Science and Research

Lovu was built around one idea: give your body the raw material it needs and the co-factors it cannot work without, in amounts you can actually read on the label. This page explains what is in the formula, what each ingredient does, and how long it takes.

The full formula

Fourteen active ingredients. Every amount is printed on the jar and repeated here. No proprietary blends, nothing hidden behind the word “complex”.

Other ingredients: syrup, water, pectin, xylitol, sodium citrate, citric acid, lactic acid. Serving size two gummies, 30 servings per container, 12 calories and 4 g total carbohydrate.

How your body actually makes collagen

Collagen is a structural protein, and your body builds it continuously from amino acids. Three things have to be in place for that to happen properly.

1. The right amino acids

Collagen is unusually rich in glycine, roughly every third building block along a collagen strand, which is a far higher proportion than most proteins in the body. Glutamic acid is present too. Lovu supplies both directly, at 150 mg each.

2. Vitamin C, which is not optional

Vitamin C is a required co-factor in collagen synthesis. Without it, the process does not complete properly regardless of how much raw material is available. This is why vitamin C contributes to collagen formation for the function of your skin is the strongest approved claim in this entire category, and why a collagen product that contains none is missing the mortar and selling you bricks.

3. Time

Collagen turnover is slow. No supplement changes the rate at which your body grows skin, hair or nails. What it can do is make sure the inputs are there when the work happens.

Why the formula is plant-based throughout

Collagen is an animal protein, so no genuinely vegan product contains it. What matters is whether the alternative is built properly, and being plant-based is a decision that runs deeper than the actives:

• Set with pectin, not gelatin. Most gummies on the shelf are set with gelatin, which is animal-derived. Ours use pectin from fruit.
• Vitamin D2, not D3. Most supplement vitamin D is D3 extracted from lanolin, sheep’s wool, or fish oil. Ours is ergocalciferol, which is plant-derived. This is where a great many products marketed as vegan quietly fail.
• No animal-derived ingredient anywhere. Not in the actives, not in the gelling agent, not in the coating.

The glutathione connection

Glutathione is a tripeptide: three amino acids joined together, glycine, glutamic acid and cysteine. Your body produces it continuously in every cell.

Two of those three are the same amino acids collagen is rich in. That overlap is the reason both sit in the same blend here rather than in two separate jars, and it is a genuine formulation decision rather than a marketing one. We wrote about it in more detail in glutathione and collagen together.

Built for this climate

Two things about life in the UAE shaped this formula.

Vitamin D

A 2019 study of 12,346 adults in Abu Dhabi found 72% of Emirati adults were vitamin D deficient. Not for lack of sun, but because of how the day is spent: indoors under air conditioning, covered when outside, and sensibly avoiding the hours when UVB is strong enough to matter. Glass blocks most UVB, so a sunny window does not count.

Lovu carries 50 mcg, 250% of the daily value, a real amount rather than a token inclusion. The full story is here.

Oxidative stress

Sun, heat and dust put cells under oxidative stress. Three ingredients in the formula carry approved claims that speak to it directly: vitamin C, vitamin E at 45 mg, and zinc. That is three separate nutrients with the same reviewed claim, rather than one marketing word repeated.

Hair, skin and nails

Rather than a general promise, here is which ingredient is behind which part:

• Hair. Biotin contributes to the maintenance of your hair, and zinc does the same. Our biotin is deliberately 1,000 mcg, a sensible, effective amount rather than the 10,000 mcg headline number used elsewhere, for which there is no evidence of additional benefit.
• Skin. Vitamin C for collagen formation, plus biotin, riboflavin and zinc, all of which contribute to the maintenance of your skin.
• Nails. Zinc contributes to the maintenance of your nails.
• Energy. Vitamins B-6, B-12, riboflavin and pantothenic acid all contribute to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, an underrated part of feeling like yourself.

Why a gummy

Vitamins, minerals and amino acids work at milligram and microgram doses. That is the scale a gummy delivers well, and it is why this format suits this formula.

There is also a less scientific reason that matters more than it should: the supplement that works is the one you keep taking. A powder that needs measuring and tolerating tends to end up at the back of a cupboard. Two strawberry gummies beside the coffee machine is a habit people hold for months without thinking about it. Consistency is doing most of the work in this category.

What to expect, and when

Your body grows things at its own pace, and the order is predictable:

• Weeks 1–2. Nothing visible. This stage is about establishing the habit.
• Weeks 4–6. Nails usually first, because they grow out fastest and new growth is easy to see.
• Around week 8. Hair. It cannot grow faster than it grows.
• Weeks 8–12. Skin, the slowest of the three, because skin cells turn over on their own schedule.

One jar is 30 servings, so plan for two to three before judging it. Stopping at week three is the single most common reason anyone concludes a supplement did not work. Individual results vary.

Getting the most from it

• Two gummies daily, at whatever time you will actually remember. Taking them with food helps slightly with the fat-soluble vitamins D and E.
• Stay consistent. Daily matters more than the time of day.
• Keep your moisturiser and your SPF. This works from the inside; they work from the outside. Neither replaces the other.
• Drink water and eat properly. A supplement supports a diet, it does not substitute for one.
• Store cool and dry, out of direct sunlight. Not in the car in July.

Read further

• Vegan collagen vs marine collagen, how the two compare, ingredient by ingredient
• Do collagen gummies actually work?, the five things that separate a good one from an expensive one
• Vitamin D deficiency in the UAE, why it is so common in one of the sunniest places on earth
• Glutathione and collagen together, why they share their building blocks
• Frequently asked questions

This page is general information, not medical advice. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied diet and a healthy lifestyle, and are not intended to prevent, treat or cure any condition. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medication or have a diagnosed condition, speak to your doctor first.