Clean Program Creatine + Collagen Review
A dose-by-dose label read of a convenient women-focused blend, with a clear line between studied ingredients and this untested four-ingredient stack.
| Dose fit | Match for creatine maintenance and a common collagen dose. Mismatch for the best-known KSM-66 perimenopause and stress trials, which used 600mg daily. No directly matching study was found for 500mg unlabeled-extract maca or for the finished blend. |
|---|---|
| Evidence fit | Creatine has relevant evidence for strength with resistance training; oral collagen has moderate evidence for skin hydration and elasticity after 8-12 weeks. The ashwagandha and maca evidence is ingredient-specific and not proof for this product. No relevant study of the finished blend was found. |
| Safety flags | Creatine can cause early water weight gain and raise serum creatinine without reduced kidney filtration. Ashwagandha may affect thyroid function and has been linked to rare liver injury. Maca is a poor fit without clinician input for hormone-sensitive cancer history. The blend also contains bovine collagen. |
| The negative case | The strongest ingredient is easy to buy alone, the two adaptogens do not match the doses used in prominent perimenopause studies, and the public third-party-testing claim lacks a product-specific lab, panel or certificate. A new product with only five customer reviews cannot yet show whether the four ingredients work well together. |
Clean Program Creatine + Collagen review: a good label, not a proven stack
Strength, skin and stress support without opening four jars sounds appealing. The useful question is whether each dose matches the research for the benefit you want. Two do. The other two are harder to defend.
PeriProof did not test or take the product. Clean Program’s new listing had five customer reviews when checked.
What Clean Program claims
On its current product page, Clean Program calls the formula “MD-formulated” and aimed at women navigating hormonal shifts. It says the blend can support cellular energy, muscle strength, recovery, stress resilience, “hormonal response,” skin, hair, nails, connective tissue and gut barrier function.
The page says the ingredients are clinically studied and the product is third-party tested. That describes components and quality, not proof that the powder was tested in women. No relevant study of the finished product was found.
Label check: the first two doses fit
One scoop contains:
- 5g creatine monohydrate
- 5g grass-fed bovine collagen peptides, labeled Types I and III
- 200mg KSM-66 organic ashwagandha root extract, 5% withanolides
- 500mg organic maca root powder
Other ingredients are vanilla flavour, rice powder and monk fruit. The container holds 30 servings.
The creatine dose fits. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements says creatine monohydrate is the most studied form and that 3–5g daily is a common maintenance dose. No loading phase is required. Muscle stores fill more gradually, usually over several weeks.
The collagen dose also lands in a commonly studied range. A 2023 meta-analysis pooled 26 randomized trials involving 1,721 adults. Hydrolyzed collagen improved skin hydration and elasticity compared with placebo. Benefits were generally clearer after eight weeks or more.
There is a catch. The review included many collagen materials, with only one bovine study. Clean says Types I and III and grass-fed. It does not publish the source country, extraction method, peptide molecular-weight profile or amino-acid result. Source, processing and batch testing still matter for a product made from animal tissue.
What about the adaptogens?
KSM-66 is specified better than maca, but dosed below the relevant trial. A 2021 perimenopause trial used 600mg KSM-66 daily for eight weeks. A separate randomized trial tested 250mg and 600mg daily, with stronger stress-score results at 600mg. Clean provides 200mg.
That is a mismatch, not proof that 200mg does nothing. It does mean the bottle should not inherit the 600mg studies as if it were the tested material.
The 500mg maca dose is thinner still. Clean calls it organic maca root powder without naming a species, phenotype, extract ratio or standardization marker. A postmenopausal trial used a specific pre-gelatinized maca at 2g daily; another small crossover trial used 3.5g powdered maca. No study matching this 500mg powder was found.
Maca also deserves extra caution when hormone-sensitive history is part of the picture. Memorial Sloan Kettering advises people with hormone-sensitive cancer to discuss maca with a clinician because effects on hormone levels are uncertain and possible.
Timeline by benefit
“Results in three to ten weeks” is not useful when four ingredients point at different jobs.
- Creatine and training strength: judge it over at least 8–12 weeks, paired with progressive resistance training. A meta-analysis in older or postmenopausal women found clearer strength gains in programs lasting at least 24 weeks. Some creatine research also suggests early water-weight gain.
- Collagen and skin: allow at least 8 weeks. The 2023 skin review favored outcomes of 8–12 weeks over shorter use. Hydration and elasticity are the better-tested endpoints than hair, nails or “gut repair.”
- Ashwagandha and stress: the prominent KSM-66 studies usually ran 8 weeks at 600mg. Clean is one-third that dose, so its timeline is not established.
- Maca: no directly matching study supports a 500mg timeline for this powder.
Our creatine guide for women over 40 covers the training context in more detail.
Is combining them better than separating them?
There is no direct trial of creatine plus collagen plus KSM-66 plus maca in perimenopausal women. The four ingredients also work through different proposed pathways. Creatine supports repeated high-intensity effort. Collagen supplies amino acids used in connective tissue. The evidence for ashwagandha and maca remains ingredient- and extract-specific.
For a primary strength goal, separate is cleaner. Buy plain creatine, add collagen only if skin or a specific connective-tissue goal matters, and assess one change at a time. Combining everything can feel efficient while making a good response hard to read.
For convenience, the blend has value. You get four clearly printed active doses in one product. That may matter more than attribution for someone who will genuinely use all four and can safely use the adaptogens.
The negative case
The biggest quality receipt is missing. Clean says “third-party tested,” but the product page does not name the laboratory, panel, testing standard, lot, or certificate of analysis. A public search did not turn up an NSF listing or product-specific results. “Third-party tested” remains uninspected here.
Safety also stacks up. Creatine may raise serum creatinine and cause early muscle-cell water gain. The NIH ashwagandha fact sheet notes possible effects on thyroid function, interactions with thyroid, diabetes, blood-pressure, sedative and immune-suppressing medicines, and rare liver injury. Longer-term safety is uncertain. Clean describes a long-term daily routine, while the NIH says ashwagandha’s safety beyond three months is unclear.
Bovine collagen excludes anyone with a relevant beef allergy. The blend is not appropriate for a vegan routine.
The real cost
At $42 for 30 servings, the one-time price works out to:
- $1.40 per day
- $42 per 30-day month
Clean’s new-products page lists a subscription price of $35.70, or $1.19 per 30-day month if one 30-serving box is delivered each month. The product page does not state the subscription delivery frequency. Confirm renewal terms and the cancellation route at checkout.
Receipts: what we could and could not verify
- Claimed: strength, cellular energy, stress resilience, hormonal response, skin, connective tissue and gut support.
- On label: 5g creatine monohydrate, 5g Types I and III grass-fed bovine collagen peptides, 200mg KSM-66 at 5% withanolides, and 500mg organic maca root powder; 30 servings.
- Dose fit: creatine matches common maintenance dosing; collagen fits a common study range; KSM-66 is below the 600mg used in prominent perimenopause and stress trials; no matching 500mg maca study was found.
- Evidence fit: ingredient evidence supports creatine for training strength and collagen for skin measures after at least eight weeks. No relevant study of the finished blend was found.
- Safety flags: creatine water gain and creatinine interpretation; ashwagandha thyroid, liver and interaction questions; maca with hormone-sensitive cancer history; bovine allergy.
- Real cost: $1.40 per day one time, or $1.19 daily on the listed subscription.
- Negative case: no public product-specific third-party report, only five customer reviews, and no way to attribute which ingredient helped.
What we still don’t know
We could not verify which lab tested this blend, what it tested, whether every lot was checked, or whether the results match the label. We also could not match the maca powder to a study or prove that the four ingredients are synergistic.
So the clean read is this: 5g creatine and 5g collagen make sense. The smaller, less-specific adaptogen doses weaken the formula’s perimenopause story. If you want the research-aligned core, separating the products is the less assumptive choice. If convenience wins and you accept the unknowns, the label is clear enough to know what you are buying.
This is a label-and-evidence read, not medical advice. It does not replace care for symptoms, hormone-sensitive conditions, thyroid or kidney questions, or medication interactions.