The skincare journey never ends. Even when we find amazing skincare products that make us look and feel great, we’re looking for alternatives. Sometimes we’re looking for something better. Or to solve a new skin concern. We are constantly on the hunt.
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A lot of the time, the motivation for change comes down to price. When a skincare product is priced over $100 and doesn’t last that long, it’s natural to start searching for cheaper options.
That’s where the Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream alternatives come in. This Elemis product has stellar reviews and clinically-proven results. But there is a catch, it’s not cheap. We took a look at the ingredients and benefits of this Elemis collagen cream to find the best options available, at a lower price.
What Makes the Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream Unique?
This Elemis day cream hydrates the skin, reduces wrinkles, and improves skin firmness and texture. The Marine Cream is light and airy but still offers deep hydration. This product was first launched in 2003 and has been a top seller for Elemis ever since. Most anti-aging products make more vague claims about how they can help reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. The Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream reduces wrinkles and it has the clinical study to back it up.
Clinical Results
Elemis ran independent clinical trials in 2014, 2015, and 2017 to get the following results:
- Clinically proven to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in 2 weeks.
- Clinically proven to improve hydration by up to 248% in just 1 hour
- 100% agreed this product gave their skin an immediate improvement in hydration
- 95% agreed this product is the best anti-aging cream they have ever used
It’s always reassuring to see products with meaningful clinical trial results.
Benefits
Who doesn’t want fewer wrinkles in two weeks?? The Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream is also a 2020 CEW Beauty Award Winner. This day cream is actually a lightweight gel-cream that deeply hydrates the skin and helps improve firmness and skin elasticity. It provides skin with the needed hydration but also layers well under makeup. This collagen cream offers the following benefits:
- Reduce fine lines and wrinkles
- Replenish skin hydration
- Soften and smooth skin
- Get a visibly more youthful appearance
Cons
The Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream isn’t perfect though. It contains added fragrance and a few essential oils that can lead to irritation. It’s always our preference to leave out fragrance ingredients (especially those more likely to irritate the skin). This cream contains Fragrance (Parum), Linalool, Citronellol, Limonene, Geraniol, and Hydroxycitronellal. This Elemis cream also contains silicone-based ingredients. Silicone helps give the soft, smooth product texture but it comes with tradeoffs.
- Price
- Uses added fragrances
- Contains essential oils that can irritate the skin
- Uses silicone
Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream Ingredients
The Elemis Marine Cream uses a blend of marine and plant actives to restore hydration and reduce the appearance of aging.
- Padina Pavonica – An algae that moisturizes and plumps the skin with polysaccharides and fatty acids.
- Acacia Decurrens (Mimosa) Flower Extract – This flower has anti-inflammatory properties to help soothe, calm, and tone the skin.
- Rosa Centifolia (Rose) Flower Extract – This flower has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, but it also helps fight wrinkles and fine lines.
- Chlorella – This algae is loaded with antioxidants, B vitamins, magnesium, and zinc to help fight free radicals and calm the skin.
- Ginkgo Biloba – This plant helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
- Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Root Extract – Helps protect the skin against free radicals, inflammation, and helps plump the skin.
- Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E) – Helps, nourish, hydrate, and protect the skin.
Alternatives for Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream
After reviewing Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream benefits and ingredients, it becomes clear that it’s a decent product. But that still doesn’t change the fact that it costs over $100. So, what are the best alternatives to the Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream? Are there any worthy alternatives for the product?
That is the whole point of this research, to find the best possible alternative (to help save a few bucks). Let’s take a look at the top contenders.
If you want to jump straight to the good stuff, the best alternative for the Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream is the Algenist GENIUS Sleeping Collagen. There are cheaper options on the list, but this product won us over.
Murad Intense Recovery Cream
The Murad Intense Recovery Cream does exactly what the name says, it intensely recovers the skin. We picked this cream for its similar benefits, clinical results, and approach to ingredients. The Recovery Cream hydrates and reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and redness. It absorbs easily and leaves the skin replenished and smooth.
- Visibly reduce the signs of aging
- Reduce the appearance of redness
- Nourishes and hydrates skin
- Calms and soothes skin
The Murad Intense Recovery Cream has the following clinical results after using for 4 weeks:
- 100% agree skin felt soothed
- 92% agree skin feels comforted and more hydrated
- 88% agree that their over-stressed skin looks relaxed (calm)
- Users showed an overall reduction in redness by 14.69%
- 89% of subjects showed improvement in redness
Similar to Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream, the Murad Intense Recovery Cream uses a mix of plant actives and algae to offer hydrating and anti-aging benefits. The Murad cream doesn’t have added essential oils and fragrances that could lead to irritation, such as the Elemis cream.
The Murad Intense Recovery Cream has silicone-based ingredients but is free from sulfates, parabens, gluten, petrolatum, oxybenzone, and animal-derived ingredients. It has a nice list of plant-based ingredients below:
- Shea Butter
- Macadamia Oil
- Mirabilis Jalapa Plant Extract
- Betaine
- Lavandula Hybrida Oil
- Sunflower Seed Extract
- Jojoba Seed Oil
- Chlorella Emersonii Extract
DHC Astaxanthin All-In-One Collagen Gel
The DHC All-In-One Collagen Gel is a lightweight moisturizer that replenishes hydration, brightens, and prevents premature aging. It uses a mix of age-defying and antioxidant-rich ingredients to promote healthy, plump skin.
We added the DHC Astaxanthin All-In-One Collagen Gel to the option list for its interesting ingredient profile that includes astaxanthin (freshwater algae), squalane, hydrolyzed collagen, and hyaluronic acid. This combination of nourishing, replenishing, and protecting ingredients makes the DHC gel a worthy alternative to the Elemis day cream. It’s also less than half the cost of the Elemis Collagen Marine Cream.
This DHC gel-cream promotes softer, smoother, more supple-looking skin all while it moisturizes and protects.
- Helps even tone and texture
- Improves skin softness and suppleness
- Non-greasy, absorbs quickly
- Protects against fine lines, wrinkles, and loss of elasticity
The secret marine ingredient the DHC Collagen Gel uses is astaxanthin, freshwater algae proven to be 6,000 times more effective than vitamin C and 550 times more powerful than vitamin E in eliminating free radicals that cause premature aging.
- Astaxanthin
- Squalane
- Hydrolyzed collagen
- Hyaluronic acid
Olay Regenerist Collagen Peptide 24
The Olay Regenerist Collagen Peptide 24 is a hydrating cream with essential anti-aging ingredients. It’s a light-weight, fast-absorbing cream Collagen Peptide and Vitamin B3+ for a smoother, softer skin texture.
Even though this Olay collagen cream doesn’t use any algae-based extracts, it has a similar velvety texture and has skin-plumping and anti-aging ingredients. The Olay Regenerist Collagen Peptide 24 is a great lower-cost alternative. This is the best budget-friendly option on the list. Let’s take a closer look at the Olay anti-aging cream benefits:
- Visibly firmer and smoother skin
- Reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles
- Lightweight, non-greasy cream
- Delivers 24-hours of hydration
This cream relies on collagen peptide and niacinamide to deliver hydrating and anti-aging benefits.
- Collagen Peptide
- Vitamin B3 (niacinamide)
- Glycerin
- Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp Extract
Algenist GENIUS Sleeping Collagen
The Algenist GENIUS Sleeping Collagen is a buttery cream that hydrates and replenishes the skin. It combines plant-based collagen, algae, amino acids, and ceramides. The Genius Sleeping Collagen night cream nourishes the skin for a softer, smoother, and more supple complexion. It’s not the cheapest alternative, but this is the best Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream alternative.
We selected the Algenist GENIUS Sleeping Collagen moisturizer for its exclusive algae-based ingredient, plant-based collagen, and impressive results. Similar to Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream, the Algenist cream offers notable results.
The following results were achieved after just 10 days. The data comes from 85 women who self-assessed after using the product once a night.
- 98% said skin felt and looked hydrated
- 95% said skin looked softer and more supple
- 92% said skin looked dewy and radiant after
- 92% said skin felt & looked more cushioned
Wake up with soft, supple, dewy, and radiant skin! It will also feel more hydrated and cushioned. Here are the most notable ingredients that help the Algenist Genius Sleeping Collagen stand apart from the rest of the pack:
- Patented Alguronic Acid – This is one of Algenist’s exclusive ingredients produced from algae. It is clinically proven to visibly minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles
- Exclusive Vegan Collagen
- Skin Mimicking Ceramides
- Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Extract
- Collagen Amino Acids (Vegan)
This product is clean. It’s vegan, dermatologist-tested, and free of parabens, mineral oil, phthalates, formaldehyde, paraffin, and sulfates. It’s also non-comedogenic, meaning it won’t clog pores.
Learn more about Alguronic Acid and Algenist here.
Is Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream Worth Is?
The Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream isn’t worth the high ticket price. Yes, it has some impressive clinical data and it has won beauty awards. But both of these benefits fall to the larger brands with higher budgets to market and test products. This Elemis product has added fragrance and essential oils that can irritate sensitive skin. It also doesn’t have any of the heavy-hitter anti-aging ingredients such as retinol or peptides which can make formulas more expensive.
Overall it’s a decent product but there are great lower-cost alternatives available.
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