5 collagens I wasted my money on …and the 1 that finally did something for my joints
My knees grind on the stairs. My hands don't really work until about ten in the morning. My hip has opinions if I sit through a whole film.
So I did what everyone said and bought collagen. Then another one. Then another. Skin collagen, beauty collagen, a “menopause” one with a beautiful label. Weeks on each. Nothing.
$300 of collagen, and not one of them was the kind my joints are actually made of.
Here's the short version so you don't have to learn it the slow way like I did.
The two words I never used to read
I used to check one thing on a collagen bag. The price. Turns out there are two words that decide the whole thing, and I'd never read either of them.
The type
There's more than one collagen and they don't go to the same place. Type 1 & 3 goes to skin, hair and nails. Type 2 is what joints are made of.
Nearly every bag on the shelf is Type 1 & 3. Which isn't a con, it's a very good skin product, and my nails have honestly never looked better. It was just never going anywhere near my knees, my hands or my hip.
Undenatured
Fine, I thought. I'll just buy Type 2 then. That's where I hit the second wall.
Most collagen has been smashed into tiny pieces at the factory so it dissolves nicely in your drink. The label calls that “hydrolysed.” A lot of it gets heated on the way through too, and heat does to collagen what it does to an egg. Once it's cooked, it doesn't uncook.
Smashed and cooked is fine for skin collagen. For Type 2 it's the whole problem, because your body has to recognise it, and there's nothing left to recognise.
The word you want is undenatured. Sometimes written UC-II. It just means nobody cooked it and nobody smashed it.
“Then why is the dose so tiny?”
This is the bit that made me feel daft. The joint one works at 40mg. That's a pinch. Meanwhile I'd been buying the biggest tubs I could find because surely more is more.
But your body only has to see it. It doesn't need filling up with it. Skin collagen is building material, so you need a big scoop. This one is more like showing someone a photo.
“Can I still put it in my coffee?”
Not boiling hot. I was annoyed about that too, briefly.
Then I decided it's actually how you know it's the real thing. If a powder could sit in scalding coffee and shrug, there'd be nothing delicate left in it to ruin. Mine goes in cold water first thing, or in my coffee once it's cooled enough to actually drink. Took me a week to stop forgetting.
One more thing I did, which my husband thinks is unhinged. I stopped reading the five-star reviews and read only the one-stars. That's where people tell you the truth about the taste, and about whether it did anything.
Vital Proteins
❌ wrong type for joints
My first one, like everybody's. Two months waiting for something, anything, to loosen up. Nothing did. It's Type 1 & 3 and hydrolysed, so it was never going anywhere near a joint.
Then I went down a rabbit hole I wish I hadn't, because this is the one with the lead and cadmium warnings. For something I'd be taking every single day, that was that.
Bottom line: lovely for skin. Wrong type for joints, and the warnings sealed it. (their own disclosure)
Garden of Life
❌ wrong type for joints
I really wanted this one to work. Clean, no fake taste, nothing to complain about. But it's another Type 1 & 3. Same story as the first, minus the safety cloud. Two months, nothing in my hands and nothing in my knees.
The one-stars all say the same thing about it clumping in a cold drink, and they're right, it does.
Bottom line: a genuinely nice skin collagen. Just not a joint one.
Obvi
⚠️ Type 2 in name only
This is the one that taught me to read further down the label. Five types of collagen, Type 2 somewhere in there. Sounds like the complete answer.
Having a few types isn't the problem, plenty of good ones do that. The problem is what the Type 2 is doing in there. It's the smashed kind, and there's barely any of it. Just enough to get the name on the box.
Bottom line: a name on an ingredients list isn't the same as enough of it.
Elavate
❌ menopause label, skin formula
I had real hope for this one. They talk about the collagen collapse in menopause and it feels like someone actually understands. But there's no undenatured Type 2 in it anywhere, so the joint promise is resting entirely on skin collagen. My hands were just as stiff at six in the morning.
Bottom line: a menopause angle on the front is marketing. It isn't a formula.
The Collagen Co.
❌ wrong type for joints
You've seen the ads, everyone has. Flavoured shakes, big glow story, very pretty. As a daily drink it's the nicest thing on this page by a mile, I'll give them that.
But there's no Type 2 in it at all. Joints aren't a side note here, they were never in the plan.
Bottom line: a lovely beauty shake. Not a joint formula.
BalmBare Revive Mix
✅ the one I use now
I nearly didn't bother. After five rounds of “lovely for your skin, nothing anywhere else” I was done. But this was the first one where both words were right on the bag, so I gave it one more go.
- Type 2, undenatured. Not cooked, not smashed, at the 40mg the studies used. This is the bit that does the joint job.
- Hyaluronic acid. Basically the water your cartilage holds onto.
- Vitamin C. Your body can't build collagen without it. It's what makes the rest usable.
And yes, there's skin collagen in it too
I should be straight about that, having just spent five entries moaning about skin collagen. There's bovine and marine in here as well , at a proper amount, not a sprinkle.
That was never my complaint though. My complaint was buying skin collagen instead of the joint kind and being told it was the same thing. Here the Type 2 is doing the joint job at its own proper amount and the skin collagen is a bonus on top. My nails get their turn, my knees just stopped being ignored.
Where it all comes from
I emailed and asked, because after the lead business I ask now.
- Type 2
- chicken, and it's made cold on purpose so it stays whole (USA)
- Beef
- Grass-fed
- Marine
- Wild-caught, North Atlantic
- Made in
- USA
What it costs, since I promised to be honest
I'd been buying two things at once. A big skin collagen tub and a separate joint supplement that did nothing. This is one scoop instead of two purchases, which is genuinely how my monthly spend went down rather than up.
My old skin tub alone was $1.60/day. 60-day mobility guarantee — if you can't walk, crouch, or jump better, your money back.
And how it tastes
This mattered more than I expected. Two of the bags above I quietly stopped taking because I dreaded them, and a supplement sitting in the cupboard doesn't work on anybody.
This one's unflavoured and goes like a light creamer. No chalk, no clumps, no fishy note . First one I haven't had to talk myself into.
One honest thing. It isn't overnight. I noticed something around two weeks and it kept building from there. If you're going to judge it on day four, don't start.
Bottom line: the only one on my list where both words were right. It's the one I reorder.
See what's in the scoop →Type 2 · hyaluronic acid · vitamin Cit sold out on Amazon, their own site is the only place it's in stock now
The honest verdict
The other five aren't bad. They're perfectly good at what they're built for, which is skin. That just wasn't what I was buying them for. I wanted to get through a morning without negotiating with my own hands.
I didn't spend a year and $300 for nicer nails. I did it to get down the stairs without holding the rail. Only one of them was ever built to do that.
If your joints are why you're here
The whole thing, in 6 ticks:
- Check the type. Type 1 & 3 is skin. Joints need Type 2.
- Check for “undenatured.” Not hydrolysed, not heated. Whole.
- Don't chase the big tub. The joint kind works at 40mg. A giant scoop is usually a lot of the wrong thing.
- Look for what's missing. Hyaluronic acid and vitamin C. Most bags have neither.
- Read the one-star reviews. That's where the taste and the “did nothing” live.
- Give it two weeks. Judge it on the stairs, not on day four.
If your bag says Type 1 & 3, it's a skin product, and your joints never got the memo.
Check the Revive Mix formula →the one I landed onThese statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Individual results vary; testimonials are real but not typical.
Comments (312)
This is exactly what happened to me. Two years on the pink one for my nails and my hands just got worse. Went and read my label after this. Type 1 and 3. I had no idea there was more than one kind.
That was me too Sandra. Turning the bag over is the one thing nobody tells you. Glad it helped x
Ordered it a few weeks back. Not a miracle, but I got out of the car this morning without that little groan I always do. Small thing. Made me smile though.
The undenatured bit is what got me. I've been buying hydrolysed for years because it dissolves better and nobody ever mentioned that was the trade off. Went and looked at my tub. Hydrolysed. Of course it is.
Bought this for my wife, she does our stairs about 20 times a day. Three weeks in and she's stopped complaining about her knees at night. Happy wife etc etc 😅
Was so skeptical, I've wasted money on so many of these. But I worked out what I was spending on my old collagen plus a separate joint pill and this was less for both jobs. That's what tipped it.
Same maths for me. Week 6 now and I'm back out in the garden.
Can confirm on the creamer thing 😂 I was dreading another chalky one. I do mine in cold water first thing and it's honestly pleasant, which I never thought I'd say about a supplement.
I take a different Type 2 from the health shop and it does help, so I can vouch that the type really is the thing. Might switch though, mine doesn't have the hyaluronic acid in it.
That's the bit most are missing Linda. The HA is what holds the water in. That's why I stuck with this one.
Asked my pharmacist about the chicken thing because I thought it sounded odd. She said no, that really is where the Type 2 comes from. Learn something every day at 61.
55 and I felt like the only one whose collagen “wasn't working.” Mine's shoulders and hips more than knees, but the label thing is the label thing. Thank you for writing this out so plainly Karen.