The Collagen Trick You Should Use This Winter
The Winter Collagen Secret Your Grandmother Knew
Picture this: You’re looking in the mirror on a gray February morning, and those fine lines around your eyes seem deeper than they were in October. Your knees creak when you climb stairs. Your hands feel stiff in the cold. Sound familiar?
Here’s what’s really happening – winter isn’t just stealing your glow, it’s quietly draining your body’s collagen reserves.
And once you hit your mid-twenties, you’re already losing about 1% of your collagen every single year. The cold, dry air? It’s just accelerating what’s already begun.
But here’s the good news: You don’t need expensive creams or synthetic supplements to fight back. The solution has been growing in gardens and forests for centuries.
Why Your Skin (and Joints) Are Screaming for Help
Collagen is the scaffolding that keeps your skin plump, your joints flexible, and your body feeling young. Research shows that aging diminishes collagen and elastin fibers in your skin, thinning the dermis and creating those wrinkles you’re starting to notice. Winter’s harsh conditions – the biting wind, indoor heating, and oxidative stress – make this collagen loss even worse.
Think about it: When your collagen breaks down faster than your body can rebuild it, you’re not just dealing with cosmetic issues. You’re facing joint stiffness that makes morning walks painful, skin that cracks and bleeds in the cold, and a body that simply feels older than it should.
The Collagen Trick
Here’s what they try to sell you, but it’s not true: boosting collagen isn’t about finding one miracle supplement.
Real collagen production requires a combination, powerful remedies working alongside healthy habits that help your body produce way more collagen than it could on its own, especially when winter is actively draining it.
I’m going to walk you through all of it. First, we’ll tackle the lifestyle changes that either boost your collagen production or silently kill it. Then we’ll dive into the specific herbs that directly impact how much collagen your body actually makes.
Here’s the reality: What I’m about to share comes from the only wellness resource I truly trust—written not by a copywriter, but by herbalist Nicole Apelian, who survived excruciating pain from MS and managed it completely through holistic protocols.
Inside The Holistic Guide to Wellness, she reveals her complete Anti-Aging Protocol, the exact foods that rebuild collagen (and the common ones that destroy it), the remedies she makes at home, and a day-by-day action plan so you’re never guessing what to do next.
Nicole shares every piece of information you need in a free video that breaks down how these protocols actually work. Click here to watch it and discover what’s really possible when you address the root cause instead of just managing symptoms.
The Habits That Multiply Your Results
Herbs work best when you support them with smart daily choices:
- Load up on Vitamin C – Your body can’t make collagen without it. Think citrus, berries, bell peppers, and rose hips.
- Prioritize protein – Collagen needs glycine and proline from bone broth, beans, or nuts.
- Hydrate religiously – Dry cells can’t build anything. Drink water and use gentle moisturizers.
- Protect from UV – Winter sun is sneaky. Natural sunscreen and hats are non-negotiable.
- Sleep 7-8 hours – Your skin repairs and builds collagen while you sleep.
If sleep is a struggle for you, Nicole Apelian developed a specific herbal blend that actually works.
It’s based on valerian root combined with other calming herbs that have genuine sedative effects, the kind that help your body drop into a deep, restorative sleep state where real healing happens.
You can find it here. No grogginess in the morning, just the kind of rest your body’s been craving
- Move gently – Walking and yoga boost circulation, delivering nutrients where they’re needed.
Your Secret Weapon: Herbal Tinctures
Before we dive into specific herbs, you need to understand why tinctures are your best ally. These alcohol-based extracts concentrate a plant’s healing compounds into a powerful, fast-acting form. Unlike teas that lose potency or capsules your body struggles to absorb, tinctures deliver those precious antioxidants and phytochemicals straight into your bloodstream.
A few drops under your tongue each morning, and you’re flooding your cells with exactly what they need to build collagen and fight off winter’s assault.
The 7 Herbs That Will Transform Your Winter
Elderberry – Your Skin’s Winter Guardian
You probably already take elderberry when you feel a cold coming on. But did you know it’s secretly protecting your collagen too? Lab studies found that elderberry extract reduces the enzymes that destroy collagen while boosting signals that tell your skin cells to make MORE of it. Its anthocyanins and vitamin C work overtime to help your skin produce collagen type I, even when winter’s UV rays are attacking.
Your move: Add a daily elderberry tincture to your morning routine. That deep purple color? It’s packed with the exact compounds your skin is craving.
Look, you can find elderberry everywhere these days, but most of it is either under-dosed or made with shortcuts.
The dual-extracted version I’ve been using from Nicole Apelian actually pulls out both the water-soluble and alcohol-soluble compounds your skin needs.
It’s cost is surprisingly affordable, comes with 24 five-star reviews, and lasts 30-60 days depending on how much you take. If you’re going to add one thing to your morning routine for both immune support AND collagen protection, this is the one.
Lemon Balm – The Wrinkle Fighter
This calming herb does more than ease your stress. In an 8-week human study, women using lemon balm cream saw their eye wrinkles visibly reduced. Why? It raised collagen-receptor levels by 178% and helped block collagen breakdown. While the study used a cream, the same plant compounds work internally through tinctures and teas.
Your move: Sip lemon balm tea in the evening or take a tincture daily. Your future self will thank you when those crow’s feet stay shallow.
Here’s what sold me on lemon balm: it works while you sleep. You take it at night, you wake up calmer, and over time those expression lines soften.
But the quality matters—you need the full plant compounds, not some watered-down extract.
Nicole Apelian’s handpicked lemon balm tincture is the real deal, and at this price point, there’s no reason not to try it for 8 weeks and see what happens to your eye area. Grab it here and start tonight.
Cordyceps – The Regeneration Powerhouse
This medicinal mushroom doesn’t just boost your energy – it supercharges your skin cells. A 2023 study found that cordyceps extract increased skin-regeneration activity by 2.8 times, even when cells were under oxidative stress. Your fibroblasts (the cells that make collagen) literally work harder and produce more collagen and elastin when cordyceps is in your system.
Your move: Take cordyceps tincture daily or add the powder to your morning bone broth. You’ll feel the difference in your energy AND see it in your skin.
Cordyceps has become non-negotiable for me, and here’s why: you actually feel it working. Within days, your energy shifts. Within weeks, your skin looks different—brighter, more resilient.
The trick is getting organic cordyceps that’s been dual-extracted so you’re getting the polysaccharides AND the other active compounds.
This tincture makes it stupidly easy—just add it to your coffee or smoothie. 1-2 dropperfuls, done. Your fibroblasts will literally thank you.
Reishi – Your Collagen Bodyguard
When UVB rays attack your skin (yes, even in winter), they trigger enzymes that chew up your collagen. Reishi mushroom polysaccharides step in like bodyguards, restoring collagen levels and blocking those destructive enzymes. In human fibroblast studies, reishi-treated cells showed higher collagen markers and dramatically lower collagen breakdown.
Your move: Make reishi tea part of your evening wind-down. It’ll reduce your stress (which also degrades collagen) while protecting what you’ve already built.
If you’re only going to take one thing at night, make it reishi. It protects the collagen you worked hard to build during the day, AND it helps you actually sleep—which is when your body does most of its repair work anyway.
The dual-extracted tincture format means you’re getting the full spectrum of protective compounds. Just keep it by your bed, take it before you wind down, and let it do its thing while you rest. Start here and see how your morning face will look different in a couple weeks.
Turkey Tail – The Rapid Healer
Your skin is constantly healing from tiny damage – wind burn, cracks, irritation. Turkey tail mushroom accelerates this process dramatically. In a 2024 study, wounds treated with turkey tail had TWICE as many fibroblasts and THREE TIMES more collagen fibers than untreated wounds. It upregulates the exact growth factors your body needs to rebuild collagen quickly.
Your move: Turkey tail tincture in the morning means you’re healing faster all day long – from paper cuts to weather damage.
Turkey tail is one of those mushrooms that sounds too good to be true until you actually use it.
That study showing TRIPLE the collagen fiber production? That’s not marketing—that’s peer-reviewed science from 2024.
The problem is most turkey tail products are grown on grain instead of wood, which dilutes the beneficial compounds.
This organic turkey tail tincture is grown properly and dual-extracted.
Take it in the morning and you’re basically giving your skin cells a repair crew that works overtime all day.
Yarrow – The Collagen Preserver
Sometimes the best offense is a good defense. Yarrow doesn’t just help you build new collagen – it stops the breakdown of what you already have. Lab tests showed yarrow extract cuts collagenase activity (the enzyme that destroys collagen) by 44%.
Your move: Mix yarrow tincture into your facial moisturizer or apply yarrow-infused oil directly to dry patches. For deeper support, take the tincture internally too.
Yarrow is wildly underrated. While everyone’s chasing the next collagen-boosting supplement, yarrow quietly protects what you already have—cutting collagen breakdown by nearly half.
You can use it topically AND internally for double the benefit. The wild-harvested yarrow tincture I use is versatile enough to do both: a few drops in my face serum at night, a full dropper in water in the morning.
Get it here and use it however works for your routine.
Stinging Nettle – The Foundation Builder
Nettle is loaded with silica, a mineral essential for collagen structure, plus polyphenols that slash oxidative stress in your skin cells. When your fibroblasts aren’t fighting inflammation and free radicals, they can focus on what they do best: making collagen.
Your move: Drink nettle tea daily or add fresh nettle to winter soups. It’s nutrient-dense support your whole body will feel.
Nettle is the unsexy workhorse of skin health. It doesn’t promise overnight miracles—it just quietly delivers the silica and minerals your body needs to actually BUILD collagen in the first place.
No foundation, no results from all those other supplements. The good news? It’s incredibly affordable and easy to take.
This organic nettle tincture goes in water, juice, or even soup. One bottle lasts weeks, costs less than a fancy latte, and gives your skin the raw materials it’s been missing.
Your Winter Action Plan
Start simple: Choose one or two tinctures and take them daily. Apply a balm at night. Add nettle tea to your afternoon routine.
Give it three weeks. You’ll notice your skin feels more resilient, your joints move easier, and that winter fatigue starts lifting.
Most of these studies are preliminary – many come from cell or animal research, though human trials on lemon balm showed real results. But herbalists have trusted these plants for generations because they WORK.
If you’re truly dedicated to herbal remedies, Nicole put together a Winter Defense Bundle that includes five of the most powerful remedies from this article: Elderberry, Yarrow, Usnea, her Bronchial Blend, and the All-Purpose Salve, plus Yerba Santa for lung support.
Buying these separately would run you more than the bundle. It’s significantly less, and you’re getting exactly what your body needs to fight winter on every front: immune support, collagen protection, respiratory health, and wound healing all in one kit.
Think about what you’d spend on a single doctor’s visit, or what you drop at the pharmacy every month just managing symptoms.
This bundle gives you months of protection for a fraction of that cost.
Grab the Winter Defense Bundle here and actually get ahead of winter instead of just surviving it.
By spring, you won’t just survive winter – you’ll emerge with glowing skin and springy joints that make you feel years younger.
The question is: Will you start today, or wait until next winter to wish you had?
