Marine collagen made drinkable for daily skin rituals, with Sally Olivia Kim

“I was not trying to build a brand, I was simply trying to heal my skin.”

That sentence holds the whole method behind Crushed Tonic. Founder Sally Olivia Kim speaks about a kitchen burn in her early twenties, the slow healing that followed, and a daily powder she could actually finish. For readers of Root to Bottle, the interest sits where history meets procedure, from fish skin saved after filleting, through hydrolysis and flavor work in Korea, to a five gram serving stirred into milk or coffee.

Five grams of hydrolyzed marine collagen per day is the anchor. Kim came to it after graduating from NYU and working in finance, when severe burns left blood blisters across her arms. Silicone patches and ointment gave little relief. She turned to ingestible collagen in pills, powders and liquid shots, and over time she noted the appearance of plumper and hydrated looking skin. People close to her declined the same powders after one gamey sip.

That refusal shaped the company, founded in New York City in April 2017. Kim began blending powders at home with coconut, coffee and matcha. She ran the project as a weekend shop and recipe journal while employed in digital strategy. W. W. Norton later invited a book proposal, published as The Collagen Glow and stocked at Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon. She left her role, funded the work herself, changed contract manufacturers to meet scale, and placed the line with Sephora, Equinox and others. The sourcing is specific. Marine peptides developed with Korean laboratories, held traceable to the source fish, screened by outside labs for metals and fillers, and certified Halal and Kosher. Then carried in flavors meant for daily use.

Your marine blend is listed as hydrolyzed peptides near 4,000 Daltons, 5g in each serving, with 0 to 3g sugar, crafted with Korean labs and flavor scientists. Where does that marine collagen truly begin, and how do you trace which fish it came from.

We start with fish skin rather than lower cost bovine hides when possible, because the peptide size suits a drink that must dissolve. Our marine range is hydrolyzed to around 4,000 Daltons, dosed at 5g per serving, with 0 to 3g sugar by flavor. Dalton value here reflects molecular weight after hydrolysis. Reduced fragments generally disperse more readily, which supports a cup taken each morning.

The material begins at the fish processor, moves to drying and enzymatic hydrolysis in Korea, then to blending with our flavor base, then to packing. Korean labs and flavor specialists support that middle stage. Each finished lot is examined by an independent lab for heavy metals, purity, dissolvability and uptake, and a Certificate of Analysis is available. That certificate links a lot number with measured results. The company reports the marine powder as traceable to the source fish. What I can supply now is paperwork by lot plus Halal and Kosher certificates. What a shopper cannot yet read is vessel or farm identity printed on the pouch.

You opened with that line, I was not trying to build a brand, I was trying to heal my skin. After the cooking accident in your early 20s, when silicone patches and ointment did little, what did daily collagen look like for you in practice.

I was never setting out to build a brand. I was trying to fix my skin. I learned about collagen after a severe burn made me search for ways to help my skin mend and renew faster. I had blood blisters. My arms looked raw. The patches felt clinical and the ointment rested on the surface. I wanted an internal routine I could keep each day without debate.

So I used pills, powders and liquid shots every day. Some flavors were unpleasant. Some powders clumped. I continued because without a serious burn with blood blisters and a medical reason to seek collagen, I doubt I would have kept it up either. That part is candid. With time I noticed the appearance of fuller, hydrated skin. I began urging everyone near me to try collagen after I observed shifts in my skin, hair and the rest. The company followed because the routine worked. It first worked for me, then it needed to work for people lacking a burn as motivation.

Your signature remains Banana Milk Collagen at 45 dollars for the bovine pouch, inspired by Korean convenience store milk. What did Korean flavor scientists adjust in extraction or drying to keep it low sugar and clear dissolving, and what remains unclear.

Banana milk bought at a Korean convenience store carries memory. Sweet, milky, faint vanilla. Our Banana Milk Collagen keeps that character at 5g collagen per serving. The bovine low sugar one month pouch is 45 dollars. The marine low sugar one month pouch is 55 dollars. Sticks run higher per serving due to single serve film and filling. Stir it into water, milk or coffee. The company describes it as dissolving clear.

What the labs adjusted was particle handling after hydrolysis, along with the flavor carrier. A leaner carrier lowers sugar and haze. That approach holds 0 to 3g sugar while retaining a creamy note. What stays traceable is the peptide lot, the flavor lot, the finished batch, and outside lab results. What stays unclear to a reader is the drying curve and extract ratio at the processor, which we do not disclose. I can state the country of processing and the test panel. I cannot yet present a public chart from boat to pouch. Publication would require consent to list processor names and vessel records by lot, which is planned next.

You offer both marine and bovine choices in Banana Milk and Strawberry Milk, plus a vegetarian formula. How do you choose which source belongs in which blend, and what does standardization mean on your label.

I prefer marine collagen from fish skin over lower cost bovine hides for our central skincare routine, yet households vary. A partner may avoid fish. A parent may prefer bovine. Therefore Banana Milk and Strawberry Milk are sold in marine or bovine versions. The vegetarian milk stands apart as a separate recipe for people avoiding animal collagen altogether.

Standardised, as we apply it, means aiming for an identical fill each run. Five grams of collagen in every serving. Flavors differ. Peptide weight stays constant. The panel lists the Supplement Facts, serving size, collagen quantity, other ingredients, and sugar level. Low sugar editions span 0 to 3g. Sugar free editions use alternate sweetening systems that are declared. There will always be critics of flavor or format, which I accept. My task is holding the panel steady lot to lot, so a buyer reading it in January finds equal figures in June.

You reached 1 million dollars in revenue in 2018, then were described as worth over 1.5m in less than a year, retailing at Sephora and Anthropologie. You were still founder plus seven part time employees, with creative guided by fellow founding partner Edward Yeung. What strained first as you scaled, and why did you change manufacturers.

Becoming an entrepreneur was not necessarily my plan. I opened Crushed Tonic in April 2017 as a weekend store and recipe blog alongside work in digital strategy. Then demand rose. We brought in 1 million dollars in revenue in 2018. We stocked Sephora and Anthropologie, and were described as valued above 1.5m in under a year. The team was me plus seven part time staff, with creative directed by my co-founding partner Edward Yeung.

Production failed first. A home method does not transfer to wholesale. Solubility shifts. Flavor shifts. Fill weight shifts. So I resigned, self funded, and moved manufacturers to scale. That required fresh trials with Korean labs, fresh screens for metals, toxins and fillers, and fresh files for every lot. Stop trying to convince everyone that you are not going to fail. That guidance helped me most. I ceased justifying and concentrated on lot files, taste, and whether Sephora, Equinox, Erewhon, JetBlue, Anthropologie, Nordstrom and QVC as listed partners got an identical product each time.

I began to notice plumper, hydrated skin.

Sally Olivia Kim

You have shared that friends said they could not bring themselves to take it after the first sip. That taste issue is widely known with marine powder. What did you blend at home with coconut, coffee and matcha that showed you flavor was the supply chain.

When I checked back, they said they could not get themselves to take it after the first shot. That remark stayed. My parents, my friends, men and women seeking support for skin and hair. They stopped, not from doubt about the powder, but because the flavor tasted gamey and the scoop felt burdensome. I understood then that finding a quality peptide covered only half the lot file. The remaining half was daily use.

Healthy should not taste bad, or feel difficult. I sought to direct more care toward ingestible beauty, beauty from within. At home I began flavoring powders with coconut, coffee and matcha. I sought a mix that dissolved clear and blended into water, milk or coffee. No large scoops filled with air. No sucralose. No fillers. The concept was plain. Make it craveable so a home keeps it for years, not a week. That produced our mantra to always be the most honest and transparent about contents, and to leave out what need not be present.

Strawberry Milk Collagen is also 45 dollars for the bovine pouch and is framed as a daily skin and hair ritual with clinically backed benefits cited by the store. What study or test stands behind that wording, and what does the label truly promise.

Our gentle take on nostalgic strawberry milk tastes smooth and creamy. Prepare as a creamy drink. It is framed as a daily skin and hair ritual. The shop page mentions clinically backed benefits for skin and hair. I wish to define that wording with care, including its limits.

The wording points to peptide studies referenced by suppliers and to our independent checks for purity and dissolvability. It does not signify that our flavored powder was evaluated as a medicine. Supplement labels bear the FDA statement that the item is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Our label presents Supplement Facts, collagen quantity, sugar, and other ingredients. I prefer candor about outcomes over excess promise. Some buyers stay for the ritual itself. Some stay because they observe the appearance of more hydrated looking skin with time. Flavor sustains daily repetition, which explains our line that it tastes as good as it works.

Your refuses list is clear. It holds no fillers, no heavy metals, no sucralose, and no oversized scoops with fluff. How is no heavy metals confirmed lot by lot, and what happens to a batch that fails.

Our mantra is to always stay the most honest and transparent. Our pledge is clinically tested collagen that tastes amazing, with no fillers, no metals, just results. No fillers signals absence of bulking powders added to enlarge the scoop. No sucralose signals alternate sweetening systems that are listed. No oversized scoops with fluff signals servings built around the 5g collagen dose, not around a large container.

No heavy metals is confirmed through independent examination of each batch for heavy metals, purity, dissolvability and uptake, with a Certificate of Analysis available. The lab analyzes a retained portion from the lot. When lead, cadmium, arsenic or mercury pass our limit, the lot is withheld. That standard holds. A failed lot is quarantined, reviewed, and discarded when it cannot meet specification. Capsules are not the format for these milks. Pouch and stick filling is checked by weight. That documentation is the segment of sourcing a diligent buyer may request by lot number.

You authored The Collagen Glow after W. W. Norton approached you, and it is stocked at Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon. How did writing recipes shift your view of dose, and what do you tell a household buying for a parent or partner.

I wrote the collagen based cookbook called The Collagen Glow after the publisher contacted me. It is stocked at Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon. Recipe writing taught me to reason in servings, not scoops. A creamer meant for coffee and matcha. A banana or strawberry milk meant for water or milk. A broth for cooking. Every recipe retains the 5g serving, so members share one dose without added measuring.

For a parent or partner, I advise reading the panel first. Select marine or bovine by diet. Select pouch for value or sticks for travel. Select low sugar or sugar free by preference. Place it beside the morning drink station, because the finest powder is the finished one. I prefer making collagen craveable to asking people to choke it down. I prefer refusing to frame wellness by gender. Men and women, aging parents, and friends. When flavor pleases and paperwork is clean, the habit continues. That is the entire sourcing path, from field to capsule, or in our terms from fish skin to cup.

Closing note from the desk

What remains is candor about daily use. Kim does not claim a larger dose counts when half the cup is discarded. She maintains that flavor, clear mixing and a modest truthful serving lead a home to use the same lot across a month. That forms a distinct sourcing claim, tracked in repeat orders.

Crushed Tonic aimed to craft ingestible skincare people retain. Marine or bovine at 5g, checked by lot, tasting of banana or strawberry milk, free from fillers and sucralose. The vessel name is absent from the label so far. The lot test file is present. We record both facts plainly.

Product spotlight

Banana Milk Collagen is 45 dollars for the bovine low sugar one month pouch and 55 dollars for marine, with 28 drink sticks at 55 dollars bovine and 65 dollars marine. Sweet banana joined with milky vanilla notes, 5g hydrolyzed collagen in each serving. Blend into water, milk or coffee until clear. Use daily for a month to assess taste and routine fit.

Strawberry Milk Collagen is 45 dollars for the bovine low sugar one month pouch and 55 dollars for marine, with a 10 drink stick trial at 29.99 dollars. Creamy strawberry milk character, 5g collagen per serving. Prepare as a creamy drink one time daily. Review the Supplement Facts and other ingredients line when selecting marine, bovine or vegetarian.