Collagen-Supporting Amino Acids

A natural history

To understand this ingredient is to understand what keeps young skin firm. Collagen is the scaffolding of the skin, the most abundant protein in the whole body, and it is what gives the complexion its plumpness and bounce. That scaffolding is built from amino acids, assembled in such an orderly way that every third building block along a collagen strand is glycine, the smallest of them all.

Amino acids do double duty in the skin. Besides building collagen deep down, free amino acids gather at the very surface as a large part of what scientists call the Natural Moisturizing Factor, the skin's own system for drawing in and holding water. Both the scaffolding and the surface store of amino acids decline with the years, which is the simple, elegant reason for offering the skin its building blocks back.

What it does for your skin

Amino acids are the raw material the skin uses both to build collagen and to hold water at the surface. Research shows that supplying more of the key amino acids, glycine and proline among them, increases collagen production in cells, since they are the literal building blocks of the protein.^[1] Skin science also recognizes free amino acids as a central part of the Natural Moisturizing Factor that keeps the surface hydrated and supple.^[2] In a formula these amino acids help support hydration and the look of firmness. They supply building blocks and surface moisture rather than acting as a drug.

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