When was the last time you applied a beauty product to your hair, skin, or nails? If you’re a woman in the US, you’ve probably used about 16 different beauty products today alone—and you’ll spend over $200k on them during your life [1].
Here’s another question: When was the last time you ate four servings of fruit (the recommended daily intake) in a single day [2]?
Research tells us that eating fruits and veggies may be the best way to maintain a youthful glow [3].
Yet in a nation obsessed with beauty products, about 90% of us don’t get the nutrition we need to support healthy skin, hair and nails from the inside out [4].
Without a solid foundation of beauty nutrition, you can’t expect those topical creams and serums to do much good.
So, it may be time to toss some of those costly topical products and replace them with a fresh smoothie or a salad.
But can eating more really help your beauty regimen? And what nutrients should you prioritize to rejuvenate your hair, skin and nails?
The Manna team has the answers below.
Eat Up to Glow Up: How Nutrition Affects Your Hair, Skin and Nails
Good nutrition doesn’t just give your beauty a little boost. It supplies your body with the building blocks it needs to construct radiant hair, firm skin and strong nails.
Without consuming essential vitamins and minerals, your body simply doesn’t have the fuel it needs to support your look.
To make things worse, your hair, skin, and nails are some of the first parts of your body to suffer from inadequate nutrition [5,6]. That means even if you eat whole foods sometimes, it may not be enough to prevent issues like dry skin and brittle hair.
Your hair, skin and nails need regular doses of essential nutrients to stay healthy, including collagen, vitamin C, zinc, B vitamins, omega-3s and more.* But your other organs need many of these same nutrients.
So, if you aren’t getting an abundance of beauty nutrients, your mirror may be the first to notice.
As you age, you become less efficient at absorbing nutrients that benefit your hair, skin and nails, such as collagen and vitamin D [7,8]. This is why your skin shows signs of aging and your hair thins as you get older.
Research has found that nutrition—and not cosmetics—may be the answer. Boosting levels of essential beauty nutrition like collagen has been found to prevent and even reverse signs of aging [9].
There is currently no evidence that cosmetic products can reverse signs of aging—likely because they don’t address the issue of collagen loss [10]. But we still tend to favor topicals and treatments over nutrition when we find a new wrinkle.
It’s time for a new beauty boom based around whole food nutrition. Eating well is much healthier and way more fun then spending an hour putting on cosmetics, which are quite often irritating or unhealthy for your skin. And, it will likely have a greater impact on your hair, skin and nails.
Top Supplements for Hair, Skin and Nails
If you want to give your beauty routine a nutritious boost without making major changes to your diet, add these nutrients to your daily supplement regimen.
Collagen
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body and the main component of your hair, skin, and nails. In fact, your skin is about 75% collagen [11]! If you take just one supplement for your beauty health, make it collagen.
Studies have illustrated or suggested that taking collagen supplements significantly improved skin elasticity and even reversed signs of aging, such as skin dryness, fine lines and wrinkles [9,12].
Another study found that collagen loss contributes directly to hair loss in older adults, which makes sense considering how important collagen is for a healthy scalp and hair follicles [13].
What about your nails?
Collagen’s got them covered too. Researchers found that almost 90% of participants taking collagen supplements experienced improved nail health after just four weeks [14].
Vitamin C
You know vitamin C is good for empowering your immune system, but it also plays a huge role in beauty health. Vitamin C is the most important precursor to collagen.
That means your body uses vitamin C to construct its own collagen supplies. Without vitamin C, your body doesn’t have the fuel it needs to send collagen to your skin, nails, hair, joints, bones and much more.
Unfortunately, only about 10% of Americans get optimal levels of this essential nutrient [15]. To make things worse, humans are not able to synthesize vitamin C, and most of it leaves your system quickly after ingestion [16].
This is why it’s so important to supplement with vitamin C daily if you don’t get enough in your diet.
Multivitamin
A well-formulated multivitamin can significantly enhance hair, skin, and nail health.
Typically, a multivitamin would include essential vitamins and minerals like biotin, vitamin C, vitamin E, and antioxidants that support collagen production and skin elasticity.
Biotin, in particular, is known for strengthening hair and nails, while vitamins C and E help protect against environmental damage, keeping your skin looking radiant and youthful.
The antioxidants in these blends combat free radicals, promoting healthier skin and reducing signs of aging.
For those who may not get enough nutrients from their diet alone, a beauty-focused multivitamin can provide the necessary support to maintain vibrant skin, strong nails, and healthy hair.*
The good news? Manna’s Liposomal Multivitamin has 20+ vitamins and minerals including B-Complex, Zinc, Vitamin E, Vitamin K and Biotin!
What about Topical Beauty Products?
Topical beauty products have their time and place. They can be effective at moisturizing exposed skin, and more importantly, protecting it from the sun. However, many beauty brands make strong anti-aging claims that the science simply doesn’t support.
For example, topical collagen products have little to no effect on your hair, skin and nail health [19]. This is because you need to process collagen internally to benefit from it. Collagen in creams simply sits on your skin until it gets washed off. Other topical beauty products have been found to be somewhat effective, but you certainly don’t need an astonishing 16 of them per day (the national average) to dazzle your admirers.
Here’s the key takeaway: topical products can give your skin a slight beauty bump, but they can’t make up for a lack of beauty nutrition. You must maintain a strong foundation of skin, hair and nail health to ignite a healthy glow from the inside out.
The Manna Beauty Bundle
At Manna, we’ve bundled up three of our most powerful beauty supplements for skin, hair and nail health. The Manna Beauty Bundle includes all of the top beauty supplements from this article, including:
When you bundle your beauty nutrition, you get a special price, too. All of Manna’s supplements are made with our proprietary NANOFUSE technology, which envelopes each nutrient with liposomes to protect it and boost bioavailability by up to 10x. By adding an infusion of body-changing beauty health to your daily routine, you may notice stronger nails, thicker hair and younger-looking skin in as little as a few weeks.*
Real Beauty Starts Inside
Whoever said that real beauty was on the inside was more accurate than they knew. The cosmetics industry may have convinced us that creams, lotions and potions are the keys to a healthy look. But real beauty has to come from within. Get plenty of beauty nutrition to keep your hair, skin and nails looking fantastic from your cells on up. And if you can’t munch enough fruits and veggies to meet your daily needs, the Manna Beauty Bundle can help your body to naturally help fill in the cracks, crow’s feet and wrinkles.
FAQ
While a healthy diet rich in essential nutrients is fundamental, many people may still benefit from supplements to ensure they are getting adequate levels of specific nutrients, especially as they age or have dietary restrictions.
Results can vary, but many people notice improvements in their hair, skin, and nails within a few weeks of consistently taking the right supplements and maintaining a balanced diet.
Internal nutrition addresses the root causes of beauty concerns by providing your body with the essential nutrients it needs to function optimally. Topical products often only address surface-level symptoms and cannot fully compensate for nutritional deficiencies.
The Manna Beauty Bundle is a combination of three powerful beauty supplements: Manna Liposomal Collagen Peptides, Manna Liposomal Vitamin C, and Manna Liposomal Multivitamin. These supplements are designed to support the health of your hair, skin, and nails from within.
As you age, your body becomes less efficient at absorbing and synthesizing nutrients like collagen and vitamin D. This can lead to visible signs of aging, such as thinner hair and more wrinkles, which is why boosting these nutrients through diet and supplements can be beneficial.
Sources:
- https://askwonder.com/research/women-buy-skincare-products-beauty-every-year-month-quarter-often-buy-beauty-fe8qyav8v
- https://www.myplate.gov/eat-healthy/fruits
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3583891/
- https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7101a1.htm#T1_down
- https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22987-malnutrition#symptoms-and-causes
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20620759/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1606623/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3782116/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22956862/
- https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/beauty/no-cream-can-reverse-ageing-but-experts-say-some-do-more-than-others-20190912-p52qsd.html
- https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Collagen.aspx
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23949208/
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aad4395
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28786550/#:~:text=Results%3A%20Bioactive%20collagen%20peptides%20treatment,improvement%204%20weeks%20post%2Dtreatment.
- https://www.nutri-facts.org/en_US/news/articles/u-s—nhanes.html#:~:text=About%2021%20million%20Americans%20have,(100%20micromole%20per%20liter)
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17884994/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4120804/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17763607/
- https://today.tamu.edu/2019/11/04/collagen-in-your-coffee-a-scientist-says-forget-it/
