Beauty Focus Collagen, also called Beauty Focus Collagen Plus, is a supplement sold by a brand called Nu Skin. The brand positions this supplement as a beauty enhancing product that can help consumers “visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles” in skin and “boost hydration for all-out gorgeous skin.”
But are the ingredients in Beauty Focus Collagen proven in clinical research to support these claims? Does the supplement contain any unhealthy added ingredients? And what does the study funded by Nu Skin on this product show?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we review the ingredients in Beauty Focus Collagen based on clinical studies to give our take on whether the product is likely to be effective for wrinkle reduction and improved skin quality, or if it’s a waste of money.
We’ll highlight two ingredients we recommend avoiding, and share our concerns about the clinical trial funded by Nu Skin on this product.
Ingredient Review – Will Beauty Focus Collagen Work?
Beauty Focus Collagen contains three active ingredients: collagen peptides, lutein and wheat lipid extract.
Collagen peptides is unsurprisingly the first active ingredient. The dose in Beauty Focus Collagen of 2,500 milligrams (mg) is an effective dose for wrinkle reduction. A 2014 clinical trial used the exact same dose, and found after eight weeks of daily supplementation that skin wrinkles were significantly reduced.
Lutein is an antioxidant compound found in plants like broccoli and peppers. While there are some clinical trials suggesting lutein may improve skin quality, we can’t identify any using a dose as low as 5 mg.
Wheat lipid extract may be effective for improving skin quality, but again we consider the amount in this supplement to be underdosed.
A clinical trial published in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology found that this ingredient reduced wrinkles and improved skin hydration, but the dosage used was 350 mg, which is 5x the amount in Beauty Focus Collagen. We can’t find any published clinical trials proving a dose as low as in this supplement is effective.
Beauty Focus Collagen also contains two questionable additive ingredients.
Citric acid is a preservative and flavor-enhancing ingredient. As we documented in our review of NeoCell Collagen (another collagen supplement containing this ingredient), citric acid has been shown in medical studies to cause inflammatory reactions in a small subset of individuals.
Natural flavors is a categorical term that fails to describe the specific flavoring agents used, and there are toxicity concerns documented in medical research regarding some flavoring compounds. Beauty Focus Collagen contains two separate flavoring compounds: Peaches and Cream and Vanilla.
Overall we consider this supplement likely to be effective for reducing wrinkles and improving skin quality due to the effective dosage of collagen peptides. However, we don’t recommend the supplement overall due to the questionable additive ingredients and because we consider it to be significantly overpriced compared to other collagen brands (more on that later).
Questionable Clinical Trial Results
Nu Skin describes Beauty Focus Collagen as “clinically proven,” which suggests that the supplement is proven in medical research to be effective.
The clinical study the brand is referring to, results shown above, is not published in any peer-reviewed scientific or medical journals. Nu Skin doesn’t even publish the full study on its Product Information Page. Just the results.
We recommend that consumers entirely disregard claims of clinical efficacy made by brands that self-fund studies, fail to publish the full study data and do not publish the studies in any legitimate journals. There is simply too much potential bias in the process for the results to have any value in our opinion.
When we reference clinical trials on Illuminate Health, we’re referencing trials that are published in legitimate, peer-reviewed scientific journals. This is the gold standard of product research as there’s a high quality standard and it reduces bias.
The clinical trial results published by Nu Skin do not sway our opinion in any way about this product, and we urge the brand to publish the full study or remove any claims of clinical efficacy from their website.
Is The Brand Behind Nu Biome Fraudulent?
Nu Skin, the multi-level-marketing (MLM) brand behind Nu Biome, was investigated in an extremely interesting exposé published by YouTube creator "iilluminaughtii." The video documents how Nu Skin has been accused of being a pyramid scheme, how the brand has been sued for sex discrimination, and orders from regulatory agencies made to Nu Skin due to false claims:
Our Clean Collagen Recommendation
Bulletproof Collagen Powder is our top collagen pick, both due to its clean formulation and its price.
The only ingredient in Bulletproof’s collagen is collagen peptides sourced from grass-fed animals. There are no questionable additive ingredients.
Bulletproof Collagen costs $43.95 and provides 500 grams (g) of collagen, which equates to a cost per gram of $0.09. Beauty Focus Collagen costs $158 and provides 75 g of collagen, which equates to a cost per gram of $2.11. This makes Bulletproof more than 20x cheaper than Beauty Focus Collagen per gram of collagen.
Interested consumers can check out Bulletproof Collagen Powder at this link to the product page on the official brand website.
