Ingredients

What is actually in the products

Our complete ingredient catalogue. Search for an ingredient or filter by category to read what each one is, what it does in the body and what the research looks at. Every entry links to the studies on PubMed and to the products in our range that contain it.

9 ingredients

Biotin (Vitamin B7)

Vitamins In the Blueprint protocol

The vitamin most associated with hair and nails. Gut bacteria produce some of what the body uses, and deficiency in people eating normally is uncommon.

What it does in the body

Biotin is the coenzyme for carboxylase enzymes involved in fatty acid synthesis and gluconeogenesis. Keratin production depends on those pathways, which is the link to hair and nails.

What the research looks at

  • Nail thickness and brittleness
  • Hair growth where biotin status is low
  • Glucose metabolism
Typical daily dose
30–5000 µg
Time to effect
3–6 months
Usually taken
Morning, with food

Biotinyl Peptides

Hair In the Blueprint protocol

Biotin bound to a short peptide chain so that it can be delivered into the skin rather than swallowed. Biotinyl tripeptide-1 is the form used in most scalp serums.

What it does in the body

The peptide carrier gets biotin past the stratum corneum, where it feeds the carboxylase enzymes involved in keratin production in the follicle itself.

What the research looks at

  • Hair anchoring strength and shedding
  • Delivery of biotin through the skin barrier
Typical daily dose
As formulated
Time to effect
12–24 weeks
Usually taken
Daily on the scalp

Caffeine (topical)

Skin In the Blueprint protocol

The same molecule as in coffee, used on skin and scalp rather than swallowed. It is a common ingredient in eye creams and hair serums.

What it does in the body

On skin caffeine constricts small blood vessels and acts as a mild diuretic locally, which is the basis for its use around the eyes. On the scalp it is studied as a counter to the effect of DHT on the follicle.

What the research looks at

  • Under-eye puffiness
  • Hair shaft growth in follicle culture
  • Scalp penetration from leave-on formulations
Typical daily dose
0.5–3% topically
Time to effect
8–24 weeks on scalp
Usually taken
Morning on skin, daily on scalp

Collagen Peptides

Skin In the Blueprint protocol

Collagen broken into short chains of two or three amino acids so they survive digestion intact. Whole collagen would simply be dismantled into its constituent amino acids like any other protein.

What it does in the body

Specific di- and tripeptides, particularly prolyl-hydroxyproline, appear in blood after ingestion and are thought to act as signals to fibroblasts and chondrocytes rather than as raw material.

What the research looks at

  • Skin elasticity and hydration
  • Joint comfort in athletes
  • Tendon and ligament properties
Typical daily dose
10–15 g
Time to effect
8–12 weeks
Usually taken
Any time, with vitamin C

GHK-Cu (Copper Peptide)

Skin

A tripeptide — glycine, histidine, lysine — that carries a copper ion. It occurs naturally in plasma, and levels fall by roughly two-thirds between the ages of twenty and sixty.

What it does in the body

GHK-Cu signals to fibroblasts to produce collagen, elastin and glycosaminoglycans, and delivers copper to the enzymes that cross-link them. It is a signalling molecule rather than a raw material.

What the research looks at

  • Skin firmness and wrinkle depth
  • Wound healing
  • Hair follicle size
Typical daily dose
1–3 mg topically
Time to effect
8–12 weeks
Usually taken
Evening, away from vitamin C

Minoxidil

Hair

A licensed medicine, not a supplement — we do not sell it, and it is listed here because it is the reference point every hair ingredient is compared against. It was developed as a blood pressure drug and the hair growth was an unwanted side effect.

What it does in the body

Minoxidil opens potassium channels and widens the blood vessels feeding the follicle, and it lengthens the growth phase of the hair cycle. Stopping treatment reverses the effect within months.

What the research looks at

  • Hair count and thickness in androgenetic alopecia
  • Response rates and time to relapse after stopping
Typical daily dose
As directed on the medicine
Time to effect
12–24 weeks
Usually taken
Per the product's own instructions

MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane)

Bones & joints

An organic sulphur compound found in small amounts in fruit, vegetables and milk. It is odourless, unlike most sulphur compounds.

What it does in the body

MSM supplies sulphur for the disulphide bonds that give keratin and collagen their structure. It also appears to affect inflammatory signalling, though the mechanism is less well characterised.

What the research looks at

  • Joint pain and physical function
  • Muscle soreness after exercise
  • Hair and nail strength
Typical daily dose
1.5–3 g
Time to effect
4–12 weeks
Usually taken
With food, split doses

Saw Palmetto

Hair

Berries from a dwarf palm native to the south-eastern United States, extracted for their fatty acids and sterols.

What it does in the body

Saw palmetto is studied as an inhibitor of 5-alpha-reductase, the enzyme that converts testosterone into dihydrotestosterone — the androgen involved in both prostate growth and pattern hair loss.

What the research looks at

  • Urinary symptoms in benign prostate enlargement
  • Androgenetic hair loss
  • DHT levels in scalp tissue
Typical daily dose
160–320 mg extract
Time to effect
8–24 weeks
Usually taken
With food

Silica (Silicon)

Minerals

Bioavailable silicon, usually from bamboo extract, horsetail or orthosilicic acid. Beer is, improbably, one of the richest dietary sources in Europe.

What it does in the body

Silicon is involved in the cross-linking of collagen and glycosaminoglycans in connective tissue. In binder formulations it also has a physical role, adsorbing compounds in the gut.

What the research looks at

  • Hair and nail strength
  • Skin elasticity
  • Bone collagen formation
Typical daily dose
10–40 mg
Time to effect
12–20 weeks
Usually taken
With food

Why the form and the dose matter

Two products can name the same ingredient on the label and behave completely differently. Magnesium oxide and magnesium glycinate are both magnesium; only one of them is absorbed properly. Ethyl ester fish oil and triglyceride fish oil are both omega-3. Folic acid and methylfolate are both folate, but not for everyone.

That is the difference this page is written to make visible. Where a form matters we have given it its own entry rather than hiding it inside a general one, and the dose listed is the one used in the research — not the smallest amount a manufacturer can put on a label and still name the ingredient.

We only describe a product as third-party tested when there is documentation behind the claim. Below is what each of our brands actually documents, brand by brand.

Third-party testing

Certificates of analysis

Pick a brand to see what is actually tested and who tests it. Four of the seven publish reports you can open right here — and they publish different amounts, from a certificate for every batch down to a single lot. The other three document their testing and hand over the paperwork for a specific batch when you ask. That difference is worth knowing before you buy, so we have not smoothed it over. Every report is also linked from the product it covers.

Blueprint 24 reports published

Every batch goes to an independent accredited laboratory in the United States, which checks the contents against the label and screens for heavy metals, microbes and other contamination. Blueprint publishes the full report for every batch, and a new one follows each production run.

Supplements

Nutrition

Skincare

Haircare

Lineage Provisions 9 reports published

Samples from every batch are run on ICP-MS, LC-MS and GC-MS and screened for more than three hundred contaminants, among them heavy metals, glyphosate, pesticides and mycotoxins. The analyses are done by Light Labs, who publish a running report per product with every test result in it — not a single certificate but the whole series, with the date of the most recent test.

Supplements

Nutrition

Designs for Health 14 reports published

Raw materials are tested for identity, purity and potency at external ISO-certified laboratories and screened for heavy metals, pesticides and microbiological contamination. A supplier’s own certificate is treated as a claim to verify rather than a result to accept. Certificates are published per lot rather than for the product as a whole, so the one below covers the lot number printed on it and no other — for a different lot, ask us and we will request it.

Supplements

SALTE 1 report published

Each batch is sent to Eurofins, an independent accredited laboratory, which confirms that the sodium, potassium, magnesium and chloride in a sachet match the amounts on the packet. The published report covers five flavours in one document and is the laboratory’s own, in Swedish.

Supplements

ARMRA Testing documented

Every production run is audited by ISO/IEC-accredited third-party laboratories for heavy metals, glyphosate, other contaminants and microbiology before any of it is released for sale. ARMRA documents the programme and its certifications publicly; the report for a specific batch comes from the manufacturer on request.

Quicksilver Scientific Testing documented

Made in an NSF/ANSI 455-2 GMP-certified facility in Colorado with its own ISO/IEC 17025-accredited testing laboratory. Every batch is tested both in-house and by outside laboratories for potency and purity; the certificate for a batch comes from the manufacturer on request.

Solgar Reports on request

Solgar tests raw materials on arrival and finished products before release in its own quality laboratory, and manufactures to GMP. That is an in-house programme, not an outside verification: Solgar carries no NSF or USP certification, so we do not describe it as third-party tested. Batch documentation is available from the manufacturer on request.

Vital Nutrients Testing documented

Vital Nutrients documents a Quality Assurance Programme that engages third-party laboratories — every batch of GMO-susceptible ingredients, for example, is tested for GMO markers at an independent genetics laboratory, and even the bottles are third-party verified BPA-free. Individual lot certificates are not published; documentation for a batch comes from the manufacturer on request.

T.A. Sciences Testing documented

T.A. Sciences documents an end-to-end testing and analysis programme across sourcing, formulation and US manufacturing, and TA-65 has been determined Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by an independent expert panel. That safety assessment is not batch testing, and no lot certificates are published — documentation comes from the manufacturer on request.

Why testing matters

Why does a supplement need testing at all?

Because nothing else verifies the label. A supplement is regulated as a food, not as a medicine, which means no authority checks each batch before it reaches a shelf. Testing is what turns the number on the tub into something you can look up.

What is being tested for?

Two separate things. Identity and quantity — is the ingredient present, and in the amount the label states. And contamination — heavy metals, microbes, solvent residues and traces from the packaging, which can come from the raw material, the production line or the container.

How often is the label actually wrong?

Often enough to be worth checking. Of 272 supplements implicated in liver injury in the United States, 51 per cent had contents that did not match the label (Hepatology Communications, 2019). Among 57 botanical sports supplements, 89 per cent were inaccurately labelled and 40 per cent contained none of the labelled ingredient at all (JAMA Network Open, 2023).

What can I ask you for?

The report for the batch you were sent. Where a manufacturer does not publish one, we ask them for it — tell us the product and the batch number on the tub and we will come back with what they give us, or with the fact that they would not.

The certificates are the property of the manufacturers and their laboratories, and are linked here in their original location. Blueprint’s reports may not be reused without Blueprint’s permission.

This page is general information about ingredients, not advice for you. Food supplements are not medicines and do not cure, treat or prevent disease. They do not replace a varied diet, sleep, movement or medical care. Doses and timings are those used in published research and on product labels; they are not a recommendation. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medication or living with a medical condition, talk to a doctor or pharmacist before starting anything new.