Live Conscious is a popular collagen brand that claims to have sold over 8 million bags of their collagen peptides. The brand claims that their products lead to "Better Hair, Skin, Nails and Joints."
But is collagen actually proven to enhance skin and joint health? Does Live Conscious' product provide an effective collagen dose? Does it have any unhealthy additives? And what was our honest experience purchasing and testing this product for a month?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze clinical studies on collagen to determine if it actually improves skin and joint health.
We'll also analyze the ingredients in Live Conscious Collagen to give our take on whether or not it's effectively formulated, share our honest experience trying the product for a month, and compare Live Conscious to popular collagen brands like Vital Proteins to pick our winners (and losers).
Key takeaways:
- Live Conscious provides effective collagen dose for anti-aging
- We tested and found that it subjectively improved skin quality
- We currently recommend Live Conscious
We Tested Live Conscious
As the author of this article, I wanted to try Live Conscious collagen myself, to share my thoughts on the taste and overall product experience.
I take collagen daily, so I was curious to compare Live Conscious to the brand I usually use (Vital Proteins):
The powder mixed well into coffee (how I typically take my collagen peptides) and was tasteless. There were no "chunks" that I had to break up with a fork, as is the case with some brands.
This brand comes with a plastic serving scoop, which I appreciate.
As far as effects, I have noticed that collagen appears to improve my skin quality and make me look slightly younger.
I don't take it primarily for this purpose, but I do believe this product can have a modest anti-aging effect.
Overall, I'd rate Live Conscious 9/10, and this is a brand I'd purchase from again.
Is Collagen Overrated?
Collagen is the structural protein in skin, and it’s one of the most well-studied supplements for reducing wrinkles.
As we age, our body’s collagen production slows down, and medical research has shown that supplemental collagen can help replenish collagen levels in the body and improve skin.
An extensive medical review published in the International Journal of Dermatology analyzed data from 18 clinical trials on oral collagen supplementation, and concluded that it can significantly enhance skin quality:
“Based on results, ingestion of hydrolyzed collagen for 90 days is effective in reducing skin aging, as it reduces wrinkles and improves skin elasticity and hydration.”
A 2019 meta-study suggests that the effective daily dosing range of oral collagen supplementation for skin is 2.5 grams (g) to 10 g.
Collagen can also improve joint health. A medical review from 2019 evaluated whether orally-administered collagen could reduce osteoarthritis (OA) symptoms.
The researchers concluded that collagen reduced OA symptoms overall, and was particularly effective for reducing stiffness.
We consider collagen to be one of the most promising therapeutic supplements for improving skin quality and reducing wrinkles, and also to have significant research backing for improvements to joint health.
Live Conscious Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in Live Conscious Collagen Peptides are shown below:
image source: https://weliveconscious.com/
Collagen peptides sourced from grass-fed animals is the only ingredient, making this a clean, healthy and effective formulation.
As we documented in our review of Orgain Collagen Peptides, animal products from grass-fed animals tend to be more nutritious than animal products from conventionally-raised animals, based on clinical studies we've surveyed.
The dose per-serving in Live Conscious is 11 g, which is around the maximally-effective dose for improving skin quality, as we documented in the previous section of this article.
We currently recommend Live Conscious Collagen Peptides, because it's effectively dosed, and free of any unhealthy ingredients.
The price of this collagen powder per-10-g-dose (which we consider the maximally-effective dose) is around $1 per serving when factoring in shipping fees.
This is a similar price-per-serving to most of the brands we recommended in our recent best collagen peptides review article.
Live Conscious Beyond Greens Review
The active ingredients in Live Conscious Beyond Greens (the brand's green powder) are shown below:
image source: https://weliveconscious.com/
All of the active ingredients in this formulation meet our standards.
Matcha leaf and chlorella are examples of nutrient-dense, whole plant material that can improve health.
A medical review published in the Nutrients journal found that chlorella has antioxidant, anti-diabetic, blood-pressure-normalizing and cholesterol-normalizing effects in humans.
It's worth noting that the total dose per serving is under 3 g, which is lower than most of the green powder supplements we've reviewed on Illuminate Health.
The inactive ingredients in this formulation are shown below:
image source: https://weliveconscious.com/
Natural flavor is an inactive ingredient that we consider to be questionable from a health perspective, although we rank it above artificial flavors in terms of healthiness.
As we documented in our Beauty Focus Collagen Plus reviews article, at least one research review suggests that some flavoring additives and their metabolites may be toxic.
Overall we consider this green powder likely to support health, especially for consumers who don't eat many fruits and vegetables in their diet, but we don't currently recommend it due to the inclusion of natural flavor.
Live Conscious vs. Popular Collagen Brands
Here's how Live Conscious compares to other popular collagen brands, in terms of formulation quality, in our opinion:
Vital Proteins
This brand sells products with effective collagen doses and other active ingredients which are effectively-dosed and complimentary for the stated functional goal.
Hyaluronic acid is a good example; this active ingredient is in Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides Advanced and is clinically shown to enhance skin moisture content.
From a potential efficacy perspective, we give Vital Proteins the (slight) edge.
Winner: Vital Proteins
Alaya Collagen
Provides an effective collagen dose, but contains other active ingredients we consider underdosed and superfluous, as we documented in our Alaya Collagen reviews article.
Winner: Live Conscious
Zena Collagen + Biotin
Liquid collagen with some unhealthy inactive ingredients.
Also bottled in plastic which may confer a greater risk of microplastic leaching for liquid products than powdered products.
Winner: Live Conscious
Our Clean Collagen Pick
Thorne Collagen Fit is our top collagen pick.
It provides 15 grams (g) of collagen per serving, is sourced from grass-fed animals and is NSF Certified for Sport (meaning a third-party laboratory has verified it to be free of harmful contaminants.
This formulation also contains nicotinamide riboside, which "will play an important role in anti-aging therapy" according to a 2022 medical review.
Live Conscious Pros and Cons
Pros
- Collagen sourced from grass-fed animals
- Collagen supplement should improve skin quality
- Collagen supplement contains no additives
- We tested and found it subjectively improved skin appearance
- We tested and found its mixability to be favorable
Cons
- Greens product contains natural flavor
- Beyond Greens has relatively low total green powder dose
- Neither product we reviewed appears to be clinically tested
