Pure Gold Collagen Review – Is The Price Too Much?

|  Summary  |  Ranking  |  Marketing  |  Ingredients  |  Side Effects  |  Reviews  |  Pricing  |  Pros & Cons  |  Overall  |

Pure Gold Collagen is a Collagen multivitamin that does its best to be a solid supplement but fails at that decently miserably. I mean, from the marketing perspective it’s just great whereas, from the realistic point of view, there are few too many drawbacks.

For example, they could have done additives way better. Also, the price is sky-high. And there are other aspects that could be better.

 

Marketing | The Supplement Promises Skin, Energy & Immunity Benefits

According to the manufacturer, the Pure Gold Collagen has been a worldwide bestseller since 2011. Per their words, it’s their clinically proven, unique formula that consists of 11 active ingredients that are all about delivering a ton of different benefits, including anti-aging.

As for the product page, I like what they’ve done with it. It used to be very messy and even overwhelming like the Reverse Life Collagen (review).

But it’s none of those anymore. Now, it’s more like the sensible Bubs Naturals Collagen Protein (review) in its approach.

So, for benefits, we have quite a few. I mean, yes, they promise typical benefits like skin health, hair health, and nail health. But on top of that, they also claim better energy levels and immune health. Plus, it’s about that anti-aging aspect.

They’ve even done their own study to prove that. Which, however, didn’t show anything other than skin-related improvements.

For marketing tactics, it used to be solely about customers and their Pure Gold Collagen reviews. Now, it’s also about everything else like free shipping, discounts when ordering more than one box, and even beauty gifts when ordering over a certain price.

And we can even find testimonials.

As for free-of claims, the supplement of this review is claimed to be GMO-Free, Alcohol-Free, Color-Free, Preservative-Free, Sugar-Free, Dairy-Free, and Gluten-Free. It’s also Kosher and Halal certified.

So, I guess it would be fair to say that the Pure Gold Collagen sounds very good. But is it actually worth the investment?

Ingredients | I Just Don’t Like What The Pure Gold Collagen Offers

There are all kinds of ways in which one can make a Collagen supplement. To that end, I guess the most popular one is doing it by the means of powder like in the Live Conscious Collagen Peptides (review). Another option is, of course, doing it by way of capsules like in the SuperSelf Marine Collagen (review). But the supplement of this review is a drink.

So, per serving (one 50 ml bottle), the Pure Gold Collagen offers 5,000 milligrams of Hydrolyzed Collagen, 20 milligrams of Hyaluronic Acid, 15 milligrams of Borage Seed Oil, 1 mg of BioPerine, 80 mg of vitamin C, 9 IU (6 mg) of vitamin E, 1.4 mg of vitamin B6, 50 mcg of vitamin B7, 1.5 mg of Zinc, and 0.15 mg of Copper. Now, here’s to elaborate on what this all means.

As far as Collagen goes, we’re interested in sourcing, total amounts, and testing.

For sourcing, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that they sustainably source it from Fish and that it’s Non-GMO. The bad news is that it’s from Farm-Raised Fish. Meaning, the Fish they source it from is not nearly as nutritious as their Wild-Caught counterparts or worse [R, R, R, R, R, R].

For amounts, granted, I guess we have to give the Pure Gold Collagen some credit because they do have their double-blind, placebo-controlled study. But, ideally, we should have at least 10 grams of Collagen for a chance at the full range of Collagen-related benefits [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

And that’s exactly the point. In the study, they only claim skin health benefits. Which is actually a rather small portion of what Collagen can bring to the table. For example, it can be great also for gut health, joint health, bone health, muscle health, metabolism, blood sugar regulation, and more [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

All of these likely won’t be the case here (unless you have two bottles a day).

Lastly, due to environmental pollution, any Fish product when it comes to supplements has to be properly purified. And Pure Gold is definitely doing its part. However, it doesn’t choose to do it by way of third-party testing. It’s all just in-house testing. Which isn’t ideal. But it’s better than nothing, for sure.

As for Hyaluronic Acid, a decent dose is between 50-100 milligrams. The supplement of this review offers 2.5-5 times less. So, yes, Hyaluronic can help deliver gains for skin health (wrinkle reduction, more elasticity, anti-aging, and more) and joint, and eye health. But, again, it’s likely not going to be the full extent of that [R, R, R, R, R].

Whereas 15 milligrams of Borage Seed Oil feels to me like an absolute joke. I mean, any half-decent standalone Borage Seed Oil supplement offers at least 1000-1200 milligrams or more than 65 times the amount. Thus, I don’t think it’s even necessary to discuss the potential benefits of this [R].

As for that Black Pepper, they use the BioPerine patented option. Which is great. But there’s just 1 milligram of that. I mean, even the Turmeric Curcumin supplements typically have at least 5 milligrams for improved absorption purposes. To that end, I’m really not sure if 1 milligram is enough for the same purpose in Pure Gold Collagen [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

And we come to the vitamins and minerals. Which are another huge pitfall for the supplement. I mean, the amounts of them and the forms they are typically in are not good. Yes, it looks neat to have a little bit of everything. But I don’t think there is much to gain from that.

I mean, 9 IU of vitamin E, 1.4 mg of vitamin B6, 50 mcg of vitamin B7, 1.5 mg of Zinc, 0.15 mg of Copper. All of that is very low. And potentially can help incrementally but I wouldn’t bet on that. These might as well not be there at all, and it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

To sum that all up, I think that, essentially, Hydrolyzed Collagen and Hyaluronic Acid are pulling all the weight. Everything else is kind of there just for the show. And to appear fancy.

Side Effects | To Review Additives, Negative Effects Will Be There

Side effects are typically the product of additives. And additives can become a very big mess very fast whenever Liquid Collagen supplements are at play. I mean, we’ve seen that with supplements like the Applied Nutrition Liquid Collagen (review), LAC Taut Collagen (review), and many others.

For both of these, it was the shortcoming of choosing Potassium Sorbate among other things (otherwise common in soft drinks). It’s a substance that has been shown in a few studies to have the capacity to damage white blood cells. These in turn can cause damage to DNA. Which in turn can lead to a wide variety of bad health outcomes like cancer [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

So, what’s up with the Pure Gold Collagen? Does it fall into the same pitfalls?

Well, to some extent. I mean, these are not the same shortcoming. But there definitely are some major ones.

So, the Collagen supplement uses Water, Citric Acid, Soybean Polysaccharide, Flavoring, Malic Acid, Glycerol, Soy Lecithin, Sucralose, N-Acetylglucosamine, and Stevia. What does that all mean?

First, there used to be this weird thing where the Pure Gold Collagen would list N-Acetylglucosamine as an additive when, clearly, it is more of an active ingredient. But they have fixed that now. Which is good. [R, R, R, R, R].

Second, many of the additives used are fine. I mean, there are some really quality ingredients like Stevia and Malic Acid which will be nothing but helpful. Whereas ingredients like Soybean Polysaccharide and Soy Lecithin should be fine given that the product is Non-GMO [R, R, R, R, R].

Third, there are probably three additives that need further explanation. Citric Acid, Flavoring, and Sucralose.

Citric Acid is a substance also present in our cells. Generally speaking, it’s not something harmful, especially when it’s Non-GMO made. However, overconsumption of it can be hazardous (many processed foods contain it). Additionally, it’s also known to improve Aluminium absorption which isn’t a metal we need for great health, and absorbing much of it can undermine it [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

As far as Flavoring goes (something also very common in soft drinks), it seems to be the artificial one as they’re quick to announce just about any other free-of claim there is. But when it comes to mentioning something about flavoring, they hold back.

So, it’s very likely that artificial flavors are in there. However, unlike most people assume, these are not typically a hazard. In fact, in many ways, they’re often potentially less harmful. But it does all come down to the manufacturing practices. Which if solid, can make that flavoring even a beneficial thing. But if not, quite the contrary can happen [R, R, R, R, R].

To that end, as far as the Collagen of this review goes, I think it should be fine. I mean, it seems decent since they’re doing all the in-house lab tests and everything. So, I wouldn’t worry about this aspect too much.

There is, however, that last additive that I would highly encourage everyone to avoid. Which is Sucralose.

I mean, Pure Gold Collagen is proud of not using sugar in their supplement but I feel this is hands-down worse. Personally, I would much rather have just typical table Sugar in my supplement over this.

Sucralose is an artificial sweetener often used to avoid adding sugar (and be able to boast about it). But that I feel is only superficially a good thing. Mainly because, overall, in its essence, it’s just as bad as having the worst forms of processed sugar in the supplement. Or worse [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

Moreover, in terms of long-term consumption, embracing this one can likely prove not only to be cancerous (literally), but also potentially manifest eating disorders, obesity, depression, heart disease, diabetes, leaky gut, and among others harm our brainpower [R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R, R].

It’s really disappointing. I mean, why did they have to add that? Wasn’t it really enough with just Stevia? It feels like it should have been since there are supplements that do exactly that.

Another thing that I feel I need to add is that Pure Gold Collagen is pretty smart about its marketing. I mean, they claim that the product is Preservative-Free when it isn’t actually true at all.

To that end, Ascorbic Acid is definitely a preservative. I mean, yes, it’s also vitamin C which gets listed among the beneficial ingredients but it’s still a preservative. And then, we’ve got Citric Acid. And frankly, it doesn’t get any more “preservative” than Citric Acid [R].

Reviews | Customer Feedback Isn’t Nearly As Good As Marketing

For a broader look at the supplement, we have to look at what the people that actually bought it thought of it. While the dedicated section for Pure Gold Collagen reviews is hidden from plain sight on the manufacturer’s page, it’s still there. And unnaturally positive.

To that end, I don’t think we can get honest insights out of it since typically any feedback on the manufacturer’s page feels extremely biased and likely adjusted or edited to fit the company’s sales tactics better. Examples of this also include the Genuine Health Marine Collagen (review) and Nature’s Truth Ultra Collagen (review).

And that’s fine. They need to sell. But for the purposes of truth-seeking, that’s utterly useless.

So, I did some digging into customer feedback on every third-party seller and retailer.

In total, I managed to pull together 152 Pure Gold Collagen reviews. Of these, 132 were positive (three-star, four-star, five-star) and 20 were negative (one-star, two-star). In other words, that’s a global success rate of 86.8%. Which is fine.

It’s not the worst. It’s not the best. It seems that many people like it. And judging by the reviews, even swear by it.

I mean, some are absolutely amazed by it. Many have seen improvements in their skin health (more hydrated and softer). Others boast about the very noticeable gains for nail health in terms of strength and faster growth. Others praise the benefits they’ve encountered for their hair.

But then, what did the negative ones actually say?

For many, it was a matter of not helping them at all. For many others, it caused unpleasant side effects. Whereas other people hated the taste and the texture of the drink. And this leads me to why I believe this has such a high success rate.

I mean, the Pure Gold Collagen is a tasty supplement. It’s kind of like a gummy. Only it’s a liquid. And gummies, even when they have the worst ingredients, still have amazing success rates.

Because people like how they taste and people typically rate supplements as to how they feel in the moment. And that’s all there is to it.

So, understanding that, I would even go as far as to say that 86.8% is a very, very average success rate. It should have been much higher.

Pricing | It Compares Very Bad To Its Most Potent Rivals

I actually did find quite a bit of Pure Gold Collagen customer feedback where people believed that this is a bonkers expensive supplement. And I can’t say that they don’t have a point. I mean, it truly feels excessive as to how much they ask for a box.

But is it also costly from a purely objective standpoint? Let’s do the math.

So, for a box of 10 servings, the supplement of this review typically costs $49.99. Whereas if we offer a month’s worth, then it’s $99.98. Which is likely what most people will get. Hence, it’s $3.33 for a serving or $6.67 for every 10 grams of Marine Collagen. Is that a lot?

Yes. That’s truly an absurd amount. I mean, there are no actually great Collagen drinks to compare it with as I’m yet to find one.

But, generally speaking, I do believe that it’s absolutely fine to just compare it with powder options as we will consume those the same way. It’s just that with them, we have the liberty to choose our own poison when it comes to flavors and what is it that we add it to.

One truly great option is the Truvani Marine Collagen (review). It typically costs $38.24 for a container. There are 12 grams of Collagen per serving, hence it’s a price of $2.12 for every 10 grams of Marine Collagen. Which is 3-fold less money.

And, yes, Truvani doesn’t have all the vitamin-mineral-Hyaluronic-Borage nonsense. But it’s properly sourced from Wild-Caught, Deep-Sea Fish, and third-party tested to ensure purity. I mean, in terms of quality, it knocks the Pure Gold Collagen right off the park.

And Truvani doesn’t bring any bad additives. It’s just better in every way, the way I see it.

Another option to compare it with would be the Landish Marine Collagen (review). This one costs typically $1.41 for every 10 grams of Marine Collagen. And it’s Wild-Caught, has no additives, and is third-party tested. It’s not as fancy as the Truvani but it definitely holds its own.

And if we compare it to the Pure Gold Collagen, it’s basically 5 times cheaper.

Pros & Cons | The Superself Marine Collagen Has Significant Flaws

Overall | I Would Propose To Avoid The Pure Gold Collagen Supplement

Pure Gold Collagen used to be one of the messiest supplements around. I mean, in the past, I have had to constantly go back, check, re-write this article because of how inconsistent the information about its ingredients was from seemingly authoritative resources (Amazon, manufacturer, etc.). And the product page was also self-conflicting plenty of times.

That said, I’m happy to inform you that they have cleaned it all up.

Still, many drawbacks persist.

I mean, the additives are most of the time rubbish. The beneficial ingredients are basically always lacking in amounts.

It doesn’t matter if we are considering the Collagen contents, Hyaluronic Acid, Borage Seed Oil, or even the extra vitamins and minerals. It always comes up short. The quality of vitamins and minerals is not ideal either.

And sourcing-wise I just don’t like how they do it. Yes, it’s sustainable but that’s not all that there is to it.

Then, if we look at the Pure Gold Collagen customer reviews, it may seem like there’s some hope there. But for a $100 Collagen supplement, I expected so much more from it. And it just didn’t deliver.

Hence, (out of avoid it, consider it, shortlist it, buy it) I believe that this is a supplement worth avoiding. There just isn’t anything in there worth paying the price for. Not the additives, not the beneficial ingredients, not other quality aspects.

All that being said, if you are interested in something actually good, I would propose looking into the Live Conscious Collagen Peptides (full review with a summary). Whereas if Marine Collagen feels like a must for you, I would be looking at the Landish Marine Collagen (review).

Above all, I hope this Pure Gold Collagen review helped you find the information you were looking for. If you have any thoughts or questions, I’m just a comment away. And do feel free to leave your own personal reviews on the product as well.