When I started reviewing wellness supplements three years ago, I had the standard editor's confidence about the category. Collagen worked, magnesium was useful, biotin had promise. I recommended what the brand-supplied clinical packets supported.
Three years and approximately 80 reviewed supplements later, the list of products I recommend has shrunk substantially. The list of products I would actively suggest a reader avoid has grown.
Stopped recommending: anything described as 'beauty supplements,' the entire collagen category for healthy adults under 45, biotin for hair growth, hair-skin-nails multivitamins (the formulations are mostly inert at the doses used), turmeric supplements (almost no evidence at the doses you'd find in a single capsule), most adaptogens.
Still recommending: magnesium glycinate for sleep (good evidence, low risk), B12 for documented deficiency, vitamin D in winter, omega-3 from fish oil (the cleaner formulations), specific hair growth products only where there's a documented hormonal cause and a practitioner-grade formulation.
The wellness category will continue to grow, and Glow will continue to review it. But the honest editor's position on most of what's launched in the last three years is that the products are designed to feel meaningful rather than to do something measurable. We will continue to say so.