Bokstäverna COLLAGEN omgivna av kapslar och tabletter

Which collagen is best? How to read the ingredient panel

Pick up four collagen products on a supplement shelf and the fronts look much the same: the word collagen, a number in grams, a marine photograph and a short sentence about skin. Turn them over, and the difference begins.

Five pieces of information on the back decide whether you can judge what is in the jar. The collagen type. The tissue it came from. The size of the peptides. Whether the raw material has a name of its own. And the dose in one daily serving. Only the last is required by law, so labels vary in how many of the other four they print.

That is the useful comparison: not the permitted phrases on the front, but how much each label specifies on the back. It is also the question we asked when we chose the collagen for Beauty Complete, and we read our own label against the same checklist further down.

The short version

• Five things on the back of a jar tell you what is in it: the collagen type, the source tissue, the peptide size, the raw material's own name, and the dose in one daily serving.

• A named raw material fixes species, tissue, enzyme and specification. That is what allows a published study, at a stated dose, to be connected to the jar in your hand.

• Beauty Complete contains Cartidyss®, a hydrolysed fish cartilage collagen of type II from Abyss Ingredients, at 500 mg per daily dose, the dose used in the 90 day study on that material. It sits alongside Hyabest® hyaluronic acid, Ceramosides™ phytoceramides, vitamin C, vitamin B2 and biotin.

Health Royals Beauty Complete, supplement with Cartidyss marine type II collagen from fish cartilage, Hyabest hyaluronic acid and Ceramosides phytoceramides

Our own label, read with the checklist

Beauty Complete, read with this article's own questions.
Type: hydrolysed type II collagen.
Source: fish cartilage.
Named raw material: Cartidyss® from Abyss Ingredients in Brittany.
Dose: 500 mg per daily dose, the same dose as in the published 90 day study on that material.
Alongside it: Hyabest® hyaluronic acid 120 mg, Ceramosides™ phytoceramides 30 mg, vitamin C 60 mg as PureWay-C, vitamin B2 1.4 mg and biotin 50 µg.

See Beauty Complete, marine collagen and hyaluronic acid

Which collagen is best?

The one whose label lets you see exactly what it is. In a shop you cannot analyse the powder, but you can read what the manufacturer has chosen to tell you.

A jar that says marine collagen 10 g gives you a number and a category. A jar that says hydrolysed fish skin collagen, type I, peptides under 3000 Da, 10 g per daily dose tells you precisely what the manufacturer stands behind. The second can be compared with a published study. The first gives you less to go on.

What should a collagen supplement label tell you?

The type, the source tissue, the peptide size, the specific raw material and the dose per daily serving. Only the last of those is a legal requirement.

Directive 2002/46/EC on food supplements requires the amount of each active substance to be declared in figures, for the portion recommended for daily consumption. Nothing obliges a manufacturer to name the collagen type, the tissue, the enzyme or the molecular weight. Regulation 1169/2011 puts the ingredient list in descending order of weight, so you can see what dominates a formula, and fish is a declarable allergen, which is why marine products always say fish somewhere. Fish is a species group rather than a tissue, so the word alone does not tell you whether the material came from skin, scale or cartilage.

Everything beyond that minimum is a choice the manufacturer made. The same way of reading applies to the forms of magnesium.

What does hydrolysed mean, and what does the peptide size tell you?

Hydrolysed collagen is collagen cut by enzymes into short peptide chains, and the resulting size range is a production specification.

Peptide size is quoted in daltons, and commercial hydrolysates typically sit between roughly 2000 and 5000 Da. Enzymes and process time are chosen to reach a target, so a printed molecular weight tells you that the supplier holds a specification and is prepared to publish it. How much the figure matters for absorption, and how the tissue compares, is covered in our article on the types of marine collagen and where they come from.

What does a named raw material give you?

Two concrete things: a fixed production process, and usually a published human study on that exact material at a stated dose.

Marine collagen on an ingredient list is a category. Two products with identical wording can differ in species, tissue, enzyme, degree of hydrolysis and mineral content. A named material with a specification fixes all of those, which is what makes a study on it relevant to the jar in your hand.

This is where our own selection starts. When we chose the collagen for Beauty Complete, we began with a named material, its manufacturer and its human study. Cartidyss® is a hydrolysed fish cartilage collagen of type II made by Abyss Ingredients in Brittany, a specialist manufacturer of marine raw materials with traceable sourcing. Health Royals works with specialist manufacturers, researchers and supplier networks when raw materials are selected. For us, the ingredient cannot be separated from its source, manufacturer and studied dose. More on what a branded ingredient name guarantees.

How much collagen per day?

Trials of hydrolysed collagen for skin have mostly used 2.5 to 10 grams a day for 8 to 24 weeks. A 2019 systematic review in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology covered 11 studies and 805 participants, and a 2021 meta-analysis in the International Journal of Dermatology pooled 19 randomised trials in 1125 participants, most of them women. The dose belongs to the material, though: a concentrated cartilage fraction studied at half a gram and a skin hydrolysate studied at ten grams sit on different scales. Why the numbers cannot be compared, and how to read the dose on the pack, is the subject of how much collagen per day.

When should you take collagen?

At a time you will remember, every day, for at least twelve weeks.

In a 2022 study in npj Science of Food, volunteers took 5 g of collagen hydrolysate, and the main peptides peaked in the blood after roughly 0.6 to 1.4 hours, with one particularly stable tripeptide at 2.6 hours.

What the trials tested was a fixed daily dose taken consistently for two to six months, so the practical answer is to attach the dose to something you already do every day. What matters is not the hour, but that you are still taking it in week twelve.

How do you choose a collagen in the shop?

Read the label for what it specifies, in this order.

  • 1. Start with the back of the pack.
  • 2. Find the collagen type. If it is not stated, the product is most likely type I from skin or hide.
  • 3. Find the tissue. Fish skin, fish scale, fish cartilage and bovine hide are different raw materials, and the word fish is an allergen declaration rather than a source.
  • 4. Look for a raw material with a name of its own. If there is one, there is usually a study behind it.
  • 5. Read the dose per daily serving, not per 100 grams, and check how many scoops or capsules that is.
  • 6. See whether that dose matches a published study on the same material.
  • 7. Read the front last. The specification on the back is what separates one product from another.

How does Beauty Complete read against the checklist?

Type II collagen, from fish cartilage, named, at a studied dose. Beauty Complete, marine collagen and hyaluronic acid contains Cartidyss® from Abyss Ingredients in Brittany at 500 mg per daily dose. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in Molecules in 2021, 46 women aged 45 to 59 took 500 mg of this hydrolysed fish cartilage or placebo daily for 90 days, 43 completed, and the study reported reduced wrinkle measures and increased thickness of the dermis compared with placebo. Cartidyss® was studied at 500 mg per day. Beauty Complete contains 500 mg per daily dose. More on Cartidyss® and what its study measured.

The same reasoning runs through the rest of the formula. Beauty Complete contains six ingredients: Cartidyss® fish cartilage collagen 500 mg, Hyabest® hyaluronic acid 120 mg, bio-fermented by Kewpie in Japan to a defined molecular weight, Ceramosides™ phytoceramides 30 mg from Seppic in France, vitamin C 60 mg as PureWay-C, vitamin B2 1.4 mg and biotin 50 µg. The three branded materials are at the daily doses used in their own human studies, and the three vitamins at a nutritional level. Two capsules a day. Ninety days in the study means taking it every day for three months, which is why the jar is designed to be kept out on a shelf rather than in a cupboard.

The vitamins carry authorised claims that belong in a skin supplement. Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of skin. Riboflavin (vitamin B2) contributes to the maintenance of normal skin. Biotin contributes to the maintenance of normal hair and normal skin.

We print the material, the tissue, the type and the dose because that is what we would want to read on any jar. Our skin page gathers the wider picture. We have done the selection so that you do not have to. You can stop looking.

Further reading

Frequently asked questions

Which collagen is best for skin?
One whose label tells you what it is. Look for four things on the back: the collagen type, the source tissue, a raw material with a name of its own, and the dose in one daily serving. A jar that states all four can be matched with a published study on that material.

How much collagen should you take a day?
The dose belongs to the material. Skin hydrolysates have mostly been studied at 2.5 to 10 grams a day, while a concentrated cartilage fraction has been studied at half a gram. They sit on different scales, which we go through in how much collagen per day.

Is marine collagen better than bovine?
They are different raw materials, differing in species, tissue and collagen type, and within marine, skin, scale and cartilage are three different things. The ingredient panel, not the word fish, tells you which one you are holding.

Does molecular weight matter?
A printed molecular weight tells you the manufacturer holds a specification and publishes it. Commercial hydrolysates sit between roughly 2000 and 5000 daltons, set deliberately by enzyme choice and process time.

Is a named collagen worth the higher price?
A name fixes the specification and usually comes with a published study on that exact material at a stated dose, so a jar can be compared with a study. It is also how we chose Cartidyss® for Beauty Complete, at the 500 mg its study used.

When should you take collagen?
At a time you will remember, every day. The peptides peak in the blood after about an hour whenever you take them, and what the trials tested was a fixed daily dose taken consistently for two to six months.

Sources