Collagen Burn is a dietary supplement manufactured by a brand called Vitauthority. The brand claims that their product “supports the reduction of visible cellulite,” and this product has more active ingredients than collagen alone.
But is collagen actually effective for improving skin quality? Are any of the active ingredients in Collagen Burn aside from collagen effective, or is the company just good at marketing their product?
In this article we’ll seek to answer these questions based on a review of every ingredient in Collagen Burn. We’ll provide our determination on whether this product is worth the money, or whether there are other collagen products on the market that we would recommend instead.
Because Collagen Burn has many active ingredients, we’ll break the ingredient reviews into three sections: a Collagen Blend review, a vitamins and minerals review, and a Support Blends review.
Does Collagen Improve Skin and Reduce Wrinkles?
The good news about Collagen Burn is that the brand’s core claims about collagen being effective for skin improvement are accurate.
Collagen is the structural protein in skin, and it’s one of the most well-studied supplements for reducing wrinkles. As we age, our body’s collagen production slows down, and medical research proves that supplemental collagen can help replenish collagen levels in the body and improve skin.
An extensive medical review published in the International Journal of Dermatology analyzed data from 18 clinical trials on oral collagen supplementation and skin parameters. Data from over 1,000 trial participants was examined. The researchers concluded that oral collagen supplementation provided significant improvements to skin:
“Based on results, ingestion of hydrolyzed collagen for 90 days is effective in reducing skin aging, as it reduces wrinkles and improves skin elasticity and hydration.”
Another meta-study that we frequently cite on Illuminate Health concluded similarly, and found the effective dosing range of collagen for skin care to be 2.5 grams (g) to 10 g per day. We typically recommend 10 g since collagen is a safe food product without side effects, and this appears to be the maximally-effective dose.
Ingredient Review - Collagen Blend
Collagen Burn provides 7.8 g of collagen per serving from a variety of sources such as hydrolyzed grass-fed bovine chicken collagen peptides and water-soluble eggshell membrane collagen.
We know from the medical studies cited in the previous section that this is an effective dose of collagen, and likely to improve skin quality, although it’s 2.2 g lower than the collagen dose we typically recommend.
We haven’t come across any medical research suggesting that one type of collagen is more effective than another, so we don’t believe that this blend of different types of collagen would be more effective than any collagen supplement containing hydrolyzed collagen peptides at the same dose (but also not any less effective either).
Ingredient Review - Vitamins and Minerals
Collagen Burn contains an added vitamin and an added mineral: vitamin C and chromium.
We have not come across any medical studies suggesting that either ingredient improves skin quality, and we disagree with the practice of supplement manufacturers adding blends of vitamins and minerals to their products.
As we referenced in our Bang Energy reviews article, it may be unsafe for consumers with already-normal levels of vitamins and minerals to take supplements with these ingredients added, because it may increase their blood level of these nutrients into an unsafe range.
We’re not suggesting this is likely, but we recommend avoiding all supplements with added vitamins and minerals unless otherwise instructed by a doctor. We consider this category of ingredient additive to be illogical.
Ingredient Review - Support Blends
Collagen Burn contains a number of active ingredients in two separate blends: “Metabolism Support Blend” and “Cellulite Control Matrix.”
The metabolism blend is theoretically supposed to help users lose weight, because Vitauthority describes ashwagandha root extract and grains of paradise herb extract as “weight loss enhancing ingredients” with no medical citation.
One clinical trial found that ashwagandha extract caused weight loss in stressed patients, but the daily dosage was 600 milligrams (mg) while the average ingredient dose in this blend is 44.25 mg.
We would consider grains of paradise extract to be an effective weight loss ingredient and effectively dosed in this formulation. A 2014 clinical trial found that this ingredient increased energy expenditure and caused fat loss at a 30 mg per day dose, which is lower than the average ingredient dose in the Collagen Burn metabolism blend.
We find the metabolic blend to be a strange formulation choice given that collagen itself doesn’t appear to cause weight loss and certainly is not typically used for weight loss. Collagen is used for improving skin and joint health for the most part, and this is what the vast majority of clinical trials on collagen have focused on.
The Cellulite Control Matrix blend contains hyaluronic acid, which was found in a clinical trial published in the Nutrients journal to reduce wrinkles and improve skin elasticity at a dosage of 120 mg per day. The average ingredient dosage in this blend is only 45 mg, so we will consider this ingredient underdosed and likely ineffective. We cannot identify any medical studies proving oral hyaluronic acid to be effective at a 45 mg dose, nor does Vitauthority cite any on their product page.
Do We Recommend Collagen Burn?
We do not recommend Collagen Burn due to the inclusion of added vitamins and minerals. However, the product does contain an effective collagen dose, as well as other effective ingredients for wrinkle reduction that we consider underdosed in this formulation.
One good thing about Collagen Burn is that it contains no harmful additive ingredients like added sugar or artificial flavoring agents.
While we don’t recommend the product overall, it has a better formulation than the majority of supplements we’ve reviewed on Illuminate Health.
Our Collagen Recommendation
We recommend Bulletproof Collagen Powder to consumers interested in using collagen to reduce wrinkles and visible signs of skin aging.
Bulletproof collagen contains no questionable additive ingredients; its only ingredient is hydrolyzed collagen sourced from grass-fed animals.
Bulletproof Collagen costs $43.95 for a one-time purchase at the time of updating this article, and contains 50 servings of 10 g collagen. This equates to a price of $0.88 per 10 g serving (which is the maximally-effective serving we recommend).
Collagen Burn currently costs $59.99 for a one-time purchase and contains 23.4 servings of 10 g collagen. This equates to a price of $2.56 per 10 g serving, or over twice as much as Bulletproof per 10 g serving.
Interested consumers can buy Bulletproof Collagen powder at this link.
Questionable Amazon Reviews
Collagen Burn currently has an impressive 4.4/5 rating on Amazon with over 5,000 total reviews.
However, the product receives an “F” grade on FakeSpot, which is a software tool that uses artificial intelligence to detect potentially fraudulent Amazon reviews and issue adjusted ratings. In the case of Collagen Burn, FakeSpot states that there are “insufficient reliable reviews” to provide an adjusted rating.
