Collagen is one of the main proteins making up the body, constituting 1/3 of all the protein we contain. Among its benefits are that it helps make the skin, our largest organ, buoyant and malleable. Collagen helps reduce wrinkles and scars in a number of ways, including making the skin appear thicker, restoring its softness and flexibility, closing up the gaps or crevices caused by wrinkles and returning the skin to its original structure.

As we age, our body’s collagen supply naturally wanes, making a lack of collagen one of the unavoidable causes of visible signs of aging. While collagen loss can’t be avoided, however, it can be ameliorated.

Collagen cream, exactly as it sounds, contains collagen, restoring some of that diminished supply to the skin. In order for collagen creams to be effective, however, the collagen contained in the cream must be able to absorb through the skin. And unfortunately the molecules of collagen in many creams are too large to absorb through the skin. That is why it is imperative, when researching collagen creams to buy, to look for those designed either to break down the collagen into molecules small enough to be absorbed or designed in some other way to help facilitate the absorption of the collagen it contains through the skin.

One of the methods used to break down collagen into smaller particles capable of being absorbed by the skin is hydrolysis, which is the use of water to break down a chemical. One of the types of collagen creams designed to facilitate absorption is called transdermal creams.

If you select a collagen cream that contains keratin or retinol as one of the ingredients then that cream may also help stimulate your body’s own production of collagen, regardless of how much of the supplemental collagen supplied by the cream you do or don’t absorb.