I Drank Fish Collagen for 2 Weeks to Get Better Skin and Hair (and It Worked)

While age-old wisdom tells us that beauty comes from within, I’m ashamed to admit I don’t exactly adhere to a glow-conducive regimen: I eat too much sugar, I don’t get enough sleep and I drink a lot of coffee. (Don’t tell my mom.) When I see photos of myself from five or ten years ago, I’m always struck by the radiance of youth that somehow disappeared when I wasn’t paying attention.

So I was excited to try Dirty Lemon’s Skin + Hair tonic, which promised to show me results after just 12 days. For the sake of consistency (and, OK, laziness), I didn’t alter my diet or habits in any other way.

The ingredients include filtered water, cold-pressed lemon juice, marine collagen peptides (which have been shown to improve skin’s appearance in studies), red clover (purported to increase collagen production), horsetail (used as a healing salve on wounds in ancient times) and cayenne (which may have potential to boost circulation).

As I scanned the ingredient list, I was a little jarred to see the words “contains fish.” Yep, the collagen is extracted from fish scales. I’m not a vegetarian or a squeamish eater, so the idea of drinking fish juice didn’t weird me out too much (but I can totally see how it might be off-putting for some). And luckily, there was nothing fishy about the flavor; it mainly tasted like lemon juice and cayenne. 

So after diligently downing a bottle daily for two weeks, did I notice a difference? Yes. Most noticeably: I have one pesky wrinkle on my forehead that really shows itself when I’m sleep deprived. After a week and a half of Skin + Hair, it was barely visible, even after several late nights in a row. I also felt like my skin had an overall dewiness (dare I say a glow?) that it’s usually lacking. As for my hair, I didn’t really observe any changes (though to be fair, it’s pretty strong to begin with). But I did notice my nails grew way faster than usual.

At $65 a case (that’s $11 a bottle), this fountain of youth isn’t exactly cheap. And I imagine at least some of my skin gripes could be alleviated with diet and lifestyle changes. But sipping juice once a day sounds a whole lot easier…and I’m guessing it costs a lot less than Botox.