It seems like as time passes, there are more and more things we HAVE to do to get glowing hair, skin, and nails. One of those constantly talked about is supplementing collagen, but did you know our collagen production slows down as we age? To supplement collagen, there are a wide variety of collagen supplements. Some are animal-based, marine-based, and lastly, there are plant-based collagen supplements and powders.
With animal-based collagen, the powder is coming from fish scales, hides, or other collagen-rich parts of the animal. Vegan Collagen powders like Copina Co. are full of plant-based ingredients that can help supplement your own collagen production within your body. Still a little unsure of how exactly vegan collagen works? Let’s dive into it.
What is Vegan Collagen Powder?
So we know vegan collagen powder is made of plants, but what is it? Many vegan collagen powders are a blend of multiple plant botanical ingredients. You will want to pay close attention to the ingredient list to ensure that the vegan collagen powder you take has the most beneficial plant blend. We went over how to choose the best vegan collagen powder, but you will also want to note if the powder comes with any added sugars or fillers.
We naturally sweeten our blends with monk fruit, so we have zero added sugars and no fillers. We use coconut milk powder and rice hull powder to allow our blends to still be thick and creamy when added to lattes, drinks, smoothies, or baked goods.
Vegan collagen powder differs from traditional collagen supplements that come from animals in many ways. One is that they’re eco-friendly and cruelty-free. Vegan collagen powders are in fact collagen supports that work with your own body to supplement and help boost your own collagen synthesis process.* Animal-based collagen supplements are giving you the collagen powder itself and allowing your body to digest the amino acids.
How Does Vegan Collagen Powder Work?
There are some questions out there about your body’s ability to absorb an outside collagen source. That’s why Copina Co. and other vegan collagen powders took the holistic approach and found ways to help you naturally synthesize more of your own collagen from within.* If you want to read more about the results people are having using our vegan collagen supports, check out our recent consumer survey below. You can hear from real people that used our blends in real-time and how they think our vegan collagen powders affected their hair, skin, and nails.
Rather than giving the body an outside source of collagen, these types of products contain targeted ingredients that support the body’s natural collagen production process from within.* Our blends are aimed at supporting your natural collagen production in a holistic way.
So, what actually is in a vegan collagen powder? Let’s look at Copina Co. Vegan Collagen Supports. These botanical blends were sourced and dosed by herbalists and come packed with vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to boost the body’s ability to naturally make its own collagen from within.* Working with herbalists helped build a dosage for efficacy so you can see real results.* Not every vegan or vegetarian collagen supplement is made similarly or is even containing effective dosages of the superfoods within it, so make sure to check how the blends in any product are made and how they’re dosed for efficacy with hair, skin, and nail support!*
The good news: Copina Co's Vegan Collagen-Supporting Blends help address both collagen degradation and support your body's natural collagen production through our unique botanical blends.* We keep talking about plant botanicals, but what are they? Peek at our ingredients page to learn more about our blends or take our crash course on our collagen-boosting ingredients below!*
- Organic Amla Berry
Amla Berry can benefit your skin by promoting collagen production, which helps your skin stay smooth and supple as you age.* It can also heal acne due to its antioxidant properties. Lastly, it may help even your skin tone and has vitamin C which can help treat any skin pigmentation. Vitamin C will brighten your complexion, fade hyperpigmentation, and protect your skin against the damaging effects of pollution.*
- Organic Tremella Mushroom Fruiting Body Extract
The tremella mushroom, or tremella fuciformis or “snow mushroom”, is an edible species of fungus that has been used in Eastern medicine for over a thousand years. This superfood has historically been used to help boost skin hydration over time after being consumed.* The mushroom’s ability to hold water, as well as its nutrient properties, make it a skincare powerhouse. These ingredients within this superfood mushroom all can help boost collagen production and polysaccharides specifically are a carbohydrate chain that helps promote collagen synthesis in the skin.* This all leads to improved skin elasticity and reduction of fine lines and wrinkles.*
- Bamboo Leaf Extract
Bamboo leaf extract is one of our favorite ways to boost our hair, skin, and nail health.* Bamboo extract is a rich source of silica, a naturally occurring mineral found in plants, which supports the body's collagen production as well as healthy hair, skin, and nails.* Silica-rich bamboo has been used in Indian Ayurvedic medicine and Chinese herbal medicine for centuries as a remedy to heal skin ailments, relieve congestion, promote bone health, and more.*
Read more about how Bamboo Leaf Extract and Silica helps with nail health!
- Biotin
Biotin is a member of the vitamin B complex family. Its primary functions include turning the nutrients we ingest (i.e. proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) into energy that our body can use. Each Copina Co. blend contains 3,000mcg Biotin per serving. That amounts to over 10,000% of your daily value.* Biotin is also critical for the daily use of fats, carbohydrates, amino acids (like in collagen), and energy (ATP).*
- Gotu Kola Whole Plant Extract
Gotu Kola is an Ayurvedic herb with a history of healing the skin, which contains collagen-synthesis enhancing triterpenes such as asiaticoside.* It was selected by our herbalist partners because of its historical use in treating patients with skin ailments and surface wounds. Gotu Kola has been shown to enhance the cross-linking of collagen and support increased collagen production in the body.* Several studies have shown that skin thickness, elasticity, and collagen levels all increased with the addition of Gotu Kola to a patient’s regimen.*
- Hyaluronic Acid
Our cells produce hyaluronic acid to balance moisture levels in our bodies, but make less of it as we age.* Our food-grade hyaluronic acid helps to boost collagen production in our bodies and helps our skin attract and retain moisture, helping with aging* and can be found in all of our beauty blends. It’s also been shown to help smooth wrinkles, boost elasticity, help with skin firmness and boost skin radiance.*
If you want even more in-depth knowledge about each of our ingredients, check out our Ultimate Guide to our Vegan Collagen Boosters. We also have two other ingredients, like Matcha and Ashwagandha in our Cacao Calm blend, that have other skin-boosting benefits.
Benefits of Using Vegan Collagen Powder
There are many benefits of using vegan collagen powder and not just for yourself! Vegan collagen powders are not derived from animal sources which means that they also benefit the environment.
Here at Copina Co. we have leaned in more to making our vegan collagen powders even more beneficial for the environment. Our pouch bag films are now comprised of 45% post-consumer recycled materials. We also aim to contribute to sustainable supply chains by sourcing organic ingredients for over 69% of our formulas’ needs and sourcing 100% renewable plant-based ingredients. In opposition to traditional collagen supplements that are ingested in the form of collagen peptides sourced from cow hides, fish skins, and eggshells, Copina Co. uses herbalist-formulated, research-backed plant botanicals.
But back to the skin, hair, and nail benefits! Even though we do not contain actual collagen, vegan blends are meant to support your collagen production, hence why we call our vegan collagen powders “vegan collagen support blend”. Let’s take a pick peak at some potential benefits of adding vegan collagen powder into your daily diet.
- Promotes Collagen Production: If your vegan collagen powder contains the right plant botanicals, it’ll potentially help support your body’s natural collagen synthesis. The plant-based ingredients usually contain ingredients like vitamin C and other vitamins, amino acids, or minerals that are the building blocks for healthy collagen production.
- Skin health: Having a thriving and supported collagen production often can help support your skin elasticity and hydration. This is also known in our community as the #CopinaCoGlow.
- Hair and Nail Growth: Similarly to skin health, if you are supporting your collagen production through vegan collagen powder, it could contribute ot healthier and stronger hair and nails. This might appear in less brittle nails but also in increased hair growth.
- Versatility: Vegan collagen powders are often easy to add into your daily recipes and beverages which makes it easier to supplement regularly. Our blends are made with organic coconut milk powder, which allows them to act like a dash of almond milk to daily coffee, teas, or lattes without a chalky aftertaste.
- Free of Hormones and Antibiotics: Due to there not being any animal-derived ingredients, the powders come without any antibiotics or hormones that could be present in some animal-based products.
We truly believe that by supplementing your collagen, you should also be pairing it with lifestyle choices that help support your collagen production. Having a well-rounded lifestyle also helps support your collagen production! This could be small habits like wearing sunscreen or ensuring your diet is well-rounded with fruits and vegetables. We talk more about habits and lifestyle choices that can help your hair, skin, and nails in tandem with our vegan collagen powders in the below blogs:
- What Can Damage Your Collagen Production And How To Support It
- Lifestyle Factors That Might Make You Experience Premature Aging
- How to Tell if Your Skin is Dehydrated
- How Collagen Levels are Affected by Menopause
- How to Stimulate Collagen Production in the Skin
- 8 Ways to Boost Your Collagen Through Lifestyle and Diet
Vegan Collagen Powder Vs. Animal-Based Collagen
While they are meant to serve the same purpose, there are some pretty notable differences between vegan collagen supports and animal-based collagen. Here’s what you need to know about these two options.
Animal-based collagen supplements use real collagen derived from the hooves, bones, connective tissues and skin of animals. All of these animal-derived collagen products are formulated with the idea that you can give your body an outside source of collagen in order to make up for the loss of collagen in your body. Naturally, one point of concern with these types of collagen products is the environmental impact of using more animal-based products, as well as the ethical dilemma.
It’s important to note that you can support your body’s collagen levels without using animal-derived products. In fact, animal-based collagen products don’t actually address the underlying issue behind why your body isn’t producing enough of its own collagen. By taking a finished collagen peptide, you’re putting a bandaid on the issue, rather than getting to the root problem. Here’s something else to consider: animal-based collagen doesn’t just start working as collagen in your body as soon as you consume it. When digested, the collagen is broken down into amino acids, and then absorbed and used to produce either collagen or other proteins, depending on what your body needs.
This means that taking actual animal-derived collagen isn’t your only option if you’re looking to increase your collagen levels. You can alternatively focus on consuming foods and supplements that are rich in amino acids (and other vitamins and minerals necessary to support collagen production – more on that below!). This will more directly get to the root issue behind why your body isn’t producing as much collagen on its own, and give it the support it needs for optimal collagen production.*
On the other end of the spectrum are vegan collagen support powders, which work a bit differently than their animal-based counterparts. Rather than giving the body an outside source of collagen, these types of products contain targeted ingredients that boost the body’s natural collagen production process* In order to create collagen, the body needs amino acids, vitamin C, zinc, and copper. Vegan collagen-supporting supplements contain specific plant-based ingredients rich in these elements so that the body has the building blocks it needs in order to naturally produce its own collagen.* Unlike animal-based collagen, these plant-based products get to the root issue behind why your body isn’t producing enough of its own collagen and give it the support it needs to boost its collagen production.*
How To Use Vegan Collagen Powder
While we cannot speak for all vegan collagen powders, our collagen boosts are as versatile as they are delicious. Enjoy them anywhere you like your beauty boost.
- Lattes: Froth, blend, or stir with 8oz hot water for a barista-quality latte
- Hot Coffees and Teas: Add a scoop of our Vanilla, Original, or Cacao to your favorite morning coffee, black tea, or evening hot cocoa.
- Iced Drinks: Froth with 6oz warm water, pour over ice, and enjoy
- Smoothies: Boost your morning favorite with any of our collagen boost blends*
If you would like to see how we use our blends, you can take a peek at our recipes that are all collagen-boosting and delicious. We also have recipes on how to make a collagen-boosting creamer and coffee creamer!
Overall, Vegan Collagen Powders are a great alternative to animal-based collagen powders while still reaping the same benefits. They are also eco-friendly, cruelty-free, and a more sustainable option that allows people of any diet to enjoy collagen support.
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