I've talked at length all about collagen before, you can read about it here.
TL;DR? Here's the gist:
Collagen is a gelatin fiber that makes up to 30% of the proteins in the body. It's the building material to renew cells in all areas of the body including the hair, skin, nails, eyes, teeth, cartilage, bones, tendons, organs, arteries, blood vessels, hemoglobin, immune cells and the immune system. - the source.
It's the thing that makes your skin smooth, "bouncy" and elastic. As you grow older, your skin starts to sag and wrinkles start to appear, that's because your body produces less and less collagen, insufficient to renew enough skin cells and maintain your youthful skin.
By drinking a collagen supplement, you help your body compensating its lack of collagen reproduction.
I went into more detail about collagen supplement vs. natural collagen occurring in food in that post, so read the post anyway ok! ๐
When talking about collagen drink in Indonesia, KINOHIMITSU is probably one of the most prominent ones. I believe it's the first collagen drink brand that I know of.
But to my surprise, they also sell other beauty supplements too, which I'm gonna get into in a lil' bit because I want to start with their flagship products, which of course, is their COLLAGEN DRINK.
The concept of drinking collagen may be relatively new in Indonesia, however, you'd be surprised at how common and popular it is in Japan. It's so prevalent there that you can easily buy collagen drink at a convenience store (e.g. Lawsons, Family Mart, 7-11, etc). It's probably one of the reasons why those Japanese tend to age damn gracefully ๐ *envious glare*.
Being uncommon here, you might wonder, when should you start drinking collagen? There's no certain answer, as it depends on your lifestyle, but 20 is normally when your collagen production starts to decrease.
You'd notice how pillow mark from when you wake up disappears slower than before. THAT's because you don't have as much collagen to maintain ever-so-bouncy skin like when you're a baby and why you should start preserving all the collagen that you DO have.
1) Kinohimitsu J'PAN BEAUTY ~DRINK~ which contains 2500mg collagen
2) Kinohimitsu COLLAGEN DIAMOND 5300 which contains a WHOPPING 5300mg collagen!
Which one should you choose? Again, it all depends on your lifestyle but as a rule of thumb, people in their 20s to 30 may drink the one with 2500mg collagen, while people above 30 may drink the one with 5300mg collagen.
It's not a hard and fast rule, as your lifestyle (e.g. food intake, sleep pattern, daily make-up, etc) plays a huge part in your collagen damage and renewing capability.
But you can expect the following across both collagen drinks:
1) NO PRESERVATIVES & NO ADDITIVESWhen is the best time to drink collagen? From my googling months back (I've been drinking collagen drink for about a year now), I read that it's best to take your collagen supplement when you wake up on an empty stomach, but a Kinohimitsu representative said that it's also good to take it right before you sleep as your body renews cells at night when you're sleeping.
The collagen drink may last between 3-4 years (provided stored properly, unopened) with no preservatives thanks to UHT technology, a dark glass material (prevents sun damage), and thick bottle.
2) LESS SUGAR
Each bottle only contains 5g of sugar.
If you're in your 30s, it's recommended to combine collagen drink with Vitamin C to add collagen back.
Another thing you can do to BOOST the effectiveness of drinking collagen is by doing DETOX before you start.
Kinohimitsu J'PAN D'T JUICE is one of many ways to do just that.
By detoxing your body, you help rid your body of toxin and other things that may hinder maximum absorption of collagen, thus making your collagen drink that much more effective, which is why it is recommended for you to do detox BEFORE you start drinking collagen drink.
If you're choosing to use Kinohimitsu detox drink to do that, you may drink it once a day before you sleep for about 6 days. After that, you can stop with the detox drink and continue with collagen drink.
Do the detox again 6 months later (about twice a year).
And last, but not least, in the Kinohimitsu line-up is the J'PAN U-B DRINK.
To put it crudely, it's a sunscreen that you drink ๐
It helps to protect you from the sun for about 9 hours after you drink it before you start your activity in the morning.
Please note this, you can not actually replace sunscreen with this drink. What it does is, helping and working together with the sunscreen to protect your skin BETTER, especially if you're not the type of person who diligently reapplies sunscreen every 2 hours like you should.
Yes, no matter how high the SPF, you should reapply sunscreen every 2 hours: SPF is irrelevant to how long does a sunscreen last. Read more about it here.
That's pretty much it. I hope it sheds some light on how to start drinking collagen correctly and why collagen supplement benefits us. Oh, and also to help you if you're confused as to why there're so many types of drink from KINOHIMITSU (I was confused too lol 'cos I thought they only have collagen drink, but Y SO MANY TYPES ๐ฉ).
At this point, I feel like I'm an evangelist for collagen drink ๐ LET'S GO SPREAD THE COLLAGEN LOVE WORLDWIDE AND AGE GRACEFULLY LIKE THE JAPANESE OK!! ๐
FTC Disclaimer: Advertorial. This entry is in collaboration with Beauty Journal and Kinohimitsu.