Hands Down, These Are the Best Collagen Creams for More Smooth, Supple Skin
If there’s one beauty buzz word that instantly conjures up the idea of plump skin that’s so bouncy you could bounce a quarter off it, it’s collagen. The naturally produced protein is an essential building block for youthful skin and strong nails and hair, but like everything else that makes the skin look young and healthy, collagen levels naturally degrade with age. In-office treatments at the dermatologist can help stimulate collagen production, and the best collagen creams, serums, and masks can also work wonders. Consider this your ultimate guide to the best collagen beauty products for the plump, hydrated, healthy-looking skin you want.
What is Collagen?
Collagen is a protein often called the body’s ultimate scaffolding. Naturally produced collagen is abundant for years, but around the early 20s, its quality and production levels start declining at about one percent yearly. But it’s not just aging itself that degrades collagen. Lifestyle choices like sun exposure, an inflammatory diet, and smoking are all equally to blame—the effect: saggy skin that lacks firmness.
Collagen moisturizers and other skincare products containing collagen can help improve the appearance of the skin and its aging process. While these products can plump and hydrate the skin so it looks better, they don’t increase existing collagen levels or cause the body to create new collagen, which is essential to point out.
Related Article: Collagen Skin Care: An Ultimate Guide to Achieving That Youthful Glow
Shop the Best Collagen Creams
1. The Best Hydrating Collagen Cream: SkinMedica HA5 Hydra Collagen Replenish and Restore Hydrator
10 reviews
$192.00
This cream deserves a spot in your skincare routine if you want visibly plumper, more hydrated, and dewy-looking skin. Packed with intense hydrators, five types of hyaluronic acid, and a collagen complex, the lightweight formula provides immediate and long-term benefits to the skin for results you can see and feel.
Key Ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, vitamin F, vegan collagen, avocado oil esters, passion fruit seed oil, vitis flower stem extract, lotus sprout extract
Skin Type: Dry and mature
Skin Benefit(s): Attracts and retains water for instant hydration, visibly plumps and smooths the skin, improves hydration, and supports skin health by addressing the skin barrier’s ability to hold water
Beauty Insider Tip: Apply the cream to the skin morning and night after cleansing but before moisturizing.
2. The Best Collagen Cream for Dry Skin: PCA Skin Collagen Hydrator
219 reviews
$61.00
Send dry skin packing with this extremely hydrating cream. Loaded with shea butter and hyaluronic acid to moisturize perpetually thirsty skin, this skin-softening formula also improves the skin’s texture and moisture retention levels, so it’s smooth, soothed, and glowing.
Key Ingredients: Shea butter, hyaluronic acid, wheat protein, sweet almond oil
Skin Type: Dry and mature
Skin Benefit(s): Rehydrates dry skin, softens the skin’s texture, improves moisture retention while firming and conditioning the skin, balances skin’s natural pH levels
Beauty Insider Tip: Use this nighttime treatment during the day when you need to flood the skin with extra moisture
3. The Best Firming Collagen Cream: First Aid Beauty Firming Cream with Peptides, Niacinamide, and Collagen
$44.00
Plump dull, slack skin with this ultra-luxe formula that hydrates like no other. Perfect for addressing fine lines, wrinkles, and a loss of firmness, the skin-sculpting cream restores and renews the skin to look healthy, vibrant, and supple without clogging the pores or instigating breakouts.
Key Ingredients: Peptides, niacinamide, glycerin, colloidal oatmeal, collagen
Skin Type: Dry, normal, combination
Skin Benefit(s): Leaves skin feeling soft and looking nourished, provides instant hydration, gives a natural firmness and plumpness to the skin, improves skin resilience while reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles for a more youthful complexion
Beauty Insider Tip: Thanks to the blend of ingredients, this formula is safe to use by even the most sensitive of skin
4. The Best Collagen Mask: Valmont Intensive Care Regenerating Mask
$610.00
Treat your skin to 30 minutes of pure bliss with this instant revitalizing mask that soothes, hydrates, and smooths it. Packed with supercharged collagen, this ultra-luxe skin treatment helps improve the skin’s elasticity, making it more supple and boasting a more radiant glow.
Key Ingredients: Collagen amino acids, natural collagen
Skin Type: All
Skin Benefit(s): Intensely hydrates the skin while soothing and plumping up the tissue, helps to smooth away fine lines and wrinkles, and calms irritations and redness
Beauty Insider Tip: For a more intense effect, use the mask as a weekly skin treatment for five weeks
5. The Best Collagen Serum: Dr. Diamond's Metacine INSTAFACIAL INFUSION Biomimetic Collagen Serum
$325.00
Consider this science-based skincare formula the ultimate solution for erasing the common signs of aging. Thanks to a proprietary blend of collagen packed into a creamy gel texture, this skin-firming and lifting matrix also contours and hydrates the skin for noticeable improvements that will have everyone asking your skincare secrets.
Key Ingredients: Glycerin, peptides, sodium hyaluronate, diamond powder
Skin Type: All
Skin Benefit(s): Visibly lifts and firms the skin, helps to soften the skin while improving its elasticity, increases hydration levels instantly and over time, and decreases facial sagging
Beauty Insider Tip: The entire Dr. Diamond’s Metacine line is inspired by his popular in-office Diamond InstaFacial treatment, which combines a laser with microneedling and PRP to improve the skin’s appearance
6. The Best Collagen Eye Cream: Neocutis Lumiere Firm Rich Extra Moisturizing Illuminating & Tightening Eye Cream
201 reviews
$125.00
Target under-eye puffiness and darkness, which can hinder your overall appearance, with this advanced moisturizing eye cream. Packed with peptides and human growth factors, it also brightens the eyes and eliminates fine lines and wrinkles.
Key Ingredients: Growth factors, peptides, sodium hyaluronate, caffeine, bisabolol, glycerin, vitamin C, wild yam root extract
Skin Type: All
Skin Benefit(s): Reduces the look of fine lines and wrinkles, supports collagen and elastin production, improves firmness, elasticity, tone, and texture while locking in moisture, and brightens darkness under the eyes
Beauty Insider Tip: Apply the cream morning and night by dabbing or patting the formula into the skin rather than rubbing it in
7. The Best Collagen Plumping Serum: Dermalogica Pro Collagen Banking Serum
4 reviews
$89.00
This powerful serum protects the skin’s existing collagen supply while promoting the production of new, healthy collagen. This one-two punch approach leads to plumper, more luminous-looking skin accompanied by fewer lines and wrinkles.
Key Ingredients: Collagen amino acids, peptides, jojoba ester, polyglutamic acid
Skin Type: Dry, mature
Skin Benefit(s): Preserves collagen, plumps and hydrates the skin for increased firmness, minimizes the look of lines and wrinkles
Beauty Insider Tip: After applying the serum, always follow up with a good moisturizer to lock in hydration
FAQs
What are the Benefits of Collagen?
Whether you eat a collagen-rich diet, take collagen supplements, opt for collagen-stimulating treatments, or use products that increase collagen naturally, strong, well-organized, high-quality collagen has several benefits that directly impact the skin.
- Increased elasticity
- Better skin hydration
- Improved skin health
- Enhanced wound healing for less visible scarring
- A more even skin tone
- Helps ward off the common signs of aging
- Thickens the dermis
- Diminishes the look of fine lines and wrinkles
- Gives the skin a natural glow
What Ingredients Pair Well with Collagen?
Collagen plays well with most other skincare ingredients, so if you’re doubling down on its efforts and combining it with your favorite actives, there’s no need to worry about irritation, redness, dryness, or sensitivity issues. Many of the most popular supercharged skincare ingredients stimulate collagen production naturally, and when paired with collagen creams, collagen moisturizers work better than using them alone. These are the best ingredients to pair with collagen for even better results.
Retinol and retinoids - Peptides
Exfoliating acids like alpha-hydroxy and beta-hydroxy acids - Vitamin C
- Hyaluronic acid
All forms of SPF
Do Collagen Creams Actually Work?
Here’s the thing about collagen-based skincare products, especially those with the title of best collagen beauty products. While they can help improve the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and elasticity, while boosting hydration levels, the collagen molecules in a cream or serum must be formulated to a specific size; otherwise, they will be too large to penetrate the skin properly. That means that skincare products with collagen (collagen peptides or amino acids) may have limited absorption, so pairing them with collagen-stimulating ingredients is normally the best route.
Which Collagen is Best for Sagging Skin?
When it comes to finding the best collagen creams for sagging skin, you’ll want to veer towards those that contain hydrolyzed collagen, collagen peptides, or amino acids, which are better equipped to absorb into the skin. While some collagen-based serums have a large concentration of collagen, collagen moisturizers also offer improved skin elasticity and texture, making them a shoo-in for enhancing the skin.
Is Collagen Better than Retinol?
Collagen and retinol work hand in hand, and while each is effective for your anti-aging efforts, the way they work and their results differ, so it’s not that one is better than the other. Collagen can lend moisture to the skin and improve the skin’s support system while also increasing elasticity and reducing the look of fine lines. On the other hand, retinol stimulates collagen production, can improve the skin’s tone and texture, and accelerates cell turnover to improve the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and hyperpigmentation.
Using collagen and retinol in your skin care routine helps create a more holistic approach to collagen production for better results.
The Bottom Line
Healthy collagen levels are essential for plump, bouncy, youthful-looking skin. Despite your best efforts, the natural amount of collagen within the skin and body slowly decreases with each year, which is why incorporating a collagen moisturizer is a must. Some of the best collagen creams offer additional skin benefits like increased hydration and a skin-softening effect.
Elise Minton Tabin is an award-winning beauty journalist, editor, and beauty expert with more than 16 years of experience. She previously held the title of Executive Beauty Editor at NewBeauty magazine, where she reported on beauty, plastic surgery, anti-aging, health and wellness. She was also instrumental in the launch of the beauty supplement brand Hush & Hush. A self-professed beauty junkie and retinol and sunscreen pusher, Elise knows what’s new, what works and who’s the best to go for every procedure under the sun. Follow Elise on Facebook, Instagram, and on her beauty blog, elisetabin.com
