Some of us may still remember the commercial for “Hormocenta” with Marika Rökk: an anti-aging care that was supposed to ensure a firm face with lots of collagen. But at the end of the 1980s, the “mad cow disease” startled everyone, and a new motto became established in cosmetics: plants instead of placenta. Now collagen is suddenly back – not only in creams, but also in make-up. How unusual that an active ingredient that was hip in the 1970s should be taken out of the mothball box! What’s behind it?
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Animal back and forth
One thing is certain: with a share of 60 percent, collagen is the main component of our connective tissue. Like a pillow filling, it cushions our contours on the face and body until it diminishes with age. So the idea of replacing the firming agent from the outside was obvious: in 1954, “Hormocenta” was the first cream with placenta collagen to come onto the market. “The fact that it was human placenta is a fairy tale,” says Wolfgang Böttger-Hilbert, Managing Director of the manufacturer Böttger. “Our collagen was made from the placenta of cows. Since the discovery of mad cow disease, however, we have removed all active animal ingredients from our products.” The collagen that is used in cosmetics today is mainly obtained from fish tissue.skin of pigs. “An infection with BSE is also extremely unlikely with bovine collagen, especially since collagen consists of macromolecules,” explains Dr. Peter Neumann, medical director of the “Mang Medical One Beauty Clinic” in Munich. “To put it plainly: They are far too big to be able to get through the skin.”
collagen or not?
Cinematic effect
Well! Does that mean collagen is ineffective? Not necessarily. It just works differently than you think. dr Peter Neumann: “The skinactually looks fresher and smoother immediately after application, as collagen forms a moisturizing film on the skin.” The advertised long-term effect on the connective tissue does not exist. Incidentally, this mode of action is also the reason why collagen is increasingly being found in mascara and lip products: A fine collagen film makes eyelashes appear fuller and pads out lip wrinkles with extra moisture. The covering effect of collagen can even be used to close chronic wounds. In contrast to collagen injections, allergies are extremely rare when used externally. “This is particularly true for collagen from jellyfish,” confirms Thorsten Walter, biologist at the Kiel-based company OceanBasis.
More depth, please!
For many beauty manufacturers, an active ingredient that remains on the surface is not enough. They want the really big cinema. In order to enable the collagen to be absorbed into the deeper layers of the skin, cosmetics scientists are working out tricks. Alcina breaks down the macromolecules of the collagen, e.g. B. with the help of mixed enzymes, while Dr. Babor lets them dock to hyaluronic acid, which it is supposed to smuggle into the skin.
Helping people help themselves
Incidentally, other products do not contain any collagen at all, but rather active ingredients that are intended to stimulate the skin’s own collagen formation. These activators are often individual collagen building blocks such as peptides, amino acids or hydroxyproline, which, due to their fragmentary nature, give the collagen-forming cells the illusion of an injury. “In my opinion, such active ingredients that get collagen production going again make even more sense than creams with real collagen,” says Dr. Birgit Kunze, dermatologist from Hamburg. In addition, ingredients such as peptides are often synthetic or made from soy, so no animal has to suffer for them. And what about phytocollagen from brown algae? dr Kunze: “It contains certain amino acids that stimulate collagen formation. But that has nothing to do with real collagen.”
