Seed to Capsule

80 percent and what creator commissions add

2026-10-02T00:00:00Z

What lands in your capsule bottle now depends on affiliate payments and warehouse handling as well as farms and factories, a picture made clearer by a September 30, 2026 Dashboardly comparison of TikTok Shop and Amazon costs. The analysis found no platform with a lower cost or a higher margin in every case. Sellers were advised to match product, fulfillment choice, promotion plan, and time frame before drawing conclusions.

For buyers who read panels, the shift begins with the listing. TikTok Shop lets brands sell through creator affiliates across videos, livestreams and profiles. Sellers choose commission levels from 1% to 80% and may set separate terms for particular creators or campaigns. Tiered structures permit stronger opening rates or stronger rates after creators pass sales thresholds.

Fees sit below those payments. TikTok Shop platform fees run near 6%, a figure sellers are expected to include when fixing commissions. Flat fee deals may pair an upfront sum between $20 and $10,000 with optional performance linked commissions. Fulfillment brings a further decision, between seller managed shipping or Fulfilled by TikTok, while Amazon provides merchant fulfillment or Fulfillment by Amazon.

Affiliate marketing now represents nearly 10% of US ecommerce sales, or $113 billion, based on a 2025 study from The Performance Marketing Association. TikTok group vertical director Donte Murry told Glossy in an interview that 77 percent of users search for the product they just saw in TikTok affiliate content. MySmile sold over 1 million dollars in products through TikTok Shop in its first three months by using affiliate creators.

Amazon delivers broad search demand, yet the counterfeit record calls for care. In April 2023 NOW Foods identified 11 different counterfeit NOW supplements offered on Amazon by one seller. During that month Fungi Perfecti identified 23 different sellers on Amazon offering counterfeits of its Host Defense brand mushroom supplements. In August 2023 a counterfeit version of Bausch + Lomb’s PreserVision AREDS 2 Eye Vitamin and Mineral supplement was traced to a sale on Amazon.

Later episodes extended the pattern. In September 2023 counterfeit versions of Pure Encapsulations L-glutamine and NatureMD’s GutConnect 365 were found sold on Amazon. In November 2023 a lawsuit was filed against multiple parties accused of selling counterfeit Prevagen on Amazon without proven origin. Following the supply chain to its verified origin, Fungi Perfecti won an October 2024 lawsuit that prevents JT Best Deals from advertising or selling Fungi Perfecti products.

Testing traces it back to the farm and shows why that origin matters NOW Foods testing showed counterfeit supplements held capsules filled with plain rice flour, with some samples holding trace amounts of sildenafil. Fungi Perfecti counterfeits held undeclared gluten and soy, which are absent from genuine Host Defense products. Under the U.S. Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, the FDA does not review or approve a supplement or its origin before sale.

Amazon announced it will stop commingling practices across its supply chain as of March 31, 2026, but this covers only new inventory. An Amazon spokesperson said that Amazon has a zero tolerance policy for counterfeit products. What to watch next is quieter than a launch and closer to a paper trail. Check the seller name and expect brands to fold creator costs into the retail price.

Capsules travel slowly from grower to encapsulation. Marketplace orders travel quickly from post to purchase. Knowing which chain stands behind the buy helps keep the shelf steady.

Carly Stein on tracing hive ingredients to source

2026-10-01T00:00:00Z

Toronto made Carly Stein a careful patient, Florence made her a curious one, and a small apiary in Canada made her a founder. Her company now traces propolis, honey, pollen and royal jelly from remote hives through testing to the shelf, and she can name each step along the way.

Toronto is where this starts, in a childhood shaped by severe recurring tonsillitis and an allergy to most antibiotics. For Carly Stein, pharmacies and waiting rooms were familiar ground long before business plans or farmers markets. That early history still sits behind the label.

The second place is Florence. While studying abroad there, Stein developed another severe case of tonsillitis and walked into a local pharmacy, where the pharmacist pointed her to propolis. After a few days of taking it, as she tells it, her tonsillitis cleared. She returned to the University of Victoria in Canada, sought an apprenticeship with a local beekeeper, and began formulating early propolis liquids in the chemistry lab in her spare time.

The third place is New York City, where Beekeeper’s Naturals is now headquartered, with products in Whole Foods, CVS and Target and a team that includes doctors, nutritionists and health experts. What we noticed, and what this magazine follows, is the chain between those points. Bee inputs come from remote apiaries, formulas are third party tested for pesticides and heavy metals, and the brand states it never overharvests. That is the claim we trace here.

You grew up in Toronto and spent a lot of your childhood under the weather, with severe recurring tonsillitis and allergy to most antibiotics. How did that early experience shape the way you read labels now?

I grew up in Toronto and spent a lot of my childhood under the weather. When you have severe recurring tonsillitis and you are allergic to most antibiotics, you learn to read everything. You learn the names on the other ingredients line because you have to.

I ended up becoming really disillusioned as a consumer because I would spend all this time and money that I did not have on these fancy celebrity products that made a lot of bold claims and just did not deliver on results. That stayed with me. Right from the start, I was adamant about not using the alcohol, refined sugars, preservatives, or gross fillers found in most remedies.

For me a label is a record. It should show what is in the bottle and what was left out on purpose. Parents shopping for kids feel this too. They want a short panel they can understand, and they want to know why each line is there.

In Florence, while studying abroad, you walked into a pharmacy with tonsillitis and were introduced to propolis, and after a few days of taking propolis your tonsillitis cleared up. What exactly did you take home from that pharmacy encounter?

After a few days of taking propolis, my tonsillitis cleared up. That is the plain fact of it, and it changed the questions I was asking. I became obsessed with hive ingredients. I wanted to know what propolis was, where it came from, and why a pharmacist in Florence kept it on the shelf.

Propolis is the glue like mixture bees make from saliva, beeswax and botanical exudate such as sap. Bees use it to line and seal the hive. I had never heard of it in Toronto. In Italy it was simply part of the pharmacy set.

I brought that curiosity back to the University of Victoria in Canada. I sought an apprenticeship with a local beekeeper. I began formulating my first propolis products in the chemistry lab during my spare time and sharing them with my friends and family. That sharing was the first test. Friends told me what it tasted like, whether the spray burned, whether they reached for it again.

Hand holding bee pollen granules against bright yellow background. Photo · Beekeeper's Naturals

Back in Canada you apprenticed with a beekeeper and formulated in a chemistry lab in spare time while working toward a career that led to the trading floor at Goldman Sachs. What did the hive teach you that finance did not?

The hive taught me pace and restraint. You cannot hurry a colony. You watch the entrance, you learn the season, you take a little and you leave enough. I was trying to identify the points in time where I was the happiest. And I kept coming back to building products and working with the bees.

Finance taught me structure and numbers. Eventually, I quit my job on the trading floor at Goldman Sachs to dedicate myself full-time to Beekeeper’s Naturals. Against the advice of my friends and colleagues, I made the decision to leave my stable job and leap into this crazy bee wellness company idea full-time. It was the best decision I ever made.

In 2017 I traded corporate work for beekeeping and selling at the farmer’s market. The small stand later grew into distribution in Whole Foods, CVS and Target. That step still matters to me because a farmers market is direct. People ask where the honey came from that morning.

Your standard is stated as clean without compromise, with no alcohol, refined sugars, preservatives or fillers in remedies. What does that rule allow in and what does it keep out of the throat spray?

Right from the start, I was adamant about not using the alcohol, refined sugars, preservatives, or gross fillers found in most remedies. That rule shapes the throat spray directly. Our propolis spray uses bee propolis with vegetable glycerin and purified water in the base, rather than alcohol or refined sugar syrup.

I had a really poor immune system growing up, and it was only when I found propolis and started using it on a daily basis that my immune system transformed. That is why I say I do three to five sprays every single day. The habit had to be simple enough to keep, and gentle enough to repeat.

The label shows propolis and its parts, including polyphenols, flavonoids, vitamin C, iron and B vitamins. We develop formulas with doctors, nutritionists and health experts. Our phrases for this are Powered by Propolis and Medicine, made natural. By that we mean modern science applied to hive ingredients, without sugars, dyes and unnecessary chemicals.

You source from remote apiaries in Canada, Europe and South America and state that you never overharvest. How do you choose a yard, and what does never overharvest mean in practice?

Sustainability is a topic that is extremely close to my heart. We choose remote apiaries because distance from conventional fields lowers the chance of pesticide drift. Canada, Europe and South America each bring different forage and seasons, which also spreads risk for the bees.

Never overharvest means we take only the surplus and leave what the colony needs to seal the hive and carry through dearth and winter. Propolis is part of hive defense, so stripping it harms the bees. Our beekeepers collect a portion, then the yard rests. Bee health comes before yield.

I would rather use remote pesticide free apiaries and third party testing than rely on organic certification alone. Organic says something about land practice. Testing says something about the lot in hand. We need both the place story and the paperwork.

I would rather leave it in the hive than take what the bees need.
Carly Stein

Every capsule, traced back to the field is our measure. After harvest, what happens to propolis on its way to the spray bottle, and where is the chain still hard to show?

After harvest, propolis is cleaned, graded and extracted into a liquid that can be sprayed without alcohol. That extract is blended, checked, and filled. Each lot carries its own record, and finished formulas go to a third party lab for pesticides and heavy metals.

What is hard to show is the full middle in one page. Extraction ratio, solvent, fill weight, and lab limits sit in documents most shoppers never see. We can name growers and show paperwork lot by lot, and we are asked to make that easier to find.

I would rather merge modern science with natural medicine than sell products that do not work. For me traceability is part of that. Where exactly does this come from, and how do you know. If a step is still opaque, we say so and we work on the record until it is clear.

Superfood Honey combines raw honey with propolis, bee pollen and royal jelly in one 330 gram jar. Why put four hive ingredients together, and how should a buyer use it?

Superfood Honey is our signature jar because it shows the hive in one spoon. Raw honey is the base. Propolis, bee pollen and royal jelly are folded in. People ask how to use it, and the answer is simple. Use it like regular honey by the spoonful.

Royal jelly is food all young bees eat for a few days while the queen continues to live on it exclusively. Bee pollen is the pellet bees pack from flower pollen. Each one has its own harvest window and handling. Honey is extracted and jarred with minimal heat. Pollen is dried and cleaned. Royal jelly is collected in small amounts and kept cool.

The jar lists what the brand states and what the label shows. We do not promise outcomes. We show the ingredients, the net weight of 330 grams, and the way to take it. Parents like it because one jar replaces several steps on the shelf.

Two beekeepers in veils inspecting honeycomb frame outdoors. Photo · Beekeeper's Naturals

The nasal line extends the throat routine to the nose, with propolis, oregano oil, eucalyptus and xylitol in a non habit forming formula. What led you from throat to sinus, and how do the two steps fit?

Customers led us. They used the throat spray daily and asked what we had for the nose during seasonal shifts and travel. The answer became Nasal Spray Max, a non habit forming formula with propolis, oregano oil, eucalyptus and xylitol to cleanse nasal passages.

Throat first, then nose, was the order people already followed at home. Spray in mouth daily for immune defense, then spray in nose to cleanse. We kept the same rules. No alcohol, no refined sugars, no dyes, no unnecessary chemicals. The scent comes from the botanical oils, not added fragrance.

Formulas are developed with doctors, nutritionists and health experts who guide innovation, formulation, clinical research and customer education. That review matters for a nasal product because the nose is sensitive. Dose, spray pattern and clear directions carry more weight than marketing words.

In Canada, health claims on supplements can require an NPN Number that legally validates the claims being made. How does that rule shape what you print and what you leave to the customer story?

In Canada that number matters. Health claims on supplements can require an NPN Number that legally validates the claims being made. So we state what is validated and we keep the rest as use and routine.

The label shows identity, quantity and directions. It does not promise what the product will do for the reader. Customer relief stories sit outside the Supplement Facts panel for a reason. They describe one person, not a result.

That is why we repeat Save the Bees and A better way to feel better as aims, not guarantees. The paperwork proves origin and contents. Third party tests check pesticides and heavy metals. The NPN record, where it applies, sets what claim language is allowed. Everything else has to earn trust the slow way, lot by lot.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is how specific the chain is when Stein tells it. Toronto, Florence, Victoria, then remote yards in three regions. A dorm room share, a chemistry lab, a farmers market stand in 2017, then Whole Foods, CVS and Target. The places line up with the paperwork.

The brand set out to make hive formulas without alcohol, refined sugars, preservatives or fillers, tested by an outside lab, harvested without harming the colony. That is a plain aim, and it is testable on the label and in the lot record.

Product spotlight

Propolis Immune Support Throat Spray, 13.99 dollars for a single spray. A propolis spray with polyphenols, flavonoids, vitamin C, iron and B vitamins in a glycerin base. Spray in the mouth daily for immune defense, three to five sprays as Stein uses it. Shake gently and keep the routine steady.

Superfood Honey, 39.99 dollars for 330 grams. Raw honey blended with propolis, bee pollen and royal jelly for use by the spoonful like regular honey. Stir before serving and store sealed at room temperature. One jar covers the four hive inputs in a single step.

Wellness within reach with Trinity Mouzon Wofford

2026-10-01T00:00:00Z

Morning light in a one bedroom in Brooklyn, two twenty three year olds mixing turmeric powder by hand and packing pouches on the kitchen counter, hoping the month brings in enough to cover rent. That is where Golde begins. From that counter came a turmeric latte blend, then a small shelf of blends and teas, now made in larger lots with a formulator and sold across the country.

Trinity Mouzon Wofford and her partner Issey Kobori started Golde in 2017, at age 23, while both worked full time jobs. They designed the labels in house, mixed the first batches themselves and set a modest goal of two thousand dollars a month. The brand now operates from upstate New York with a small team of nine by its fifth year.

Wofford grew up in upstate New York with what she calls crunchy granola wellness, then studied pre med at NYU. Her mother lives with severe rheumatoid arthritis and once saw a holistic doctor Wofford admired, then had to stop because the visits cost too much. That detail sits at the center of Golde. The promise is cafe style lattes and pantry friendly blends that are easy, approachable and fun, priced so most hero products land around a dollar a day per serving.

What Seed to Capsule noticed is how much of the chain Wofford chose to keep simple on purpose. Brainstorm in house, test in the kitchen, then work with a professional formulator for safety and taste. Use high quality sourced ingredients and stock packaging to hold the price near thirty five dollars or less. It is a provenance story built less on a single farm than on decisions about sourcing, formulation and price, and on a founder who can say what she knows and what she is still learning.

In 2016 you said you felt caught between the crunchy granola wellness you grew up with in upstate New York and a luxe prestige version that felt out of reach, and in 2017 you launched with one product from a Brooklyn apartment. What did that gap look like day to day?

It was inspired by my own experiences as a consumer in wellness and feeling caught between the crunchy granola stuff that I had grown up with in upstate New York and this next wave of offerings that felt so luxe and prestigious that it was out of reach for me. I was a pre med student at NYU, I shopped at co ops when I could, and I also saw these beautiful brands I could not afford. When I started my business, I didn’t know anything. There’s something special about just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. Issey and I were high school sweethearts, we were 23, we worked full time, and we came home to mix and pack. We wanted to bring our own voice to the space and be really colorful and warm and inviting. We just kind of went for it and took no money out of the business, and just were hoping to get it to the point that it could pay our rent.

You mixed those first batches of Original Turmeric Latte Blend by hand with Issey Kobori and aimed for two thousand dollars a month. What did hand mixing teach you about powder, and when did you know you needed outside help?

Hand mixing taught us the basics. Turmeric stains everything, spices clump if there is any moisture, and taste changes with every small shift in ratio. We did it on our counter, scooping and sealing, learning how powder settles and how a label has to stay readable in a steamy kitchen. It always comes back to the customer: where they are in their routine and what they need. And how can we meet them where they are. That meant the blend had to stir into hot milk or water without a long routine. We needed help when orders grew past what two people could pack at night. We still brainstorm concepts in house and test in what we call kitchen magic, then we work with a professional formulator for efficacy, safety and deliciousness. That step gave us consistent fill weight, better flow and a repeatable process, lot after lot.

A spoon lifting frothy milk over a glass of latte on wood. Photo · Golde

Your mother saw a holistic doctor for severe rheumatoid arthritis and then had to stop because she could not afford it. How does that history shape the way you set prices around one dollar a day?

My mother has severe rheumatoid arthritis and she improved seeing a holistic doctor I wanted to emulate when I was pre med. Then she had to stop going because she could not afford it. That stayed with me. It ought to be for everyone. It needs to be more accessible, more inclusive, and it needs to feel good. Most of our hero products are around one dollar a day per serving. We would rather formulate around a price point of thirty five dollars or less than charge luxury prices. We use high quality sourced ingredients and we save where the customer does not taste it, like stock packaging, to keep prices down. I wanted to make something for everybody. That does not mean cheap. It means careful. Every cent has a job, in the ingredient or in the testing or in the pack that keeps powder dry.

The label for Original Turmeric Latte Blend lists six essential superfoods in a warming spiced latte, sold for thirty two dollars. Can you walk that pouch backwards to where its ingredients start?

I can walk you through how we think about it. We start with a concept in house, turmeric plus warming spices that make a caffeine free latte with hot milk or water. Then we source each component through suppliers who provide specifications and paperwork. Turmeric root is dried and milled to powder, spices are milled and blended, and the blend is made to a set formula so each batch tastes the same. The finished powder is packed, sealed and coded by lot so we can trace it. What the label shows is the Supplement Facts panel logic applied to a food blend: what is inside, in what order, and how to prepare it. Where I am careful is origin. We can name our suppliers and show documents, but we do not own the farms. Harvest place and year can change with supply. So I will credit what is traceable and name what is not yet, and tell you what it would take to show more.

Pure Matcha is your bestseller, described as one hundred percent pure shade grown matcha, sold in a thirty gram tin for thirty nine dollars. What does shade grown mean here, and how does that leaf become the powder in the tin?

Pure Matcha is one hundred percent pure shade grown matcha. Shade grown means tea plants are covered for weeks before harvest, which shapes color and flavor, then leaves are picked, steamed, dried and stone milled to a fine powder. That is why preparation matters. You whisk it with water or steamed milk for a latte, iced around nine in the morning or in the afternoon. It contains caffeine, so dose and timing matter. Our tin is thirty grams, the pouch is one hundred grams, and we sell a three pack of tins. As a buyer, look at the other ingredients line. Ours shows matcha and nothing else. Then look at the lot code and ask for the certificate of analysis for that lot. That document should show what tests were run and by which lab. That is how you move past words on the front and into what the label proves.

We are talking about boosting the routine that you already have, not trying to get someone to suddenly have 50 different powders that they cannot even pronounce in their cabinets.
Trinity Mouzon Wofford

You say you test in the kitchen then work with a professional formulator. What happens in that handoff, and what tests do you ask for before a blend is approved?

We bring the idea and the flavor we want. The formulator brings food science. They check ratios, solubility in hot milk and water, stability over shelf life, and whether the taste holds from first scoop to last. Then we lock a specification: ingredient identities, extract ratios where relevant, particle size for mouthfeel, moisture limits, fill weight. Every production lot gets a certificate of analysis from the maker, and we use third party lab testing to verify identity and to screen for heavy metals and microbes. Heavy metals matter because plants take up minerals from soil, and matcha and turmeric are both soil grown. Encapsulation is not our format, we sell powders and teas, but the same discipline applies: confirm what came in, confirm what went out, keep the paper by lot. If a result is out of spec, the lot does not ship. That is the document behind the claim.

Cacao Turmeric Latte Blend pairs cacao with turmeric for thirty two dollars and Bon Appetit called it a favorite coffee alternative. Why pair those two, and what should a careful buyer read on that label?

We paired calming cacao with warming turmeric because people already had a mug habit and we wanted to meet it. Stir it into hot milk or into coffee if you keep coffee. It is a spiced cacao instant latte, not too bitter, not too sweet. We are talking about boosting the routine that you already have, not trying to get someone to suddenly have 50 different powders that they cannot even pronounce in their cabinets. Read it like we do. Front copy tells you the idea. The back tells you the facts. Look for full ingredient names, the serving size and servings per container, and the other ingredients line. Note whether flavors or sweeteners are added and in what amount. Then check the lot code and ask what testing covers for that lot. I like simple labels because my customer shops for a household and keeps a small shelf for years. She wants to know if the expensive version was worth it, and the label plus the lot paper should answer that.

Golde moved from Brooklyn to upstate New York in the Hudson Valley, known for farms and co ops, and your visuals show a home kitchen with matcha, a cookbook and a garden nearby. What is actually made or grown there, and what is not?

Upstate is home now. It is where I grew up, and the Hudson Valley has farms and co ops I know well. Our visuals are honest about that life. A founder led home kitchen, whisking matcha or a turmeric latte, cookbook and garden nearby. What is made there is ideas and daily use. We brainstorm, we cook, we test pours and whisks, we photograph in daylight. What is not there is large scale manufacturing. Powders are milled, blended and packed in food facilities that can control moisture, sift, check fill weight and hold lot records. The garden grows food we eat. It does not supply the product line. I say that plainly because provenance means saying where a step happens and where it does not. If we ever contracted an acre or a harvest, we would name the grower, the harvest date and the lot it went into.

In 2019 you launched at Sephora as the youngest Black woman to launch a brand there, in 2021 you entered Target in hundreds of locations, and in June 2020 sales passed all of 2019 after support for Black owned brands. What did retail scale change about sourcing and paperwork?

Retail scale changed volume and discipline. Sephora in 2019 put us in front of a national customer. Target in 2021 put us in hundreds of locations. June 2020 was a surge we did not plan, after our donation effort for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and support for Black owned brands, when June sales exceeded the entire prior year. Larger purchase orders meant larger ingredient lots, more certificates of analysis to review, tighter specs on taste and color, and more attention to stock packaging lead times. It was my duty to share insights from my story as I was figuring out how to build and scale Golde. We stayed a small but mighty team, nine by our fifth anniversary. That size forces clarity. Fewer formulas, done well, with papers filed by lot. We celebrated that fifth anniversary in March 2022 with a Super Greens duo with Diaspora Co for Women’s History Month, which is a good example of scaling by partnership rather than by adding fifty powders.

Golde Pure Matcha pouch with teapot flowers and open tin on tray. Photo · Golde

You have said you were always clear you did not want to write the Golde cookbook, then you wrote Eating at Home. What changed, and how does the book connect to the blends?

I was always very clear from the beginning that I didn’t want to write the Golde cookbook. I did not want a book that just told you to add powder to everything. Then home cooking during those early years taught me something else. Good quality, simple food is health food, and the ingredients you cook with are as important as the gentleness you bring to the process. Eating at Home, thirty three dollars, is about that table: simple meals, small rituals, lunch breaks taken. The blends fit inside that life. A morning matcha whisked with water or steamed milk. A turmeric latte stirred with hot milk at night. Kyoto Hojicha, our toasted green tea powder that tastes chocolatey and is naturally low in caffeine, for late afternoons in winter. Shroom Shield, creamy cocoa with functional mushrooms, is in the same pantry. Sip your ritual is not a slogan to me. It is how a household actually uses a tin until it is empty, then buys it again.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is the price sheet as a form of care. Wofford learned early that a helpful visit can end when money runs out, so she built Golde to stay near a dollar a day and under thirty five dollars, with stock packs and few formulas. The paper trail matters more than adjectives here, lot codes and lab results over front label promises.

Golde set out to make wellness easy, approachable and fun, and to make it for everybody. Traced back, that means a Brooklyn counter, a formulator bench, soil grown crops dried and milled to powder, and a kitchen table in upstate New York where the product is actually used.

Product spotlight

Pure Matcha is the signature bestseller, thirty nine dollars for a thirty gram tin, also in a one hundred gram pouch for sixty four dollars. It is one hundred percent shade grown matcha powder, whisked with water or steamed milk for hot or iced lattes. Use a small daily serving in the morning or afternoon, mindful of caffeine, and store sealed and dry.

Original Turmeric Latte Blend is the first product from 2017, thirty two dollars, built from six essential superfoods into a warming spiced latte. The label positions it around skin glow, gut health and immunity as a brand statement, not a promise of effect. Stir or whisk with hot milk or water for a caffeine free mug, and keep the pouch sealed by lot code.

Steady support for aging men, with Gary Kehoe

2026-09-30T00:00:00Z

Every capsule, traced back to the field.

Mdrive sits inside a crowded category where bold promises are common and paperwork is rare. Gary Kehoe started the brand in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2009 after more than 30 years formulating nutritional products, and he built it around the opposite habit. Every ingredient is named on the label at its amount, with no proprietary blends, and the formulas pair farmed botanicals like ashwagandha with patented extracts that arrive with test documents.

The tension is easy to name. Testosterone support for men over 30 is sold with noise, yet buyers in this aisle now read panels closely. Kehoe felt that shift early because he was his own first customer. In his forties, he writes, he began to lose strength, endurance and drive. He could not hike or run or bike with the verve that he used to.

What followed was not a quick launch. More than twenty years ago he was served tea with a floating mushroom at a foreign embassy, drank it cautiously, and felt steady energy rather than a jolt. That mushroom was cordyceps. It led to ten years of study of adaptogens including ginseng and ashwagandha, then ten years of research and two years of testing before Mdrive Classic reached the market.

What we noticed, and what others often miss, is how much of Mdrive is about the label as a record. The brand is made in the USA with globally sourced ingredients, formulated in house by nutrition scientists, chemists and formulators at parent company DreamBrands, and shipped from Scottsdale. The supply chain is not fully open to the field level, and Kehoe does not name individual growers. What is traceable is the paper chain: identified extracts, stated amounts, and batch testing behind the finished capsule.

You drank tea with cordyceps floating in it at a foreign embassy more than twenty years ago, and you describe feeling steady energy rather than a jolt. What did that cup teach you that still shapes Mdrive today?

I started formulating Mdrive for myself. Yes, in my 40s, I began to feel like I was losing my strength, endurance, and drive. I could not hike or run or bike with the verve that I used to. I did not think such drops were necessary.

That cup came before all of that work. Over twenty years ago I was served tea with a floating mushroom at a foreign embassy. I drank it cautiously. What I felt was a deep natural energy rather than a jolt. That mushroom was cordyceps, my first encounter with adaptogens. It sparked a ten year deep dive into natural ways to fuel energy and defy aging, including ginseng and ashwagandha.

For me, it was about creating a custom compound using ingredients that work well together to improve performance, stamina, and focus. Not extremes. Not short bursts. A daily routine a man can keep. Some call it vitality, others longevity or anti aging. I call it Men being Men.

You quit a well paying job formulating for a Fortune 500 company to found DreamBrands and build supplements for men with only the best ingredients. What did you refuse to carry over from that corporate work?

So, I quit my well paying job formulating for one of many Fortune 500 companies, and founded DreamBrands to make uncompromising, top of the line supplements for men, using only the best ingredients. With over 30 years of formulating nutritional products, I have learned a thing or two, or seven hundred, about the science behind nutrients, the why and how they work.

What I would not carry over was opacity. Neither myself nor any of our dedicated staff is a marketer or PR exec. We are just passionate about what we do and believe that we make the best supplement for men over 30 who are looking to increase strength, stamina, energy and sex drive.

That is why we refuse to use proprietary blends on packaging. If ashwagandha or a vitamin or a mineral is in the capsule, the label shows the name and the amount. It is also why we refuse to use shady subscription traps or phone trees. Guys needed a tool to help fight the aging process, slow it down. The tool should be plain about what is inside.

Hands removing capsules from an M Drive Prime box. Photo · Mdrive

Mdrive Classic launched in 2009 with KSM-66 ashwagandha, Phytopin beta sitosterols, AquaLOX boswellia serrata and Lutemax 2020. Why did you start with that combination, and where did each part begin?

After 10 years of research and 2 years of testing I created M Drive as a custom compound. I wanted adaptogens plus patented clinically tested ingredients and key vitamins and minerals in one daily formula.

KSM-66 ashwagandha begins as root grown on farms in India, harvested, dried, then extracted to a standardised root extract. Phytopin beta sitosterols begin as plant sterols from pine sources. AquaLOX boswellia serrata begins as gum resin from boswellia trees, processed with a water based method. Lutemax 2020 begins as marigold flowers grown for lutein and zeaxanthin, then extracted and purified.

I chose them because they work well together in a daily routine. One part traces to roots and resins and flowers. The other part traces to patents and clinical testing and certificates of analysis. The farm matters. The lab matters. We started with one product in 2009, entered GNC in 2010, then expanded into Vitamin Shoppe and Sprouts by 2015. The formula carried us because the paperwork was in order.

Your labels show every amount and you state the products are made in the USA with globally sourced ingredients. For a careful buyer, what does that paper chain actually prove, and where does it stop?

It proves identity, amount and consistency. Identity means the extract in the specification is the extract in the drum. Amount means the Supplement Facts panel lists each ingredient rather than hiding a group under one total weight. Consistency means each lot is tested against that specification before encapsulation, then fill weight is checked so each capsule holds what the batch record requires.

Our team includes nutrition scientists, chemists and formulators plus quality staff at DreamBrands. We formulate in house. We make the products in the USA. The botanicals and other inputs are globally sourced, because ashwagandha root or boswellia resin or marigold for lutein do not all grow in Arizona.

Where it stops is the field name. I cannot hand you the name of each grower for each harvest on this page. The chain I can show is the document chain from extract supplier to certificate of analysis to finished batch. That is what the label leaves in and leaves out. The label shows what is in the capsule and how much. It does not show the farm gate. We credit what is traceable and we name what is not yet.

I started formulating Mdrive for myself, to support the work I already did.
Gary Kehoe

Prime at 34.99 dollars remains the core daily formula for testosterone support, energy and lean muscle. How should a buyer read that label line by line?

Read it from top to bottom. The Supplement Facts panel lists the adaptogens first, including KSM-66 ashwagandha, then supporting botanicals and key vitamins and minerals. Each line gives a weight. There is no proprietary blend line. Then read the other ingredients line. That shows the capsule shell and the small aids used in encapsulation, such as flow aids.

Take it daily for steady support as part of a regular routine. That is the use we state. Prime is cited by long term users for strength and performance, and we position it for general support. The label states support for healthy testosterone levels, energy, performance and lean muscle. Like all our labels, it also states that these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

If you keep a small shelf for years, keep the lot number on the bottle until it is finished. That number ties your bottle to our batch record and the supplier certificates behind it.

Boost and Burn at 49.99 dollars is now the home page lead and a bestseller, pairing testosterone support with thermogenics and adaptogens. What changes in sourcing and testing when heat and drive sit in one capsule?

The sourcing gets wider and the testing gets tighter. A thermogenic and adaptogen blend pulls from more origins. Roots, leaves and resins arrive as powders or extracts with different moisture levels and different bulk density. That changes blending time, fill weight checks and how the powder moves into the capsule.

What does not change is the rule. Every input needs a specification and a certificate of analysis. Each lot is checked. The finished batch is checked. Take daily for steady support as part of a regular routine. We state support for healthy testosterone levels and fat management alongside diet and activity, plus help with stress related eating patterns through adaptogen support. We do not state that the capsule alone changes body composition.

In 2018 we shifted customer experience to digital with auto ship, a quiz and Amazon access. What we learned is that men want steady supply without pressure. So we refuse to rely on extremes or short bursts, and we refuse to make cancelling difficult.

M Drive product lineup including Prime on neutral background. Photo · Mdrive

Start launched on August 9 2021 as a 9 in 1 shake at 79.99 dollars with multivitamin, collagen, protein and testosterone support. You said it was formulated to eliminate morning guess work. Why move from capsules into nutrition?

Mdrive Start was formulated to eliminate your morning guess work. It is now easier than ever to remember to take this every morning. Everyone asked me when I was going to take this leap with Mdrive into nutrition and here we are.

The shake includes seven clinically tested ingredients and six protein sources. Mix one scoop in the morning for daily nutrition. From a sourcing view, protein and collagen add dairy and animal origin chains beside the botanical chains, each with its own allergen and identity tests. From a label view, it is still the same habit. Show each amount. Show the other ingredients. Show the daily use.

Guys needed a tool to help fight the aging process, slow it down. Do not let age beat you. Be stronger today than you were yesterday. Refind your prime. Those phrases repeat because the routine repeats. Trusted by over one million men is a statement of scale, not a promise about any one man.

Elite at 59.99 dollars is described as sport legal for performance and healthy testosterone levels. What does sport legal mean on your paperwork, and what does it not mean?

Sport legal means we formulate without ingredients banned by major sport lists and we manufacture with controls that limit cross contact, then we state the intended use plainly. Take daily for ongoing training support. We describe support for endurance, muscle mass and measures such as VO2 max in training contexts, within the structure function language allowed for supplements.

What it does not mean is certification by a league or a guarantee for any tested athlete. Athletes subject to testing still need to check their own federation list and, where required, choose batches covered by an independent sport certification. Our paperwork shows formula, lot and test results. It does not place a product on a prohibited list or take it off. Mdrive products are American owned and operated and ship from Scottsdale, Arizona. That address is on the record, and it is where questions about a lot can be directed.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us after this conversation is the plainness of the method. Kehoe formulated for himself first, then kept the same rule for more than a million customers. Name each ingredient. Give each amount. Keep the batch record behind the bottle.

Mdrive set out to support healthy testosterone levels, steady energy and metabolism with daily use so the work men already do continues to count. The field origins remain partly opaque, by the brand’s own account. The label record is the part the brand asks to be judged on, and on that record it is consistent.

Product spotlight

Prime, 34.99 dollars for a 30 day supply and 104.97 dollars for a 90 day supply. A daily capsule to support healthy testosterone levels, energy, performance and lean muscle. Take daily with food and water as part of a regular training and sleep routine. Best for the buyer who wants the core formula first.

Boost and Burn, 49.99 dollars for a 30 day supply and 149.97 dollars for a 90 day supply. A daily capsule that pairs testosterone support with thermogenics and adaptogens. Take daily as directed for steady support alongside meals and activity. Best for the buyer who wants one bottle for drive and weight management support.

How white label became the quiet cost behind the jar

2026-09-26T00:00:00Z

Two jars can list similar plants and claim similar minerals while carrying very different prices. The gap often comes from factory choices, raw material forms and testing that never reach the front label. The task is to read the panel and the paperwork until the money shows itself.

In summer 2022, researchers collecting the lowest priced online marketplace prices for a driving study captured a market spread that still explains the shelf today, with individual supplement costs averaging 73 cents to 49.59 dollars per month across 142 formulations with price data.

Mean monthly cost for all participants in that analysis ranged from 10.23 dollars at baseline to 13.14 dollars in year 3. Use among adults age 65 and older who drive ran from 70.4 to 82.7 percent from baseline to year 5 in the AAA LongROAD study. Those numbers describe a crowded category where many households keep a small set of products for years. The Food and Drug Administration does not review dietary supplement products for safety and effectiveness before they are marketed, and FDA estimates more than 100,000 supplements are on the market. Manufacturers can sell dietary supplements without submitting evidence of purity, potency, safety or efficacy under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act framework described by Harvard Health. “Supplements are a broad term, and vitamins are one kind of supplement” (Steven R. Cummings, MD, internist and epidemiologist). “The FDA doesn’t regulate efficacy or safety of vitamins or supplements before they go on the market” (Steven R. Cummings, MD, internist and epidemiologist).

Price per serving tracks decisions made long before a jar is filled. The chain starts with sourcing and supplier qualification, then identity verification, in process checks, finished product testing, packaging inspection, labeling review, storage and release procedures. Manufacturers are asked to cover each of those steps. Whether a brand pays for all of them, and whether an outside lab checks the work, shapes cost in ways a front label rarely states.

Where the jar was actually made

Contract manufacturing builds a custom formula to a brand specification, while private label sells an existing generic formula under a brand name, also called white labeling. The distinction matters because development time, order size and control over ingredients follow from it.

White label liquid supplements can have minimum order quantities as low as 150 to 500 units. Private label with flavor or packaging changes typically requires around 1,000 or more units. Custom liquid formulation usually requires 2,500 to 5,000 or more units because line cleaning and calibration make small runs uneconomic. Research and development fees for custom liquid formulation range from 2,000 dollars to more than 15,000 dollars depending on complexity. White label or private label liquids can often launch in 4 to 8 weeks. Custom liquid formulation typically takes 12 to 18 weeks for a first run, or 3 to 6 months from concept to ready to ship, including microbial stress testing.

The liquid vitamins market will reach over 29 billion dollars by 2026 at a 6.2 percent compound annual growth rate. Growth on that scale rewards speed. A brand that selects a stock greens blend or a stock electrolyte base can move from concept to listing in weeks, with modest inventory risk. Fund development, wait through stability work and commit to thousands of units when a brand specifies each green, each salt, each flavor system and each test.

The fast jar and the slow jar can look alike on the front and differ completely in the file.

The lower cost route does not always mean lower quality. A stock formula made in a well run plant, with identity checks and finished product testing, can be sound. The higher price does not always mean custom work. A brand can take a generic base, change flavor and packaging, add a label story about farms and still charge for provenance that lives mostly on the carton. Seed to Capsule credits what is traceable and names what is not yet shown. The Supplement Facts panel, the other ingredients line, the lot number and the certificate of analysis carry more weight than the field photograph.

Why the mineral form sets the serving cost

Greens powders and electrolytes often compete on breadth. One lists many plants. Another lists many salts. The panel shows names and amounts, but absorption depends on chemical form and on what else is in the scoop.

Mineral absorption ranges from less than 1 percent to over 90 percent depending on mineral and gut conditions, with plant based iron around 10 percent and selenium up to 98 percent. Magnesium oxide absorption is often under 10 percent, while ionic, chelated and citrate forms are ranked higher for bioavailability. Vitamin C can increase iron absorption by up to 300 percent by converting ferric iron to ferrous iron. Calcium supplements taken at the same time can lower non-heme iron absorption by up to 60 percent. Calcium absorption from spinach can be as low as 5 percent, compared with 27 percent from milk, linked to oxalic acid.

For electrolytes, those hierarchies point to questions worth asking. Which magnesium salt is present, and at what elemental amount per serving. Which sodium and potassium salts are present, and what fill weight supports the stated electrolytes. Whether calcium is placed in the same serving as iron, and whether the label states timing or separation. For greens powders, the questions turn to extract ratios, standardized markers and the weight of the serving. A busy blend with small amounts of many ingredients may deliver less per serving than a shorter list with stated potencies. Bioavailability hierarchies and enhancers or blockers are known, but finished greens powder or electrolyte recipes that prove a specific price gap are not given.

The daily need for vitamin D is 600 IU below age 71 and 800 IU after, with many experts favoring 800 to 1,000 IU and daily doses up to 4,000 IU considered safe. The reference matters here as a measure of label honesty. A product that states IU per serving, serving weight and servings per container allows a buyer to calculate cost per measured amount. By contrast, that calculation grows difficult for a product that leans on proprietary blends and implied benefits. Physician sources stress loose premarket regulation and limited proof for many prevention claims, which cuts against paying more for implied health benefits.

What the label proves and what still needs paper

A careful buyer reads from the capsule backward. Start with the Supplement Facts panel and the other ingredients line. Look for mineral forms named in full, extract potencies with ratios or standardized amounts, serving fill weight and servings per container. When comparing labels, look for third party seals with an understanding that seals are not all equal. Then ask for the lot specific certificate of analysis and check heavy metals and potency testing against what the label states.

Bulk commodity prices for greens ingredients and electrolyte salts, finished jar build costs, serving fill weights and retail margins are not listed here. It does not state which greens or electrolyte brands use third party heavy metal and potency audits, and what those certificates show. Consequently it fails to quantify how much of a price difference comes from marketing, packaging weight and shipping versus ingredient form and dose. Those gaps are the reason caution belongs in any verdict. Without fill weight, extract potency and audit results, price comparison remains guesswork.

Lower cost white label and private label routes offer speed and low minimums, so a lower price does not always mean lower quality and a higher price does not always mean custom work. The expensive jar earns its price when the label names the form and the amount, and an outside lab confirms identity, potency and heavy metals for that lot. The economical jar earns trust the same way, by showing its paperwork and keeping its label claims within what the panel supports.

The position is plain. Pay for documented form, measured amount and independent testing, not for ingredient count or origin story alone. Where the certificate matches the panel, the higher cost reflects material and quality work. If the file is missing, the price reflects speed, flavor, packaging and story.

Stripped back health traced to source with Jules Miller

2026-09-22T00:00:00Z

Take two capsules in the morning. That small line on the Pre + Probiotic jar carries much of The Nue Co. idea, a daily routine made from a short list of ingredients with stated doses, batch records behind it and no extra fillers to pad the capsule.

Two capsules in the morning, taken daily for the long term. That is the instruction printed on the jar of Pre + Probiotic, 60 capsules for 75 dollars, and it is a useful place to start with Jules Miller. The dose is plain, the count is plain, the intended rhythm is plain.

Miller founded The Nue Co. in 2017 after years managing IBS in her early twenties. She describes trying natural and pharmaceutical products that left her feeling worse, then building her own routine around diet and a small set of supplements. The brand name comes from nue, meaning stripped back or naked, and the early premise was simple. As a rule, she found about half the contents of market supplements were synthetic fillers and bulking agents, and she wanted formulas without them.

What the brand is now is broader than gut capsules. The range spans ingestibles, topical magnesium, hair formulas and a large functional fragrance business developed with perfumer Frank Voelkl and houses including Givaudan and Firmenich. By 2024, after a rebrand around mood states, fragrance accounted for 65 percent of revenue. What others often miss is how much of that shift was about delivery. Capsules and powders could not give immediacy, so Miller turned to smell, which she describes as a direct route to awareness, memory and mood.

You launched The Nue Co. in 2017 after developing IBS in your early twenties and finding that market supplements left you feeling worse. What did those early labels teach you about fillers and formulation quality.

Health has always felt intuitive to me. I grew up in a Colombian family rooted in plant based healing, I went to the herbalist with my mother, and I learned about vitamin B12 from my grandfather, who was a chemist. When I developed IBS, I spent a lot of time and money trying products that made me feel worse. As a rule, I found that 50 percent of ingredients were synthetic fillers and bulking agents. My grandfather had introduced me to probiotic supplements and taught me that formulation and ingredient quality make all the difference. I had worked in the supplement industry and I saw the lack of transparency and effectiveness. I feel like I had spent my whole life gathering insights for The Nue Co. There was no job that really spoke to me, so I decided to create one. Nue means stripped back or naked. That was the brief. Pure efficacious ingredients at proven dosages, nothing extra to bulk out the capsule.

You say nue means stripped back or naked, centered on pure efficacious ingredients. How does that idea show up in the other ingredients line on a jar like Pre + Probiotic.

At The Nue Co. our founding principle is to create supplements that do not harm people or the planet. Sustainability is at the heart of what we do, because we see health as one interconnected ecosystem. We combine science and nature by using sustainable and clinically proven ingredients to create health products that are good for people and the planet. On the label that means we refuse artificial colors, flavors, fillers, GMO ingredients, refined sugars and preservatives in ingestibles. We also refuse toxic preservatives, additives, flavourings and sweeteners, and we hold a list of over 200 banned ingredients. Pre + Probiotic was one of our first products and it is still a bestseller. It pairs a prebiotic with spore bacteria, which stay dormant until they reach the small intestine where they activate. Take two capsules daily in the morning for long term gut health. That is what the label shows, and the paperwork behind the batch is what lets us stand behind it.

A dropper releases liquid above a white coneflower. Photo · The Nue Co.

Your brief states that over half of ingredients are organic or community sourced and that formulas are tested for efficacy, purity and potency. Where exactly does the Pre + Probiotic material begin, and what happens between harvest and encapsulation.

We use clinically studied and ethically sourced ingredients at proven dosages, and over half are organic or community sourced. Every lot is tested for efficacy, purity and potency. For probiotics, the chain matters because living organisms are sensitive to heat, moisture and shear. Our probiotic blending uses a special slow blender to protect bacteria stability. That sounds small, but it decides whether the fill weight in the capsule matches the count on the Supplement Facts panel at the time you take it. The plant portion starts on farms we can name in our sourcing files, then it is dried to a set moisture specification, milled, and extracted where an extract is required. Extract ratio and standardisation are recorded on the certificate of analysis. Then the material is blended, encapsulated, and finished jars are held until the third party lab results return for heavy metals and microbes. I would rather use clean and clinically proven ingredients than synthetic fillers and additives. Clean, for us, has to mean a document behind the word.

You describe probiotic blending with a special slow blender to protect stability. Why does blending speed matter for a two capsule morning dose.

Because the capsule has to deliver what the label states at the time you take it. High shear creates heat and breaks particles in ways that can reduce viability. A slow blender protects bacteria stability through the blending step, then we control moisture and fill weight at encapsulation so each capsule holds the intended amount. This is part of what my grandfather meant when he said formulation and ingredient quality make all the difference. A formula can look right on paper and still lose potency in the plant if the process is too aggressive. We test for purity and potency and we keep batch records, so if a customer asks what is in jar 60 capsules, we can point to the lot and the lab sheet. Our products are designed to exist in each part of your day and every room of your house. They are created to feel like a pleasure to use, never a chore. The morning dose is the clearest example. Two capsules, same time, same glass of water, no complicated stack.

In 2019 you launched Functional Fragrance direct to consumer with perfumer Frank Voelkl, expected it to do nothing, and watched a tiny order sell out before Black Friday. What did that teach you about smell as a delivery system.

The first time we launched functional fragrance, I expected it to do absolutely nothing. It was 2019. We were direct to consumer. A lot of my mentors and investors told me it makes no sense to talk about stress or mental health because they had nothing to do with wellness. Capsules, powders and tinctures could not deliver the immediacy we were looking for. That is when we turned to the olfactory system, which is essentially the highway to your brain. The original scent was warm, smoky, fresh and spicy, made with Frank Voelkl, designed to calm the nervous system. You spritz on pulse points before stressful moments with slow breathing. It sold out. That told us people wanted tools for stress and sleep and mood that fit into a day, not another routine to manage. Even though our fragrances are function first, I wanted them to stand the test of time as icons. Fragrance later grew to 65 percent of revenue after our 2024 rebrand around six mood states and eight fragrances, and in 2025 we partnered with Ulta Beauty as exclusive retailer focused on fragrance.

Capsules, powders and tinctures could not deliver the immediacy we were looking for.
Jules Miller

You work with Givaudan and Firmenich and you refuse phthalates, nitromusks, polycyclic musks, parabens and synthetic fixatives in fragrance. What does that refuse list change at the compounding bench.

It changes the palette and the paperwork. We develop fragrances with Givaudan and Firmenich and world class perfumers, and we refuse phthalates, nitromusks, polycyclic musks, parabens and synthetic fixatives. Those materials are often used for tenacity and lift, so without them the perfumer has to rebuild structure with other aroma materials and test for stability in the 50 ml and 10 ml formats. Functional Fragrance is 125 dollars for 50 ml and 38 dollars for 10 ml. First Milk, Us, Good Spirits and the others follow the same sizes. Each version holds a stated mood intention on its page, and the ingredient listing follows cosmetic rules. I started The Nue Co. to share that perspective, helping people connect with their bodies through products and rituals that are both beautiful and effective. For fragrance that means a scent you want to wear, with a named perfumer, a named house, and a formula file that records what was refused as well as what was used.

Your Magnesium Ease spray pairs magnesium chloride with lavender oil and arnica oil for use on joints and stomach before bed. What can you trace in that bottle, and what remains harder to show.

Magnesium Ease is a topical spray, 60 ml for 45 dollars, and it is a bestseller that bridges fragrance customers to ingestibles and body care. The label shows magnesium chloride with lavender oil and arnica oil. You spray on joints and stomach before bed as a nightly ritual. What we can trace is the mineral source, the lot, the essential oil supplier and the heavy metals testing on the finished batch. Lavender and arnica come from plant supply chains with harvest dates and distillation or extraction records. What is harder to show, honestly, is full field traceability for every minor aroma component at all times, because fragrance and botanical markets blend lots to meet specification. I would rather translate niche rituals for the masses than keep wellness exclusive, and I would rather acquire customers through fragrance than through supplements alone. But the standard stays. If we cannot name the grower or show the test, we say so, and we keep working toward the document.

Functional Fragrance bottle with palo santo and cardamom. Photo · The Nue Co.

You closed a 25 million dollar fundraise in 2021, launched in Sephora that year, launched Forest Lungs after COVID and sold three months of stock in a week. How did scale test your testing and lot discipline.

I think my superpower during our first year was my naivety and lack of experience. At that time, and for a while later, nothing else in my life mattered. Then scale arrived quickly. We launched in Sephora in 2021, we closed a 25 million dollar fundraise, and we launched Forest Lungs after COVID and sold three months of stock in a week. When volumes jump, the discipline has to hold. That means locked specifications, reserved raw lots, retained samples and release only after lab results. It also means saying no to a shortcut that would let you ship faster. I would rather not over engineer health in a way that creates anxiety. Our products are designed to exist in each part of your day. That only works if each batch matches the last. Forest Lungs was inspired by the Japanese practice of forest bathing and built through olfactory chemistry. The demand spike tested planning, not principle. We kept the same sequence. Source, make, test, release, document.

You often repeat that health is an ecosystem and you talk about whole body health. For a careful buyer reading Supplement Facts, what should they look for on your labels to judge that claim.

Look at the Supplement Facts panel first, then the other ingredients line. Look for the dose of each active, the number of capsules, and the directions. Pre + Probiotic shows two capsules daily in the morning for long term gut health. Debloat Plus shows 60 capsules for 55 dollars with digestive enzymes and stated actives. Growth Phase shows 90 capsules for 65 dollars with daily use for 90 days as part of a 360 hair approach. Then read what is not there. We refuse artificial colors, flavors, fillers, GMO ingredients, refined sugars and preservatives in ingestibles, plus over 200 banned ingredients across the line. I believe we should bridge science and sensibility with products that support the physical and emotional body. Support is the right word. The label shows what is in the capsule, how much, how to take it, and what we refused. The rest is routine, sleep, food, movement. Health is an ecosystem. Take great care. That is our code, The Nue Co.de, and the art of feeling well, in plain terms.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is Miller ease with specifics. She names a dose, a count, a perfumer, a house, a blender speed choice, a refuse list. The supply chain is not abstract. It is farms and distillation dates, extract ratios on a certificate, a slow blender protecting viability, a lab hold before release, a lot code that links it all.

The Nue Co. set out to redefine the relationship with health by removing what was not needed and stating what remained. Stripped back or naked, in her words. The capsule, the spray, the scent, each is asked to prove its place on the label.

Product spotlight

Pre + Probiotic, 75 dollars for 60 capsules in a jar. A prebiotic plus probiotic with spore bacteria, one of the first formulas and a current bestseller. Take two capsules daily in the morning for long term gut support as part of a steady routine.

Functional Fragrance, 125 dollars for 50 ml and 38 dollars for 10 ml. A warm, smoky, fresh and spicy unisex scent made with Frank Voelkl and designed around stressful moments. Spritz on pulse points and pair with slow breathing.

Eighty one beauty launches listed after a year of testing

2026-09-18T00:00:00Z

Eighty one is the number. Harper’s Bazaar released The 81 Most Innovative Beauty Products of 2026 on September 16, 2026, following 12 months of assessment of hundreds of formulas across skin and hair types and ages.

The roundup was grouped into skincare, tool, body, makeup and hair icons. Picks were credited to cutting edge technology, research based science, easier routines, or solving a unique or new problem. The criteria give weight to products that combine tasks instead of novelty alone.

The plant record starts with barrier support. Pravada Private Label includes centella asiatica, panthenol and allantoin within sensitive skin and barrier health ingredients. Get the Gloss identified Sculpted by Aimee Second Skin Dewy Foundation SPF 50 at 25 pounds as holding SPF with hyaluronic acid, squalane and centella asiatica. A tint that lists a field grown extract next to sun protection reflects the period. Fewer layers, same care.

Peptides form the second ingredient record. Beauty Independent sources portray 2026 longevity and regenerative skincare as blends of ceramides, antioxidants and SPF with peptides, growth factors, exosomes and PDRN. Pravada counts peptides among clinical face actives that are entering scalp serums and body lotions. The same sources portray minimalist routines with maximum function as smaller sets with multi pathway action. One serum is expected to cover the work of two.

Bakuchiol supplies a third plant record. Aadhunik Ayurveda states that bakuchiol from Psoralea corylifolia seeds boosts collagen production and fades dark spots without retinoid dryness or sun sensitivity. The statement is attributed to the source rather than to separate testing, and it shows why some founders continue to select seed derived options when buyers request steadier routines.

Texture marks the quarter most clearly. Get the Gloss identified Laneige Bouncy and Firm Serum at 22 pounds and Medicube Deep Vita C Capsule Cream at 24.50 pounds as holding encapsulated pearls of hydrating ingredients. Capsules hold water loving pearls apart until massage, which fits unhurried use. The same roundup portrayed 3D textures in cleansers as balls like bubble tea that burst when massaged. Touch becomes part of dosing.

Cushion and gloss hybrids extend that softening. Harper’s Bazaar July editors picks contained YSL Beauty’s new cushion foundation portrayed as deceptively full coverage yet lightweight and non cakey. July picks also contained a Playa fragrance depositing hair gloss from Susan Yara’s new line Playa, linked to Naturium. Get the Gloss portrayed L’Oreal Paris True Match Plumping Tinted Serum at 14.99 pounds as a slow releasing hyaluronic acid serum with tint in 9 stretchy shades. Coverage, tint and treatment now occupy one vessel.

Value is difficult to trace beside this craft. Perricone MD No Makeup Blush was recorded as was 33 pounds now 24.75 pounds and portrayed as vitamin C infused blusher. Costs are rising alongside interest in accessible options, while full prices, launch dates, sales and ownership remain unavailable for every pick. Sources portray trends and editor picks, not clinical testing of the named launches.

Attention now turns to what remains after the quarter. Barrier plants are simple to retain in a routine. Capsules, cushions and glosses still need to show they protect their actives and reduce the shelf rather than adding another step.

Seed to Capsule will keep tracing the harvest lot behind the highlight, and will ask for paperwork where the chain is still unclear.

57.73% and growth rate in a 90-day rosemary trial

2026-09-12T00:00:00Z

Two research groups placed rosemary oil beside minoxidil 2%, and later teams added peptides, low dose oral minoxidil and regenerative care to the record. The record came into focus around the June 2026 guide and a 90 day trial reported before 10 September 2026.

In 2015 Panahi and colleagues followed 100 people with androgenetic alopecia through six months of rosemary oil or minoxidil 2%. Both arms recorded significant gains in hair count from baseline with no significant gap between arms. Scalp itching appeared more often with minoxidil, at 44.4% compared with 15% for rosemary, and dandruff appeared more often with minoxidil, at 32.2% compared with 7.5% for rosemary.

In 2020 Nasirian and colleagues followed 60 participants through 24 weeks of 2% rosemary oil or 2% minoxidil. Hair count rose 10% with rosemary and 13% with minoxidil, with p equals 0.12. The narrow gap deserves attention, and the dose deserves equal attention. Those trials tested 2% minoxidil, not the stronger 5% formulation many adults use, so parity does not establish equivalence to current standard dosing.

The most recent rosemary data combines the plant with lavender against a control. In 2025 Patel and colleagues placed 90 participants on oil with rosemary and lavender, a peptide formulation or control for 90 days. The rosemary-lavender arm increased hair growth rate by 57.73% versus control at p less than 0.0001. The same arm increased thickness by 68.70% and density by about 32% versus control, while shedding dropped by more than 40%.

Bench work suggests one possible mechanism. Murata and colleagues reported in 2013 that rosemary leaf extract inhibited 5-alpha reductase by 82.4% at 200 ug per mL and 94.6% at 500 ug per mL in vitro. In that same lab assay the reference compound finasteride showed 81.9 percent inhibition. Activity in glass does not predict activity on skin.

Peptides still sit lower in the evidence root system. A phase 2A trial of PP405, a peptide that activates hair follicle stem cells, recorded statistically significant regrowth in eight weeks among 78 patients. A telogen effluvium study followed 45 subjects aged 18 to 45 years in three groups of 15 for 90 days, giving Capilia longa blends, cytokine and peptide blends, and redensyl with aminexil at 2 mL once daily. Samples remain small, follow up remains short and formulas differ.

Low dose oral minoxidil is shifting from clinic habit toward shared rules. An international consensus on starting treatment and on monitoring earned 4th place as a poster at the 2024 American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting. The label set daily ranges of 0.625 to 2.5 mg for adolescent females, 0.625 to 5 mg for adult females, and 1.25 to 5 mg for adolescent and adult males. Visible efficacy is generally recorded between 3 to 6 months of steady use. That guidance rests on expert consensus because larger trials remain limited. A meta analysis found platelet rich plasma raised hair count and density clearly versus controls. Regenerative therapies like PRP have become an important part of how we approach early hair loss, because they harness the body own healing signals, said Dr. Lindsay Bordone, MD, FAAD, dermatologist at Columbia University and the American Academy of Dermatology.

For a slow routine, the tradeoff stays plain to see. Rosemary calls for daily care and patience, with less itch in these trials but without proof of lasting gains after stopping. It remains unknown whether store oils match standardized preparations or match minoxidil 5 percent over 12 months.

Look for larger trials that use standard 5 percent dosing, named peptide doses and longer follow up.

Inside Wile with Gwendolyn Floyd, tracing plants from field to capsule

2026-09-12T00:00:00Z

Wile began with a poll, not a product. Hundreds of women could name the sleepless nights and frayed days but did not connect them to perimenopause, and the founders kept that gap on file as they built plant formulas for the years around forty to sixty.

When Wile polled hundreds of women, the result stayed with the team. Over half could identify certain symptoms they were having, but they did not correlate them with being premenopausal. That finding became a kind of origin document, more telling than any trend deck.

The brand was started by Gwendolyn Floyd, Corey Scholibo and Julie Kucinski, along with actress Judy Greer. Floyd had founded the ethical jewelry company Soko. Scholibo had founded Repurpose, maker of compostable tableware. Kucinski had worked as a strategist and creative director for brands from Mrs. Meyers to Aveda, as well as Levi’s, Target and L’Oreal. All described themselves as users of integrated and natural medicine with rebel spirits.

What Wile is now is a supplement line for women aged forty to sixty, sold on its own site and at Grove Collaborative. The promise is to feel like you again without synthetic formulas, using plant medicine and clinical studies to support body, mind and mood in midlife. What others miss is the paperwork question underneath. Seed to Capsule follows each capsule backwards to farm, extract and test, and asks where exactly this comes from, and how do you know.

Your client asked you to map opportunity in womens health, you named perimenopause, and you heard crickets, then you built Wile for women forty to sixty who had fallen off the marketing radar around thirty five or thirty eight, what did that silence tell you about the brief you had to write for yourselves.

I am Julie, and I will start there because that moment is still very live for me. With this career history, I was very aware women fell off the marketing radar around age thirty five or thirty eight, even though retailers and brands rely on us. When a client asked me to identify opportunities in womens health, I presented perimenopause as a huge but untapped market and I heard crickets. That told me the gap was not demand. It was attention.

We polled hundreds of women. Over half of them are able to identify certain symptoms they are having, but they do not correlate them with being premenopausal. That is a labeling problem and an education problem. We focus on mood and stress and perimenopause because that is where the silence was loudest. We are devoted to midlife women and reframing this life stage to one of peak power and personal awakening. Change is inevitable, make it intentional. That is not a slogan to us. It is the work plan.

You came together from Soko and Repurpose and brand strategy, and you describe yourselves as users of integrated and natural medicine with rebel spirits, how did three non bankers, non MBAs decide who would own farm, formula and customer truth.

I am Gwendolyn, and I can speak to that mix. They were not investment bankers or MBAs is how Julie puts it, and she means it as praise. Corey and I have known each other since our teens and went to high school together. I built Soko. Corey built Repurpose. Julie built brands from the inside for Mrs. Meyers to Aveda and beyond. We all were all users of integrated and natural medicine with rebel spirits.

They helped me develop a real instinct for being one hundred percent true to your mission and serving the customer first, not a spreadsheet. That line guides how we divide the work. Corey watches operations and what can actually be made well at scale. Julie watches the customer and whether the label tells the truth she can use. I watch mission and whether we are serving as many women as possible while we give them efficacious ingredients. Our goal is to serve as many women as possible, but, at the same time, we want to give them efficacious ingredients. We refuse to follow the same playbook.

Hand holding Wile Perimenopause Support bottle against concrete wall. Photo · Wile

Your site says Perimenopause Support offers help at every stage from pre to peri to post menopause by supporting endocrine, adrenal and nervous systems, and your naturopathic formulator chose kudzu root extract and chaste tree berry extract among others, where are those plants grown and what extract form lands in the capsule.

I will take this one as the formulator’s partner in the room. One product, Perimenopause Support, offers help at every stage, from pre to peri to post menopause by supporting endocrine, aka hormonal, adrenal and nervous systems. We developed the formulas with naturopath Jillian Stansbury using ingredients like kudzu root extract, chaste tree berry extract, dong quai, fennel seed extract and kava.

What lands in the capsule is not whole powdered root scooped from a sack. It is an extract, which means plant material dried, milled, then drawn out with a solvent and dried again to a consistent powder. We state extract on the label where that is what we use, and we keep the supplier specification on file by lot. I want to be plain about traceability. I can name the formula and the extract ratio on the spec sheet, but I cannot yet publish the farm name and harvest date for every lot on the product page. The chain from field to extract to encapsulation has paper at each step, and we hold it, but the customer cannot yet follow the lot number home to the field. That is what it would take to show it fully.

You include cortisol as the other female hormone, acknowledging the stress load on midlife women, and Perimenopause Support is positioned for mood, stress response, sleep and periods at twenty nine dollars and ninety nine cents, what does the label actually claim and what do you ask the buyer to track at home.

Yes, we include cortisol as the other female hormone, acknowledging the stress and responsibility load on midlife women. That language is deliberate. Many women in this grown stage of life carry paid work, caregiving and household management at once. Not old. Not young. Nowhere near done. That is how they describe themselves to us.

The label for Perimenopause Support states support for mood, stress response, sleep and periods, taken as daily systemic capsules. Words matter here. Support means the brand states intended use, not that the capsule treats a condition. We state what the label shows and what plant medicine and clinical studies informed the choice, never what it will do for the reader. Yes. Every Wile product can be used separately or together. What we ask at home is simple and analog. Note sleep timing, note period pattern where still cycling, note what you took and the lot number on the bottle. Bring that record to your clinician. Feel like you again is our promise in plain words, but the label is the document.

You refuse synthetic formulas and off the shelf blends, and you say the products were formulated with a naturopathic physician using adaptogens, phytoestrogens and nervines, what did custom work change in sourcing, minimums and testing compared with buying a stock formula.

Custom work changed everything about sourcing. Not just off the shelf formulations is our line, and we mean it operationally. A stock formula arrives as a finished blend with a set price and a ready certificate. Custom means we choose each botanical, each extract form, each fill weight, then we qualify suppliers one by one.

Adaptogens, phytoestrogens and nervines are categories, not guarantees. An adaptogen is a term brands use for plants studied for stress response. A phytoestrogen is a plant compound that can interact with estrogen pathways in lab models. A nervine is a traditional term for herbs used to support a calm nervous system. On paper, each needs identity testing to confirm the species, plus microbial and heavy metal testing by lot. That testing sits with the raw supplier and is confirmed by a third party lab for the finished batch. Minimums rise with custom blends because extractors run set batch sizes. We accept smaller, slower runs to hold the formula. We would rather work with our bodies, not against them, and we would rather use plant medicine and clinical studies than synthetic formulas.

We would rather use plant medicine and clinical studies than synthetic formulas.
Gwendolyn Floyd and Corey Scholibo and Julie Kucinski

Deep Sleep Gummies blend melatonin, L theanine, chamomile and lemon balm extract in a gummy for nightly use at twenty four dollars and ninety nine cents, why a gummy for this one and what does the other ingredients line reveal about texture, dose and stability.

We focus on mood and stress and perimenopause, and sleep sits at the center of that triangle. Meet Deep Sleep, our gummy formula for your best nights sleep yet. We blend melatonin, L theanine, chamomile, and lemon balm extract to quiet your mind. We chose a gummy because a nighttime ritual matters. A capsule can feel clinical at ten at night. A gummy marks the end of the day.

The other ingredients line is where the gummy truth lives. It lists the sweeteners, gelling starches or gelatin, acids for flavor, and coatings that make chew possible and keep dose even through shelf life. We do not hide that. The Supplement Facts panel shows the actives per gummy and serving size, and the lot code ties that bottle to a fill record. Gummies are harder to hold uniform than capsules because heat, moisture and mixing affect each piece. So we control batch size, test fill weight, and keep the finished certificate on file. Use as directed for nightly use, and store as labeled so texture does not drift.

Your founders speak of mothers and gaslighting, including extreme early menopause with physical and psychological impacts in middle school and a stunning lack of knowledge in clinics, how does that family history shape what you will and will not print on a Wile label.

When I was in middle school, my mother went through very extreme early menopause, suffering incredible physical and psychological impacts. That is my memory and it still informs me. My mom was way more gaslit, but, for me, the lack of knowledge was stunning. It showed me that the world was just an interlocking puzzle of biased systems that really exclude women and people of color.

On a label, that history makes us conservative. We print what we can defend. Botanical name, plant part, extract form where used, amount per serving, serving size, other ingredients, lot number, and use directions. We do not print disease language. We do not borrow drug words. When we say support for endocrine, adrenal and nervous systems, we mean system support as stated on a supplement label, with plant medicine and clinical studies behind the choice of ingredients. If a claim needs a clinic visit, we say see your clinician. The label is small. The trust has to be large.

Assorted Wile products displayed on wooden shelf against yellow wall. Photo · Local Moms Network

Editors notes in your category cite an average of four hours of menopause study in medical school and surveys where fewer than ten percent of gynecologists felt prepared for perimenopause care, plus lists of up to thirty six symptoms, how do you train customer care to answer without diagnosing.

We train to the document, not to the symptom. The context you cite is real in our files. OB GYNs study menopause for an average of four hours in medical school. In a study, less than ten percent of gynecologists said they felt prepared to work with perimenopause or post menopausal women even after residencies. Perimenopause can have up to thirty six symptoms. That is why women arrive with long lists and short appointments.

Our rule is simple. We explain what the product is, how it is used separately or together, what the label states, and where to find the lot number. Yes. Every Wile product can be used separately or together. We do not interpret symptoms or name a life stage for a customer. We provide the ingredient list, the Supplement Facts panel, and questions to bring to a clinician. We keep records of questions we cannot answer well, and we revise the FAQ so the next answer is clearer. Being one hundred percent true to your mission and serving the customer first, not a spreadsheet, means saying when the right answer is not ours to give.

Grove Collaborative put Wile beside household staples at launch, and your price points sit near thirty dollars for daily capsules and twenty five dollars for gummies, what did retail readiness require in barcodes, seals, shelf testing and batch paperwork.

Retail readiness was unglamorous and exact. Grove Collaborative and our own e commerce site both needed the same backbone. Accurate Supplement Facts panels, allergen statements where required, net quantity, directions, lot coding, and a finished certificate tied to each batch. Shelf testing meant holding samples under set temperature and humidity, then checking taste, texture and assay over time.

Third party seals are not all equal, and we say that plainly. Some verify good manufacturing practice. Some test a finished lot for identity and contaminants. Some audit a facility once a year. We keep certificates of analysis for raw lots and finished batches, heavy metals and microbes included, and encapsulation records that show fill weight by lot. Our price reflects custom formulation and small runs with full testing. Our goal is to serve as many women as possible, but, at the same time, we want to give them efficacious ingredients. Access matters, and so does the file behind the bottle.

If a careful buyer keeps only two Wile products on a small shelf for years and reads every line, what should she check on arrival, how should she store them, and what would it take for you to show field to capsule for every lot.

Check three things on arrival. First, the Supplement Facts panel and the other ingredients line, and that the seal is intact. Second, the lot number and expiration date, and that they match the outer seal record where printed. Third, the directions and the statement that products can be used separately or together, so the routine fits the household. Store cool and dry, away from steam and light, with the lid closed. Use as directed and keep the bottle until it is finished so the lot stays traceable.

What it would take to show field to capsule for every lot is not mysterious. Published grower or wildcraft region by ingredient, harvest year, extract ratio and solvent, finished assay, third party lab name, and a lot lookup that ties the bottle in hand to those pages. We hold much of that paper now by lot. Publishing it lot by lot is the next step. We refuse to call anything pure or natural without saying what it means. If we print it, we will show the document behind it.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with the desk is the poll that started it, and the discipline that followed. Wile named a customer the market had filed under too old to court, then built custom plant formulas with a clinician, tested by lot, and sold them with labels that state support without promising treatment.

The chain is not yet fully public lot by lot, and the founders say so. Seed to Capsule credits what is traceable here, the extract forms, the finished certificates, the lot codes, and names what is not yet, the published field names and harvest dates. That honesty is the reason to keep watching.

Product spotlight

Perimenopause Support, twenty nine dollars and ninety nine cents, daily capsules for pre to peri to post menopause. The label states support for mood, stress response, sleep and periods, with botanical extracts chosen with a naturopathic physician. Take as directed as a daily systemic routine, alone or together with other Wile products, and keep the lot number with your notes.

Deep Sleep Gummies, twenty four dollars and ninety nine cents, gummy formula for nightly use. The blend lists melatonin with L theanine, chamomile and lemon balm extract to quiet your mind at bedtime. Take as directed in the evening, read the other ingredients line for texture and sweeteners, and store cool and dry to hold shape and dose.

Sally Mueller and Michelle Jacobs on modernizing aging without pause

2026-09-12T00:00:00Z

A catchup between two longtime friends turned into a product shelf when Sally Mueller learned that aches, dry skin and vaginal dryness traced back to menopause. That conversation became Womaness, now sold from its own site to Target doors.

Sally Mueller sat in a doctor visit and heard a plain answer she had not expected. The aches and pains, the vaginal dryness, the dry skin, all of it was related to menopause. She told Michelle Jacobs about it on a catchup a few years back, the kind of call where two people who met twenty years ago early in their careers compare notes.

Jacobs had built brands for Polo Ralph Lauren and Lancome, worked in publishing retail, and worked with the Joy Mangano brand. Mueller had run brand launches as a Target marketing executive and as chief brand officer at Cherokee Inc. and Clique Brands. Neither one found clear education, support, or modern products for this stage. So they built what they could not find.

Womaness launched in 2021 with thirteen products across skincare, body, wellness, sexual health and incontinence, sold on its own site and in Target stores. It won the 2021 Beacon Award for Best Brand Launch, added a sleep supplement called Let Me Sleep the same year, raised a 4 million dollar seed round led by Unilever Ventures and Obvious Ventures in 2022, and expanded to Amazon and QVC, with a retail footprint the founders said would surpass 1,800 doors with another chain.

What Seed to Capsule noticed, and what others miss, is how the brand defines proof. Womaness says its products use potent, well researched plant based ingredients, with doctor, gynecologist, consumer and allergy testing, and no parabens, phthalates, sulphates, estrogen, phytoestrogen or added hormones. That is a label claim with a paper trail behind part of it, and gaps behind other parts. This conversation follows the capsule backwards to ask where it starts, what happens to it, and how it is checked.

You met twenty years ago and stayed creative collaborators and honest sounding boards, then a doctor visit surprised Sally with a menopause diagnosis tied to aches, dry skin and vaginal dryness. What did that catchup change about how you worked together?

Sally Mueller: Michelle and I had known each other for twenty years. We were good friends, creative collaborators, honest sounding boards. Then on a catchup I told her what my doctor had told me. That the symptoms in my changing body were related to menopause. I had not connected them. When we reached out to friends and colleagues, we realized this scenario was all too common. There was no clear education, support, or modern products for this time in a woman’s life. So we did something about it. We wanted to make sure that we were hitting on the right communication points, because our woman is in her 40s, 50s and beyond, facing perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause. I think a lot of women are saying, finally. Finally someone sees this stage and speaks to it directly.

Michelle Jacobs: We say it this way. By women, for women. We see you, we hear you, we are you. We do not believe in the pause. We want to modernize aging with innovative solutions, essential information and unlimited inspiration. Live Fully. Age Well. That meant starting with listening. What we have learned in the last year is that women do want to open up and talk about it. You just have to give them the platform and the forum to be comfortable to talk about it.

You launched in 2021 with thirteen products and went straight into Target stores as well as your own site. For a new supplement line, what did that first assortment force you to decide about farms, formulas and fill?

Sally Mueller: It forced us to stay very lean because your business changes so dramatically in those first six to nine months, and then you learn what your real needs are. We started with thirteen products spanning skincare, body care, wellness, sexual health and incontinence. That is a wide shelf. You have to think of it as a funnel. Customers coming in at the top may have seen the brand on tv, or in a magazine, so they arrive aware, but then how do you lead them through each step until they buy. Our woman is still consuming traditional media. She wants continuity. She wants to get to know someone, she wants a deeper story.

Michelle Jacobs: I think a lot of the innovation happens after you launch. That is when it takes true grit. What you thought in your Power Point deck was going to work does not always work. We knew it was an important item in the line for sexual wellness, but we had no idea that it was going to do as well as it is. Listening after launch told us where to put the next work, whether that was a neck serum with a rollerball or a daily capsule. The assortment taught us to keep the chain short enough that we could change it.

Fingers holding a translucent golden capsule against a plain background. Photo · Womaness

Your promise is to modernize aging and to refuse parabens, phthalates, sulphates, estrogen, phytoestrogen and added hormones. How does that refusal shape the Me.No.Pause. formula on paper?

Sally Mueller: We would rather use proven plant based ingredients than estrogen or added hormones. That is a choice we made at the start. Our products contain no estrogen, phytoestrogen or added hormones and are vegan and gluten free. They are made without parabens, phthalates or sulphates. For Me.No.Pause., which is our natural, clinically tested and doctor approved supplement for menopause and perimenopause, that means the Supplement Facts panel has to carry the weight. What plants, in what amounts, in what form. What the other ingredients line shows for the capsule shell and flow aids. We want vanity worthy products, not embarrassing ones, but the label still has to read plainly.

Michelle Jacobs: Clean products made with potent, proven, well researched plant based ingredients. That phrase only means something if the paperwork backs it. We say doctor, gynecologist, consumer and allergy testing. The words natural, clinically tested and doctor approved appear on Me.No.Pause. because that is how the brand states it. From a provenance view, the open question is the one we take seriously. Which grower, which harvest, which lot. The label states ingredients and daily use. It does not name the farm. That is the step we are still asked to show more clearly.

Me.No.Pause. is described as natural, clinically tested and doctor approved, sold at 46.99 dollars as a daily dietary supplement. Walk us from the capsule in hand backwards to the plant lot. What is traceable lot by lot?

Michelle Jacobs: Start with the capsule in your hand. It has a fill weight, a capsule shell, and a batch code that ties to a lot. Behind that lot is a powder or extract made by drying and extraction from plant material. Behind that is a harvest from a grower. What we can trace lot by lot is the paperwork chain. The specification for each ingredient, the certificate of analysis for identity and for limits on heavy metals and microbes, and third party lab checks where they apply. That is how you know what you have. You compare the delivery against the spec, you keep the lot record, you hold the retained sample.

Sally Mueller: Where exactly does this come from, and how do you know. That is the right question. What we state today is the formula, the daily use, and the testing claim. What we do not yet print is the grower name and harvest place for each botanical lot on the pack. That part of the chain is still opaque to the shopper. To show it would take naming growers by ingredient, publishing the extract form and standardisation if any, and keeping the certificate of analysis tied to the batch code on the bottle. We stayed lean early so we could learn. This is where learning points next.

Let Me Sleep joined in 2021 at 26.99 dollars. A sleep capsule for a household that already keeps Me.No.Pause. on the shelf raises the same provenance question in a different form. How do the two supply chains compare?

Sally Mueller: Let Me Sleep joined the lineup in our launch year because sleepless nights kept coming up in the same conversations as hot flashes and dry skin. It is a dietary supplement for sleep, taken daily as directed on the label. The supply chain follows the same steps. Sourced ingredients, dried and prepared to spec, blended, encapsulated to fill weight, tested by lot. The difference is the ingredient set and the dose form behavior. A sleep formula may use different botanicals and different aids for flow and fill, so the other ingredients line reads differently. That is why we tell careful buyers to read both panels on both bottles, not just the front.

Michelle Jacobs: Households buy this way. A partner, a parent, themselves. They keep a small shelf for years rather than trying something new every month. They have paid for the expensive version and want to know whether it was worth it. So we keep the label language parallel. What it is, how it is used, what it leaves out. No estrogen, phytoestrogen or added hormones across the line. Vegan and gluten free as stated. The farm names are not on either label today. The testing statement is. That is the honest split between what is traceable internally by lot and what is visible to the reader.

We would rather use proven plant based ingredients than estrogen or added hormones, and the label has to prove what we left out.
Sally Mueller

You sell through your own site, Target, Amazon and QVC, toward more than 1,800 doors with another chain. What does that distribution require from encapsulation, testing and lot records?

Sally Mueller: It requires discipline. Each retail partner has its own requirements for labeling, for seals, for adverse event handling, for lot traceability. You have to think of it as a funnel forward through each step to purchase, but also backward through the supply chain to origin. One bottle on a Target shelf has to tie back to its batch record. The same for Amazon and QVC and our site. You cannot run that on memory. You run it on documents. Specification, purchase order, incoming lot, certificate of analysis, blend record, encapsulation record, finished test, retained sample.

Michelle Jacobs: Staying lean helped here. Your business changes so dramatically in those first six to nine months. If you add headcount before you know your real needs, you miss the paperwork that matters. We learned to ask for the document behind words like pure. If a supplier says pure, we ask for the assay, the heavy metals panel, the micro panel, the allergen statement. If they say natural, we ask what it means in the spec. That is slower, but it is the only way a small team can serve many doors without losing the thread from field to capsule.

Hand holding Womaness neck serum tube to chin and neck. Photo · Womaness

In 2022 you raised a 4 million dollar seed round led by Unilever Ventures and Obvious Ventures. What did outside capital change about sourcing and testing?

Sally Mueller: Capital let us plan beyond the next purchase order. It let us hold the right inventory, reorder to spec rather than to shortage, and keep testing consistent lot to lot. It did not change the standard. No parabens, phthalates, sulphates. Absolutely no estrogen, phytoestrogen, or added hormones. It gave us room to keep that standard while we learned what sold, what needed reformulation, and what needed better sourcing. True grit after launch costs money. Testing every lot costs money. Keeping retained samples costs money.

Michelle Jacobs: Investors also ask for systems. Where is the spec. Where is the certificate of analysis. Who is the backup grower if a harvest fails. That pressure is useful. It moves a brand from founder memory to written procedure. We want to make sure that we are hitting on the right communication points, but behind those points there has to be a file. The file is the farm lot, the extraction record, the lab result, the batch link. Capital bought us time to build that file properly.

You often say We see you, we hear you, we are you, and Live Fully. Age Well. How do those phrases show up in the way you write a label, not just an ad?

Michelle Jacobs: We see you, we hear you, we are you means we write for a woman who reads. She reads the Supplement Facts panel and the other ingredients line. She looks for third party seals and knows they are not all equal. So we keep the front simple and the back exact. Me.No.Pause. states daily dietary supplement for menopause and perimenopause. Let Me Sleep states sleep supplement. How it is used, stated plainly. No promises beyond what the brand states and what the label shows.

Sally Mueller: Live Fully. Age Well. is the reason we refuse vanity shame. We would rather make vanity worthy products than embarrassing ones. That is why a neck serum gets a cooling rollerball and a body cream gets a clear name like The Works. For capsules, vanity worthy means a bottle you keep on the shelf without hiding it, with a label you can defend. We do not believe in the pause. We do believe in paperwork. If we cannot show it, we should not claim it.

What remains opaque today, and what would it take to make Me.No.Pause. fully traceable to the field?

Sally Mueller: What is traceable today is the finished lot link. Batch code to blend to ingredient lots to certificates of analysis and to the testing we state. What is not yet visible to the buyer is the origin layer. Grower name, harvest place and date, drying method, extraction solvent and ratio, standardisation target where there is one. To make it fully traceable would take publishing that per ingredient, per lot, or at least per formula version, and keeping it tied to the batch code on the bottle. That is work, but it is plain work.

Michelle Jacobs: It would also take saying what clean means each time we use it. For us clean has meant potent, well researched plant based ingredients, with testing as stated, and without the list we refuse. That definition belongs on the record, not just in an interview. If a step is still opaque, name it. If a seal only covers the facility and not the product, say so. The careful buyer keeps our products for years. She deserves to see the field behind the capsule, or to be told exactly why she cannot yet.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with the editors is the split the founders did not dodge. Internally, lots tie to specs and lab sheets. Externally, the label states use and refusals but not growers, harvests or extraction detail. That gap is common in supplements, and Womaness names it rather than covering it with adjectives.

The brand set out to modernize aging for women in their 40s, 50s and beyond, with products that could sit on an open shelf and paperwork that could stand behind them. The next proof, as both founders put it, is to publish the field behind the capsule lot by lot.

Product spotlight

Me.No.Pause., 46.99 dollars, daily dietary supplement for menopause and perimenopause. The brand describes it as natural, clinically tested and doctor approved, made without estrogen, phytoestrogen or added hormones. Take as directed on the label and read the Supplement Facts and other ingredients lines for the per serving amounts and capsule aids.

Let Me Sleep, 26.99 dollars, sleep supplement added to the lineup in 2021. The brand positions it for households that keep a small, steady shelf, to be taken as directed. Compare its Supplement Facts and other ingredients line with Me.No.Pause. to see where the formulas share aids and where they differ.

Brett Ender and Harry Gray on nose to tail daily fuel

2026-09-11T00:00:00Z

Twenty grams of protein in eighty five calories sounds simple until you ask what animal it came from and what else is in the scoop. Brett Ender and Harry Gray built Noble Origins to answer that plainly, with beef, collagen, colostrum and organs in one powder. We follow the formula back to pasture, process and test.

Twenty grams of protein per scoop is the number Noble Origins prints front and center. It is a small number with a long chain behind it.

Brett Ender and Harry Gray came to supplements as hosts of The Meat Mafia Podcast, talking to farmers, doctors and founders about food that comes from animals raised well. Two years after founding Noble Origins they recorded a behind the scenes conversation about building the company from the ground up, still speaking in the same language of service and simple food.

What they sell now is a nose to tail powder built around 100 percent grass fed beef protein isolate, hydrolyzed collagen peptides, grass fed bovine colostrum and an organ blend, flavored in vanilla and chocolate and sweetened with stevia. What we noticed, reading the label closely, is what they refuse. No whey as a protein base, no fillers, no artificial ingredients. The question for this magazine is whether the origin story holds past the label, lot by lot, ingredient by ingredient.

You describe Noble Origins as daily fuel made from real food, built with ingredients that earn their place. Your site says the beef protein isolate and nose to tail blend are derived from 100 percent grass fed cattle raised on regenerative farms. What does that phrase mean in your supply chain, and which farms are we talking about.

We started Noble Origins because we wanted daily fuel made from real food. That phrase guides every decision. Every ingredient earns its place. Nothing extra, nothing wasted. We take our values seriously. That means no compromise.

When we say 100 percent grass fed cattle raised on regenerative farms, we mean cattle that eat grass for the whole life of the animal. We use 100 percent beef protein isolate as our primary protein source. That isolate starts as real beef. The protein is separated out and excess fat, cholesterol and non protein components are removed. Then we add hydrolyzed collagen peptides, grass fed bovine colostrum and an organ blend because those are the nutrient dense parts of the cow that most powders leave out.

We do not name a single ranch on the label today. Our beef comes through suppliers who aggregate from grass fed herds managed with regenerative practices. I know that is not the full traceability our customer wants. What it would take to show it is farm names, harvest dates and lot level paperwork tied to each run. We are working toward more of that proof.

Your mission page says Noble Origins was created as a different kind of fuel in an industry built on cheap fillers, hidden irritants and artificial ingredients. You were podcasters first. What moment made you decide to make a powder yourselves instead of recommending someone elses.

In an industry of shortcuts, we choose service. We had talked to a lot of founders and farmers on the show. We kept hearing the same gap. People wanted protein without the shortcuts, something they could use every day that did not rely on whey or on artificial flavors and sweeteners.

What you eat should honor your body, not harm it. That belief kept coming up. We wanted a clean and simple protein powder with all of the nutrient dense parts of the cow included. Our formulas are designed to fuel your body’s potential with real food. Noble fits seamlessly into your lifestyle to fuel your body and your potential.

So we built it. At Noble, we believe in fueling your body the way nature intended. That meant beef protein, collagen, colostrum and organs in one scoop. No whey. No fillers. No artificial ingredients. Ever. No fillers. No junk. Just good, Noble fuel.

Woman in athletic wear running outdoors against textured wall. Photo · Noble Origins

The label lists four animal parts in one scoop, beef protein isolate, hydrolyzed collagen peptides, bovine colostrum and an organ blend. Most buyers have only bought whey before. Walk us through each part in the order it enters the plant, and what form it arrives in.

The order matters because each part has a different starting point. Beef protein isolate arrives as a dried, isolated protein made from beef. It is our primary protein source and it carries the 20 grams of protein per serving on the Supplement Facts panel. Each serving also shows 85 calories on the label we publish today.

Hydrolyzed collagen peptides arrive as a dried peptide powder. Hydrolyzed means the collagen has been broken into shorter chains so it mixes more easily. Then grass fed bovine colostrum arrives as a dried powder. Colostrum is the early milk collected after calving, dried carefully to keep it stable. Then the organ blend arrives as dried organ powders that are milled and blended to a set ratio.

All of those powders meet at encapsulation, or in this case at powder blending and fill. Fill weight per scoop is set so one scoop per day delivers 20 grams of protein. The vanilla and chocolate versions share that base. What changes is the natural flavor system and cocoa in chocolate.

The label shows 20 grams of protein and 85 calories per serving, with subscription plans described as 20 grams, 40 grams or 60 grams of protein per day. That math reflects one, two or three scoops. How did you set that serving, and what does the other ingredients line show.

We set one scoop per day for 20 grams of protein because that is a clear daily fuel amount. It is easy to track. If a household uses two scoops, the label math points to 40 grams. Three scoops points to 60 grams. That structure lets a partner or a parent share the same tub without guessing.

The Supplement Facts panel lists protein, calories and the added nose to tail blend. The other ingredients line shows the natural flavors and stevia we use to sweeten. We do not use whey as the protein, we do not use fillers and we do not use artificial ingredients. That is the promise on the front of the site and it has to match the back of the tub.

One detail to read carefully. Grass fed bovine colostrum naturally contains trace amounts of whey, casein and lactose. That is the nature of colostrum as a dairy derived ingredient. So when we say no whey, we mean no added whey protein. Anyone who avoids all milk proteins should read that line and decide with care.

Every ingredient earns its place. Nothing extra, nothing wasted.
Brett Ender and Harry Gray

You state the powder is independently tested for 178 banned substances. For a careful buyer, what does that test cover, who holds the certificate of analysis, and what does it not prove about heavy metals or farm origin.

Testing was important from the start because protein powders carry trust. We state the finished powder is independently tested for 178 banned substances. That kind of screen is a list based check run by a third party lab. The lab tests the sample against a set list and reports pass or fail per compound.

A certificate of analysis is the document for a specific lot or batch. It shows what was tested, the method, the limits and the result. We hold those records by lot, and the third party lab holds its own copy. If a customer asks about a tub in hand, the lot code on the bottom is the key that links the tub to its paperwork.

What that screen does not prove on its own is farm origin. It does not map back to pasture. Heavy metals are a separate test with separate limits, reported in parts per million. Anyone reading a certificate should look for the lot number, the test date, the lab name and whether heavy metals and microbes were run in addition to the banned substance screen.

The site describes the cattle as grass fed and the land as regenerative, yet no ranch name, harvest date or extract ratio appears on the label. What is traceable today, what is still opaque, and what would it take to name the grower.

What is traceable today is the formula and the finished lot testing. We can point to the input specs for 100 percent grass fed beef protein isolate, hydrolyzed collagen peptides, grass fed bovine colostrum and the organ blend. We can point to the blending and fill records and to the third party results tied to lot codes.

What is still opaque is the field level chain. We do not publish the ranch names, the harvest windows or the slaughter and drying sites per lot. Beef protein isolate and collagen are processed ingredients. They pass through more hands than a whole cut. Without farm level lots carried through drying and milling, we cannot name the grower on pack with confidence.

What it would take is chain of custody paperwork from ranch to dryer to blender, with lot numbers that stay attached. That means contracts that require origin lots on each inbound certificate of analysis, plus batch records that link inbound lots to each finished lot. That is patient work, but it is the only way to say where exactly this comes from, and how do you know.

White vanilla and black chocolate Noble protein pouches together. Photo · Noble Origins

Colostrum and organ powders are sensitive to heat and time. How are they dried and handled before blending, and how do you check that a shipment matches spec when it arrives.

Colostrum starts as liquid and must be dried gently, then kept dry and cool. Organ meats start as fresh tissue and must be handled quickly, dried, then milled to powder. Time and temperature matter at each handoff, from collection to dryer to storage to blender. If a shipment sits warm or damp, quality slips before it ever reaches the tub.

When a shipment arrives, we check it against spec. That means confirming identity, appearance and odor, moisture, and that the certificate of analysis matches the lot code on the bags. Fill weight and blend uniformity are checked at the powder blender. If a lot does not match, it does not go into the finished batch. That discipline is part of what we mean by service over shortcuts.

Stevia and natural flavors are doing a lot of work in a beef based powder. Why those choices, and what should a label reader who dislikes the taste of organs expect from vanilla and chocolate.

Beef and organs have a savory note. Vanilla and chocolate have to cover without artificial flavors. We use natural flavors and stevia to sweeten. That keeps the promise of no artificial ingredients while keeping the powder easy to mix for daily use.

A label reader should expect a mild cocoa or vanilla cup, not a plain beef broth taste. One scoop mixes with water or milk and the collagen helps it suspend. Some palates still notice the base, especially in water. That is the tradeoff of real food ingredients in a sweet format. We would rather state the base plainly than hide it behind a heavy flavor system.

Two years after founding you sat down for a raw behind the scenes conversation on building Noble Origins from the ground up. Looking back, what broke, what did you change in sourcing or testing, and what remains unfinished.

What broke early was the simple plan. We thought good inputs would be easy to line up in steady volume. They were not. Grass fed beef protein and colostrum move in seasons. Organ supply moves with harvest schedules. Lead times stretched. We had to learn to plan further ahead and to qualify backup suppliers without lowering the spec.

What we changed was paperwork discipline. Every ingredient earns its place, but now every lot has to earn it too, with matching certificates and clear batch links. We tightened inbound checks and finished testing, including the independent screen for 178 banned substances. That made daily work slower and more exact.

What remains unfinished is field proof. We can show what is in the scoop and what the lab found. We cannot yet show every pasture behind every tub. To live noble, in our words, is to reclaim health, live purpose and nourish with nature’s perfect protein. The next step is to attach names and places to that promise, lot by lot.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is the clarity of the refusal. No added whey, no fillers, no artificial ingredients is easy to print and hard to hold across seasons, suppliers and flavor runs. Ender and Gray return to service and intention often, and the formula reflects that spare approach.

Noble Origins set out to make daily fuel from real food, with beef, collagen, colostrum and organs in one scoop. The finished testing and lot paperwork are traceable. The pasture behind the powder is not yet named. We record both plainly, and we will look for farm names, harvest dates and inbound certificates on the next labels.

Product spotlight

Noble All-in-One Protein Vanilla, 79 dollars for 30 servings in the 30 serving tub, with 60 servings listed at 158 dollars, 90 servings at 237 dollars and 180 servings at 474 dollars. A beef protein and collagen base with colostrum and organs, vanilla flavored and sweetened with stevia. Use one scoop per day for 20 grams of protein, mixed with water or milk.

Noble All-in-One Protein Chocolate, 79 dollars for 30 servings in the 30 serving tub, with 60 servings listed at 158 dollars, 90 servings at 237 dollars and 180 servings at 474 dollars. The same nose to tail base with cocoa and natural chocolate flavor, sweetened with stevia. Use one scoop per day for 20 grams of protein, shaken well and used as part of a steady daily routine.

Inside Kin Euphorics with Jen Batchelor, tracing botanicals from kitchen to can

2026-09-09T00:00:00Z

Kin Euphorics began in a small New York kitchen and now leaves the building in 8 fl oz cans and 16.9 fl oz bottles. Founder Jen Batchelor still talks in rituals and hours of the day, but the work sits in sourcing, extraction and labels. This conversation traces that path, lot by lot.

On December 5th 2018, Jen Batchelor turned on the Kin Euphorics website and offered her first commercial sale. It was a small act with a long lead time behind it, years of home extracts, study of Ayurveda, and a year spent with nutraceutical firms learning how to fit functional ingredients into a small format.

Batchelor had grown up in Saudi Arabia where her father brewed beer and moonshine for expat house parties. In the United States, she later described alcohol as disconnecting, a break from body and community. In her late 20s in the Lower East Side, she began mixing herbs into tonics in her own kitchen, looking for mood and connection without what she called taxing the mind or body.

What Kin is now is a nonalcoholic beverage company built around time of day. Ready to drink cans and made to mix bottles are positioned as Tune Up for social hour and Tune Down for night. The brand states its products contain adaptogens, nootropics and botanics, with exact contents listed on each product page and label.

What others miss is how much of the story is about format. Batchelor did not set out to copy alcohol one for one. She wanted what she calls iconic flavors that never existed before, and she kept the range narrow around hero formulas. For a provenance reader, that choice matters. Fewer formulas mean fewer supply chains to trace, and each label carries more weight.

You grew up in Saudi Arabia where your father brewed beer and moonshine for expat house parties, and later you studied Ayurveda and mixed extracts in a Lower East Side kitchen. What carried over from that kitchen into the first commercial batch.

Thank you for having me. There is something great about the ritual itself, and that is where it started. I began mixing my favorite herbs to create tonics that boosted my mood without taxing my mind or body. I had studied Ayurveda, and I was drawn to plants used for balance across different times of day.

In the kitchen it was just a whimsical idea at first. Small jars, dried herbs, hot water, taste and adjust. Those early Kin formulations were fringe and would not sit on shelves today, but they kept the spirit of adaptogenic botanicals. I wanted to create a way for people to seek bliss and communion over shared drinks and interests.

What carried over was the structure. A tonic for lift in the social hour, a tonic for rest at night. The ingredients changed as we learned about stability and dose and flavor, and working with nutraceutical firms changed the method completely, but the daily rhythm stayed. Made for the moments we share is still how I think about it.

You turned the website on December 5th 2018, after a year of work with a nutraceutical firm to fit functionals into a small format. What made that small format so difficult.

I had no idea how hard it was going to be to bring this to the world. In the kitchen you can make an extract that tastes interesting for one evening. To sell it, you need the same taste in thousands of units, with a stable shelf life and a label that states what is inside.

One partner spent a year with us fitting functionals into that small format. Botanical extracts are potent in flavor and color. Bitter orange, ginger, hibiscus, matcha, Reishi mushroom, each brings its own pH and solubility and sediment. When you combine adaptogens and nootropics and botanics in an 8 fl oz can or a 16.9 fl oz bottle concentrate, you have to manage fill weight, mixing uniformity and flavor at once.

We learned about extract ratios and carriers, how a powder flows, how an oil disperses, how caffeine from a botanical source behaves next to acids. The home method does not scale. You need specifications for each input lot and a finished batch record that shows what went where.

Reishi mushrooms and rhodiola roots with pink flower sprigs. Photo · Kin Euphorics

Your early formulas kept the spirit of adaptogenic botanicals but would not sit on shelves today. When you moved to commercial production, what changed in drying, extraction and blending.

In the kitchen, drying was whatever I could source and steep. Commercially, drying and extraction set the flavor and the paperwork. A supplier dries the herb or mushroom to a target moisture, mills it, then extracts with water, alcohol, or a mix, then concentrates or spray dries it to a powder or keeps it as a liquid.

That step changes everything. A hibiscus water extract for Kin Spritz behaves differently than a root powder. Rhodiola Rosea arrives as an extract with its own taste and specification. Reishi mushroom for Dream Light arrives with its own handling needs. You taste for bitter orange and ginger on top, but underneath you are managing how each extract dissolves in a sparkling base or in a 2 fl oz pour over ice with a mixer.

We also moved from open jars to closed blending tanks with lot control. Each delivery has a lot number, a certificate of analysis from the supplier, and we keep a record of which lots went into which finished batch. That is how you can answer the question of where exactly a botanical came from for a given run.

Kin Spritz lists bitter orange, ginger and hibiscus alongside Rhodiola Rosea and 5-HTP, and it is described as gently caffeinated. Walk us through that can from raw material to finished label, as you understand it today.

Kin Spritz is our original social tonic, and it has the most reviews in the ready to drink line. It is a sparkling 8 fl oz can, nonalcoholic and gently caffeinated. The flavor leads with bitter orange, ginger and hibiscus. The label also lists Rhodiola Rosea, 5-HTP and other botanics, and exact contents are on the product page and label.

From the field side, citrus peel, ginger root and hibiscus calyx each start with a grower and a harvest date. They are dried, then extracted or juiced into a form that can dose evenly in a beverage. Rhodiola Rosea comes as an extract made to a specification. 5-HTP is a defined ingredient with its own specification and test. Each arrives with paperwork, and our partners test identity and check for heavy metals and microbes as part of release.

At the plant, the concentrate is blended, carbonated, canned and coded by batch. The can carries the Supplement Facts or Nutrition Facts panel as applicable, plus the other ingredients line, caffeine disclosure and serving guidance. I tell buyers to review the label received for allergens, warnings, ingredients, caffeine and serving guidance, because the label in hand controls for that lot.

High Rhode is your hero made to mix bottle, poured as 2 fl oz over ice with a mixer for social hour. Dream Light is its night counterpart with Reishi mushroom, melatonin and L-tryptophan, poured warm or over ice. How do those two concentrates differ in the plant.

There is a lot to be said for nailing a hero SKU, building a cult following around that product, and High Rhode is that for our Tune Up hour. It is a 16.9 fl oz made to mix bottle. You mix 2 fl oz over ice with a mixer and drink it as a mocktail for social hour. Dream Light is the Tune Down bottle, nonalcoholic and non caffeinated, mixed and drunk for a night ritual.

In the plant, both are concentrates, so uniformity matters more than in a ready to drink can. A small error in a concentrate becomes a larger error in the glass. Blending order, temperature and time are set so powders fully dissolve and flavors stay even from the first bottle to the last. High Rhode centers on social hour botanicals and nootropic ingredients that vary by formula. Dream Light centers on Reishi mushroom, melatonin and L-tryptophan, which each need precise weighing and verification.

Encapsulation is not our process. Ours is liquid fill weight, cap torque, seal and code. Then we hold retain samples by batch so we can revisit any question about taste or label alignment later.

For as much investment as we have brought in, we have rejected just as much.
Jen Batchelor

You have said you went straight to the dreamers for investment and rejected just as much as you brought in. How does that choice show up in sourcing and testing decisions.

We went straight to the dreamers. For as much investment as we have brought in, we have rejected just as much. I wanted to create something that never existed before, not one for one alcohol copies, and I did not want to trade conscious connection and efficacy for scale or marketing hype.

That choice shows up in pace. We refused constant line extensions for hype. We focused on Tune Up High Rhode and Kin Spritz and Tune Down Dream Light, with new ready to drink planned carefully. Fewer products let us stay with the same growers and extract makers longer, learn their harvest variation, and keep specifications steady.

It also shows up in what we will not do. We refuse drinks that tax mind or body, as we define it, and we refuse opportunistic money off mission. That is one of the only reasons for me to scale, to keep writing that message and to keep the standard. I tell people to go at your own pace and celebrate in a way that feels authentic to you. The same applies to sourcing. Stay with what you can verify.

You state All bliss, no booze and drink for every hour, and you refuse the phrase clean unless it means something. What does your label prove today, and what paperwork can a buyer ask for.

All bliss, no booze is our shorthand for mood and connection without alcohol or hangover. Rise wisely and Made for the moments we share point to use by hour. Those are statements of intent. What the label proves is narrower and more useful.

The label shows the product name, the serving size, the contents per serving, the other ingredients, caffeine presence where applicable, and allergen and warning statements. For Kin Spritz, it shows bitter orange, ginger and hibiscus character with Rhodiola Rosea, 5-HTP and botanics. For High Rhode and Dream Light, it shows adaptogens, nootropics and botanics for their hours, with Reishi mushroom, melatonin and L-tryptophan listed on Dream Light.

A buyer can ask for the lot code on the can or bottle, the specification for a named extract, and whether identity, heavy metals, microbes and caffeine were verified for that batch. I am committed to this. I am here to see it through. If we cannot name the grower for a given lot today, we say so and explain what it would take to show it.

Kin cans and bottles on pink table with orchids and cocktails. Photo · Kin Euphorics

Where in the chain are you most confident today, and where is it still opaque from field to capsule, or in your case from field to can.

I am most confident in flavor and format control at the finished goods step. Our nutraceutical partners run to a formula, a blending record and a fill record. We know the batch code, the fill weight, and what the label states for that run. That part is traceable.

The middle is strong when we stay with hero formulas. Extract makers provide lot level detail, and we can follow a delivery from intake to blending tank to finished batch. That is the discipline of fewer formulas.

The field is where opacity remains. A botanical may pass through a collector, a dryer and an extractor before it reaches us. We may know the country and the extractor and hold a certificate, but not always the named farm and harvest lot for every component. Harvests vary by season. Suppliers change. To close that gap we would need farm level lot identity preserved through drying and extraction and printed back to our batch, plus published testing by lot. That takes time and volume, and it is the work ahead.

If a careful buyer keeps two Kin products on the shelf for a year, how should they store, mix and read them so the label stays true to the pour.

Keep it simple and follow the label received. Store cans and bottles in a cool place away from light. Chill Kin Spritz and drink it sparkling from the can for social hour, as stated. Shake or mix concentrates gently before measuring, then pour the stated serving. High Rhode is 2 fl oz over ice with a mixer as a mocktail. Dream Light can be poured warm or over ice for a night ritual.

Read the whole label each time you restock. Check the serving size, the caffeine line for Tune Up products, the non caffeinated statement for Dream Light, and the other ingredients line if you buy for a household with sensitivities. Note the lot code if you ever have a question. No, I want to create iconic flavors. I want to create something that never existed before. That only works if the pour matches the promise, and the label is how we keep that agreement.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is Batchelor’s insistence on a narrow shelf. Fewer formulas, longer runs with the same partners, and a label that carries the detail. The sourcing story is not finished, and she does not claim it is. Field level identity for every botanical lot remains the gap to close.

Kin set out to offer mood and connection without alcohol, in drinks made for hours of the day. Traced backwards, that means growers and dryers and extract makers, then blending tanks and batch codes, then a can or bottle that states its contents. The documents, not the adjectives, will show whether the price was worth it.

Product spotlight

Kin Spritz is a ready to drink sparkling can sold at 57 dollars for 12 cans and 90 dollars for 24 cans, with 8 count at 39 dollars. The label lists bitter orange, ginger and hibiscus with Rhodiola Rosea, 5-HTP and botanics, and notes gentle caffeine. Chill and drink from the can for social hour.

High Rhode is a 16.9 fl oz made to mix bottle sold at 39 dollars for one bottle. The label lists adaptogens, nootropics and botanics for social hour. Mix 2 fl oz over ice with your preferred mixer and serve as a mocktail, storing the bottle as directed on the label.

How label promises became tested seals on the shelf

2026-09-04T00:00:00Z

The shelf holds two bottles with near identical labels, and only one carries a seal. That small mark is the premise of the whole category, a promise that someone without a stake in the sale looked at the lot and checked the paperwork.

Morning light finds the stockroom counter covered with bottles pulled for a routine count, and the manager turns each one to read the Supplement Facts panel, the other ingredients line, the lot number printed near the base.

A seal catches attention because the federal rule behind supplements leaves room for it. Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements and dietary ingredients are prohibited from marketing products that are adulterated or misbranded. Firms are responsible for evaluating the safety and labeling of their products before marketing to ensure they meet the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and FDA regulations. The Food and Drug Administration has the authority to take action against any adulterated or misbranded dietary supplement product after it reaches the market. Dietary supplements are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration before they reach the market.

That sequence matters. The maker attests first, the agency acts after sale when a problem appears, and a shopper in the aisle has little way to check the middle. Third party certification means an independent organization with no ties to the manufacturing company has evaluated a dietary supplement and verified its quality and manufacturing process. Understand third party certification as confirmation that product content and label match rather than an evaluation for safety or effectiveness. Reading the seal therefore starts with restraint. It answers whether contents match the label under a stated method, not whether a formula suits every household.

What NSF contents checks cover

The only published standard for third party certification is NSF/ANSI 173-2021. NSF certifies products against NSF/ANSI 173, the only American National Standard that establishes requirements for the ingredients in dietary and nutritional supplements. The program has three main components: label claim review, toxicology review of intentionally added ingredients, and contaminant review. NSF Contents Certified involves testing and evaluation to ensure the product is free from contaminants, meets label claims, and follows good manufacturing practices.

In practice the work moves from paper to bench. NSF conducts product testing in its own accredited laboratories to confirm that actual contents match those printed on the label. Each year NSF conducts audits and periodically retests each dietary supplement to ensure continued compliance. Only laboratory testing can show actual ingredients or amounts, and each certifier has its own approach and list of substances tested. That sentence belongs taped above the shelf. A certificate of analysis from the brand describes one lot tested by one lab by one method. A seal describes a program of review, testing, audit and retest, still bounded by its standard.

The value here is definition. Contaminant review means defined contaminants at defined limits, label review means declared strength and amounts against a method, manufacturing review means practice against a rule. Retailer interest and consumer trust do not prove safety or effectiveness, since certification means product content and label match and not that the product was evaluated for safety or effectiveness. A Contents mark narrows one risk, mismatch between bottle and label and specified contaminants, while other risks remain outside its scope.

A seal describes a program of review, testing, audit and retest, still bounded by its standard.

Where USP verification looks closer

USP Verified means the product contains the ingredients listed on the label in the declared strength and amounts. When a product is USP Verified it does not contain harmful levels of specified contaminants, such as heavy metals and pesticides. In the same program USP Verified means the product has been made according to FDA Good Manufacturing Practices, using sanitary and well controlled processes. Watch a USP Verified product break down and dissolve within a specified amount of time so dietary ingredients can be released and absorbed.

The path to the mark runs through the plant as well as the lab. To obtain the USP Verified Mark, manufacturers must undergo a facility audit for compliance with USP General Chapter <2750> and FDA current Good Manufacturing Practices in 21 CFR Part 111. USP verification includes laboratory testing of samples for conformance to USP-NF standards or appropriate pharmacopeial or manufacturer specifications. USP conducts off the shelf testing of USP Verified dietary supplements to confirm the product continues to meet quality standards. USP verifies supplements containing vitamins B, C, D and E, minerals like calcium, and other supplements like melatonin, CoQ10, botanicals and probiotics.

Scope has edges worth noting. USP certification applies only to products submitted and approved for verification, rather than all products from a manufacturer. A maker with one verified calcium tablet may sell other lots and other formulas without the same review. USP Verified checks label accuracy and specified contaminants but does not include testing for banned substances relevant to anti-doping or drug testing programs. For a household reading heavy metals and label strength, that focus fits. For an athlete subject to testing, another screen is needed.

Why sport screening stands apart

Supplements intended for athletes evaluated to NSF Certified for Sport are screened for 280 substances banned by most major athletic organizations. NSF Certified for Sport screens for undeclared ingredients including stimulants, narcotics, steroids, diuretics, beta-2-agonists and masking agents. The mark is recognized by the NFL, NFL Players Association, MLB, MLB Players Association, PGA, LPGA and Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports. BSCG Certified Drug Free tests every finished product lot for over 450 banned substances, including more than 400 compounds on the World Anti Doping Agency Prohibited List.

The distinction is the unit tested and the list used. A contents program asks whether the label claim holds and whether specified contaminants sit below limits. A sport program asks whether a finished lot contains compounds that could trigger a failed test, including undeclared ingredients that never appear on the panel. GMP certification audits manufacturing processes and controls but does not confirm absence of drug contamination in finished products or verify per lot label claims. Per lot drug screening therefore answers a narrower and stricter question, at the cost of leaving broader nutrition questions to other standards.

No seal means tested for everything. It is unclear how often any given certified product lot is retested beyond scheduled audits and off the shelf checks. Whether a seal changes the chance of an adverse event for a specific person or condition remains unknown. Therefore no clear guidance exists on which seal, if any, a shopper should trust for other products and ingredients. The honest reading is comparative, not absolute. Match the seal to the risk that matters for the bottle in hand, whether that risk is fill weight and label strength, heavy metals and pesticides, or sport eligibility under a named prohibited list.

The position is plain. Ask who tested which lot by which standard, read whether the mark covers contents, contaminants, manufacturing or banned substances, and keep the receipt with the lot number. Where paperwork names the grower, the extract ratio, the lab and the limits, credit it. Where the chain stays opaque, say so and wait for documents before paying more.

The case for naming the growers behind the capsule

2026-08-31T00:00:00Z

Two kitchen and clinic traditions, Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, kept turmeric and ginseng in regular use for centuries before capsules existed. Contracted farms and certified supply chains now carry much of that material forward. A label should name the tradition it borrows from and the growers who carry it.

Residue found in pots near New Delhi held turmeric with ginger and garlic, dated to 2500 BCE, and India has remained the largest producer of turmeric since ancient times, while the plant spread through the tropics.

Curcuma longa is a perennial plant of the ginger family that produces both a flower and an underground rhizome used as spice and dye. Ayurvedic literature holds more than 100 terms for that rhizome, including Jayanti and matrimanika. Turmeric became an important part of Ayurvedic medicine around 500 BCE, a system still practised today. Susruta’s Ayurvedic compendium dating to 250 BC recommends an ointment containing turmeric to relieve the effects of poisoned food. In Ayurvedic medicine turmeric is described as a balancing agent among three doshas, vata, pitta and kapha. Ayurvedic healers use turmeric internally as fresh juice, boiled tea, tinctures or powder and topically as creams, lotions, pastes and ointments.

Chinese records kept the same plant in view. Turmeric was included in the Tang Materia Medica compiled in China in 659 AD, described as the world’s first pharmacopoeia. Chinese medicine uses turmeric for moving Qi and blood in treatment of epigastric and abdominal pain, menstrual irregularities, swellings and trauma. The two systems kept different vocabularies for similar material, and both kept preparation close to the household and the practitioner. Processing of the rhizome still follows two main methods, cleaning then boiling, drying and grinding into powder, or extracting oil before dehydration.

Ginseng followed a parallel path from mountain collection to farmed supply. Ginseng was discovered over 5000 years ago in the mountains of Manchuria, China, according to a history review. In traditional Chinese medicine ginseng has been used for more than 2000 years and was considered a cure for all ailments. The genus name Panax derives from Greek meaning total healing, given by Charles Linnaeus. Commercially the plant ginseng is present in thirty five countries, with Korean ginseng native to the Korean Peninsula and northern China and American ginseng native to the United States and Canada. White ginseng is 4-year-old raw ginseng, thinly peeled and sun dried to less than 15 percent moisture, while red ginseng is steamed then dried for long term storage. The functions of red ginseng as a functional food for health were certified with the application of the Korean law on functional foods for health in 2004. About 50 kinds of ginsenosides have been identified in ginseng, in two major groups protopanaxadiol and protopanaxatriol.

From regional markets to contracted fields

For much of this history, material moved through regional markets, seasonal collection and practitioner stores. The World Health Organization has estimated that 80 percent of the population in developing countries depends primarily upon herbal medicine for basic health care. That scale explains why standardization arrived with pressure. Buyers wanted consistent lots, known moisture, defined extract ratios and testable batches. Sellers wanted volume across seasons. Contracted farms in India, China and Eastern Europe answered with planted area, harvest dates and paperwork, while wild collection continued for some roots and berries.

Certification grew up to check that exchange. Fairtrade Standards cover farmer cooperatives, large farms or factories with hired workforce and companies who buy and sell Fairtrade products, with compliance checked by audits including field inspections and confidential staff interviews. Fair for Life certification addresses fair pricing, safe working conditions and transparent practices, while FairWild addresses sustainable harvest and trade of wild-collected plants with third party audited traceability. In 2025 Gaia Herbs recertified its facilities under both Fair for Life and FairWild standards.

The numbers tell a partial story. In 2024 and 2025, 51 ingredients, roughly 20 percent of the Gaia Herbs total, were certified through Regenerative Organic Certified, Fair for Life or FairWild standards, up from 35 in 2023. Gaia Herbs lists certified sourcing examples including Holy Basil Leaf from India, Schisandra Berry from China, Licorice Root from Spain and Vitex Berry from Albania.

A label should carry the names that the supply chain already knows.

Those examples show what traceability can look like when a grower, a place and a harvest are recorded. They also show the limit. Fair certification frameworks exist, but how much of the global turmeric or ginseng trade is covered or what growers are paid remains unclear. What share of turmeric, ginseng and reishi in capsules comes from contracted farms versus regional markets or wild collection remains unreported here. How harvest season, grower identity and price are recorded and shared on finished packs is also unclear. Curcumin is often credited as the reason turmeric has medicinal value, but this may simply reflect that curcumin is considered the main active component, and a standardised marker is not the whole plant.

What fair sourcing shows on paper

A certificate of analysis states lot identity, fill weight and test results for items such as heavy metals. A third-party lab gives those results standing outside the brand. Certification adds the field side of the paper trail. Fair for Life looks at pricing and working conditions. FairWild looks at sustainable harvest and trade of wild-collected plants. Regenerative Organic Certified adds soil and farm practice to the same bundle. Together they let a buyer follow a capsule backwards from encapsulation to extraction to drying to harvest.

“Authentic fair trade is about honoring the people, planet, and plants holistically,” said Chase Millhollen, Director, Global Sourcing / Supply Chain. The sentence points to a test any brand can meet. Name the tradition. Name the grower or harvest group. Give the harvest season. Show the certificate and the lab. A systematic review found only three randomised trials of individualised herbal medicine and no convincing evidence to support individualised herbal medicine in any indication. A 2023 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology found positive outcomes were lower for urinary tract and gastrointestinal uses than for psychosomatic, gynaecological and upper respiratory uses, and called for higher quality studies. Those findings do not settle sourcing, but they counsel care with claims. Whether standardised extracts carry the same effects as household or practitioner preparations is not shown in this brief. How fair premiums change income and working conditions for herb growers over time is also not shown.

A label should carry the names that the supply chain already knows. Turmeric belongs with Ayurveda and with Chinese medicine where those uses are documented. Ginseng belongs with Chinese medicine and with the farms in Korea, northern China, the United States and Canada that now grow it. Reishi and other hive and forest materials belong with the harvesters who know season and place. Credit means origin on the pack, lot records behind it, and paperwork a careful buyer can read. That is what fair sourcing looks like now, and what the next label should prove.

Calmer coffee from six mushrooms, with Andrée Werner and Rashad Hossain

2026-08-28T00:00:00Z

A lower caffeine coffee built from shade grown arabica and six mushrooms, tested for heavy metals and mycotoxins, and packed as instant powder for a daily ritual. Andrée Werner and Rashad Hossain explain where each part comes from and what the label can prove.

Boston in March 2020 was cold, quiet and uncertain. That is where Andrée Werner and Rashad Hossain launched RYZE, a direct to consumer coffee company run by what they call a small but mighty crew of creatives, strategists, scientists and customer staff in Boston, Massachusetts.

The idea started earlier, at Harvard, where the two best friends relied on coffee through long days and late nights. The spikes and crashes left them depleted, anxious and unsettled. Hossain then spent three years after college at Kraft Heinz in marketing for prominent coffee brands, and grew wary of selling coffee that did not support a steadier way to live.

What they make now is instant mushroom coffee. Shade grown organic arabica from Mexico is roasted, brewed and spray dried, then blended with six certified organic mushrooms grown in California and Nevada, plus MCT and fiber. The brief names Cordyceps, lion’s mane, reishi, turkey tail, shiitake and king trumpet. Each lot is tested for mycotoxins and heavy metals.

What we noticed, and what this conversation follows, is how much of the chain they can name. Farm states for mushrooms, country for coffee, a spray drying step, a blending step, a testing step, shipment from Texas. We ask what is documented, what an extract ratio or a certificate of analysis would show, and where the record is still thin.

You launched online in March 2020 as two Harvard undergrad friends who had lived on coffee through long days and late nights. What did those spikes and crashes feel like, and what made you say you needed better so you made it.

Hi, we are Andrée and Rashad, and we are so happy you are here. We did not set out to build a company, we just wanted to feel better. At Harvard we relied heavily on coffee to push through long days and late nights, and over time it became a dependency. We felt depleted, anxious and unsettled after the spike, then flat when it wore off. We knew we needed better so we made it.

After college I spent three years at Kraft Heinz, doing marketing for some of the world’s most prominent coffee brands. I saw how coffee was sold, and I became wary of the side effects and of marketing products that did not support a healthy lifestyle. So I quit to make a healthier coffee for myself with superfoods. Cordyceps was the first mushroom we discovered, and its impact on our energy and focus amazed us. From there we added five more mushrooms to our routine, and once I perfected that blend, RYZE was created.

Your medium roast lists about 48mg of caffeine per cup, and your dark roast lists 80 to 90mg per serving. Why keep some coffee in the blend instead of removing caffeine entirely, and how do you use those numbers on the label.

We love the ritual but we refuse to accept jitters, crash and gut issues as the price of coffee. We would rather use Cordyceps for energy than rely on high caffeine, and we would rather make a simple daily ritual than overcomplicate wellness. A regular brewed cup is often near 95mg or more, so our medium roast at about 48mg is less than half. That lower number is the point. It lets people keep the taste and habit they like, with a calmer cup.

Our dark roast at 80 to 90mg per serving is for people who want a bolder coffee taste with Cordyceps and Reishi in the blend. We state the range on the page because instant powder, scoop fill and brew strength can shift the final cup. Stir into 8 to 10 oz of hot water, froth for foam, add nut milk or natural sweetener to taste. That is the whole routine. Feel a Little Better Every Day is not a slogan to us. It is the measure for whether the caffeine level is right.

A cup of mushroom coffee with creamer powder and pouches. Photo · RYZE

You name shade grown organic arabica from Mexico that is roasted, brewed and spray dried into instant powder. Can you walk that coffee chain lot by lot, from harvest to dried powder, and say what changes at each step.

The coffee starts as shade grown organic arabica grown in Mexico. Shade grown means the plants grow under canopy, which slows ripening and shapes flavor. After harvest and processing at origin, the green coffee comes to us for roasting. Roast sets color and taste, medium for smooth, dark for bold. Then we brew it, the same idea as a strong pot, and spray dry that brew into instant powder.

Spray drying turns liquid coffee into a dry powder that dissolves in hot water. There is no grinder and no filter in your kitchen. The lot identity matters here. Harvest lot, roast lot, brew lot, dried powder lot. We keep that chain so we know which powder went into which finished batch. The powder is then blended with the mushroom ingredients plus MCT and fiber. That blend is what you stir into 8 to 10 oz of hot water. Simple on your counter, but each step has a place, a date and a weight behind it.

You grow certified organic mushrooms in California and Nevada, six of them including Cordyceps, lion’s mane and reishi. What growing method do you use, fruiting body or myceliated grain, and what does your extract ratio and standardised marker actually state.

We use six mushrooms, Cordyceps, lion’s mane, reishi, turkey tail, shiitake and king trumpet, grown as certified organic in California and Nevada. Certified organic here refers to how they are grown and handled under US organic rules, with audits and input records. They are dried after harvest, then prepared for blending with the coffee powder. Other ingredients are sourced in the US.

On the label we list the mushroom blend as foods taken for general wellness support rather than as medicine. What we can show today is origin state, organic certification, drying and blending records, and finished batch paperwork. What we have not published per lot is whether each mushroom is fruiting body only or includes myceliated substrate, nor the extract ratio or any standardised marker like beta glucan percent. Those three details are what Seed to Capsule readers use to compare mushroom products. To show it we would need to publish the specification sheet for each mushroom ingredient and match it to the certificate of analysis for each finished lot.

You state ingredients are tested for mycotoxins and heavy metals. Who takes the sample, what lab runs it, and what does a certificate of analysis let a buyer verify about a single batch.

Testing is part of every blend. Ingredients are tested for mycotoxins and heavy metals, which are the two risks we watch most in coffee and dried mushrooms. Coffee can carry mold related compounds if drying or storage is poor. Mushrooms can take up metals from substrate, water or air. So a sample from the lot goes to a third party lab, which means a lab separate from us and from our suppliers.

A certificate of analysis is the lab report for that lot. It lists what was tested, the method, the limit, and the result. For heavy metals that usually means lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury against a stated limit. For mycotoxins that usually means aflatoxins and ochratoxin A against a stated limit. The report carries the lot or batch number, so you can match the paper to the powder in the bag. We have not published those reports lot by lot, and we do not name the labs in the brief. What it would take to show it is a lot lookup where a buyer types the code on pack and sees the matching certificate.

We didn’t set out to build a company, we just wanted to feel better.
Andrée Werner and Rashad Hossain

Your flagship Medium Roast blends coffee with a six mushroom blend plus MCT and fiber, while Dark Roast leans on Cordyceps and Reishi for a bolder cup. After more than a year of tinkering and taste tests, how did the two formulas diverge.

There were many late nights, countless tweaks, and more taste tests than we can remember. We poured everything into building our community and connecting with people who, like us, were seeking something better for their minds, bodies, and lives. After more than a year of tinkering, testing and taste tests we landed on six mushrooms plus premium organic coffee for the flagship.

The medium roast is the daily cup, smooth and organic, about 48mg caffeine per cup, with the six mushroom blend and MCT for calm energy without the crash. The dark roast is organic instant dark roast with Cordyceps and Reishi, 80 to 90mg caffeine per serving, for a bolder coffee taste with mushroom blend. Same method, stir into 8 to 10 oz of hot water, froth if you like foam. One is breadth across six mushrooms, the other is depth on two with more roast character. Both keep the ritual simple.

Assorted RYZE product pouches displayed with a mug of coffee. Photo · The Manual

You report 219,503 reviews at 4.8 out of 5 and more than 200,000 five star reviews, and you ship from Texas while sourcing in the US. How do you keep lot identity intact from blending to the box that leaves the warehouse.

We launched online in March 2020 as a direct to consumer brand, and what began as a personal morning ritual grew into a daily routine for millions. We grow organic mushrooms in California and Nevada, source other ingredients in the US, and ship from Texas. That triangle only works if paperwork travels with the material.

In practice it means this. Each incoming ingredient has a lot number and a certificate. Blending creates a new batch number that lists which ingredient lots went in and at what weights. Fill weight is checked so each serving carries the intended amount of coffee and mushroom blend. The finished batch number goes on pack, and the Texas warehouse picks and ships against that number. Reviews tell us whether people repurchase and how the cup tastes. The batch record tells us what is inside that cup. We have learned that truly no one will understand your business the way you do, and you will never know anything until you try, so we keep testing the system with each run.

You often say feel a little better every day and talk about a RYZE Revolution built on community. What does that community ask you to prove next about provenance.

They ask where exactly does this come from, and how do you know. They read the Supplement Facts panel and the other ingredients line. They ask for the farm, the harvest, the drying method, the extraction detail, the lab and the limit. We are always more than happy to connect with other founders and give advice on how to build a brand via social media as well as growth hacks for e-commerce businesses, but our first job is to answer our own buyers.

So the next proof is simple and public. Publish the mushroom specification sheets, including plant part and extract ratio where used. Publish a sample certificate of analysis that shows heavy metals and mycotoxins with methods and limits. Add a lot lookup so any bag points to its report. Keep naming growers by state and coffee by country, then add harvest season when we have it. We would rather build community and genuine connections than sell coffee alone, and paperwork is part of that trust.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is the clarity of the chain they do name. Coffee country, mushroom states, roast and spray dry steps, blend with MCT and fiber, tests for mycotoxins and heavy metals, pack and ship from Texas. That is more provenance than many instant coffees provide, and it gives a careful buyer a place to start.

What is still opaque is also clear. No farm names, no fruiting body or extract ratio on the page, no public certificate of analysis per lot. RYZE set out to make a comforting coffee ritual with calm energy and simple use. The next step toward that goal is to let each bag point back to its own paper.

Product spotlight

Mushroom Coffee, 45 dollars for 30 servings. Organic instant medium roast with six mushroom blend plus MCT and fiber, about 48mg caffeine per cup. Stir into 8 to 10 oz of hot water, froth for foam, add nut milk or natural sweetener to taste. The brand positions it for a calm daily ritual.

Mushroom Coffee Dark Roast, 27 dollars for 30 servings. Organic instant dark roast with Cordyceps and Reishi plus mushroom blend and MCT, 80 to 90mg caffeine per serving. Same use, stir into 8 to 10 oz of hot water. The brand positions it for a bolder cup with the same simple routine.

What Andrew Salisbury learned from a failed Brazil lot

2026-08-28T00:00:00Z

She challenged me and said, look, I am not giving up my coffee until you give me some really good validation on why I should. Amber Salisbury said it plainly, and it set the terms for everything that followed.

I am not giving up my coffee until you give me some really good validation on why I should. That is what Amber Salisbury told her husband, and it reveals the way Purity Coffee began. Not with a flavor brief or a market gap, but with a household negotiation and a demand for evidence.

Andrew Salisbury is the founder and chief executive of Purity Coffee, a company started in 2016 after his wife Amber developed debilitating fatigue. She slept 10 to 12 hours and woke exhausted. Doctors were stumped. The couple already exercised, ate organic, kept regular sleep and drank purified water. Amber drank more and more coffee to get through the day. Andrew worried the coffee itself was part of the problem.

What we noticed, reading his interviews and the company record, is how literally he took her challenge. He went to the Vanderbilt University Institute of Coffee Studies, reviewed more than 19,000 studies, then spent 18 months with Dr. Adriana Farrar designing a protocol that examined every step from farm to roast. The thesis of this conversation is simple and stated in his own words. It is about the presence of good things and the absence of bad things. The rest is paperwork to prove it.

Your wife was sleeping 10 to 12 hours and still waking exhausted, while doctors had no answers and you were both already living carefully. What did those months at home teach you about where to look next?

Yeah, I mean, basically it really started coming about because my wife was having some health issues. She was sleeping 10 to 12 hours and waking up exhausted. We exercised, we ate organic, we slept regularly, we drank purified water, and the doctors were stumped. She started drinking copious amounts of coffee just to get through the day, and I was concerned that coffee was contributing to her illness. She challenged me and said, look, I am not giving up my coffee until you give me some really good validation on why I should. So I started going to school about the health benefits of coffee and if it really was bad for you. I went to the Vanderbilt University Institute of Coffee Studies. They shared more than 19,000 studies with me on coffee and diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, Alzheimer’s and cancers. What I found was the opposite was true. Three to 5 cups per day showed benefits, primarily from antioxidant activity. That changed the question for me. It was no longer should we drink coffee. It was what kind of coffee were we drinking.

You describe going to Vanderbilt and finding more than 19,000 studies, then learning that 3 to 5 cups a day was linked with benefits from antioxidants. What did that number change about your plan?

Most people are not aware that coffee is the number one source of antioxidants in the American diet, which I think is when I first discovered this, I was a little bit blown away. I had gone in thinking coffee was guilty until proven innocent. Coffee is one of the highest sources of antioxidants in the American diet. That fact reframed everything. If coffee already brings polyphenols and other bioactive compounds to millions of kitchens, then quality matters in a different way. You have to lab test coffee from around the world and pick the ones that are highest in antioxidants. That became our sourcing rule. We were trying to create best practices for what we believe is a new segment of coffee and health. If we were only driven by the health benefits of coffee, what decisions would we make. That question guided the farm choice, the harvest standard, the drying, the shipping and the roast. We did not start with flavor notes and work backward. We started with composition and worked forward.

Two Purity Cold Brew bags beside a glass outdoors. Photo · Purity Coffee

You spent 18 months with Dr. Adriana Farrar asking what decisions you would make if health alone drove them. What did that protocol require at origin?

We asked, if we were only driven by the health benefits of coffee, what decisions would we make. With Dr. Farrar we looked at every step. It meant regeneratively farmed organic specialty grade arabica. It meant hand picked cherry, careful drying, and clean handling so mold does not get a start. Pesticides and mold are probably the two things you have to avoid. Coffee is one of the most heavily treated crops on the planet next to tobacco and cotton, with pesticides that would not be allowed in the US. So we refuse coffee treated with pesticides. We refuse mold and mycotoxins. We refuse poor quality commodity coffee that sacrifices health and flavor, and industrial picking and handling that introduces mold. Every consumer should be demanding good, clean coffee. By clean we mean specific things we test for. No applied pesticides by organic standard, and lab results that show mold and mycotoxins below our limits. That is paperwork, not a slogan.

Your first Brazil lot arrived riddled with mold and mycotoxins after a farmer substituted lower standard coffee. What did that failed delivery teach you about trust?

That first Brazil lot taught us more than any meeting. We had begun sourcing coffee worldwide and lab testing for antioxidants, mold, mycotoxins and heavy metals. The lot arrived and the tests came back riddled with mold and mycotoxins. The farmer had substituted lower standard coffee for what we had agreed. At the end of 2016 we still produced our first bag, but only after we rejected what did not meet the standard. It showed why you cannot buy on origin name alone. You have to lab test coffee from around the world and pick the ones that meet the bar, lot by lot. A certificate of analysis, which is the lab sheet for a specific lot, has to match the bag you actually receive. Third party lab means a lab independent of the seller runs the test. That is the difference between a claim and a record. From then on we built the chain that way. Named growers where we can, defined harvest and drying standards, then testing before roast. Trust follows the sample.

You repeat that it is about the presence of good things and the absence of bad things. How does roast fit that idea without burning off what you selected for?

It is about the presence of good things and the absence of bad things. That line guides the roast. Chlorogenic acids, which people call CGA, and trigonelline are part of the good things we measure. They vary by crop and harvest and they are affected by roasting. Darker and longer is not automatically better if you selected for those compounds. So we roast under customized protocols to retain chlorogenic acids and other healthful compounds, with measured antioxidants. In practice that means smaller, defined roast curves for each lot, then testing to confirm. We would rather optimize for the good stuff than just avoid the bad stuff. We would rather make every decision based on health than roast for cost or convention. People tell us they can feel it in their bodies. We state that as customer feedback about clean energy without jitters or upset stomach, not as a medical claim. What we can document is the input and the process. Organic field practice, hand picking, controlled drying, lab screening and a roast set to hold onto measured compounds.

It is about the presence of good things and the absence of bad things.
Andrew Salisbury

You work with regeneratively farmed organic arabica and name farms such as Finca Santa Maria in Colombia. What can you trace today, and what remains opaque?

We can name a lot more than when we started. Our Sacred Cups lots, for example, include honey processed coffee regeneratively grown by the Inga people in southwest Colombia, and microlots grown by the women of Finca Santa Maria in Colombia. Honey process here means part of the cherry mucilage is left on the bean during drying, which affects flavor and needs careful drying to stay clean. Regenerative in our use means farming that builds soil and avoids synthetic pesticides, under organic certification. What we can show is the farm or group, the process method, the lot test for mold, mycotoxins and contaminants, and the roast record. What is still hard is full container level traceability on every blend component across seasons. Harvests change. Lots sell out. When a component changes, the paperwork has to change with it. We credit what is traceable and we keep testing what is not yet fully visible. Just get a better quality coffee. That sounds simple, but behind it is harvest date, drying log, lot number and lab sheet.

Tall shade tree above lush coffee farm landscape. Photo · Purity Coffee

Your store now spans espresso, cold brew and a Founder’s Roast tied to Alzheimer’s awareness. Where should a careful buyer start, and how should each be brewed?

Start with how you brew. Our Whole Bean Espresso is a medium roast crafted for espresso extraction, a bold balanced shot with rich crema and a smooth finish. Grind whole beans right before extraction and pull as a straight shot or in milk drinks. Our Cold Brew Whole Bean Coffee is crafted for cold brewing at home. Grind and brew cold, which many households prefer for a smooth cup they keep in the fridge. The Founder’s Roast, including the Alzheimer’s Awareness limited release, is built for daily drip or filter. Brew as daily drip or filter coffee. Use clean water, a scale if you have one, and drink within weeks of roast. Our promise is health focused coffee without compromise that optimizes good compounds and keeps bad stuff out. That has to show up in the cup and on the sheet. Business partners Jon and Missy Butcher joined Amber and me early, with scientists and medical practitioners advising. Improve the world’s health through coffee is the mission on the wall. Make every decision based on health is the test before we ship.

You built this with Amber, with Jon and Missy Butcher, and with scientists advising. A decade on, what would it take to show more?

We are still building the segment we described at the start. We are trying to create best practices for what we believe is a new segment of coffee and health. To show more, we need lot level pages that stay current when blends rotate, with origin, harvest, test panel and roast curve in one place. We need third party seals that mean the same thing across certifiers, explained in plain words. And we need to keep refusing what fails, even when supply is tight. Every consumer should be demanding good, clean coffee. By that we mean tested for pesticides by standard, screened for mold and mycotoxins by lab, and selected for measured antioxidants. People can feel it in their bodies is what customers report about daily drinkability. What we will continue to publish is what the label can prove. Farm or group, lot, process, lab results and roast date. That is how a capsule magazine reads coffee too. Follow it backward until the field comes into view.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is a founder who treats coffee as an agricultural record before it is a beverage. Salisbury names the substitution that burned him, the 18 months of protocol work, and the lab sheets that now decide what ships. That patience suits a provenance magazine.

Purity set out to make every decision based on health and to publish the proof where it can. Some steps remain partial, as harvests rotate and blends change. The direction is clear. Trace the bag backward to cherry, drying bed, container and roast, and keep what the tests support.

Product spotlight

Whole Bean Espresso, 30 dollars for 12 oz whole bean. A medium roast built for home espresso, described as bold and balanced with rich crema and a smooth finish. Grind just before brewing and extract as a straight shot or with milk. Best within weeks of roast, stored sealed and cool.

Cold Brew Whole Bean Coffee, 30 dollars for 12 oz whole bean. Crafted for cold brewing at home and described as rich in antioxidants. Grind coarse and steep cold, then strain and refrigerate. A steady household option for drinkers who prefer a smooth cold cup.

Julie Sawaya and Ryan Woodbury and the red zone tests

2026-08-27T00:00:00Z

Just because it is common does not mean it is normal. That line from Julie Sawaya keeps returning through this conversation, and it reveals how Needed reads a lab result.

Just because it is common does not mean it is normal. When Julie Sawaya says it, she is talking about the red bars on her own at home nutrient test in 2016.

She and Ryan Woodbury had met as next door neighbors in their first year at Stanford Business School. Both had come from finance and investing, both had pursued nutrition certifications on their own, and both shopped at the farmers market with intent. They expected the tests to confirm they knew their stuff. Instead almost every nutrient sat in the red zone. For two careful eaters, the result did not read as personal failure. It read as a problem in what the label promises and what the body holds.

What they built from that result is now known as Needed. The brand describes itself as a women led team of nutrition nerds, mothers to five young children, working with a collective of more than 20,000 practitioners who test nutrient and hormone levels. The core is called the Nutritional System, anchored by a Prenatal Multivitamin with 22 nutrients in three daily capsules and a companion omega 3. The stated promise is radically better nutrition to address depletion before, during and after pregnancy, designed around what the founders call optimal nourishment rather than the minimal amount needed to avoid disease.

What others miss is the paperwork behind the language. Seed to Capsule follows a capsule backward to the field, the extraction, the lab and the label. Needed invites that reading. Every batch is third party tested, every nutrient form and dose was vetted through clinical research and practitioner interviews, and the founders can point to several hundred conversations with OBs, midwives, naturopaths, nutritionists and dietitians from their second year at Stanford. Where the chain is still hard to see from the outside, this interview says so plainly.

You met as next door neighbors in your first year at Stanford Business School, both from finance and both with nutrition certifications. What did that shared hallway make possible that a lab alone could not.

We met as next door neighbors actually our first year at Stanford Business School. That matters because we were living the same student life, walking the same hallway, shopping at the same farmers market, and beginning to think about our journeys to motherhood. We were surprised to find just the lack of nutritional support. We both came from finance and investing, so we knew how to read a market, and we had both pursued nutrition training because we cared about it personally.

Stanford gave us a way to test the idea instead of just talking about it. In the second half of second year we used classes to vet the concept. There is no replacement for that one on one consumer or practitioner in our case interview. We did several hundred of them. We sat with women and with OBs, midwives, naturopathic doctors, nutritionists and dietitians. We wanted to better understand and meet the needs of our consumer. What we heard, again and again, was that prenatal vitamins really are not cutting it for the vast majority of women. That hallway turned into a research project, and the research project turned into three years of development before we sold anything.

You both ran at home nutrient tests in 2016 expecting confirmation, and instead almost every marker came back depleted. Walk us back to that lot, that kit, that kitchen table moment.

In 2016 at home testing was becoming accessible. We ordered the kits thinking it would confirm we knew our stuff. We ate well, we read labels, we were intentional. Then the results came back and we were both massively depleted, with almost every nutrient in the red zone. It was humbling. You would think your prenatal supplement would make up the difference, but ours showed it did not.

That is when we started asking why nutrition for fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum is so overlooked. We learned that 97 percent of pregnant women take a prenatal vitamin, and yet 95 percent are nutritionally depleted. Just because it is common does not mean it is normal. It means the paradigm is set too low. We think sort of the perinatal nutrition paradigm, at least in the US right now, is enormously broken. Most prenatals are designed around RDAs to avoid disease, not to support optimal levels. We decided we would rather design around optimal nourishment, even if it took longer and cost more to explain.

Hand holding Needed prenatal jar against cloudy sky. Photo · Antidote

You say most prenatals are designed around RDAs and around pill count, price point and margin. Your Prenatal Multivitamin instead holds 22 nutrients in three capsules a day. How did you choose that fill weight.

We refused to start with pill count. A lot of products are white labeled standard prenatals with only branding tweaks, built to fit one or two pills and a price. We started with the clinical research and with practitioners who test levels every day. We vetted every nutrient form and dose, one by one. Some nutrients needed higher amounts than the RDA to reflect studied levels. Some needed lower amounts, because more is not always better. Folate is the example we return to. We would rather dose lower on folate when lower is optimal than chase a high dose trend.

Three capsules was the result, not the brief. It allowed us to include 22 nutrients at what we call clinically studied dosages, which we describe as eight times more nutrition than the average of leading prenatals. The same formula exists as a vanilla powder, one scoop daily, for people who cannot swallow pills. And we refuse to make products that cannot be taken together as a system. The multi, the omega 3, iron, choline, all of it has to work as one Nutritional System. That constraint is harder. It means you cannot hide an overlap or an excess in a single SKU.

Your practitioner collective now counts more than 20,000 people who test nutrient and hormone levels. What did those charts teach you that textbooks did not.

Textbooks give you ranges. Practitioners show you lots. They see test after test, woman after woman, with the same pattern of low vitamin D, low magnesium, low choline, low omega 3 status, even when diets look good. They also see how depletion carries from trying to conceive into pregnancy and then into postpartum, when sleep is short and breast milk draws on stores. Nutrition has the power to change health outcomes for mothers and babies, but only if you measure it.

Doctors really are not trained on nutrition, we have utmost respect for MDs, but their training is largely not focused on nutrition. The average prenatal visit in the US is about 12 minutes long. That leaves time for only bare minimum advice. So we leaned on the people who spend an hour on intake and who retest. Over three years we brought them papers, they brought us cases, and we revised. That loop is what we now call the Needed Standard. It is not a seal. It is a method. Review the clinical research, check the form for absorption and tolerance, confirm it fits in the system, then test the finished batch.

Folic acid has to be converted by the body to L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate, and you note genetic variation can make that conversion difficult. How does that chemistry show up in your choice of folate form and dose.

This is where the label has to prove the thinking. Folic acid is synthetic. To be used, it must be converted in the body to L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate, the active form in circulation. Published work notes that variation in the MTHFR gene can slow that conversion for some people, which leaves more unmetabolized folic acid in circulation without raising active folate as expected. That does not diagnose anyone, it just explains why form matters on a Supplement Facts panel.

We chose to formulate with the active folate form directly, and at a measured dose rather than a high one. Our belief is simple. We would rather dose lower when more is not better than follow a high dose trend because it looks strong on a label. You will see the exact milligrams and micrograms and percent Daily Value on our panel, plus the other ingredients line for capsule material. We want a careful buyer to compare that line against any other brand, nutrient by nutrient, without needing us in the room. That is what we mean by refusing to leave women shooting in the dark without unbiased information.

Just because it is common does not mean it is normal.
Julie Sawaya and Ryan Woodbury

You state that every batch is third party tested, above what is required for supplements. For a careful buyer, what does a certificate of analysis actually cover, lot by lot.

A certificate of analysis is the paperwork for a specific lot. It lists the batch or lot number, the fill weight, and the test results for identity, potency and contaminants against a specification. For us that means confirming the nutrients meet label claim through shelf life, and screening for heavy metals, microbes and other contaminants at a third party lab. We third party test every product batch, going above what is required for dietary supplements.

What is required helps explain why that matters. Under current US rules, supplement makers must follow current good manufacturing practice, verify identity of ingredients, and hold records, but finished products do not go through premarket approval. Testing every lot at an outside lab is voluntary and costs money and time, because a lot waits for release until results return. We accept that wait. If a lot does not meet specification, it does not ship. The lot number on the bottom of your jar should trace back to that document. If a brand cannot show you that link, with dates and limits, then words like pure do not mean much. Ask for the document behind the word.

Your Women’s Omega-3 provides 1,000 mg of DHA plus EPA per day in original or lemon fish oil. Why keep fish oil in the system instead of moving everything into the multi.

Because amounts and chemistry set limits. To deliver 1,000 mg of DHA plus EPA at a stable potency, you need oil volume that will not fit in a three capsule multi alongside 22 other nutrients without making the pill burden impossible. So we kept it separate, as its own softgel with a daily amount shown on the label, in original or lemon. The label states it supports brain, heart and hormone health as part of daily intake, and the product page pairs it with the multi in plans.

Traceability here starts on the water, not in our building. We buy sustainably sourced fish oil, then confirm identity and potency and screen for contaminants including heavy metals like mercury, plus oxidation markers that show how the oil was handled after catch and during encapsulation. Fish oil is sensitive to heat, light and oxygen, so drying is not the issue here, handling is. Fresh oil, sealed quickly, stored cool, tested by lot. The lemon version does not change the DHA plus EPA amount. It changes taste and smell, which matters for adherence in pregnancy when burps and nausea decide whether a capsule gets taken. A system only works if people can take it daily.

Needed Womens Omega 3 jar with single softgel. Photo · Needed

Powder versus capsules is a practical choice in your line, with the same 22 nutrients offered as three capsules or one vanilla scoop. What changes in manufacturing and testing between those two forms.

The nutrient targets stay the same, the carrier changes everything. Capsules need flow, fill weight control and disintegration. Powder needs solubility, flavor, sweetness and mouthfeel, without artificial sweeteners, and it must stay uniform so one scoop equals one serving from top to bottom of the tub. Vanilla has to mask minerals like iron and zinc and B vitamins without turning chalky. That means different excipients, different blending times, different moisture controls.

Testing follows the form. For capsules we check weight variation, disintegration and potency through the shell. For powder we check scoop uniformity, moisture and potency in the blend. Extract ratio matters for any botanical in the system, standardized means the extract is adjusted to a stated percent of a marker compound, and fermentation, where used for an ingredient, changes the starting material before it ever reaches the blender. Every finished lot, capsule or powder, gets its own third party certificate. If a buyer keeps one product for years, as many of our households do, they should be able to compare lot to lot and see the same method, not just the same front label.

Where in your chain can you name the grower and the harvest, and where is it still opaque. What would it take to show it.

We can name our method and our finished lot results more readily than we can publish every field and boat for every nutrient. That is honest. Some ingredients come from farms where we know grower, harvest window and drying method. Minerals and fish oils come through processors where the key trace is the refinery or fishery, the handling record, and the contaminant screen. Extracts carry ratio and standardization on their spec sheets, and fermentation inputs carry strain and tank records.

What is still opaque from the outside is the full upstream map in one public place, with quantities and dates by lot. To show it would take supplier permission, a shared lot genealogy from raw lot to finished lot, and a label or QR code that resolves to that certificate without exposing proprietary blends beyond what the Supplement Facts panel already lists. We credit what is traceable today, which is form, dose, system fit and every batch third party tested. The next step is field and vessel names tied to each lot number. That is the document we are working toward, because a careful buyer should not have to take our word for clean. The paperwork should carry it.

Closing note from the desk

What stays after this conversation is not a hero claim but a method that can be checked. Sawaya and Woodbury describe years of interviews, a refusal to white label, a multi built to three capsules because the doses required it, and an omega kept separate because oil volume demands it. The language stays inside what a label shows and what a lab measured.

Needed set out to address depletion before, during and after pregnancy with doses tied to studied levels and with every batch tested by an outside lab. Whether that is worth the higher price is for the buyer with the panel and the certificate in hand. The brand at least names what to ask for, lot by lot, and where the map still needs ink.

Product spotlight

Prenatal Multivitamin, 42.99 dollars for a one month supply. Three capsules daily deliver 22 nutrients at what the brand calls clinically studied dosages. Designed as the anchor of the Nutritional System, to be taken with food as directed on the label alongside omega 3 and other targeted products without overlap.

Women’s Omega-3, 29.99 dollars for a one month supply of fish oil in Original or Lemon. Each daily serving provides 1,000 mg of DHA plus EPA. Taken daily as the fat based companion to the multi, with storage cool and sealed and use as directed to support routine adherence.

What Sally learned from burns that made taste matter

2026-08-27T00:00:00Z

Five grams. That is the amount of hydrolyzed marine collagen in a daily serving of Crushed Tonic, flavored to taste like banana milk from a Korean convenience store.

Five grams is a small number to carry a company. For Sally Olivia Kim, it carries the distance from a cooking accident in her early 20s to a New York City business founded in April 2017. After graduating from NYU and working in finance, Kim suffered severe burns to her arms, with blood blisters that made healing slow and visible.

Prescribed silicone patches and ointment did little for her. She began to research ingestible collagen to support skin recovery, and took pills, powders and liquid shots daily. She describes plumper, hydrated looking skin over time. Friends and family saw the same powders and refused them. They said they could not get past the first shot because of the gamey taste.

That refusal became Crushed Tonic. Kim flavored powders in her kitchen with coconut, coffee and matcha. She started the company as a weekend store and recipe blog while working in digital strategy. Publisher W. W. Norton approached her about a book, which became The Collagen Glow, sold at Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon. She quit her job, bootstrapped, switched manufacturers to scale, and built wholesale with Sephora, Equinox and others. What others miss is how literal her provenance work is. Marine peptides made with Korean labs, traceable to the exact fish, third party tested for metals and fillers, Halal and Kosher certified. Then packed as something people will crave daily.

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

I was not trying to build a brand. I was trying to fix my skin. I discovered the power of collagen after getting severely burnt when I had to find ways to get my skin to heal and regenerate as quickly as possible. I had blood blisters. My arms looked raw. The patches felt clinical and the ointment sat on top. I needed something I could take from within, every day, without thinking about it twice.

So I took pills, powders and liquid shots daily. Some tasted awful. Some dissolved badly. I kept going because had I not been burned so badly with blood blisters and needed collagen for its medical benefits, I am not sure if I would have stuck to it daily either. That is the honest part. I began to see plumper, hydrated skin. I became obsessed with getting everyone around me to take collagen once I saw all the benefits I was seeing in my skin, hair and everything else. The brand happened because the formula worked. First it worked for me, then it had to work for people who had no burn to motivate them.

You have said your friends told you they could not get themselves to take it after the first shot. That taste problem is well known with marine powder. What did you mix in your kitchen with coconut, coffee and matcha that told you flavor was the supply chain.

When I followed up, they said they could not get themselves to take it after the first shot. That stayed with me. My parents, my friends, men and women who wanted support for skin and hair. They quit, not because they doubted the powder, but because it tasted gamey and the scoop felt like a chore. I knew then that sourcing a good peptide was only half the lot record. The other half was adherence.

Healthy should not taste bad, or be difficult. I wanted to bring more focus and attention to ingestible beauty, beauty from within. In my kitchen I started flavoring powders with coconut, coffee and matcha. I wanted something that dissolved clear and could stir into water, milk or coffee. No oversized scoops with fluff. No sucralose. No fillers. The idea was simple. Make it craveable so a household keeps it for years, not for a week. That meant our mantra is to always be the most honest and transparent about what is inside, and to refuse what does not need to be there.

Purple collagen drink being poured over ice in a glass. Photo · Crushed Tonic

Your marine line is described as hydrolyzed peptides at about 4,000 Daltons, 5g per serving, with 0 to 3g sugar, made with Korean labs and flavor scientists. Where exactly does that marine collagen start, and how do you know which fish it came from.

We use marine collagen from fish skin rather than cheaper bovine hides when we can, because we like the small peptide size and the way it dissolves. Our marine line is hydrolyzed peptides at about 4,000 Daltons, with 5g per serving and 0 to 3g sugar depending on flavor. Dalton size here means molecular weight after hydrolysis. Smaller pieces tend to dissolve more easily in liquid, which matters for a daily drink.

The chain starts with the fish processor, then drying and enzymatic hydrolysis in Korea, then blending with our flavor system, then packing. We work with Korean labs and flavor scientists on that step. Every batch is third party tested for heavy metals, purity, dissolvability and absorption, with a Certificate of Analysis available. The certificate is the document that ties a lot number to test results. The brand states the marine powder is traceable to the exact fish. What I can show today is the test paperwork by lot and our Halal and Kosher certifications. What remains less visible to a shopper is the name of each vessel or farm on the label itself.

You offer both marine and bovine options in Banana Milk and Strawberry Milk, plus a vegetarian formula. How do you decide which source goes into which product, and what does standardization mean on your label.

I would rather use marine collagen from fish skin than cheaper bovine hides for our core skincare ritual, but I also know households are mixed. A partner may avoid fish. A parent may want bovine. So Banana Milk and Strawberry Milk come in marine or bovine options. The vegetarian milk is a separate formula for people who avoid animal collagen entirely.

Standardised, in our use, means we aim for the same fill weight each time. Five grams of collagen per serving. The flavor changes. The peptide weight does not. The label shows the Supplement Facts panel, the serving size, the collagen amount, the other ingredients line, and sugar content. Low sugar versions run 0 to 3g. Sugar free versions use other sweetening systems and state them. There will always be naysayers about taste or format, and I accept that. My job is to keep the panel consistent from lot to lot, so a buyer who reads it in January sees the same numbers in June.

You pulled in 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 led by co-founding partner Edward Yeung. What broke first when you scaled, and why did you switch manufacturers.

It was not necessarily my choice to become an entrepreneur. I launched Crushed Tonic in April 2017 as a weekend store and recipe blog while working in digital strategy. Then it grew. We pulled in 1 million dollars in revenue in 2018. We were retailing at Sephora and Anthropologie, described as worth over 1.5m in less than a year. I was founder plus seven part time employees, with creative led by my co-founding partner Edward Yeung.

What broke first was production. A kitchen process does not scale to wholesale. Dissolvability changes. Flavor drifts. Fill weight drifts. So I quit my job, bootstrapped, and switched manufacturers to scale. That meant new trials with Korean labs, new tests for metals, toxins and fillers, new paperwork for each lot. Stop trying to persuade everyone that you are not going to fail. That was the best advice I received. I stopped explaining and focused on the lot record, the taste, and whether Sephora, Equinox, Erewhon, JetBlue, Anthropologie, Nordstrom and QVC as named partners received the same product twice.

Healthy should not taste bad, or be difficult.
Sally Olivia Kim

Banana Milk Collagen at 45 dollars for the bovine pouch is your signature, inspired by Korean convenience store milk. What did Korean flavor scientists change about extraction or drying to keep it low sugar and clear dissolving, and what is still opaque.

Banana milk in a Korean convenience store is nostalgic. Sweet, milky, a little vanilla. Our Banana Milk Collagen keeps that profile with 5g collagen per serving. Bovine low sugar one month pouch is 45 dollars. Marine low sugar one month pouch is 55 dollars. Sticks cost more per serving because of the single serve film and fill step. Stir into water, milk or coffee. The brand says it dissolves clear.

What the labs changed was particle handling after hydrolysis, plus the flavor carrier. Less carrier means less sugar and less cloud. That is how we hold 0 to 3g sugar while keeping the creamy note. What is traceable is the peptide lot, the flavor lot, the finished batch, and the third party results. What is still opaque to a reader is the drying curve and extract ratio at the processor, which we do not publish. I can name the country of processing and the test panel. I cannot yet show a public map from boat to pouch. To show it, we would need permission to publish processor names and vessel records by lot, which is the next step.

Sally Olivia Kim pouring collagen powder in research lab. Photo · Crushed Tonic

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

Our healthy twist on nostalgic strawberry milk is smooth and creamy. Mix as a creamy drink. Positioned as a daily skin and hair ritual. The store page cites clinically backed benefits for skin and hair. I want to be precise about what that means and what it does not mean.

The phrase refers to studies on collagen peptides cited by suppliers and to our own third party checks for purity and dissolvability. It does not mean our flavored powder was tested as a drug. Supplement labels carry the FDA disclaimer that the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Our label shows Supplement Facts, the collagen amount, sugar, and other ingredients. I would rather be honest about results than overpromise. Some customers keep it because they like the ritual. Some keep it because they see the appearance of more hydrated looking skin over time. Taste is what keeps the ritual daily, which is why we say it tastes as good as it works.

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

Our mantra is to always be the most honest and transparent. Our promise is clinically tested collagen that tastes amazing, with no fillers, no metals, just results. No fillers means we do not add bulking powders to make the scoop look large. No sucralose means we choose other sweetening systems and list them. No oversized scoops with fluff means we set the serving around the 5g collagen dose, not around a large tub.

No heavy metals is verified by third party testing of every batch for heavy metals, purity, dissolvability and absorption, with a Certificate of Analysis available. The lab tests a retained sample from the lot. If lead, cadmium, arsenic or mercury exceed our specification, the lot does not ship. That is the rule. The failed lot is held, investigated, and rejected if it cannot meet spec. Encapsulation is not our format for these milks. Pouch and stick filling is checked by weight. That paperwork is the part of provenance a careful buyer can ask for by lot number.

You wrote The Collagen Glow after W. W. Norton approached you, and it is found at Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon. How did writing recipes change 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 approached me. It is available at Barnes and Noble, Target and Amazon. Writing recipes forced me to think in servings, not scoops. A creamer for coffee and matcha. A banana or strawberry milk for water or milk. A broth for cooking. Each recipe holds the 5g serving, so the household shares the same dose without extra measuring.

For a parent or partner, I say read the panel first. Choose marine or bovine based on diet. Choose pouch for value or sticks for travel. Choose low sugar or sugar free based on taste. Store it where you make your morning drink, because the best powder is the one you finish. I would rather make collagen craveable than make people choke it down. I would rather refuse to make wellness gender prescriptive. Men and women, aging parents, friends. If it tastes good and the paperwork is clean, the ritual holds. That is the whole provenance chain, from field to capsule, or in our case from fish skin to cup.

Closing note from the desk

What stays with us is the bluntness about adherence. Kim does not argue that a higher dose matters if the cup is left half finished. She argues that flavor, clear dissolving and a small honest serving keep a household taking the same lot for a month. That is a provenance claim of a different kind, measured in repeat pouches.

Crushed Tonic set out to make ingestible skincare that people keep. Marine or bovine at 5g, tested by lot, flavored like banana or strawberry milk, with no fillers and no sucralose. The boat name is not yet on the label. The test record by lot is. We note both, plainly.

Product spotlight

Banana Milk Collagen, 45 dollars for the bovine low sugar one month pouch, 55 dollars for marine, with 28 drink sticks at 55 dollars bovine and 65 dollars marine. Sweet banana with milky vanilla notes, 5g hydrolyzed collagen per serving. Stir into water, milk or coffee until clear. Keep daily for a month to judge taste and ritual fit.

Strawberry Milk Collagen, 45 dollars for the bovine low sugar one month pouch, 55 dollars for marine, with a 10 drink stick trial at 29.99 dollars. Creamy strawberry milk profile, 5g collagen per serving. Mix as a creamy drink once daily. Read the Supplement Facts and other ingredients line before choosing marine, bovine or vegetarian.

Why powder growth matters for careful label readers

2026-08-26T00:00:00Z

$72.88 billion is the figure to keep in mind. That was the recorded value of U.S. dietary supplement sales in 2025, after growth of 5.5 percent, in Nutrition Business Journal data reported at Natural Products Expo West in March 2026. Fitness and energy passed general health as the leading stated use.

Gummies ranked first among delivery formats, with powders just behind and liquids third. Powders posted the fastest growth during the year, followed by liquids and chewables. The pattern points toward products mixed in a glass at home or carried through the day.

Traced from capsule to origin, sports nutrition rose 8 percent and specialty ingredients rose 7.1 percent. Herbs and botanicals traced to farm and forest rose 5.8 percent, reaching 19.2 percent of the market. Meal replacements rose 5.7 percent. Vitamins traced from label to origin kept the largest share at 26.7 percent but recorded modest growth, as did minerals.

That breakdown shows which supply chains are widening. Protein, creatine and hydration now extend past competitive athletes. A midyear update dated June 30, 2026 says creatine is finding buyers among women, active aging consumers and lifestyle wellness audiences. Traced to farm and fermentation tank, healthy aging rose 14.3 percent, while gut health rose 6.5 percent.

Mushroom coffee shows how a harvested crop becomes a shelf powder. Tracing this capsule back shows a global market valued at 3.41 billion dollars in 2026 and projected to reach 5.56 billion dollars by 2035. From origin to shelf, North America held 29 percent revenue share in 2026. At the processing stage, powder held 64 percent share, while supermarkets and hypermarkets held 47 percent distribution share.

Electrolyte gummies show convenience paired with added steps. Following the supply chain outward, the global market is predicted to increase from 1.94 billion dollars in 2026 to about 5.25 billion dollars by 2035. On the finished label side, online stores held the largest distribution share in 2025. From farm and extraction costs forward, higher production costs lift retail prices, alongside strict country rules on gummies as dietary supplements.

Buying channels are moving as fast as finished formats. By retail origin, the mass market held 27.1 percent share, followed by natural and specialty at 25.4 percent and online commerce at 24.3 percent. Tracing sales channels back, online commerce grew fastest in 2025 and is projected to lead by 2028.

Traced from sale back to source, social commerce remains small yet persistent. Early sourcing estimates suggest TikTok Shop sold about 1 billion dollars of supplements in 2025. For the year ending in January 2026, it represented 3 percent of all supplement sales, up 71 percent from the prior year, traced from capsule back to source. Asking where these products come from and how they are sold, most brands surveyed said they do not feel ready for social commerce.

The question of whom buyers trust is also changing. A 2026 NBJ consumer survey found 71 percent regarded supplements as essential or important for everyday health, from origin to capsule. As guides to origin and proof, healthcare practitioners as an important information source rose to 55 percent, compared with just 23 percent in 2024. Erika Craft, market research analyst at NBJ, said healthcare practitioners have truly become a major source of product discovery that people now depend upon.

Watch whether e-commerce holds its path toward the projected 2028 lead, and whether practitioner advice keeps guiding which botanicals earn a place in the household jar.

44 participants and what twice daily bakuchiol showed

2026-08-23T00:00:00Z

AutyFIT Editorial published an evidence review on 21 August 2026 that revisited bakuchiol alongside retinol. The review put the 2019 12 week head to head trial at the center and pressed for clearer statements on cartons and shelves.

For a buyer who finds nightly retinol too rough, the practical shift is modest and concrete. The most closely studied pairing showed similar change in photoageing signs with easier tolerance for bakuchiol. That finding applies to a single tested routine. It does not turn each bakuchiol serum into a retinol match.

Our trail begins with the source plant itself. Bakuchiol is a meroterpene phenol from seeds and leaves of Psoralea corylifolia, also called Cullen corylifolium. A seed oil, a dilute extract and high purity bakuchiol stand as separate inputs. The 2020 Pierre Fabre study reported its bakuchiol input at around 95 percent purity.

The trial itself stayed tight and defined. Its testing was recorded on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT03112863. It set 0.5 percent bakuchiol twice daily against 0.5 percent retinol once daily for 12 weeks among 44 participants. Both arms recorded significant falls in wrinkle surface area and hyperpigmentation, with no statistical gap between compounds for those endpoints. One summary framed the shift as 20 to 30 percent reductions in fine lines and hyperpigmentation.

Tolerance marked the split between the routines. People assigned to retinol noted more facial scaling and stinging than people assigned to bakuchiol. Chaudhuri and Bojanowski wrote in the British Journal of Dermatology in 2019 that bakuchiol matched retinol for improving photoageing and was tolerated better than retinol

The mechanism supports attention without excess. Retinol changes to retinoic acid in skin and engages retinoid receptors, while bakuchiol does not change to retinoic acid. Gene expression research from 2014 found bakuchiol switched on downstream collagen supporting pathways while holding down MMPs that degrade collagen. Later reviews follow the same trail to the source. A review in the Journal of Integrative Dermatology searched PubMed and EMBASE for bakuchiol and photoaging, kept seven articles from 2014 to 2021, and concluded bakuchiol demonstrated comparable efficacy and better tolerability than retinol when tested side by side. A 2024 comparative study in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology reported similar efficacy for photoaging and hyperpigmentation after 12 weeks with fewer reports of redness and scaling

What to track next is origin material and amount. The head to head tested distinct schedules, so it weighed routines rather than potency per gram. Product wording often merges cell, animal and human results into a single studies show statement, which reaches past what cosmetic trials assessed. A 2025 market analysis by Grand View Research projected the global bakuchiol market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.5 percent through 2030, which could bring more formulas with less clarity on origin

For now, view bakuchiol as one kept row for tender routines, not a wholesale swap for each retinoid outcome.