Glow from the inside out: Canberra’s new collagen
Posted on
I had never thought about aging until ingestible beauty became a buzzword.
Without warning, it was everywhere. Influencers were spruiking supplements and vitamins on Instagram, celebrities were endorsing ingestible brands on TikTok, and magazines were constantly printing the words “young skin” without remorse.
I thought I had years until I had to worry about anti-aging solutions, but with the truth that by your mid-twenties collagen production begins to decrease at a rate of 2% per year looming over me, the panic was real.
So, like the beauty junkie I am, I had to give collagen a try. Enter: Collagen Straight Up.
Founded by Nutritionist and Mim Smith, Collagen Straight Up is described as Australia’s only clinically researched and proven marine collagen brand.
Born from a desire to learn more about the benefits of the supplement (while also helping her professional ski racer partner recover and rebuild his joints) it’s a culmination of 20 years of experience in research and nutrition, bringing the highest quality marine collagen peptides to fruition.
Changing the way we think about collagen, the beauty of the product is exactly what it promises: marine collagen, straight up. With no pseudo-supplements, additional ingredients, or funky flavours it’s simply 100% pure hydrolysed collagen peptides, that have been sustainably sourced and wild-caught.
Relying entirely on scientific evidence to provide a genuine, evidence-based product, it’s everything you could ever want from a local brand.
“I came across collagen while I was studying a Diploma in Sports Nutrition with the International Olympic Committee, because a lot of international sporting teams were using it in injury recovery, and injury rehabilitation,” explains Mim.
“I trawled the literature and realised that actually there was a huge and growing amount of research around its benefits for injury recovery, exercise recovery, performance enhancement, as well as skincare- which is what its most known for at the moment.”
Searching the Australian market to find the perfect health and beauty product, Mim quickly became disillusioned with the high variability and “interesting” claims that most a lot of other brands had.
So, after deciding that when you can’t find what you’re looking for, you go out and make your own, Mim began her fearless pursuit of good quality science.
“When companies put things like Vitamin C, bush flowers and strange things like that into the collagen…if you actually look at the amounts of those things that are in there there’s not enough to be biologically active,” she says. “You lose the quality of the product.”
Collaborating with a biotech company that has been working with gelatin products for over 100 years, by using marine collagen— a natural supplement derived from fish—Mim has integrated a pure type one collagen into her products that not only helps to prevent injury but is up to 1.5 times easier to digest than bovine (collagen derived from cows).
“I didn’t want to have a product that came from farmed animals…I wanted something that leaned towards sustainability and optimised our health. So for me, that meant going out and finding a wild-caught option,” says Mim.
“I also didn’t want to use a product that had been exposed to unnecessary chemicals and toxins. We live in a world where our bodies are exposed to so much in the environment that I wanted something that was as clean, pure, and as toxin-free as possible. I’m really proud to have the highest international certification for being free from all toxins and chemicals.”
“We use the waste portions from wild-caught white fish from the very cold northern Atlantic waters. So rather than going out fishing deliberately to get marine collagen, we take the offcuts from that; the skins, the bones, and the scales and then turn that into the collagen.”
And before you ask—no it doesn’t taste like fish.
Recommended for anyone who is looking to alleviate some of those fine lines that occur as you get older, build firm, well-hydrated skin, or help their body train harder and recover faster, it’s designed for people looking for a real solution that’s as easy as adding a scoop to your daily coffee.
If you want to try before you commit to buying a packet, pop into Eighty/Twenty Braddon where you can have Collagen Straight Up added to a drink of choice or visit Accelerate Physiotherapy to see the product in person.
As for me? I’ll take the promise of a supplement that is not only scientifically researched and sustainable but helps me glow inside and out.
For more information visit collagenstraightup.com
Photography: Ben Calvert
