Does Collagen in skincare actually work?

Does Collagen in skincare actually work?

hi everyone it is Malika Wednesday almost midday and today we are going to be talking about whether or not collagen actually in words now I’m talking about the collagen that you’re hearing about that goes inside moisturizers and serums and apparently makes you look ten years younger does putting collagen does the collagen molecule work and today I’m going to be joined again by Chris Smith who is an extraordinarily good and cosmetic scientist he is he’s very thorough he digs deep he does a deep dive but he is also able to explain complicated science in ways that are actually interesting for us that don’t baffle us all I think you might be joining us they don’t baffle us what go live and hi Chris yes so they don’t baffle us and that’s the most important thing and the comments that be coming about from those of you that have comments it’s hi Chris is that you are enjoying learning about cosmetic science but without it being baffling so it’s easy to understand so Chris is here now but just before I introduce Chris I just want to remind you all so the reason why I’ve set this up with Chris is because I want truly for women to feel more confidence and the way to feel more confident is to get knowledge that is easily absorbed and then to be able to assimilate all the information you get from different sources and then adding your own information about yourself and your circumstance because you make a good decision so it’s not about turning you into a cosmetic science so although I say that we are talking skincare science it’s not really science II it’s in a way that we could all explain to another person or to a friend if we were talking to a friend on zoom’ a bit later on so it’s all about making you more confident it’s all about debunking some of the really atrocious information that is out there that’s confusing that’s creating fear so I want to take the fear-mongering out this I want you to understand that your skin is fantastic it’s not gonna fall off but let’s take all of these subjects one by one so as we go through post any questions I will raise them on this call and if you’ve got any comments as well thanks for joining us now here’s chris chris is a cosmetic science extraordinaire but not only that he also has a business that’s all about ingestible x’ as well and chris is responsible for inventing the antioxidant system that was in a very very well known product and in a high street pharmacy that sold millions overnight so he knows his stuff and today chris the vote we had a vote between how much acid is too much and does collagen work and it came up as does collagen work so I kept more really interested in that because collagen is a word just because it’s familiar word that we can understand but of course we don’t so today we will be just we will be talking to you about what does college and do in the skin over to you okay hi how are you hopefully my signals okay it keeps coming and going a little bit but hopefully okay yeah good here you could everyone here if anyone can’t hear let us know in the comments great so first of all collagen is one of the main or the main building block of skin its prominent throughout a whole body it’s the most prominent protein in our body so that’s the significance we need we need collagen to give skin structure and its scaffold okay and body or is it just in the skin it’s it’s all over so it’s a key protein in the formation of bones of muscle cartilage joints everywhere and say it’s the most abundant and the body is constantly making its own collagen all right yes correct and when were younger we produce all of the collagen we need and as we age our skin collagen production reduces the quality of mycology reduces – alright so here’s the big question there’s lots of brands say that they put collagen into their creams and if you apply this then you skin just collagen in screams wait no well here’s the thing for for things to penetrate the skin the skin is a fantastic barrier which is a good job because we kind of disintegrate if it wasn’t for things to penetrate the skin and I’ll put this into a kind of currency they need to be 500 Alton’s or smaller that is a measure of size molecular weight so 500 Dalton’s collagen is $300,000 so Oh God hugely too big to get through the skin so once it does it work if you apply collagen to the skin it’s a great moisturizer because it’s a protein on the top of the skin doing a great job but no far better yes so we’re so collagen in a cream it is not going to have the results that people are probably claiming it to do okay so here’s the thing I read a piece the other day that says actually they’ve managed to make the collagen molecule smaller so it is absorbed into the skin what would you say about that so this is interesting because yeah your correct size collagen by breaking it down but the problem is that doesn’t necessarily mean that once it gets through as ecology it can simply bind with normal-sized collagen it’s like what when they need some what’s the colours you going to do with it with this kind of nano sized mess if you like so yeah the key thing that we’ll talk about in more detail is we don’t abdicate pretty collagen on the skin we undertake putting collagen peptides on the skin so when I talk about collagen being the building block of skin peptides are the building blocks of collagen so you need in order to make your own collagen correctly yes so when we put in peptides onto the skin and matrixyl being a prime example of a peptide technology it’s what they are small enough to penetrate and that but they are the building blocks of that ecology so as we’re producing new collagen it’s better the material or the other petals can help produce better collagen that’s the whole theory produces a better quality we then produce a better quality collagen because the peptide attaches to that process where we’re making more collagen and makes that College and stronger exactly but also and what’s really interesting is these peptides can cause cellular communication so actually tell the body tell the skin to produce more collagen itself so it’s it’s not just about supplementing with collagen peptides it’s it’s telling the skin we need more collagen we need better collagen away you go okay alright let’s so let me just go back to those those smaller molecular weights of collagen ingredients because I’ve seen that a lot of people are being sold but no it’s great because it does absorb so are we saying that although it’s made into this it’s broken I don’t know chopped up made it to a smaller size what from three hundred thousand doubts or under five hundred all right shopping so it’s made into a smaller size that the skin can absorb but what you’re saying is once it then gets in there it would have to attach to some collagen already and that’s where you think it’s not it doesn’t have a capability of doing that that’s right because what what they’re effectively doing is taking collagen and try to make the collagen smaller rather than work with the building blocks of collagen so different so my advice to everybody is look for peptides look for collagen peptides not collagen itself in a cream do all peptides if people see peptides because that’s another word that’s bandied about if someone sees on a brand’s product that says it’s got peptides it does every single peptide out there stimulate collagen production no so there are millions of different types of it this is all coming back to look for the proven science so you’re correct you can’t find creams but they just think kind of thrown in but no this comes down to this very carefully engineered active ingredients that be shown to stimulate produce and boost that cellular communication okay so what are the good things that has come about from several sources you know influences talking about beauty brands being broken about the information that they’re providing it’s it recession one of the good things that’s come out of that is that there is more information out there but also along with that comes a lot of misinformation and therefore a lot of confusion and I have read other stuff that says oh there’s four different types of collagen or this collagen one collagen two collagen three coaching for elastin fit Berlin we talked about and can you just give us some insight into what’s the difference sure so there are 16 types of collagen actually in skin we’re mainly concerned with collagen type 1 which in our skin is about 80 percent of the collagen in our skin type 3 is that is the second most that’s probably about 15% type 3 type 1 collagen is all about strength in fact I’m more collagen ground for gram is stronger than steel really so especially it was it’s what gives our skin its structure so and when we start about collagen and elastin defibrillator the analogy I try and use it’s like a mattress so if you think of the the structure of a mattress that the size that the shape that it’s that comes from ecology tight one we then have a last minute really work together to form elastic fibers which are the effective Springs it’s what gives skin its bounce that’s the significance but with collagen it does get more complicated because there is data to show that in very deep wrinkles there are lower levels of collagen four and seven specific so I’m kind of generalizing my snake type 1 is the most important generally but there are specific situations where the levels are lower so it isn’t a straightforward answer but I hope that gives a nice gen-i but then I guess if 85 or 80 percent of the collagen is collagen type 1 if you’ve got enough activity on collagen type 1 it doesn’t matter about the others does it because that’s the biggest bit that’s the one that we want to focus on first and the rest comes later what concerns me is is that in this effort never-ending and race to be first to be new to be different to create a point of difference as friends that more and more selective information is being introduced to our customers and and to in a way that makes it think that you can’t survive I mean that you can’t survive without collagen for collagen 7 or whatever but and that’s really why I introduced that question because I want to differ on to understand that you know exactly that the collagen one is prolific collagen 3 and they all have their place but you’ve got to get the collagen one right and what we’re saying is very very clearly I think here still but despite the fact that they’ve been able to reduce the molecular weight of collagen and it is still not going to be efficient in the skin it’s still not going to deliver what we want it to do and so at this point that if you see collagen as an ingredient whatever they say the molecular size is you would be much much better to introduce ingredients that will stimulate the quality the usability and the strength of your own collagen that your body is proliferating all the time because sometimes we feel like oh my god my skin’s running out of collagen what am I going to do but actually like you said right at the beginning collagen is the most abundant protein all over the body isn’t it yes correct you say no it’s the same for ingesting as well so we see a lot of collagen supplements and the message is the same so the chances of it surviving getting through the stomach without being obliterated reaching the skin intact is well if it’s necessary but there is data to show that collagen peptide so that again the building blocks they can do that journey and obviously reassemble that they do the job when they get there so it’s a secret it’s always worth looking at the data behind the products so you saying that collagen and molecule as an ingestible is unlikely to get through the intestinal tract tips that’s right insects get us now what we all need to remember as well is that the body is super clever and it provides nutrients on a priority basis and the brain gets first and then the heart and everything that would immediately if it stopped working would immediately kill you it gets it gets the nutrients first so even if it did get through the intestinal tract by the time it got to the skin I mean would there be anything left right yeah exactly so the chance of it arriving there intact are next to zero okay and so you’re saying that again like putting peptides on the skin you can ingest supplements with peptides in them yes those some data showing that the the collagen peptides are having an effect on skin which is through ingestion which is good okay yes in a similar way is doing it on a priority basis so it’s providing it to the other areas of the body that need you first and then some gets to the skin afterwards yes correct okay all right then okay so that was gonna be my next question actually what about the adjustables do you think they work because there are many many people who swear by them who think that they are the bee’s knees and then there’s lots of differentiation in those different brands about why they’re college and works and nobody else’s does and some are saying that it comes from I don’t know fats hang on me we got a question from Trisha hello Trisha Trisha my French Alicia Wilson amazing makeup artist so is it pointless taking supplements for an increase in collagen no so it’s good to take supplements to increase collagen it’s just in my opinion not particularly but we’re taking supplements that are collagen so but so typically if you look at some of the best college and supplements on the market that have data they’ve got other things in there so they’ve got things like bitumen C and biotin zinc and dare I say it they have probably the things that having the effect on the skin rather than the collagen itself okay what episome all collagen work well I don’t know what is the same on collagen so episode is it’s a delivery system so we put things and Allah preserves to try and help them get through the skin but honestly intensive on the skin the college is still too big you can put it into an episode but it still won’t get through and in terms of ingesting again the stomach will break down zone so those are very beautiful things that may get through the skin but collagen it’s just so nowhere near it won’t help now I guess okay so by the Sun what a lip is only it’s almost like a shell and of course you create the shell and you can that’s an ingredient within that shell and gets broke broken down as you apply to the skin or as you ingest it so it’s often a good way of delivering like vitamins that are unstable or just helping them get through the skin but when one of molecules so large like collagen that it it’s just too big to get through the skin Olympus ohm isn’t going to do it a great deal of good right okay so then Gerald is here and he says also people never ask the question where does the college and majoring come from and so where does the collagen come from that’s in supplements or drinks it’s usually fish yeah you can’t get other animal sources but there are no plant sources or collagen so it’s all animal or fish based okay all right there and and are there no plant sources of collagen there so everything that is to do with the College drink has to come from an animal’s yeah correct so there are there are some synthetic options where they’re trying to recreate collagen so by putting together the building blocks the peptides I mentioned but we’re now college itself it’s its animal origin or fish I’d seen one that was talking about the quality of its salmon and how the salmon from that one is better than anyone elses but I didn’t realize it there wasn’t a plant version okay all right that’s really good news so um I’ve got any more questions because if we haven’t we’re gonna end and the choices for this week were how much acid is too much so I pick what we’ll do is we’ll talk about acids next week different acids how much is too much and and if you’ve got any questions in advance then why don’t you send them to me and then I’ll have them ready as well and then if you can’t make the live then you will get the recorded version a little bit later on as we upload it so today was all about what is collagen doing the skin and most importantly if you apply collagen in a cream topically does it work does it get in there and do what you want it to do and the answer is no you should be using collagen forming peptides so look for collagen for B peptides one of the most famous ones is Matrixyl by the way we use Matrixyl and youth preservation moisturizer and our retinol resurfacing treatment and I think we might be the only people to use the trip salt with retinol and that is so that you’ll still me you know retinol is stimulating of collagen production anyway but this is strengthening and making that collagen even better than it would be without so Oh Lucy’s just joined Lucy we’re just about to finish you’re late darling doing those different nail paintings and hi hi Lucy and so the conclusion is use products that contain collagen boosting peptides like metrics are and that is going to help your skin be stronger and the infrastructure of your skin to be much much more robust right yeah correct and just other things to look for you makes your retinol very good for boosting collagen vitamin C excellent hyaluronic acid really really important there are some other things antioxidants across the board very good for this and algae seaweed ingredients that are very good for it because seaweed mimics the structure of our skin so you often find those same text size or amino acids so they’re the kind of so Chris you frozen it’s a quiz that’s pretty interesting so first question how erotic acid stimulates collagen does it yes okay and then you said the alkene oh it’s really interesting because you actually formulated the treatment toner and the gentle exfoliating toner and use the micro and brown algae in there so that was for the collagen stimulation that was also there’s also being done by the business ear as well yeah exactly I could spend the whole week talking about algae and seaweed to be honest because it’s fascinating how it is similar structure to the skin so we can we can harness those in grease to stimulate ecology but also they react to stress the same way our skin does so that’s why they’re so good for coping with information from the Sun and hydration so it’s like it’s just okay so Mike Brown and Mike rabbit and we’ve got algae through some other products as well I think and I think it might even be in the I can’t use them I’d have to double-check that though so they help to stimulate collagen now I have one more question that I’ve got actually sorry we were about to finish what is the difference between stimulating our collagen production and making that collagen stronger and synthesis collagen synthesis because we talked about both okay so we want to stimulate collagen so when we talk about that we’re effectively telling the skin so produced more collagen so when we when we use these College of peptides Matrixyl what one of its main jobs is it it’s getting to a point in the skin called the dermal epidermal junction which is where it’s kind of a no-man’s land where this side to this side the outer time units of produce more collagen so first of all we’re stimulating more colors because as we get older that level reduces but something we want better quality colleges so this is where the color depends eyes are supporting the structure of the collagen making it more useful but also supporting with that elastin and that fibrillate I mentioned which is giving the overall collagen and the fibers more bounce okay said the word synthesis is about how we then use that collagen is it for production production yes excellent okay with the Andre here and Andre is an amazing makeup artist and she does a lot of film work she does some work for Trini and is the same benefit from eating seaweed products and I guess this is also damaged by stomach acids so if we seaweed will we get that benefit I think we will yes because when I talk about things being damaged by stomach acids they’re broken up by stomach so when I talked about collagen you’ve got this one thing college it all together it gets in the stomach it’s broken up into all sorts but when you consume seaweed it’s full of different goodies different nutrients so while the seaweeds broken up those nutrients go off and do their thing so we know the nutrients from seaweed of fantastic antioxidants great proteins and yeah you’re correct that the body will do with them what what the body feels is most prioritized but we do know that there are benefits to the skin both topically and systemically okay so each the seaweed it’s also got idean and isn’t it a week and okay brain and are there any other any other supplements that should be considered so you mentioned different ingredients hollering cows and vitamin C rest in all row yet Cynthia yeah okay it has a retinol like effect so it works in the same way as retinol in boosting that cell turnover boosting that collagen production look out for ingredients that people so I would say as well if you were considering buying any skincare for if you’re considering buying any skincare for from any brand that you should look to see what kind of information they’re offering you on the website because although you want to see an inky list to be honest most of us can’t most people cannot read an inky list and know what’s in there and anything that was a complex is broken down into the separate ingredients anyway isn’t it and Chris so I’d say look to make sure that those breads are explaining how each of those different actives actually work and what they do in the skin so why have they been included what is the validity of it and do check whether or not it was then used in the full concentrations same as it was tested in the clinical lamps I say okay so Chris that was brilliant thank you very much I think we’re doing how much acid is too much acid and then we’ll stop working through the list so next week at 12 o’clock here on IG live we will have the lovely prospect with us and in the meantime we wish you a wonderful west rest of the week and someone just commented it was lovely to have scientists on here Chris and it is it’s lovely seeing you every week oh the menopause room oh no not retinol thoughts on this for long-term use for mature skin in reference to hayflick limit would love take your thoughts ah hayflick limit I have no clue about – limits do you Chris limit no doesn’t ring a bell okay well good nice to come back to you on that at the menopause room we’re gonna have to look into that and come back to you is that alright hope so oh there’s our friend Daisy you’ve been so lovely Daisy supporting us recently that’s funny we’ll come back so at the menopause room and this week we’ll come back to you this week and respond to that question so in the meantime have a fabulous week yes Monsieur she wants to say hello yeah and wherever now I’ll see you next week Chris and everyone else have a fabulous week told you soon bye thanks for me