The No-Nonsense Guide To Choosing The Right Multivitamin

Before we get into the truth about multivitamins, it's probably only fair to explain how a banker, a barrister and a brand builder ended up on a mission to elevate women's health through rethinking the humble multivitamin.

My co-founders, Aoife and Jenny, and I had been friends for years before SISTERLY ever existed. During Covid, like many people, we found ourselves swapping tips on how we were staying healthy, including the vitamins we were taking. The funny thing was that each of us had started and stopped countless supplements. Bottles piled up in cupboards, routines slipped, and consistency, the one thing supplements actually require to work, proved surprisingly hard.

We shared a common frustration: supplements were confusing. What should you take? In what dose? In what form? What should you combine and what should you avoid? None of us had a PhD in Latin, yet that often felt like the entry requirement just to decipher a label.

At the time I was living full time in Los Angeles, which gave me a front-row seat to the full spectrum of the wellness world, from genuine innovation to some fairly wild biohacking. I once saw someone receiving an NAD drip in one arm while holding a martini in the other. Wellness was certainly coming in many forms.

What became clear to us was that women didn't need more complexity. We needed simplicity. Our goal was to create a science-backed, one-and-done multivitamin designed specifically for women, delivering the essentials in a single daily sachet. Instead of juggling bottles or swallowing a handful of horse pills, SISTERLY comes as a powder sachet that you simply mix with water or juice, a format that makes it far easier to build into your routine and actually stick with.

To make it happen, we assembled a formidable team of scientists and nutrition experts. From the outset we had three non-negotiables: every nutrient had to be in its natural form, optimally dosed and formulated specifically with the female physiology in mind.

Being our own customer helped enormously. Our north star was simple: we were creating something completely uncompromising for our mothers, sisters, girlfriends and ourselves.

What surprised us most during development was how often manufacturers tried to steer us towards shortcuts: bulking agents, artificial flavourings, added sugars. Many multivitamins are built around price rather than performance. Even our lead formulator said our approach was refreshing and different. Instead of asking him to work backwards from a price point, we asked him to design the best possible formula based on the research. Energy, immunity, hormonal balance and beauty all had a seat at the table.

Energy quickly emerged as a central focus. When we surveyed women, it was consistently their number one pain point. That's why ingredients like CoQ10 became hero components of our formula, even though they're rarely included in multivitamins because of their cost. As we scaled production, we were able to find efficiencies so that a daily serving now costs less than a cup of coffee.

When you are formulating specifically for women, you pay close attention to their needs. Research finds that in Europe, over 40% of adults have insufficient vitamin D levels. Subclinical magnesium deficiency affects up to 15 to 20% of healthy adult women, dietary intake often falls below recommended levels, and women have unique and increased nutritional needs during their reproductive years, pregnancy and menopause.

So how do you separate a good multivitamin from a mediocre one?

First, look for transparency. If a label hides ingredients behind a "proprietary blend", that's a red flag. You should be able to see exactly what's inside and in what amounts.

Second, check the forms of the nutrients. Bioavailable forms, the versions your body can actually absorb and use, make a significant difference. Many cheaper supplements rely on synthetic versions that are far less effective.

Third, pay attention to dosage. This is where things get particularly confusing. Many people assume that if a supplement meets the recommended daily amount it must be sufficient. In reality, those reference values were largely established decades ago and were designed to prevent deficiency diseases, not necessarily to support optimal health. In other words, they represent the minimum needed to keep the lights on, not the levels that help you thrive.

And finally, make sure the formula was actually designed for women. Many multivitamins were originally formulated for men and later followed the "shrink it and pink it" strategy for female consumers. Women's nutritional needs, particularly around energy, hormones and micronutrient balance, deserve far more thoughtful consideration.

As our in-house nutritionist Georgie Murphy MSc puts it: "Not all multivitamins are created equally. Many use cheaper synthetic forms, ineffective doses or unnecessary fillers that offer very little real benefit. With The Elevator by SISTERLY, every nutrient is included in its most bioavailable form and at levels designed to actually make a difference, from methylated B vitamins to highly absorbable minerals and therapeutic CoQ10. It's designed specifically for women's real lives and real nutritional gaps, delivering a comprehensive formula in one convenient daily sachet."

The truth about multivitamins is simple: when formulated properly and taken consistently, they can provide a powerful foundation for health. I often compare it to the difference between getting six hours of sleep and eight. You can survive on six, but those extra hours change how you feel, how clearly you think and how much energy you bring to the day.

Modern diets, busy lives and depleted soils mean many of us aren't getting everything we need from food alone. A thoughtfully formulated multivitamin can help close those gaps. The key is choosing wisely and choosing something you'll actually take. Because the best supplement in the world won't help if it's sitting at the back of the cupboard in what we like to call the supplement graveyard.

Keep it simple, stay consistent, and your body will thank you for it.