If you’re a collagen-in-your-morning-bevvie kind of person, do you ever wonder if it’s actually doing anything? Honestly, it depends on the type of collagen that you’re taking and whether it can reach your skin cells in a form they can use. Most collagen gets broken down in your digestive tract, used as generic protein, and never reaches the tissue you were targeting. 

But the story of how the right collagen taps into your body’s own collagen production is one of the most fascinating things happening in beauty nutrition right now. We’ve been nerding out on this since formulating Collagen + Beef Liver, and we’re about to spill it all for you. 

Collagen + Beef Liver

A blend of grass-fed beef liver and patented collagen peptides to give your hair and skin the highest combination of bioavailable nutrients in easy capsule form.*

STAR HERB: Verisol® Collagen

$58.00

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Collagen’s Crucial Role 

Let’s go way back to basics, because collagen is so much more than a beauty buzzword. Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body, making up roughly 30% of your total protein. It’s the structural backbone of your skin, bones, tendons, and connective tissue. The scaffolding that holds your entire body together. Literally. Without collagen, your skin would have no structure. Your joints would have no cushion. Your hair follicles would have nothing to anchor to.

In your skin, collagen lives in the dermis (the deep second layer), forming a dense woven matrix of fibers that gives skin its thickness, firmness, and elasticity. Elastin weaves through for snap-back. Hyaluronic acid (another buzzy beauty word) fills the gaps between fibers to keep everything nice and hydrated. Together, they make up what scientists call the extracellular matrix, which is basically the living, breathing architecture of your skin. 

When your skin looks plump, firm, and dewy, that’s all thanks to a thriving extracellular matrix! And when it looks thin, crepey, or dull, that’s the extracellular matrix breaking down. And break down it does… This decline starts in our mid-20s at about 1% per year and accelerates with UV exposure, chronic stress, high sugar intake, and poor sleep. Which is why the collagen supplement market exploded.

Fibroblasts: The Collagen Factories 

Here’s the part that changes everything, so listen up!! Your body does not absorb collagen as collagen. When you eat or supplement it, your stomach acid and digestive enzymes dismantle the collagen protein chain into amino acids (primarily glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline) and small peptide fragments. These then get absorbed through your intestinal wall into your bloodstream. The collagen structure simply doesn’t survive all this.

So, where the heck does the collagen in your skin actually come from if not from food?? Your fibroblasts. These specialized cells in your dermis have one primary job: build and maintain your extracellular matrix (remember, this is made up of collagen, elastin, hyaluronic acid, fibronectin, and other structural proteins). They are, in the most literal sense, your skin’s construction crew. When they’re active and well-resourced, they constantly repair the collagen matrix. But when they’re depleted or understimulated, the matrix breaks down faster than it can be rebuilt. 

This right here is what changes everything we know about collagen supplementation. The goal isn’t to deliver collagen to your skin, but rather to give your fibroblasts the signal and the supplies to build more of it on their own. Here’s how fibroblasts actually build collagen, and why every step relies on nutrients:

• Step 1: they receive a signal and activate the genes responsible for collagen synthesis.

• Step 2: amino acids (glycine, proline, hydroxyproline) get assembled into a precursor molecule called procollagen. This step requires Vitamin C and iron – without them, the step stalls completely.

• Step 3: three procollagen chains twist into a triple helix. Copper is required to cross-link them properly. 

• Step 4: The helix is secreted into the extracellular space, snipped into mature collagen, and woven into the dense fiber matrix of your skin.

TLDR: send the signal AND provide the supplies, and your fibroblasts can actually do their job!

Why Most Collagen Misses the Mark

Standard collagen powders contain large protein chains that need to be broken down before your body can use them. Here’s what happens:

• Digestion pulls them apart into generic amino acids 

• Those amino acids go wherever your body needs protein most (which may not be your skin!)

• Very little reaches your fibroblasts as a targeted signal to build collagen 

That’s why generic collagen requires a hefty 20-gram scoop just to maybe move the needle. It’s the difference between scattering flyers throughout the city versus texting the exact person you need for a task. Bioactive collagen peptides (like Verisol in Collagen + Beef Liver) are enzymatically pre-digested into specific, tiny peptides (Pro-Hyp and Hyp-Gly) that survive digestion, enter the bloodstream intact, reach the dermis, and tell fibroblasts to produce more collagen. In other words, Verisol isn’t supplying raw material; instead, it’s delivering a targeted biological signal. This is why a small dose of just 2.5 grams works.

Collagen Needs Cofactors, Too!

Even the best signal may go unanswered if your fibroblasts don’t have the supplies to build with. Every single step of collagen synthesis depends on specific nutrients, including:

• Copper to cross link collagen and elastin fibers

• Zinc to support fibroblast function and skin repair

• Iron to power the hydroxylation step in precollagen assembly

• Retinol (active vitamin A) to regulate fibroblast gene expression and cell turnover

• B vitamins to fuel the mitochondria that drive fibroblast activity

• Glycine and proline to serve as the physical building blocks of collagen

Psst: all of these are found in grass-fed beef liver. Which is exactly why we created Collagen + Beef Liver – Verisol collagen as the blueprint and liver as the building materials/cofactors. We need both!

Other Ways to Support Your Fibroblasts 

• Red light therapy 

• Facial massage and gua sha 

• Sleep

• Nutrient-dense eating 

• Sun protection

• Stress management

• Cutting back on sugar