t find it fishy or unpleasant: it’s just a small mouthful of slightly sweet, lemony syrup. It’s a quick and simple way to take a ‘daily dose of beauty’.  Have a look at my video to see what I thought!

The verdict

As I’m running regularly now and need to take care of my joints, as well as feeling that my skin has improved dramatically whilst trialling the absolute collagen, I’m definitely going to be ordering some more (just seen on the website that they’ve got a flash sale of the bottle version of absolute collagen so I’m definitely going to be ordering that and giving it a go).  Have you given ingestible collagen a try? I’d love to know what you think.

Many thanks to absolute collagen for sending me two absolute collagen beauty boxes to try.