Liquid collagen is becoming an increasingly popular format of collagen supplementation. It’s more convenient than powdered collagen, and is frequently positioned as a “luxury” type of collagen by brands.
But is liquid collagen really any different than powdered or capsule collagen? How does the cost compare? Can liquid collagen really improve skin and joint health? And what was our experience trying liquid collagen?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we review clinica. studies on liquid collagen to give our take on whether or not it’s effective for improving skin and joint health.
We’ll also compare the cost of liquid collagen and powdered collagen, share our honest experience purchasing and testing liquid collagen for a month, and explain why we think liquid collagen is a waste of money.
Key takeaways:
- Liquid collagen often contains unhealthy additives
- Liquid collagen is dramatically more expensive than powdered collagen
- We tried liquid collagen and disliked the taste and plastic packaging
We Tested Liquid Collagen
As the author of this article, I wanted to try liquid collagen myself to share my thoughts on the taste and overall product experience:
For a week I used liquid collagen shots from Momentous Supplements instead.
I typically use powdered collagen mixed into water first thing in the morning.
I disliked the flavor, it was overly sweet and artificial. This is a problem with most of the liquid collagen brands I came across while researching this article. I much prefer the unflavored collagen powder mixed into water.
This supplement provided an adequate collagen dose, so I felt it was helping to support my skin and joint health. Collagen supplementation isn't something I "feel" in a visceral way.
I didn't find liquid collagen to be any more convenient than powdered collagen. I typically just take a scoop of powder and mix into water. For the liquid collagen, I cut it open and drank it from the single-serving. Both processes only take seconds.
This product costs substantially more per-serving than the powdered collagen I normally use, which is another downside.
I dislike how most liquid collagen brands (including the one I tried) are packaged in plastic, which exposes me to questionable levels of microplastics that may be less likely to exist in a powder formulation.
Overall, I don't recommend liquid collagen and don't plan to purchase it in the future.
Can Liquid Collagen Reverse Aging?
Collagen is one of the most well-studied dietary supplements for skin and joint health. It can be used both topically and orally, but we’ll focus on the benefits of oral collagen intake since this is how liquid collagen is taken.
A medical review published in the Dermatology Practical & Conceptual journal examined the effects of collagen consumption on skin.
The study authors concluded that collagen “can contribute to reducing or delaying skin aging.”
Not only was collagen found to reduce wrinkles, but it was also clinically shown to improve skin hydration, reduce skin roughness and improve skin elasticity.
As we documented in our review of the best collagen protein powder, the maximally-effective dose of oral collagen supplements appears to be 10 grams (g) daily.
Collagen has other health effects than its anti-aging effect. It’s also clinically shown to support joint health.
A 2008 clinical trial on collagen peptides and joint pain reported that after 3 months, 80% of patients report an improvement in their joint pain symptoms.
Based on the available medical studies, we consider liquid collagen likely to have an anti-aging effect and to improve joint health when taken at an effective daily 10 g dose.
Why Liquid Collagen is a Waste of Money
Collagen is a type of protein that is the same structurally whether it’s included in a powder, capsule or liquid formulation.
There is no extra benefit to taking liquid collagen, compared with taking collagen in powder form and adding it to water.
Liquid collagen tends to be significantly more expensive than powder collagen because the majority of the formulation by weight is water or other liquids rather than collagen, while the entire formulation by weight of a powder collagen product is just collagen.
Here’s a comparative cost breakdown:
Modere Liquid Collagen is one of the most popular collagen products on the market.
At the time of updating this article, this product costs $88.20 and doesn’t even state the collagen dose.
Collagen is included in a proprietary blend with a total dose of 4.3 g, so we’ll say (being generous to the brand) that there is 3 g of collagen in this liquid collagen product that has 30 servings.
This equates to a cost of $9.80 per 10 g collagen (which is what we consider the maximally-effective daily dose).
For comparison, Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides currently costs under $1 for a 10 g serving.
Our Clean Collagen Pick
Thorne Collagen Fit is our top collagen pick.
It provides 15 grams (g) of collagen per serving, is sourced from grass-fed animals and is NSF Certified for Sport (meaning a third-party laboratory has verified it to be free of harmful contaminants.
This formulation also contains nicotinamide riboside, which "will play an important role in anti-aging therapy" according to a 2022 medical review.
