A Science-Based Review: Are Care/of Vitamins Worth It?

Vitamin and mineral supplements have become increasingly popular over the last few decades, with over half of American adults taking some form of supplement. This rise comes from increased awareness of the prevalence of certain nutritional deficiencies, as well as a desire to promote general health and prevent chronic disease. Brands like Care/of have tapped into this market by offering personalized vitamin packs catered to individual lifestyles and health goals.

But with so many options out there, how can you evaluate if a vitamin subscription service like Care/of is right for you? As a health writer and former biomedical researcher, I‘ll use an evidence-based approach to provide an unbiased perspective.

In this review, we’ll analyze:

• The pros and cons of the Care/of model
• How their vitamin formulations compare to alternatives
• Key factors to consider when determining if Care/of is worth trying
• Actionable advice for getting started

Let’s dive in.

Overview of Care/of

Founded in 2016, Care/of is a New York-based vitamin subscription service that ships personalized daily vitamin and supplement packs. Their model is simple:

Step 1) Users fill out an online quiz covering health goals, diet, lifestyle and values.

Step 2) Care/of‘s R&D team designs a personalized vitamin pack catered to your needs and delivers a 30-day supply every month. Their algorithms take into account factors like age, gender, activity level and eating patterns.

Step 3) Packs arrive in daily tear-away packets with your vitamins sorted by when to take them. Care/of also offers an app to track intake and order history.

Compared to picking a standard multivitamin off the shelf, this level of customization is a major perk. Convenience is also a plus—no more sorting pills into organizers. However, lack of transparency around their proprietary algorithms has drawn some skepticism.

Care/of is also not the only player in this space. Competitors like Ritual and Persona offer similar quiz-based personalization models. We’ll analyze how Care/of stacks up on ingredients, pricing and more a bit later.

First, let’s evaluate the pros and cons of the core Care/of consumer experience.

Pros of Care/of Vitamins

Personalized Recommendations

Care/of’s quiz and recommendation algorithm aim to match you with the nutrients you specifically need. This means no guessing which supplements to take, saving you time and money.

Their R&D team synthesizes research to design formulations catered to goals like energy, skin health or digestion. Their medical advisory board includes doctors and nutritionists who vet options.

For example, their prenatal vitamin packs contain methylated B vitamins and prenatal-specific omega fatty acid ratios based on research around fetal development. These formulations go far beyond basic multivitamins.

Convenience

Care/of offers exceptional convenience when it comes to taking daily vitamins. Their tear-away blister packs reduce organization—just take the pack matching the current date.

The Care/of app also allows you to order, track daily vitamin intake, learn about ingredients and even earn rewards for streaks. This makes building the habit of taking your vitamins seamless.

Sustainability

Care/of aims to reduce single-use plastic in their packaging. Their daily pill packs use recyclable materials like aluminum and plant-based coating. The outer shipping box is also recyclable.

For their powder supplements, they use glass jars rather than plastic tubs. These efforts help reduce environmental footprint and waste.

Cons of Care/of Vitamins

Limited Ingredient Transparency

One common criticism around vitamin subscription services is limited transparency into their proprietary formulations. While Care/of provides some helpful summaries on what key ingredients target, they don’t disclose specific amounts.

This makes it impossible to fully analyze or compare their products against regular supplements or alternatives. Those with sensitivities or seeking specific vitamins/minerals can’t determine if Care/of meets their needs.

Care/of states their products are evidence-based and vetted for quality and safety. But without transparency, users must ultimately trust their process rather than evaluate it directly.

Some brands like Ritual provide detailed supplement facts for every product including exact amounts of all vitamins, minerals and trademarked ingredients. This enables users to verify quality independently. Care/of would benefit from moving further towards this level of transparency.

Potentially Higher Costs

Depending on order size and personal needs, Care/of costs more than most mass-market vitamins but less than premium brands focused on high-end sourcing.

Their base recommended set runs $30-60 per month. While affordable compared to buying multiple bottles under a doctor’s supervision, this exceeds a basic drugstore multivitamin.

For generally healthy consumers with limited deficiencies, generic multivitamins likely meet needs at a lower price point. However, Care/of packs often provide more comprehensive, personalized formulations.

Scientific Evidence for Ingredient Efficacy

While Care/of claims scientific backing for all formulations, available evidence varies greatly by ingredient. Their website and app provide helpful high-level summaries but lack detail on specific studies. This makes it hard to independently assess and trust efficacy.

For example, their Energy multi packs contain synergistic blends of vitamins B, C, magnesium and botanicals like rhodiola, ashwagandha and coQ10 based on targeting mitochondrial function. But I found limited studies proving enhanced energy from their exact formulations. Most research focuses on single ingredients only. This illustrates the need for further verification of blend efficacy.

Similarly, their collagen peptides claim ‘clinically shown to enhance collagen production for skin, hair and nails’—but I could not easily find these studies. Specificity here would build trust.

This pattern continues across products in their shop. In many cases, the ingredients have proven health benefits individually. But evidence demonstrating additive efficacy when combined as complex proprietary formulations remains relatively limited.

How Do Care/of Vitamins Compare Against Other Popular Brands?

Care/of pioneered the concept of personalized vitamin packs in the direct-to-consumer space. But the category has expanded rapidly, providing more choice than ever for consumers. Let‘s analyze how Care/of stacks up versus competitors Ritual and Persona:

This comparison shows that no service is objectively superior across all areas. Rather, consumers should weigh factors like cost, personalization, transparency and ingredients based on their individual health needs and preferences.

Those seeking premium-sourced basics from a trusted brand may prefer Ritual, while Persona wins for pure customization leveraging clinical nutritionists. Overall, Care/of strikes a compelling balance but still has room to improve transparency.

Next let’s analyze some of Care/of’s best selling products and how they compare to popular standalone alternatives.

Analysis of Key Care/of Vitamin Ingredients & Formulations

Here, we’ll evaluate the formulations behind two of Care/of’s best sellers—their multivitamin and vitamin D3 supplement.

Care/of Essential for Women Multivitamin

This multivitamin delivers core vitamins and minerals in a proprietary blend catered to common deficiencies amongst women like calcium, magnesium and iron. It also uniquely contains a prebiotic to support digestive regularity.

Let‘s compare to the top-selling Nature Made Women‘s Multivitamin:

• Both provide 100% RDI for most essential vitamins and minerals, making them nutritionally equivalent.
• Nature Made offers 500IU more Vitamin D but otherwise quantities align. It also discloses exact amounts of all 24 nutrients.
• Care/of includes unique prebiotics but lacks the Omega-3/DHA in Nature Made associated with eye and brain support.
• On cost, Nature Made tends to be cheaper especially when sales run.

Unless you highly value digestive or goal-specific support, Care/of’s version offers comparable benefits to a top standalone multivitamin that costs potentially 20-40% less.

However, take their quiz truthfully, and Care/of would likely customize beyond just a standard women’s multi with more specialization. This differentiation can better meet needs but also drives higher costs.

Care/of Vitamin D3 Formula

This offering contains a 5,000IU proprietary time-release D3 formula combined with vitamin K2 for improved calcium transport and absorption.

How does it size up against leading standalone D3 supplement Nordic Naturals Vitamin D3?

• Both provide 5,000IU D3 to support healthy bones, teeth, mood and immunity. This amount aligns to clinical research.
• Nordic Naturals offers superior transparency into exact D3 source (lichen), other inactive ingredients, and its manufacturing process adhering to international quality standards.
• Care/of uniquely includes Vitamin K2 which further boosts D3 efficacy by activating proteins involved in managing calcium. This value-add justifies its slightly higher cost.
• On cost, Nordic remains cheaper especially at scale despite Care/of‘s subscriptions and discount codes. But you must re-purchase bottles more often.

Here we see Care/of differentiate with a value-adding ingredient in K2 paired to the core D3. This innovative formulation beats typical alternatives. However, Nordic Naturals offers unparalleled quality control assurances that Care/of currently does not provide.

Should You Try Care/Of? Key Factors to Consider

Deciding if Care/of is worth trying depends heavily on your specific health needs and circumstances. Based on the analysis throughout this piece, here are some key questions to consider:

What deficiencies or health conditions do you face? Get bloodwork done and understand exactly where you fall short or require specialized nutrients. Care/of can customize to common deficiencies but cannot medically diagnose or treat disease.

Do you value goal-based formulations? Care/of creates formulations focused on targets like energy, beauty or calming stress rather than only covering nutritional basics. If these areas concern you, the specialization can prove beneficial.

Are sustainability and convenience important? Care/of‘s delivery model with recyclable blister packs reduces waste compared to endless supplement bottles. And simplifying your regimen into daily tear-away packs helps consistency compared to organizing dozens of pill bottles.

Are you on a tight budget? Potentially not the best fit due to above average costs. Compare the ingredients against basic supplements like Nature Made that your doctor recommends first before investing in customization.

Do you need precise nutrient amounts or have health restrictions? Lack of transparency into exact formulations makes Care/of suboptimal if you require specifics around potencies, allergens etc. Basic multivitamins tend to share detailed supplement facts.

How can you evaluate efficacy for yourself? Care/of offers a risk-free 30 day trial specifically so you can personally validate whether their products and process work for you before committing long-term. Pay attention in those first 4 weeks to aspects like energy, sleep and focus to observe incremental changes.

While not a magic bullet, trying Care/of for a month allows collecting your own data around benefits given variability in how individuals absorb and respond to combinations of nutrients.

Be sure to take the initial questionnaire honestly and thoroughly to get the best customization. If the formulations still don’t resonate by the end of the month, boxes can be easily paused or canceled.

The Takeaway: Who is Care/of Best Suited For?

Care/of shines when convenience and goal-centric supplementation matter most. Their model works best for those seeking more holistic or specialized support beyond basic nutrients who value sustainability.

Younger consumers aiming to be proactive with daily health habits tend to gravitate toward Care/of’s experience. Their aesthetic branding also cultivates an air of trustworthiness.

However, those strictly seeking clinical-grade ingredients to treat diagnosed conditions or monitoring precise nutrient levels may find Care/of limiting. In those cases, discussing prescription-grade supplementation with your doctor remains ideal.

The majority falling between the two extremes likely find Care/of at least worthy of an initial trial thanks to their flexible subscription. Pay attention during those first weeks of proactively taking vitamins matched to your needs, and let the evidence guide your personal verdict.

Hopefully this thorough and unbiased review better equips you to make the supplement choice optimal for your individual situation. Health ultimately manifests differently for everyone. But arming yourself with research to find the right fit matters.