The UK wellness market is crowded, confusing, and often contradictory. Novel Foods regulations change. Brands rebrand and reformulate. Celebrity endorsements arrive in waves. In that environment, a reader looking for an honest recommendation has fewer reliable sources than the scale of the category might suggest.

The Calmer List exists to be one of those sources. This page sets out, in plain terms, how we do the work — so readers can decide how much weight to give our recommendations, and so brands we cover know what to expect.

What we review.

We cover wellness supplements available in the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on four categories: CBD, nootropics, adaptogens, and functional mushrooms. Our reviews concentrate on finished products marketed to UK consumers through legal retail channels — we do not review medicines, prescription-only products, or anything outside the scope of the Food Standards Agency's Novel Foods framework or the equivalent UK regulatory pathways for supplements.

Every product we consider must meet a minimum threshold before we review it at all. Products that fail these checks don't receive a bad review — they don't receive a review. The minimums:

• Legal for sale in the UK as a food supplement or equivalent category
• On the FSA Novel Foods public register (or in the equivalent regulatory process for non-CBD categories) where applicable
• Sold by a trading entity with a verifiable Companies House registration or equivalent international record
• Able to produce a current Certificate of Analysis for the specific product we would review

Our three-tier review system.

Not every review we publish carries the same depth of evidence behind it. Being transparent about this matters more than pretending every review is the result of extensive personal testing. We use three clearly labelled tiers:

Every review on The Calmer List is labelled with its tier at the top of the page. A Tier 2 review will never describe the taste of a product or claim first-person use — it will describe what the published lab sheet shows, what the brand claims, and what published customer reviews suggest. A Tier 1 review will say explicitly when the product was purchased and how long it was used before the review was written.

What "Lab Verified" means.

Every review carries a "Lab Verified" confirmation when the product's current batch Certificate of Analysis has been examined as part of our research. This confirms three specific things and nothing more:

1. The brand publishes a batch-specific COA for the product (not a generic range COA)
2. The tested CBD content is within normal laboratory variance of the label claim (typically within 5%)
3. The tested THC content falls within UK legal limits

Lab Verified is not an endorsement of efficacy. It does not mean we are confirming what the product will do for any individual user — we do not and cannot make such claims. It means the product contains what it says it contains, at the level it claims, within the regulatory framework that governs its sale. This is a meaningful quality signal in a market where a significant proportion of products fail even this basic test.

Our scoring scale.

We score on a 0-10 scale, in increments of 0.1. Scores are deliberately conservative; nothing earns a 10, and few products exceed 9. The scale is designed to be read, not skimmed.

What we weigh.

Scoring is the output of editorial judgement across six factors. Weightings vary by category and product type — a CBD oil is judged against different standards than a nootropic stack — but these are the six considerations that shape every score we publish:

1. Regulatory compliance

Is the product legally on sale? For CBD, this means appearing on the FSA Novel Foods register with Validated or Awaiting Evidence status. For other categories, it means meeting the equivalent UK regulatory requirements. Products failing compliance don't score — they don't get reviewed.

2. Lab transparency

Does the brand publish batch-specific third-party lab reports? Are they current? Do they cover cannabinoid or active-ingredient content, contamination testing, and batch identification? Transparency is a gate, not a bonus: brands that hide their lab work don't make The List.

3. Sourcing clarity

Can we trace where the active ingredient comes from? Is the growing region, extraction method, and carrier clearly identified? Brands that obscure sourcing are scored accordingly.

4. Formulation coherence

Does the product's formulation match its marketing? A full-spectrum oil should actually contain minor cannabinoids. A nootropic stack should deliver clinically-meaningful doses of each ingredient, not cosmetic traces. Products whose marketing outpaces their formulation score poorly.

5. Value for money

Cost per milligram, cost per serving, or cost per clinical dose, benchmarked against category peers. Expensive products must earn their premium through measurable quality differences. Cheap products must not cut corners that matter.

6. Brand practices

Customer service responsiveness, refund policy, ASA compliance in marketing, and the broader conduct of the business as visible through public records. Brands that consistently cross the line on advertising claims — even in ways that don't directly affect a given product — lose ground.

What we won't do.

Some of what defines our editorial approach is what we've decided not to do. For transparency:

• We do not accept gifted products in exchange for review. Where we test, we buy.
• We do not accept paid reviews or sponsored rankings. No amount of money buys a position on The List.
• We do not show brands reviews before publication. Fact-checks via email are fine; preview approval is not.
• We do not make medical claims. We describe what a product is, not what it will do for you. CBD and supplements are not licensed medicines and we treat them accordingly.
• We do not review products outside our stated categories. Reader trust is built through depth in a defined area, not coverage of everything.
• We do not review CBD flower or non-compliant imports. These sit outside the regulatory framework we cover.
• We do not publish reviews we haven't substantiated. A review missing its evidence base doesn't go live.

Corrections and updates.

We will make mistakes. When we do, we want to know and we want to correct them. Every review carries a published and last-updated date at the top; substantive corrections to accuracy are noted at the foot of the article with the date the correction was made.

Readers who spot errors are invited to email corrections@thecalmerlist.com. Brands disputing factual claims in our coverage are invited to use the same address. We respond to corrections requests within 48 hours during weekdays and treat them as a priority.

Reviews are revisited on a rolling basis. Prices change, formulations change, regulatory status changes. Category winners are reassessed at minimum every three months; individual reviews are updated as material information changes.

Questions we can't answer.

There are limits to what any publication can legitimately tell you about wellness supplements, and we want to be clear about ours. We cannot tell you whether a particular product will work for you personally — individual response to supplements varies enormously, and no review can substitute for your own experience. We cannot give medical advice; if you take prescription medication, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have an existing health condition, please speak to your GP or pharmacist before taking any CBD or supplement we cover.

We also cannot tell you what the regulatory status of a product will be in six months. The Novel Foods framework is moving, the FSA is expected to issue the first full CBD authorisations in Autumn 2026, and the landscape will change. We update our coverage as it does, but a review written today reflects the world as it is today.

Getting in touch.

The best way to reach us is by email:

• General editorial enquiries: hello@thecalmerlist.com
• Corrections and factual disputes: corrections@thecalmerlist.com
• Brand and press enquiries: press@thecalmerlist.com
• Privacy and data requests: privacy@thecalmerlist.com

Our full editorial and affiliate policies are available on our Affiliate Disclosure and Privacy Policy pages.

This methodology is reviewed and updated quarterly. Last updated: April 2026.