Advertisement
Learn to read the back of the bottle.
The front of a supplement is marketing. The Supplement Facts panel is the only part that's regulated — and it's the only part worth reading. These guides teach you to read it, then apply the same tests to our own labels, including where we fall short.
Start here
How To Read A Mushroom Supplement Label
Six checks that separate two bottles on the same shelf at the same price. Including the ones our own labels fail.
Read the guide →Go deeper
Fruiting Body, Mycelium, Or Grain?
All three can legally say “Lion's Mane.” One of them is mostly rice.
Dose & BlendsHow To Read An “Energy Blend”
290/2.5/2.5/2.5/2.5 and 60/60/60/60/60 print identically on the panel. Here's the ten-second check.
Dose & BlendsWhat's Actually In A “Calm Blend”?
“Calm Blend — 300 mg.” Okay. Of what?
FormatCapsule, Powder, Gummy Or Strip?
Most guides argue ingredients. Format is what decides whether the bottle gets opened on day 40.
FormatThe Other Half Of A Gummy Label
Sugar, pectin, sugar alcohols and color: how to read the Other Ingredients line. Ours included.
Dose, timing and what not to mix
One guide per mushroom: the amounts human studies used, how that compares with what a label prints, and a sourced table of interactions to raise with your doctor.
How Much Lion's Mane Should You Take?
The doses the trials actually used, by form, and how to check the real dose on your own bottle.
ReishiDoes Reishi Make You Sleepy?
Reishi itself isn't a proven sedative. The herbs stacked beside it may be. Plus what not to mix.
CordycepsCordyceps Dose, Timing And Interactions
What a 200 mg gummy means next to 1–4 g study doses, and a sourced what-not-to-mix table.
The paperwork behind the label
A label is what a brand chose to print. The documents are what a laboratory measured. These guides are built on our own — six Certificates of Analysis and six manufacturing certificates, read out of the PDFs rather than off a supplier's summary table. Three of our five products come off worse for it, and they're named.
Start here
What A Certificate Of Analysis Actually Is
A COA covers one batch, not a brand. How to read one — and what all six of ours contain, including the three that test almost nothing.
Read the guide →How To Ask A Brand For A COA
The email to send, and what each kind of non-answer actually means.
CertificatesRead The Certificate, Not The Table
A summary said all five were covered. The documents said three had expired.
TestingHeavy Metals In Mushroom Supplements
Two lots of our own Lion's Mane, both passing, 25× apart on arsenic.
TestingWhat A COA Doesn't Tell You
An un-deleted template line, a date you can read two ways, a row saying N/A.
TestingWhat “100.9% Of Label Claim” Means
An assay proves the number is real. It doesn't make the number big.
Testing“Third-Party Testing”: Who Ran It?
Our best-documented product is the one tested in-house. That isn't a paradox.
Testing“Free From Specified Pesticides”
Specified by whom? One word carries the entire result.
Regulation“FDA-Registered” Is Not FDA Approval
One is an entry in a database. The other cannot exist for a supplement.
RegulationWhere Was It Made?
Four of five are US-made. The fifth has the best paperwork in the range.
Is this brand real?
Before the label, the brand behind it. How to check who made the bottle, whether the reviews are real, and what a new brand can and can't show you yet. We run every check on ourselves first.
Start here
How To Tell If A Supplement Brand Is Trustworthy
Eight checks you can run in minutes, run on us first, with our fails left in.
Read the guide →How To Spot Fake Supplement Reviews
Six tells of a fake review, what the FTC banned in 2024, and why this site shows none of ours.
Labeling“Distributed By” vs “Manufactured By”
What each phrase on the label means, and who actually makes ours.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.