pretty little pills

Can they really make you smoother, glossier and younger – or is the prospect of an edible beauty regime too hard to swallow? WH investigates the surprising science behind the booming nutraceutical trend

Who isn’t on the search for eternal youth, or at the very least, clear glowing skin? We’re constantly bombarded with promises of age-defying super potions, so it can be impossible to know what to believe. But in the ever-shifting landscape of the beauty world, if you’re not eating your skincare, you could be missing out on a key source. No, we don’t mean tucking into your papaya-extract moisturiser for elevenses. We’re talking about a new breed of next-gen supplements to feed your skin and hair from the inside out.

Introducing nutraceuticals: digestible nutrients that promise to tackle skin wrinkles and dullness and even banish cellulite by drip-feeding proteins and vitamins into your bloodstream. Generally, they’re available in pill and liquid form. Yes, it feels like you’ve been promised this before by the makers of regular vitamins and supplements, but the ace in the nutraceuticals hole is that they contain doses of nutrients up to 100 times higher that are supposedly able to boost the skin’s moisture and collagen levels. And there’s some pretty convincing science to back up the marketing spiel. As a result, the edible beauty business is booming: the market, while still in its infancy, is predicted to rise to £5.6billion globally in the next four years. So, if perfect skin and lustrous locks are on your wish list, nutraceuticals could become hard to ignore.

INGESTING COLLAGEN COULD GIVE YOU THE SKIN YOU CRAVE

CLINICAL BACKING

Let’s start with the most iconic of skin saviours: collagen. It’s the wonder protein that keeps your skin firm and springy, but like many other things you enjoyed in your youth (Cadbury’s Dream bars, Davina Mccall on Streetmate), its supply can come to an abrupt end. The production of collagen is limited and begins to decline after the age of 40. It’s a key ingredient in lots of topical products, but the jury’s still out on its ability to penetrate the dermis. And so emerges a new wave of collagen drinks, the promise being that ingesting the collagen, rather than just slapping it on, may provide the results you’re craving. In the past two years, a plethora of collagen shot-style drinks have hit the market, including Skinade (trialled by WH Beauty Editor Amelia; see left) and

Rejuvenated Collagen Shots (£39.95 for 30; cultbeauty.co.uk).

Never ones to take anything at face value, scientists have been putting ingestible collagen to the test. ‘Our research shows you can increase collagen matrices [the structures that make up collagen] by 10% over 12 weeks,’ says Stephen Schwartz, founder of independent cosmetics research lab IRSI. ‘While a

10% improvement may sound minimal, it’s enough to give significant lift to the skin.’ In layman’s terms, that’s basically the difference you see in the mirror after being dried out on a longhaul flight. Looking at the science behind it, the study – which saw participants downing 500mg of collagen each day – found facial lines and wrinkles were improved by 13.2%, with skin dryness, a major cause of the appearance of ageing, dropping by 76%.

There’s more – one trial published in Skin Pharmacology and Physiology gave 100 women a hefty 2.5g dose of hydrolysed collagen peptides – a form of collagen that has already been partially broken down so is more absorbable. When they took it once a day for eight weeks, participants experienced a 20% reduction in wrinkle depth around their eyes. Crucially, eight weeks later, the results were maintained.

And that’s not all collagen is good for. According to research published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, hydrolysed collagen (contained in the aforementioned Rejuvenated Collagen) may even help reduce cellulite by replenishing the damaged dermal connective tissue, the breakdown of which can cause that dimpling. Other research shows it can speed up recovery time post exercise too.

PLUMPED-UP RESULTS

To really supersize the effects of collagen, the latest trend among scientists is to combine it with other anti-ageing ingredients. Another study in the Journal of Medicinal Food looked at collagen combined with astaxanthin, an antioxidant found in algae and pink-coloured seafood, which provides a barrier against UV rays. They found the

HYDROLYSED COLLAGEN MAY EVEN HELP REDUCE CELLULITE

combination of the two power supplements (0.75g of enzymatic hydrolysed fish collagen and

1mg of astaxanthin), improved elasticity and barrier function in sun-aged skin, while also suppressing enzymes that degrade collagen and elastin, by 68% and 77% respectively. Meaning: firmer skin. It’s an approach taken by Ingenious Beauty Ultimate Collagen+

(£75 for 120 capsules; ingeniousbeauty.co.uk), which contains collagen and astaxanthin.

Of course it’s not just collagen you need to stay plump-of-face. Moisturising heavyweight, hyaluronic acid (HA), which is found naturally in your body, helps repair tissue, promote collagen growth and keep cells hydrated. Unfortunately, HA production depletes with age and is vulnerable to environmental stressors such as pollution.

Again, help is at hand: one study from Toho University, Japan, found that taking 120-240mg of HA orally per day can moisturise the skin from the inside out by reducing water loss and adding moisture deep in the spaces between skin cells – particularly beneficial for dry skin. Fountain’s The 10x Hyaluronic Molecule (£43 for 240ml; spacenk.com) has a high concentration of 130mg per dose.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Despite his enthusiasm for ingesting collagen, Schwartz has some doubts about ingesting HA. ‘We know it’s very effective topically, but HA breaks down quickly in the body, so we can’t be sure taking it orally will have the same benefits,’ he says. ‘Papers on HA tend to look at the living skin of participants over [the more rigorous] biopsies, which is what you’d need in order to prove it really works. So we don’t have enough evidence at the moment.’

But while lots of research seems to support the efficacy of at least some nutraceuticals, there are some who aren’t convinced. British Dietetic Association spokesperson and dietitian Helen Bond is one; she claims that all the nutrients we need should come directly from our diet. She suggests that we can get a daily oral dose of HA through foods such as bone broth (time to boil up the rest of that chicken carcass after your Sunday roast), root veg and leafy greens.

HYALURONIC ACID TAKEN ORALLY CAN MOISTURISE FROM WITHIN

Furthermore, in Bond’s opinion, you shouldn’t need a collagen supplement at all. ‘Vitamin C is all you need for the formation of collagen,’ she says. ‘So, provided you get enough of that from plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, you should be making sufficient collagen already.’

HARD TO STOMACH

The problem is there’s no science that tells you how much fruit and veg you need to kick-start the vitamin C/collagen production process that’ll replicate the results seen in people who have taken oral collagen supplements. Incidentally, one of the best dietary sources of pure collagen is chicken feet: to get 500mg a day, you’d need to gnaw your way through 17 portions. The thought alone is enough to make you gag. For this reason, Schwartz remains unconvinced that you can get the results he saw in the lab just by eating well. ‘It’s true your diet provides some of these benefits naturally,’ he says. ‘But if you’re deficient due to your age or lifestyle, then science has proven that these supplements provide a top-up and improve the condition of the skin.’

So for those of you who don’t eat like a saint all the time, or are just, you know, getting on a bit, nutraceuticals could be the next best skin-surance policy to that portrait in the attic.