What Happens to Your Skin When You Take Collagen and Vitamin C Together

Collagen and vitamin C supplements are among the popular choices for skin health. Collagen provides the building blocks for your skin’s structural protein, while vitamin C is needed for those proteins to form correctly.

Benefits of Combining Vitamin C and Collagen

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is essential for the body to take the collagen peptides (fragments) in your supplement and make them back into the large molecule collagen that benefits your skin, muscles, and other tissues.

Taking vitamin C and collagen together can help support a variety of important functions, including:

• Collagen formation: Vitamin C acts as a cofactor (essential helper molecule) for the enzymes prolyl hydroxylase and lysyl hydroxylase, which are essential for building and stabilizing collagen fibers. Without vitamin C, these collagen fibers can’t form properly.
• Healthy skin and connective tissue: Adequate vitamin C intake prevents a deficiency, which can lead to a condition called scurvy when severe. Scurvy can cause fragile skin, impaired wound healing, and weakened connective tissue.
• Antioxidant protection: Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that helps form vitamin E and protects from free radicals that can damage cells and proteins.
• Immune support: Vitamin C helps support immunity, or your ability to fight infections.

While supplements can help raise serum levels, the vitamin C you get from whole foods in your diet is still the best primary source due to improved absorption and synergistic nutrients (other vitamins and minerals that create an overall better health benefit than they would if taken individually, like as supplements).

What Collagen Does for Your Skin

Oral collagen peptides have been extensively studied for their effects on skin-related outcomes. With consistent use (typically over eight to 12 weeks), hydrolyzed collagen may improve:

• Skin hydration
• Skin firmness
• Skin elasticity
• Dermal density (thickness of the dermis, the outer layer of the skin)
• Wrinkle appearance

Collagen itself is a large protein molecule made up of three chains (or polypeptides) twisted together. Hydrolysis is a process that breaks down the large collagen molecule into its smaller peptides, which are then processed into products sold as collagen peptides. These smaller peptides are absorbed by the body more easily than the large collagen protein.

As people age, natural collagen production decreases. This can lead to sagging skin and wrinkles. You can help fight this loss of collagen by taking supplements. Improvements are generally modest, but evidence supports that high-quality collagen peptides can lead to measurable improvements in skin appearance and barrier quality.

How to Take Them Together

Follow these tips for taking collagen and vitamin C together:

• Take vitamin C supplements with a meal to reduce the chance of gastrointestinal upset.
• Take collagen anytime—absorption does not seem to be affected by the time you take it. If your product includes vitamin C in addition to collagen, it may be best to take it with a meal.
• Prioritize vitamin-C–rich foods (citrus, berries, kiwi, bell peppers, broccoli) even if supplementing.

Collagen Dosing

Most research uses 2.5 to 15 grams (g) per day of hydrolyzed collagen peptides. Many skin-oriented products provide 2.5 to 10 g per dose (e.g., scoop, capsule, or gummy). This is a reasonable daily range to aim for. A higher dose of up to 20 g may be used for bone and joint health.

As you age, you may need increased supplementation, as your natural production continues to decline.

Vitamin C Dosing

The recommended daily intake for vitamin C is:

• For adults 19 and older: 90 milligrams (mg) for men and 75 mg for women
• For smokers: An additional 35 mg
• Pregnant people: An additional 15 mg
• Breastfeeding people: An additional 20 mg

However, the upper limit for daily intake is 2000 mg or 2 g. Amounts exceeding this may lead to gastrointestinal issues and kidney stones.

A good amount to aim for, with strong safety data for ideal skin and immune support, is 200 to 500 mg per day, ideally obtained from whole foods in your diet.

Why Food Sources Still Matter

While supplements can raise vitamin C levels, whole food sources are still essential for the following reasons:

• Whole foods offer additional antioxidants and phytonutrients that support both skin and immune health.
• Vitamin C absorption also tapers off at higher supplemental doses, since your body cannot convert enough of that supplement into the form your body can use. Therefore, large doses are excreted or flushed from the body.
• Eating a diet rich in whole foods like vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables ensures a steady, absorbable supply of vitamin C that pairs naturally with collagen-rich or collagen-stimulating foods.

There is not as much research on whether collagen from food sources is better than collagen supplements. Consuming whole foods that contain collagen and a broad range of other nutrients( such as bone broth, eggs, skin-on chicken, leafy greens, and bell peppers) is always a good idea. However, if you want to ensure adequate collagen intake, a supplement may be a good option.

What to Know Before Starting Supplements

Before starting supplements, consider the following:

• The benefits are real but modest: Collagen supplements improve skin measures, but results are subtle—don’t expect dramatic transformations. Consistency matters, as the studies evaluated showed data for supplements taken regularly over eight to 12 weeks.
• Product quality varies: Choose supplements tested by third parties such as United States Pharmacopeia (USP), NSF, or Informed Choice to ensure you’re getting high-quality products, as supplements in the United States are not required to undergo testing for purity, potency, and efficacy the way prescription medications are.
• Vitamin C can cause some side effects: While generally safe, high doses (especially more than 2000 milligrams per day) may cause gastrointestinal upset or increase the risk of kidney stones in susceptible individuals, and also provide no added benefit.
• Supplements are not a replacement for core skincare: Collagen and vitamin C help support healthy skin from the inside out, but they cannot reverse sun damage or replace other skincare elements like sunscreen, retinoids/retinol, and a solid skincare routine.