We've taken this company's gelatin for a while but it is hard for me to get down. Saw all of the good reviews on the collagen so I thought we'd try it. Firstly, I have a sensitive nose and yes it does have a smell, and a taste, but they are pretty minor. It mixes better into hot liquids than Cold. The smell and taste are more noticeable if you put it into something bland. In milk I can smell and taste it. But in a mocha (chocolatey coffee) I can't detect it at all. I bought this mostly because both of my knees are shot and the cartilage is gone. They are bone on bone and I'm supposed to have a knee replacement in March 2017. It might be too late for my knees but there are plenty of other joints in our bodies that could still be helped. I did notice that my lower back felt better within a couple days of starting this. Sleep: I'm normally a good sleeper but quite often was waking up around 3am and would lay awake for an hour. My husband has never been a good sleeper and if he slept for 5 hours straight that was a really good night. He was nearly always up in the middle of the night. If we take at least a teaspoon of this shortly before bed we both sleep through the night. I've sent a can to my mom who has terrible insomnia so we'll see if it helps her too. Hair: I had a bout of thyroid trouble and lost a lot of hair from the top of my head. It's not seriously noticeable to others but I know it's there. I'm hoping that taking this supplement will fix that. Nails: I've always had weak & peeling nails so I'm hoping to see an improvement there as well. Both of my thumbnails have bumps in them and the nail on one index finger is always split. I will report back on these issues. Skin: Every winter I get painful splits in the skin at the corners of my nails. It would be great if the collagen helped that. Wrinkles & saggy skin, well I'm not looking for a miracle here, but any improvement would be welcome. --------------------------------------------------------------- Update 3/7/17 Age spots faded to nearly nothing in about 45 days. The keratosis I have on my cheekbone has reduced in thickness. It's now quite flat. The stiffness I had in my back for the past 10 years is gone. It used to take me a while to bend over to pick something up off the ground, now I can bounce down there and back up like when I was much younger. I'm still hoping it will do something for my arthritic knees. I take about 4 tablespoons per day. I've got my 91 year old mom taking it too. I cancelled the knee replacement that was scheduled for tomorrow. Not that my knee pain is better but because I want to give the collagen more of a chance to work for me. I'm trying not to take any NSAIDs because they mess with my stomach/bowel movements something awful. Going to try Boswellia (herb) for knee pain but not just yet. The humps I have in my thumbnails are about half gone. My nails are definitely growing faster & stronger and less likely to peel. I still get painful splits in my fingertips and it hasn't even been a Cold winter. Wrinkles seem to be reduced. The jury is still out on the scalp hair but I will update this if that changes. Needless to say we're going to continue to take this

This stuff is awesome. I didn't realize until I tried another brand how good I had it (you can find my review of the other brand through my profile). Yes, it is pricey, but you're getting a specialty product that you can't find in other places. If you want cheap gelatin, buy Knox. Ew, right? I have moderate degenerative arthritis in my hand and take gelatin to help manage it (along with a topical ointment) instead of prescription anti-inflammatory pills with nasty side effects. This stuff keeps the pain to a minimum despite working on the computer all day and doing all sorts of regular daily tasks. It *immediately* dissolves in hot or Cold liquid. This is a big plus if you've tried other brands that are lumpy, gluey, and nasty. It gives my coffee a slightly foamy, latte-like froth that I enjoy. I mix in coconut oil and milk, and boom - morning bliss. It is essentially tasteless in coffee or tea. If you put it in water or a very light-tasting beverage, yes, you will taste the gelatin. Mix it with juice or something else, and you might not know it is there. It's great for hair, nails, and skin - all of those claims are true. It just works. The only *small* negative I have is that you lose some product with the container top - it's rough to get it all out near the end. I might have my husband McGyver a way to get it open and put it in a glass container. If that happens I'll post an update. For now, I'll sign off with - try the other products if you like and good luck to you. I will never be without Great Lakes again! **Update - 09/09/2015** I still love it and it still works. I did, in fact, figure out a way to get every little bit out. Yay! If you are a child of the 80s like me, you might remember Peach Hi-C in a huge can. Mom would open that thing on 2 sides with a church key (for you youngsters and non-Southerners, that's a bottle opener with a curved end :)). I digress. I used a church key to open the top - it pretty much peeled away after I got it open (wearing gloves couldn't hurt! I used a towel). Then I poured every speck into a resealable glass container. Problem solved - hope this helps someone :) **Updated - 11/13/2015** Hallelujah! Great Lakes heard the complaints about the container and fixed it! I bought the 2-pack and made the happy discovery...you just take off the top plastic lid and there is a pull tab. Once you discard the pull tab cover, you can either keep in the container with the plastic lid or put it in another container of your choice (I use a glass container with a gasket in the lid to keep it fresh). This is now a 6-star product

Seems to be a fine product, dissolves well, and essentially flavorless. I put it in coffee with soy milk, adding the Cold soy milk to hot coffee, stirring in the collagen peptides well, then reheating. If the liquid is too hot when you stir in the collagen it can clump a little as though "cooked". Not a problem and still perfectly edible though. An observation about serving size: It is stated you get 38 x 12g servings of two scoops (scoops included with product) each. So with daily use let's call that 5 weeks. I have been using this product for several months now and noticed it was lasting me 4 weeks, not 5. I checked the weight of the contents and they were fine- 454 grams, as stated. So it must be that two level scoops adds up to more than a 12 gram serving. Absolutely nothing bad or harmful about that, but due to the expense of the product, I would rather eke out the full 38 servings than 30. So I am now measuring it out as about 1.6 scoops/serving rather than 2 scoops. As to the effectiveness of collagen peptides in general, I really can't say. I am 67 years old. I am using five supplements including the collagen and three of them may have some effect on skin appearance. There have been no miracles in skin appearance but maybe some small improvements. I am actually more concerned about my cardiovascular system and hoping the collagen is helping there, but have no way to measure that. Making my nails harder was not a particular goal but I would say that yes they seem hard enough and maybe harder than before I started using it. I would say the same about my hair

Read about this product online. I heard that their collagen is made from grass fed cows. It is also kosher. It dissolved completely in hot or Cold liquid and does not have any taste, even in plain water. I take it to relieve inflammation in my joints, but found an unexpected side effect: my dry eyes are less dry. Unlike topical skin cremes, hair conditioners and eye drops, collagen effects from the inside out, improves digestion and provides the body with protein and amino acids. Unlike Ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatories that are hard on your liver, this has zero side effects. *** Update - I realize now there was one side effect. When I started using the product I had one tsp at a time (see other reader's comments on serving size) as the back of the canister shows a tsp as a serving. But the "recommended" dosage is a rounded tablespoon, per the use instructions. The first day I took a full tablespoon I did experience cramps when I went jogging. I did not, at the time, connect the two events because there was a time lag in-between drinking the collagen and going running. I also think I might not have had such cramps if I hadn't gone running. . . anyhow, like any supplement - it's good to ease into things. For example, soy milk used to give me cramps too - and now I can drink as much as I like. A little experimentation with the dosage, and I can take as much as I want now without experiencing what one reviewer called "bubble gut." I mix it into my morning coffee. If you mix it into warm milk, and then put the milk in your coffee, it makes soft peaks in the milk like a latte. If you pour the collagen directly into the coffee, and then add milk, it gives the coffee a slightly more full bodied taste. Sometimes, but less often, I also take it before I go to bed. It will relieve my inflammation, but not long enough to last the whole night, i.e. I still wake up stiff. I have tried taking it in the middle of the night, and voila! I woke up without inflammation, but that's too much of a commitment to do with regularity. RE: Hot flashes and post menopausal issues - I'm fiftyish, and I haven't had any hot flashes since I started taking this. But that may be purely co-incidental

I had tendinopathy in my foot for literally years, it had progressed from tendonitis. I saw 3 different doctors, had custom orthotics made, spent $500 out of pocket on physical therapy, had Graston done, had an MRI (it showed the tendon was thickened and scarred), and one doctor wanted me to do pricey Cold laser treatments (no thanks!) I randomly started taking Great Lakes collagen powder because I know some other runners who take it for recovery -- well within a month of taking it every day my tendon pain that I had suffered with for 2 YEARS was gone. GONE. I have been taking this collagen powder daily for 5 years now and I will take it for the rest of my life if need be. (I tried other brands and they did not work as well, my pain came back after a month.) FYI you lose collagen as you age, and tendons are made of collagen. You can go on PubMed and do a search for scientific studies about how collagen helps tendons. Also, I have Lyme disease and Bartonella (I was misdiagnosed with "Multiple Sclerosis" by 4 neurologists, I have lesions on my brain from Lyme) -- and what I did not know is that the Lyme bacteria (Borrelia burgdorferi) eat the collagen in your body -- which causes tendonitis. Stephen Buhner's book "Healing Lyme" actually recommends this same brand of collagen if you have Lyme. I hope this information helps someone out there who has been suffering with tendonitis for years. BTW I asked my doctor "Is there anything I can take, nutrionally?" and she said "maybe turmeric?" Doctors are clueless about nutrition. Doctors are clueless about Lyme, it's an epidemic, and it is everywhere now. If you have been told you have "MS" or "chronic fatigue" you need to see a LLMD and get a Western Blot test done through Igenex or Armin Labs

Started taking this twice daily when I read that ingesting hydrolyzed collagen was a good way to stave off wrinkles and keep skin looking supple. While I haven't noticed much of a difference in the appearance of my skin, I will say that it made my already-long hair grow like a WEED - my hair easily grew an inch in a month when I was doing 4 rounded tablespoons daily (the recommended daily dosage, split into a morning and night dose), and my nails grew quite quickly too. It was a double-edged sword, though, as it just meant I had to have my hair colored and my nails manicured more frequently - but I did appreciate the extra growth-boost it gave them. Also did a great job of keeping me full - a two-tablespoon dosage has about 11 g of protein, which was enough stave-off hunger for a bit longer between meals. When taken before bed, it helped me sleep more soundly through the night - I did not wake up hungry at 3 AM like I usually do, and that's been happening with regular frequency since I was a kid. I'm subtracting one star for two potential caveats: the solubility and the price. This mixes very well with hot liquids and any drink made in a blender/Vitamix; it is not as easy when put into a Cold or iced beverage, as I found it had a tendency to clump up when added and only a vigorous amount of mixing seemed to dissolve the clumps. The clumps weren't unbearable to drink, though, and this only has a very subtle gelatin flavor that I didn't really mind. Flavor disappears totally in coffee; only comes through slightly in tea, and this stuff will not congeal whatever liquid you're putting it in. But the biggest problem I had was how quickly I was going through this stuff - if you're using as directed by the instructions on the canister, which is two rounded tablespoons twice daily, you're gonna run out of this stuff in about 3 weeks...and $~22 every 3 weeks is a bit rich for my blood, and I ended up decreasing the dosage to one rounded tablespoon twice daily just to get a bit more mileage out of each can. If you're ok with going through a canister every 3 weeks, knock yourself out; but if you're on a budget, this may not be your best bet. The regular gelatin is a bit more affordable, but is more likely to thicken up your drink. Trade-offs..

I want to call this an impulse buy, but the more I think about it I realize it wasn't. I'd seen this stuff mentioned on a few lifestyle/healthy living blogs and was curious about it for a few reason. First, I have very weak nails. The nails on my big toes in particular tend to rip diagonally at the sides and have given me painful ingrown toenails on both sides of both toes. Second, my hair tends to fall out rapidly and grow slowly. (And yes, I have had a thyroid test--I'm borderline). Thirdly, I'm on the heavier side and it's been hell on my mid-30s joints. Fourth, I'm starting to get fine lines on my face and it's freaking me out. Fifth, I've had IBS for about 20 years and it sucks. So, I bought this product for reasons both vain and health-related. I'm only about halfway through my first canister, but I'm definitely noticing some improvements. For the record, I also take 10,000 mcg of Biotin daily. I don't know about my toenails yet, because they're very short, but my fingernails are definitely stronger. They used to bend dramatically when I put pressure on them, but now they stand strong and resist. I'm noticing a lot less shedding and my hair seems to have picked up its growing speed if only just a little. No real ~improvement in my skin yet, but that was the least of my worries. As far as my joints go, I'm able to squat and bend without hearing the musical sounds of a bowl of rice crispsies in my knees and ankles. Bathroom time has become a lot less urgent and painful. I'm going to keep taking it. The product claims to be both Cold and hot soluble, and I mostly agree. I'd say it's more COOL and hot soluble, though. If I put it in something very Cold, fresh from the fridge, it tends to clump up. If I leave the drink out on the counter for 5ish minutes first, it mixes much more cleanly. It also responds well to an immersion blender, so that's an option if you're impatient. I mixed it with milk once and that was the only time I felt I could taste it in a bad way. Usually I mix it with coffee (either hot or Cold) or juice (citrus!) and as long as the liquid isn't too Cold it mixes up well. I've started with just the 2tbsp in the morning to avoid a gastrointestinal reaction, but I'll probably add the second evening dose in soon

In a matter of 2-3 weeks, I noticed a marked improvement in my nails & joints. I did find that it is best to stir the powder into a hot beverage or one the is room temperature to which you can add ice if you prefer it in a Cold drink. It dissolves easily this way

I've only had this collagen for 2 weeks and so far I've not received the benefits I'm hoping to see. But it's only been 2 weeks and I know that this is not enough time. By the way, I'm not looking for miracles. I'm hoping for stronger nails, stronger hair and maybe a bit of help with my skin....slow the signs of aging a bit, though not expecting to have 20 yr old skin on my 53 yr old body. Anyway, the reason I feel compelled to write this review right now, is that some of these reviews are driving me crazy and I feel I need to add my 2 cents. After using this product for 3 months or so I'll update to include if I've seen any improvements in my skin, hair or nails. The suggested daily 'dosage' is 2 tbsp twice daily, so a total of 4 tbsp a day. I add 1 tbsp to each of my drinks and some days it's 2 drinks (2 tbsp/day) that I add it to...sometimes 3 (3 tbsp/day and sometimes 4.... Basically I don't add 2 tbsp per drink and that might be why I can safely say I never taste it. Either way, if you're having trouble with the suggested way of using this collagen, you can use less per serving and just have more servings throughout the day and that might be more palatable for you. So, I have noticed NO taste with this product. In saying that, I have not tried (and will not try) adding this to just plain water. I'm very sensitive to weird tastes and textures and when I've added this to just plain water it looks so unappealing that I know I wouldn't get it down. I add a scoop to my coffee each morning and notice NO change in taste or texture. In saying that, my coffee consists of 1 equal, heavy whipping cream, about a 1/2 tbsp of butter and a tbsp of collagen. All blended together to a frothy cup of loveliness. When added to Cold drinks, I've NEVER had an issue with clumpiness. But it's VERY IMPORTANT that you follow these directions (which is similar to the instructions on the container). I put about 1/4 cup of HOT tap water in my glass and mix in 1 tbsp of collagen and mix. It dissolves very quickly. I then put ice in my glass and add whatever beverage I'm going to drink. It's usually water mixed with a few squirts of crystal light liquid flavoring. If you follow these directions the collagen will dissolve and be completely undetectable. If you add the collagen to Cold water...you will have a bad time. Anyway, as stated, when I get to about 3 months I'm hoping to see some of the benefits I've listed above. I will update my review..

No smell, no detectable taste, dissolves perfectly in hot or Cold beverages/yogurt/Etc. - 100% pleased with this product- will buy agai