You hear so much about collagen now, particularly in relation to its importance in the ageing process. However, many collagen supplements are derived from animals, so until recently these products have been a no-go area for vegans and those following a plant-based diet. But not any more! I have spent over a year trying out a number of the vegan alternatives now on the market which claim to support and ‘boost’ your own body’s production of this important protein, and can now bring you my top picks.
But just in case vegan collagen all sounds a tad confusing, as well as recommending some of the best vegan collagen supplements available in the UK, this guide aims to provide you with a top-level explanation of the differences between them too.
My Top Picks
- Best liquid: Arella
- Best food-grown: Raw Beauty Lab
- Best powder: Feel
- Best capsule: Dr Vegan
- Best budget: Vegan Vitality
- Best free-from gel: Feel Gels
- Best seaweed-based: Dr Seaweed
- Best vollagen®: Vegetology
Looking for genuine discount codes? See individual products below for details.
Is vegan collagen effective?
In my experience, yes. I have trialled a number of products and seen some excellent benefits including smoother, more hydrated skin; improvements to texture and skin tone (including improvements to my rosacea); and better recovery from joint and muscle fatigue after gym visits too. But if you’d like more information, I recently interviewed an expert in this area, Dr Ioannis Liakas, an NHS ageing specialist and Medical Director of Vie Aesthetics. He positively supports vegan collagen supplementation and you can read my interview with him in my article, Does Vegan Collagen Work? where he also covers off what collagen is, what sort of supplement to take, and whether there are any side effects.
Here are my Best Vegan Collagen Supplements
The following list contains vegan collagen supplements that I have tried, and which I believe to be effective and high quality. Prices quoted are accurate at the time of publishing and include brands’ subscription discounts if applicable. Where possible, I have provided exclusive Vegan Mum discount codes too. Finally, if the product is a ‘booster’ rather than a supplement containing VeCollal® (a biomimetic collagen), I have made that clear in the description. See my FAQs for more information about the difference.
Arella Vegan Liquid Collagen
- Price: from £48 per month – free shipping
- Type: liquid (contains VeCollal®)
- Packaging: cardboard tub & recyclable sachets
- Serving: 1 sachet per day
- Arella 20% discount code: VEGANMUM20
This liquid formulation is definitely my favourite collagen supplement, as well as being the most cost-effective. It’s very convenient too because you just rip off the top of the sachet and drink it. Interestingly, science seems to back up their claims that liquid collagen is more bio-available than powder too, so it could be the case that this product – which contains VeCollal® (replicating Type 1 human collagen) – is more effective. Other positives of Arella liquid collagen:
- it’s competitively priced
- contains lots of other collagen supporting goodies including ginseng, retinol, biotin, and hyaluronic acid
- they’re perfect for travelling with (coming from someone who once unsuccessfully packed a tub of collagen powder in her suitcase)
- I think the Japanese Plum infusion gives this liquid a rich flavour that is not overly sweet
- After about 8 weeks of use, my skin was more hydrated, fine lines were less noticeable, and I saw a significant improvement to my rosacea
Arella also offers a 20% saving on subscriptions and you can save 20% on your first order using an exclusive Vegan Mum discount code shown below. Want to know more? Take a look at Vegan Mum’s Arella vegan liquid collagen review for more detail.
Raw Beauty Lab
- Price: from £25 per month + free UK shipping
- Type: Food-grown powder
- Packaging: compostable pouch
- Serving: 4g per day diluted
- Raw Beauty Lab DISCOUNT CODE: VEGANMUM10
This food-grown vegan collagen booster from Raw Beauty Lab is an interesting product. It is essentially made only from recognisable powdered ‘superfoods’ including raspberries, sunflower seeds and beet, most of which also seem to be organic. Therefore, it doesn’t contain any sweeteners or fillers and is providing a blend of foods that together can help to boost your body’s own collagen production – things like zinc, vitamin C etc.
The berry flavoured powder smells pretty appetising – perhaps not surprisingly like dried fruit! It was very easy to use: I mixed the required 1/2 a tablespoon into my favourite plant-based milk which made a tasty drink; tried it mixed into my overnight oats, and stirred into my granola and soy yoghurt, all of which were very pleasing to eat.
Reasonably priced in comparison to some of the other products available, this is a very palatable and easy way to boost your diet and support your body’s collagen-making process.
Get 10% off your first order
Feel Pro-Collagen Powder
- Price: from £34 per month (quarterly subscription)
- Type: Powder (contains VeCollal®)
- Packaging: cardboard tub
- Serving: 10g per day diluted
- Feel DISCOUNT CODE: PARTNER20
Another product in this list that contains VeCollal®, this Feel collagen powder supplement enjoys the same results as their Pro Collagen Gels. It’s very easy to use and tastes pleasant enough when diluted in a glass of water, although I tend to add the powder directly to my smoothies instead. It obviously doesn’t have the convenience of the gel sachets, but it might be more environmentally-friendly because of that!
It contains calcium – so a handy boost to your calcium levels – and the powder form is cheaper than the gel sachets too. In addition, you can benefit from Feel’s subscription offers as well as Vegan Mum’s 20% discount code below.
The downside with this supplement apart from price? It contains sweeteners including Stevia and Erythritol, as do many of the gel products. If you’d like to know more about my personal experience of this product, take a look at my Feel pineapple pro-collagen review
Dr Vegan Skin Saviour
- Price: from £21.24 per month
- Type: Capsules (booster)
- Packaging: compostable pouch
- Serving: 2 capsules per day
- Dr Vegan DISCOUNT CODE: MUM30
Another high-quality product from this trusted brand’s range of supplements, this Dr Vegan collagen booster with hyaluronic acid is full of impressive nutrients that go towards supporting your body’s production of collagen. Designed to support your nails, hair and skin, it contains nourishing ingredients like grapeseed and bilberry extracts, an array of relevant vitamins, inulin, as well as pro and pre-biotics.
I like this supplement’s plastic-free compostable pouches, and so their eco-friendly packaging is one reason why I use them for other supplements. They also avoid superfluous ‘fillers’ in their capsules – and no sweeteners either. My only downside is that it’s a capsule and I do dislike swallowing them, often opening them to scatter on my breakfast instead!
The price for Dr Vegan’s Skin Saviour is mid-range, and I think you are getting a high-quality product. You can also benefit from subscription discounts, and free UK delivery too – a charge that I can sometimes forget to add when costing products I buy online. Combine that with Vegan Mum’s exclusive Dr Vegan 30% discount code below and it becomes even better value.
You can read more about my experience of this brand in my full Dr Vegan Review
Vegan Vitality Vegan Collagen Complex
- Price: from £6 per month
- Type: Capsules (booster)
- Packaging: compostable pouch
- Serving: 1 capsule per day
- Vegan Vitality DISCOUNT CODE: VEGAN15
With a 2 month supply of capsules in a brown paper pouch, this well-balanced Vegan Vitality collagen supplement comes in very eco-friendly packaging that is simple to recycle.
It is remarkably good value too, and what I particularly like about it is that it doesn’t ‘overdo’ the nutrient levels, supplying 100% of the recommended amount of specific vitamins and minerals, not exceeding them. That’s an important factor for me when I’m choosing a supplement because some others seem to contain ridiculously high levels of nutrients that I might not need or want!
These wallet-friendly supplements are a great choice if money is tight and are available from Amazon, or direct from Vegan Vitality below. Subscriptions are available too.
Feel Pro-Collagen Gels
- Price: from £51 per month
- Type: Gel (contains VeCollal®)
- Packaging: cardboard tub
- Serving: 1 sachet per day
- Feel DISCOUNT CODE: PARTNER20
These handy, travel-friendly sachets of vegan collagen contain VeCollal®, a vegan collagen alternative that replicates Type 1 human collagen. The sachet provides your precise dose, so no measuring out or dilution required – very handy! It took me a while to get used to the sweet cherry flavour, although once I did, it was fine.
Research and independent studies have shown tangible results in just 28 days from using bio-available products, and Feel’s collagen gels also contain other supporting ingredients like Ginseng, Gotu Kola and Vitamins A, C & E. I certainly noticed an improvement to my skin’s texture and moisture levels, and I had fewer rosacea symptoms too after a few weeks of taking it. Note that some research suggests you should only take supplements with Gotu Kola for 4-6 weeks at a time, and then take a 2 week break. That works perfectly well with the increase in collagen production, so may well be advice worth following.
Feel states that these gels are suitable for those following ‘free from’, kosher, and halal diets. Price and packaging are really the only downsides, although Feel offers subscription discounts and there is also a Vegan Mum 20% discount code below.
Want to know more? Take a look at my Feel pro collagen gels review.
Dr Seaweed’s Beauty+
- Price: from £25.60 per month
- Type: capsules (booster)
- Packaging: compostable pouch
- Serving: 1 per day
- Dr Seaweed DISCOUNT CODE: VEGANMUM20
I love Doctor Seaweed products, and just the fact that they all contain that fabulous Hebridean seaweed makes me feel healthier when I take them – I regularly use their iodine supplements. But along with that, this supplement also contains all the other ingredients you’d expect that will help you to feel good and boost your collagen production into the bargain, including: B vitamins, vitamins A, C & E, selenium and zinc.
Price is mid-range, and like all the supplements in this list, I believe I am paying for a high quality product. There is a subscription service available that offers a discount, and an exclusive 20% discount code below too – use it at checkout when buying directly.
Do I have a gripe? Well, I did when they were still using hard to recycle blister packs, but they have changed over to much better packaging now which is great news. The only other thing is that you can get a bit of a seaweed taste occasionally, but that’s because it really does contain seaweed – and that’s a good thing!
Vegetology Vollagen®
- Price: from £17.99 per month
- Type: capsules (booster)
- Packaging: plastic tub
- Serving: 2 capsules per day
I have a bit of a soft spot for this brand and really like their products because the ingredients seem so straightforward and, well…appropriate. They also appear as one of my top picks in my guide to the best vegan Omega 3 supplements.
For their collagen supplement, they have brought together a range of amino acids in an easily absorbed formula, calling it Vollagen®. I took this reasonably-priced product for over 2 months and it is the only collagen product that had a really noticeable effect on my hair, which was falling out alarmingly at the time. Now, I know that hair loss can be caused by a huge number of things, so it may have been coincidence and of course I can’t say for sure, but if I experience hair loss again this is likely to be a product that I will reach for.
FAQs
What are the benefits of collagen supplements?
I did find evidence that collagen can be very helpful. For example, in independent research, there was a meaningful increase in bone density observed in a study group of postmenopausal women following a course of collagen supplementation. This is an incredibly important study for older women, a group that can so often be seen as a lower priority.
Other research findings include:
- increases in skin elasticity
- reduction of facial wrinkles
- improvements in joint pain
These improvements are often backed up by anecdotal evidence too.
However, there are many more claims made about the benefits of collagen supplements and creams, and it should be remembered that some of the research is funded by…well, interested parties like cosmetic companies! On that note, it’s important to know that I found very little evidence to support claims that collagen cream applied to the body externally has much impact. Furthermore, it seems to be widely accepted that any topical application is unlikely to be absorbed deep enough into the skin to derive any benefits from the collagen.
However, that might change presumably if they make the collagen molecules small enough to get through your skin layers – who knows? But for the moment, if you want to increase your collagen levels and production, all the findings I have researched suggest you should use a supplement rather than an external cream. I will update this Best Vegan Collagen Supplements UK guide if I find that changes.
In conclusion then, there are known benefits to effective collagen supplementation.
Does vegan collagen exist?
Until recently, it did not. However, there is now apparently a real vegan collagen alternative called VeCollal® which is available in a limited number of products. There are nearly 30 different forms of collagen, 3 of which are particularly important, and VeCollal® (a biomimetic) mimics Type 1. This is the most common one and is particularly important for your skin, bones and teeth.
Not only that, it better replicates human collagen than the supplements derived from animals, and doesn’t carry any of the known risks associated with animal-based products either.
However, you can’t buy VeCollal® directly; it is sold to brands who then create their own supplements that contain it. So, there are 3 products in my list which contain this vegan collagen alternative. I haven’t found it to be more widely available at the moment (when publishing this Best Vegan Collagen Supplements UK guide) although I’m sure that will change.
But the upshot is that there are now vegan collagen supplements containing exactly the right profile of amino acids, that mimic the collagen in your body, and that stimulate its synthesis – so no more excuses for people who are trying to save their own skins by using dead animals.
What is a collagen booster?
Rather than containing a substance that mimics true collagen (like VeCollal®) a booster contains the vitamins and minerals that are thought to boost your body’s own production of collagen. This includes ingredients like Vitamin C, B complex vitamins, Ginseng, hyaluronic acid and others.
Can I improve my collagen levels without supplements?
What you eat, as well as your lifestyle choices, can have a significant impact on your body’s collagen production.Your body needs 3 amino acids in particular to synthesise collagen – glycine, proline and hydroxyproline.
Collagen production also benefits from Zinc and Vitamin C, so to support and encourage that collagen production, try to include some of the foods below:
- protein sources like tofu and tempeh
- nuts
- legumes like lentils
- beans
- grains
- fresh fruit and vegetables, including berries
There are also preventative measures that you can take to avoid activities that slow down collagen production:
- limit sun exposure
- don’t smoke
- drink alcohol sensibly
- get enough sleep
- take regular exercise
- eat a nutritious, balanced diet and limit your intake of ultra-processed foods
Where can I find out more?
I looked at a lot of online resources in order to write this guide and some of my references can be found below:
Effect of Oral Collagen Peptide supplementation
Infographic on Heavy Metal Contamination in Non-Vegan Collagen Supplements
It’s worth noting at this point that I am no scientist, simply someone who is very interested and therefore wanted to write this Best Vegan Collagen Supplements UK guide. I hope that it persuades at least some people currently using animal-derived collagen supplements that there is now a very real and effective vegan alternative.
However, please note that it is always advisable to speak to a trained medical professional if you are considering any form of dietary or nutritional supplement. This is of particular importance if you are on medication, pregnant, or planning a pregnancy.
More vegan collagen articles
I hope you have found this guide useful. If you would like to read some of my other vegan collagen articles, you can find some examples below:
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