Do not be alarmed if your skin starts to loose its suppleness even before you hit 30.

While you may not see saggy cheeks, droopy eyes or that involuntary double chin yet, some signs of skin degeneration on young skin are dryness, roughness and the appearance of fine lines. It is scientifically proven that the production of collagen starts to decline when women reach their mid-20s.

Besides piling layers of anti-aging products on your skin, collagen drinks could do just the trick of helping to pump in and make up for the loss of collagen in your skin.

Good news is, there are more options of collagen drinks available to you now. Popular Japanese beauty brand, Fancl's Tenseup Ex now sports a new look; and new kid on the block, DHC, Japan's top direct mailer skincare brand, has also introduced the DHC Collagen Beauty 7000 drink to Singapore.

Now in stores, these health supplement beverages can help to give your skin the extra bounce.

Collagen is a type of protein found in the dermis of the skin. Together with hyaluronic acid and elastin, it helps to maintain the skin's firmness and elasticity.

What these health drinks do is that they contain collagen that come in shorter molecular structure than regular collagen, making it easier for our skin to absorb it. The tripeptide structure reaches our skin easily as it resembles our skin's natural collagen structure, thereby helping skin restore firmness.

Collagen is also found in food. However, our body absorbs only a limited amount of collagen from the food we eat as regular collagen made of long-bond molecules tend to be tougher for the body to absorb.

To see signs of visible improvement to skin, a regular intake of about 5,000mg of collagen is recommended. Also, for best results, take the drink before you hit the covers as the body does most of it’s repair work in the first few hours of deep sleep, so as to benefits most from the supplement.

Other health benefits include the fact that the drinks are low in fat even though they taste a tad bit sweet. They are also caffeine-free.

Fancl's Tenseup Exm (left), which contains blue-berry extract, retails for $61.50 for 10 bottles 50 ml bottles at all Fancl outlets.

DHC Collagen Beauty 7000 (right), a white grape blended drink, is priced at a competitive $48 for a box of 10 bottles, available at selected Watsons stores.