Collagen Confusion

Collagen protein is the latest in the never-ending supply of cosmetic ingredients guaranteed to help you retain or regain a more youthful appearance on your face and neck.

A natural body protein found in the fibers of all connective tissue, cartilage, and bone, collagen is responsible for your skin’s elasticity and flexibility and allows your skin to stretch and bounce back.

Collagen fibers break down with age, resulting in the loss of elasticity and the appearance of wrinkles and sagging skin.  This breakdown may be accelerated by overexposure to the sun and pulling or excessive massage of the skin.

Chemists have only recently been able to stabilize the collagen prepared from cattle skin for use in cosmetic products.  Manufacturers herald it as a “miracle ingredient” for use in a whole range of high-priced cosmetics, from lipstick to blusher to moisturizer to cuticle cream.

But before you run out and lay down your hard-earned money for collagen-containing products, you need to be aware of some of the conflicting opinions about its effectiveness.

Prepared collagen is as dead as a doornail, doesn’t penetrate the skin, and even if it did, there is a report that there is “no evidence that the collagen in your skin can be affected by any cosmetic, whether or not it contains collagen.”

Applied to the skin, it cannot reverse changes, which have already taken place, nor will you look any younger as a result of using collagen cosmetics.  Collagen is not a moisturizer and your regular lotion or cream is less expensive and will form a better moisture-retaining film.

There’s a report which cautions that collagen protein appears to do little for the skin and “advertisements implying anything to the contrary are misleading.”  A leading dermatologist said that he is disgusted at the deviousness of cosmetic advertising, and has really come out against the substance.

“The prize for imaginative copy in the beauty field,” one dermatologist said, “should go to the writer at a leading fashion magazine who, in recommending a skin cream containing collagen protein, described its action as ‘threading elastic through those tied-out pores.’  Even the thought of such a thing boggles the mind!”

While research continues, it would appear that the only potential benefit from commercial collagen at this time lies in the treatment of shallow acne scars and expression lines on the forehead and around the nose and mouth.

Note: This article was previously published in the printed issue of The Corporate, Guide and Style for Professionals magazine.