The best vegan collagen supplements

Although many collagen products contain fish and animal ingredients, you can go vegan with your collagen.

But how? Let us explain all and reveal some of the best vegan and plant-based collagen supplements out there.

Let’s start with the basics... 

Collagen is an amino acid (a component of protein) that our bodies make to support our:¹

• Skin 
• Bones 
• Teeth 
• Muscles 
• Blood 
• Tendons 
• Ligaments 

and even more. 

A healthy, balanced diet is key to supporting our body’s natural collagen formation, as some nutrients like vitamin C are essential for this process. 

Collagen is good for maintaining supple, bouncy skin. This is why babies are…well, baby soft. However, collagen production declines as we age, which often causes our skin to get drier and less elastic. It might also affect our hair and nail health.

While we can’t quite promise you the collagen levels of an infant, taking a daily supplement can help replenish your collagen supply and keep your skin, hair, and joints in check as you age.

In the sea of bovine collagen and marine collagen (extracts from animals, like fish scales and bones), vegan collagen can seem a little elusive – how are you going to get collagen from a pea or a carrot!?

Vegan collagen does exist; it just took a little longer to come into existence as the processing is a little complicated... 

Here’s how:⁶ 

1. To make vegan collagen, four human genes that code for collagen are added to the genetic structure of yeast or bacteria 
2. These microbes then start to produce amino acids that act as building blocks of human collagen. 
3. Then, a digestive enzyme is added to structure the building blocks into collagen molecules that have the same structure as human collagen – pretty clever, right? 

That being said, this process is far from easy and hasn’t reached the beauty or health world in a big way just yet. 

So, when you see a vegan or vegetarian collagen supplement, it’ll likely be more of a collagen-promoting supplement. 

This means they don’t contain collagen, but they provide your body with all the micronutrients needed to make collagen.

You’ll usually find the following: 

Your diet can also help support your body’s natural collagen formation. Try to include the amino acids glycine, lysine, and proline. 

Look out for these to reap the vegan collagen benefits: 

Here are our top picks for vegan collagen support products so you don’t have to miss out on all of collagen’s wonderful benefits.

If you’re taking collagen to help improve the condition of your skin, you can also get vegan skincare that supports your skin’s natural collagen levels. If your skin’s a focus in your collagen journey, you’re not limited to tablets and powders. So why not add some vegan vitality to your skincare routine? Here are a few options…