There is one product that always gets my Singaporean friends and family really interested — Meiji Amino Collagen (5,000mg).
A gal pal who lives in New York came to visit me and she commented that my skin was looking good, in fact much better than she remembered two years ago. It was flattering indeed because we hadn’t seen each other in ages. Do you know she bought 10 packets of the stuff? I hope her skin is glowing, too.
My elder sister was taking this collagen supplement as an experiment — she didn’t know I was guzzling it too. When she found out how much is costs in Tokyo, she asked me to buy as many packets as possible.
An ex-student of mine mentioned this skin wunderkind to me. She witnessed a Japanese gal pal’s transformation a year after she left for Taipei and returned for a visit in Japan — apparently her middle-aged friend’s skin changed dramatically from a papery, dry state to becoming more supple and smooth. All the friends in their group jumped into the habit immediately. My student took it for four months and I thought she looked much better. Let me clarify that her fine lines were still there but the texture of her skin looked more plump and youthful.
I couldn’t resist and now a year later, even my 65-year-old mum is into it. She is stealing spoonfuls of the collagen powder from my sister’s stash. I was tasked to buy her two packets (at least) on my next visit to Singapore. My friends have urged me to sell this on Yahoo auctions in Singapore. It sounds tempting but I don’t think I would make enough on a single trip to be worth the trouble.
The other star product from Japan is Fancl’s Tense Up EX collagen drink. It’s definitely more expensive and the dosage is actually half of what’s recommended for Meiji. Though 50 per cent cheaper in Japan than in Singapore, it is still the more pricey alternative. It tastes good with its sweet orange flavour but the bottles are heavy to transport. There are powder and pills in this range but they are not as potent.
Another question that people always have is, what does Meiji taste like? It is fairly mild in flavour. Some people think it’s fishy and my mum is convinced that it tastes like gelatin. You can drink it with milk tea, juice, or like my mother, make it into lemon jelly (that’s weird, who has the time, right?). Apparently you could put it in soup but I wouldn’t encourage that. Don’t try to drink it by itself in water either — it is horrible!
A friend suggested that this stuff doesn’t work at all because you cannot absorb collagen through your digestive system and the only way your skin can benefit from collagen is if you inject in directly into your skin. Hmmm, well, I don’t know about that. I still think the real-life testimonials I’ve had and myself included are pretty reliable. My testimonial reads, “I was mistaken for a 24-year-old twice at a party!” (Chuckles…)
I have to warn newbies though — purely from my own experience — that too much collagen could make your face look puffed up. I was very diligent in taking the stuff in the first three months. After a two-week holiday somewhere, the supermarket Chinese cashier I am friendly with exclaimed in Mandarin, “Your face became fat (ni de lian hao xiang fei le)!” Fortuitously, my Japanese student cautioned on taking too much (her facialist said it may cause breakouts) collagen and advised me to halve my intake or just take a little less than the 5,000mg per spoonful a day.
My mother said that I look fairer (I use Olay UV blocker daily now) and my skin looks smoother (I used to struggle with acne but those teenage years are long gone). I don’t know if it’s the Tokyo weather but I would think a humid, tropical clime would be better for you.
Do I have a real conclusion? I wouldn’t put my life on the line to declare this supplement works for sure. I think that if you take it at least for six months to a year and beyond, you can see slow changes to your skin — more radiance and suppleness. I don’t think it erases bad habits like not using a sunscreen or not getting enough sleep, so you still need to stick to a good skincare regime and lifestyle.
-Yu Ming-
http://luiyuming.com/meiji-amino-collagen-miracle-or-farce/
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