Essential Skin Food is a supplement for promoting optimal skin health sold by ActivatedYou, a brand founded by actress Maggie Q. The company claims their supplement can “encourage healthy collagen production” and support “firmer, plumper-looking skin.”
But does it make sense to support collagen production rather than just taking collagen? Do the ingredients in Essential Skin Food have research backing? Does this supplement contain any unhealthy ingredients? And is Essential Skin Food better or worse than popular collagen brands like Vital Proteins?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we share our thoughts on whether taking "collagen-supporting supplements" or simply taking collagen is a better choice.
We'll also analyze the ingredients in Essential Skin Food to give our take on whether or not it's is likely to improve skin quality, and compare the brand to other popular collagen brands like Vital Proteins to pick our winners (and losers).
Key takeaways:
- All active ingredients are likely ineffective or underdosed in our view
- Contains an inactive ingredient we consider unhealthy
- We do not currently recommend Essential Skin Food
Ingredient Analysis
The active ingredients in Essential Skin Food are shown below:
Vitamin C was shown in a medical review published in the Nutrients journal to promote collagen synthesis, but the 10 milligram (mg) dose is lower by a significant amount than any of the doses cited in the above-linked review.
What’s strange is that the research citation supporting vitamin C on the Essential Skin Food website is a meta-study on topical, not oral, vitamin C use for skincare.
Calcium is a mineral, and we’re unable to identify any clinical trials showing it to increase collagen production, nor does ActivatedYou cite any on their product page.
L-lysine is an essential amino acid, and we can’t find any human studies showing it to promote collagen production or improve skin quality.
Dermaval blend is a proprietary (prop) blend with a total dose of 50 mg, which equates to an average ingredient dose of 5 mg.
To give perspective on how low a 5 mg dose is for a botanical ingredient, one single teaspoon or camu camu powder has a dose of 3,000 mg according to the USDA.
This means that one teaspoon of camu camu powder provides a dose 600x the average ingredient dose in this blend.
We certainly have not come across any clinical evidence that these ingredients at these doses support skin quality.
The Dermaval website suggests that their formulation is research-backed, but states that you need to contact the company to review the clinical research results.
L-proline is an amino acid, and a 2020 medical review concluded that “...an addition of proline has failed to increase collagen biosynthesis in fibroblasts and other cells.”
Cosmythic is a trademarked pine bark extract that was shown in a 2014 clinical trial to have an anti-aging effect at a 100 mg dose. However, the dose in Essential Skin Food is only 40 mg.
The inactive ingredients in Essential Skin Food are shown below:
Dicalcium phosphate is an ingredient we recommend avoiding.
As we documented in our King Maker Supplement review article, dietary phosphates are were described in at least one medical review as a risk to kidney health.
Overall, we do not consider Essential Skin Food likely to improve skin quality, because we consider all of its active ingredients to be underdosed after a review of clinical studies on them.
Are Collagen-Supporting Supplements Pointless?
The purpose of collagen-promoting supplements is to support and optimize skin quality, given that collagen is a core structural component in skin.
However, it may be illogical to take nutrients to enhance collagen production rather than simply taking collagen as a supplement, given that collagen has significant research backing for improving skin quality.
A meta-study published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology analyzed results from 11 clinical trials on oral collagen supplementation for skin, and concluded the following:
“Preliminary results are promising for the short and long-term use of oral collagen supplements for wound healing and skin aging. Oral collagen supplements also increase skin elasticity, hydration, and dermal collagen density.”
A 2021 clinical trial found that hydrolyzed collagen supplementation reduced the visible appearance of wrinkles.
As we documented in our review of collagen brand Live Conscious, the maximum effective daily dose appears to be around 10 grams (g).
Overall, we don’t see the purpose of taking collagen-supporting supplements rather than just taking collagen, which has significantly more clinical backing and an excellent safety profile.
For vegans and vegetarians, collagen-supporting supplements like Essential Skin Food may be the best option until technology evolves, because currently collagen is derived from animals.
Essential Skin Food vs. Popular Collagen Brands
Here's how Essential Skin Food compares to other popular collagen brands in terms of formulation quality, in our opinion:
Vital Proteins
Beyond collagen, some formulations from this brand utilize other research-backed active ingredients for skin health, like hyaluronic acid, which is clinically shown to enhance skin moisture content when taken orally.
Vital Proteins wins in terms of both potential efficacy and healthiness.
Winner: Vital Proteins
Primal Collagen
Contains a research-backed collagen peptides dose for anti-aging, and is free from any unhealthy additives.
Also is tasteless and odorless, based on our personal tests that we documented in our Primal Collagen reviews article.
Winner: Primal Collagen
Orgain Collagen Peptides
Contains a research-backed collagen dose and zero additional ingredients.
One of the simplest and cleanest collagen formulations on the market.
Winner: Orgain Collagen Peptides
Our Clean Skincare Pick
MindBodyGreen Best Skin+ is our top anti-aging skin supplement.
It contains orange extract which is clinically shown to increase skin moisturization, skin elasticity and skin radiance.
This supplement also contains astaxanthin which is clinically shown to cause "wrinkle formation reduction."
This supplement is free of ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.
Essential Skin Food Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Safe active ingredients
- Unlikely to cause side effects
- Some ingredients have research backing
- May support natural collagen production
Cons:
- Collagen-support supplements may be less effective than collagen
- Doesn’t appear clinically tested
- Mediocre online customer reviews
- We can’t identify an active ingredient that’s effectively dosed
- Expensive
