Three questions, asked of every ingredient

An ingredient has to clear all three to make it into a formula. Most don't.

Question one

Can the body absorb it?

Form decides fate. Raw collagen is too large a molecule to cross the intestinal wall — hydrolysed peptides are not. A probiotic that dissolves in stomach acid never reaches the gut. We choose the form that survives the journey, not the one that reads well on a label.

Question two

Is it at the studied dose?

This is where most of the category quietly fails. An ingredient present at a tenth of the researched amount is technically in the tub and functionally irrelevant. If we can't reach the dose the evidence used, we don't include the ingredient and pretend.

Question three

Does it earn its place?

No proprietary blends. No twenty-ingredient labels where eighteen are dust. Every ingredient has a stated job, and we'll tell you what it is. Étoile de Paris has twelve ingredients. Not one of them is padding.

The dose gap, in numbers

Published research on visible skin, hair and nail outcomes has generally used between 2.5g and 10g of hydrolysed collagen peptides daily. A great many products sold as "beauty collagen" in the UK sit under 1g. Both are honest about containing collagen. Only one is dosed like the studies.

The same principle drives the rest of the range: a probiotic built inside a MAKTREK® Bi-Pass capsule because a culture that dies in stomach acid is a culture you paid for and never received; four molecular forms of hyaluronic acid in Étoile de Paris rather than one, because they behave differently on skin.

The literature we build on

We formulate against published, peer-reviewed human research — and we name it, so you can read it yourself rather than take our word for it. These are studies on ingredients at specific doses, not trials of our finished products. That distinction matters, and we're not going to blur it.

• Proksch et al. (2014) — skin elasticity and hydration following daily collagen peptide supplementation
• König et al. (2018) — collagen peptides and skin/nail outcomes in postmenopausal women
• Kim et al. (2018) and Inoue et al. (2016) — low-molecular-weight collagen peptides and skin measures
• King (2017) — nail growth rate and brittleness
• Clark et al. (2008) — joint comfort in physically active adults

Where research is thin, we say so. Where it's strong, we dose to it. Where an ingredient is fashionable but unsupported, it doesn't go in — however well it would sell.

What we will and won't say

Food supplements in the UK may only carry authorised health claims. We use them precisely, and we don't dress them up.

Every formula, the same standard

Supplements and skincare, held to the same rule: the dose the evidence used, or it doesn't ship.

How we verify it

Every batch is independently verified so that what's on the label is what's in the tub. Full ingredient lists — including the boring ones — are printed on every product page.