the skin research is the part that actually convinced me

This is the one everybody wants to know about, so let me give it the space it deserves. Skin is where collagen has the deepest evidence base, and it is deeper than most people realise.

what the trials found

A 2021 systematic review and meta analysis in the International Journal of Dermatology pulled together 19 randomised controlled trials covering 1,125 participants. The finding was consistent: hydrolysed collagen improved skin hydration and skin elasticity compared with placebo.

Underneath that sit some genuinely good individual studies. Proksch and colleagues published two double blind, placebo controlled trials in 2014. In the first, women took 2.5 or 5 grams of collagen peptides daily for eight weeks and showed a significant improvement in skin elasticity, with the largest gains in the older participants. In the second, 2.5 grams daily for eight weeks reduced eye wrinkle volume.

That second study is the one that convinced me, because they did not stop at measuring the surface. They took skin biopsies afterwards and found higher levels of procollagen type one in the dermis. That is not someone reporting they feel glowier. That is a tissue sample showing the skin was building more collagen than before.

how it gets from a can to your face

Your body does not simply route collagen to your skin like a delivery. What happens is better than that.

Hydrolysed collagen breaks down into short peptides, and some of those survive digestion and turn up intact in the bloodstream. Iwai and colleagues demonstrated that in 2005. Those circulating peptides, particularly proline-hydroxyproline, have been shown to stimulate skin fibroblasts, the cells whose entire job is producing new collagen and the matrix around it.

So it works as a signal as much as a supply. You are giving your skin both the raw material and the prompt to use it.

nails

Hexsel and colleagues, 2017, in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. People with brittle nails took 2.5 grams of collagen peptides daily for 24 weeks. Nail growth rate increased by around twelve percent, broken nails fell by roughly 42 percent, and the large majority of participants said the appearance of their nails had improved.

Nails are one of the places you can see structural protein doing its work, because they grow out and record it.

hair, and the layer it grows out of

The hair strand itself is keratin, not collagen. But the follicle producing that strand is not floating in space. It sits in the dermis, which is roughly 70 percent collagen by dry weight, and it is surrounded by a collagen rich sheath. That dermal layer is the soil, and the follicle is the plant.

Collagen also anchors the small blood vessels that feed each follicle. Keeping the foundation well supplied is the honest and interesting way to think about collagen and hair, and it is how I think about it.

the thing that decides whether it works

Every trial in this piece has one feature in common. Eight weeks minimum, twenty four in the nail study, taken daily throughout.

Nobody in those studies took collagen when they remembered. That is the real variable, and it is the reason we built LÉS as a cold drink you look forward to rather than a powder you have to prepare. Twenty grams of collagen protein per can, above the dose used in every study above, and the only thing it asks of you is that you open the fridge.

the research i leaned on

• de Miranda RB, Weimer P, Rossi RC. Effects of hydrolyzed collagen supplementation on skin aging: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Dermatology. 2021;60(12):1449-1461.
• Proksch E, Segger D, Degwert J, et al. Oral supplementation of specific collagen peptides has beneficial effects on human skin physiology: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Skin Pharmacology and Physiology. 2014;27(1):47-55.
• Proksch E, Schunck M, Zague V, et al. Oral intake of specific bioactive collagen peptides reduces skin wrinkles and increases dermal matrix synthesis. Skin Pharmacology and Physiology. 2014;27(3):113-119.
• Hexsel D, Zague V, Schunck M, et al. Oral supplementation with specific bioactive collagen peptides improves nail growth and reduces symptoms of brittle nails. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 2017;16(4):520-526.

LÉS is a beverage, not medicine, and it does not treat any skin, hair or nail condition. Nothing here is medical advice.