I haven’t written a review on supplements before, and to be honest I am cautious to do so for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is, being a Registered Dietitian, I have a pretty high bar when it comes to supplement standards. If they say they are going to do something, they better have the research to support their claims and actually do what they claim to do. People think the supplement industry is well regulated and it is NOT – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good companies out there. I should do a post on supplements in the future… in the meantime – back to NeoCell!
When I was contacted by NeoCell is try collagen supplements for “beauty” I will be 100% honest in that I was totally skeptical. But, I’ve never been one to shy away from at least trying something so I gave them a chance. Well, since you are reading this review, you have probably guessed that I have had great results and love this!
I don’t believe I’ve shared this before but the truth is, as a blogger, when you are contacted by a company to try their product they usually share PR materials or other information on what their product does, its benefits etc. I purposefully ignore these materials. I don’t want PR materials to sway my opinion or experience on a product. For instance, I found that Surface’s Protein Cream was awesome for a leave-in for my curly hair, and only later when I was writing the review did I see that it was meant for straightening hair! That kind of thing…
So I keep digressing, back to NeoCell – I started taking these tablets with really not knowing what to expect. I purposefully did not read much on what it claims to do or other’s reviews because I didn’t want it to affect what I experienced (I’m trying to minimize the placebo effect). The front of the bottle says:
“Radiant skin
thicker hair
stronger nails
anti-aging”
Of course these all had an asterisk to the disclaimer that these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA – which is standard for supplements. I already have pretty tough nails, so didn’t need help in that area – but radiant skin and thicker hair? Sure! Who doesn’t want that? But as I stated previously, I was skeptical.
One bottle has 150 tablets and while the directions to say take 3 twice daily, I have only been taking 3 in the morning. I have been taking these for almost 3 months now (I started mid-March but did take a few weeks off in between) and there are three results I have seen. These results are why I will continue to take these indefinitely!
1 – My lips are less chapped.
I never realized how chronically chapped my lips were until they stopped being chapped all the time. I would get little dry flakies pretty often, and was always using lip balm and exfoliants to keep my lips smooth.
After taking these for about 6 weeks, I realized that I wasn’t reaching for lip balm like I used to. My lips felt soft, and perhaps even a bit plumper. I no longer had to exfoliate them to keep away the flakies. I was in awe.
I asked myself if this could possibly be the NeoCell. After all – could a supplement really make my lips less chapped? Well, after taking a few weeks off my lips became more chapped so I went back on the NeoCell and my lips went back to being soft and plump with hardly any dryness. I do say ‘hardly any’ because with summer here I have been wearing lots of sunscreen on my lips, which does tend to dry them out. But nowhere near how dry and chapped they used to be.
Being back on the NeoCell for awhile, my lips continue to be soft without dry flakiness. I can’t believe it!
2 – My hair doesn’t fall out as much
About 6 weeks ago, I got my hair highlighted. Usually, after dying my hair, my hair revolts in anger and decides to leave me. I notice more hair coming out after the shower, when combing, etc. It’s not like a lose chunks of hair, but it is a little more than usual for awhile.
Well, after dying my hair this last time, I realized – hmmm, my hair isn’t falling out as much as it used to. Could it be the NeoCell? Once again, I was skeptical but I can’t explain any other reason for why I am losing less hair than the norm. Of course I still lose some hair each day, it’s normal. But I swear not as much as I used to.
My hair is pretty thin, and I haven’t seen it become thicker. My guess though is that if it truly does help hair become thicker, I’m only going to notice after taking this for a few years. Since hair takes while to grow out (I have pretty fast growing hair and it’s still only an inch a month at the most), it’s going to take quite a long time for it to be grown out so much that I notice a change in thickness.
In the meantime, I’m just glad to be losing less!
3- I have less wrinkles
I will start this out with saying I am only 29 and really don’t have many wrinkles. But, living (and growing up) in Arizona, I have what my aunt calls the “Arizona wrinkle.” Right in the middle of my brows, I have a vertical wrinkle – from squinting in the sun. The wrinkle is actually kind of deep too. You can’t really see when I smile, but as soon as I even think about squinting or making a puzzled look, BOOM – there’s that stinkin’ wrinkle. With it being a pretty large wrinkle, I started to notice it even when not squinting. A few weeks ago, I noticed my wrinkle isn’t as prominent as it used to be. It’s still there, but has turned into a fine wrinkle rather than the deep-set wrinkle it was.
Within the past few years, I also have started to get fine lines around my eyes. Oh the fun of the beginning of aging. I didn’t really stress much, as I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. I just stick with my eye cream and sunscreen and hope for the best. But when I noticed my Arizona wrinkle was lessened, it caused me to sit and look at my eyes and holy geez – my eye wrinkles are better too! I really couldn’t believe it. The little fine lines that had started to creep in and around my eyes look significantly better. Are they 100% gone? No. But are they better? Absolutely.
THAT is when I decided to review, and vowed to never stop taking these!
And this is also where my purposefully not reading too much on a product can get in the way of a review. If I had known these could help my chapped lips or wrinkles or hair, I would have taken before and after pictures. But I didn’t really know what to expect, so I don’t have pictures to show the difference. You’re going to just have to believe me :o)
So what is in these things?
When looking at the ingredients, it seems pretty clear why these could positively affect skin, hair, nails etc. It’s not just collagen – but biotin, hyaluronic acid, silica AND alpha lipoic acid. From everything I have read, these are all good for skin and hair. Vitamin C could be, but honestly with only 30 mg, you could eat an orange and get more than what is in 3 tablets so the Vitamin C is probably not doing much.
The reason I chose to only take 3 rather than the recommended 6 a day is from the biotin. 3 tablets provides 500% of your recommended daily value and while biotin IS water soluble and so not likely to cause any harm from taking more*, I am personally not a fan of taking extreme amounts of any nutrient. Being the science-based person that I am, research shows that with super high intakes of any one nutrient, our bodies usually can’t do much with too much and just have to work to excrete it (usually through urine) so why put my kidneys through extra work? It’s sort of like putting too much gas in your car. If your car needs 10 gallons, trying to pump 20 gallons into your tank is not going to help your car run better, gas is just going to spill out all over the place. Same idea. This is just my personal (and professional) opinion on the matter though. Especially since I saw results with only taking 3, I don’t feel the need to take more.
*Also, there is no upper limit for Biotin. An “upper limit” for nutrients is a level at which if you go over – you may experience adverse effects. Effects can be small, like GI upset, or more serious like nerve damage. However, there a few nutrients that have no upper limits. That is, research has not shown any adverse effects by taking far more than what is required daily to prevent a deficiency. Biotin is one of these, so really – research does not show any harm in taking large amounts.
So overall – I am in love with these supplements. The fact that my lips are less chapped alone is a huge win for me. I never realized how much of my life revolved around keeping my lips looking good until I didn’t have to anymore! And the hair and the wrinkles are a huge bonus too. Thank.you.NeoCell!
