Here is the uncomfortable part first. Most calm supplements are not under-dosed by accident. A plant costs money; a standardised extract at the trial dose costs more; three of them in the same capsule cost more still. So brands pick one, keep it small, or hide the amount inside a “proprietary blend”. Then the marketing does the rest. This article does not ask you to believe us. It asks you to turn your own box over and find three numbers.
1. The rules of the game
Six lines. Each one is a yes or a no, read on the public label of each product on 26 October 2026. No taste test, no “we felt calmer”. A line counts only if the figure is printed. What is not printed does not exist.
The thresholds come from our articles on saffron, L-theanine and rhodiola. Line 6 comes from the European list of what a brand is allowed to say. Yes, these are the three plants in our own formula. That is the point: we chose them because they are the three with the most consistent trial record for calm without sedation, and we are asking everyone, ourselves included, to be judged on them.
2. The table
Daily amounts, as printed. The dash means the ingredient is absent. “n.p.” means it is in the capsule but the amount is not published. Prices are the brand's public price on its own site where it exists, otherwise the retailer named in the sources, divided by the number of days in the box. Dollars and pounds are left as they are: converting them would be our number, not theirs.
Swipe the table to see score and price →
| Product | Saffron | L-theanine | Rhodiola | Also inside | Score | Price / day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CALM AUTHORITY BIORYA · 2 capsules |
30 mg Moodreal®, 2 % safranal |
294 mg 98 % standardised |
300 mg 3 % / 1 % |
Magnesium 40 mg, B6 2.55 mg | 6 / 6 | 1,66 € 49,90 € / 30 j |
| LYMA UK · 4 capsules |
28 mg Affron® |
— | — | Ashwagandha 250, citicoline 250, curcumin, keratin, lycopene, D3, K2… | 3 / 6 | 6,63 £ 199 £ / 30 j |
| Mind Lab Pro UK · 2 capsules |
— | 100 mg | 50 mg 3 % / 1 % |
Citicoline 250, bacopa 150, lion's mane 500, tyrosine 175… | 3 / 6 | 2,30 $ 69 $ / 30 j |
| Arrae Calm USA · 2 capsules |
— | n.p. in a 950 mg blend |
— | Magnesium 63, inositol and passionflower (n.p.) | 1 / 6 | 1,83 $ 55 $ / 30 j |
| Moon Juice SuperYou USA · 2 capsules |
— | — | 150 mg 3 % / 1 % |
Ashwagandha 250, shatavari 450, amla 150 | 2 / 6 | 1,26–1,80 $ 37,80–54 $ / 30 j |
| The Nue Co Destress 360 UK · 2 capsules |
— | n.p. | — | Ashwagandha, marine magnesium, zinc, vitamin C, passionflower, liquorice (all n.p.) | 1 / 6 | 1,50 £ 45 £ / 30 j |
| HUM Ashwagandha Calm USA · 2 gummies |
— | 200 mg | — | Ashwagandha Sensoril® 125, 3 g sugar | 4 / 6 | 0,87 $ 26 $ / 30 j |
| OLLY Goodbye Stress USA · 2 gummies |
— | 50 mg | — | GABA 100, lemon balm 75, 2 g sugar | 3 / 6 | 0,67 $ 13,99 $ / 21 j |
| Arkorelax Stress Control Arkopharma · 2 tablets |
— | — | 180 mg standardisation n.p. |
Eleuthero 300, magnesium 60, B6 1.4 | 3 / 6 | 0,75 € 11,20 € / 15 j |
| Forté Stress 24h Forté Pharma · 1 tablet |
— | 20 mg | 100 mg | Schisandra 200, ashwagandha 50, magnesium 100, B vitamins. Caffeine declared (≤ 3 mg) | 2 / 6 | 1,03 € 15,45 € / 15 j |
| Granions Complexe Anti-Stress 1 tablet |
30 mg standardisation n.p. |
— | 230 mg standardisation n.p. |
Ginseng 50, magnesium 150, B1, B6, chromium | 4 / 6 | 0,83 € 24,90 € / 30 j |
| Epycure Cure Anti-Stress 2 capsules |
— | — | — | Bacopa 300 (60 bacosides), magnesium oxide 187.5, spirulina, vitamins | 2 / 6 | 0,81 € 24,40 € / 30 j |
| D-LAB Activateur d'Équilibre 2 capsules |
30 mg 0,12 mg safranal |
— | — | Tryptophan 200, lemon balm 400, magnesium oxide 60.5, CoQ10, NAC, resveratrol… 15 actives | 3 / 6 | 0,90 € 27 € / 30 j |
| Nutri&Co Safran 1 capsule |
30 mg branded extract |
— | — | Nothing else | 4 / 6 | 0,40 € 24 € / 60 j |
| Novoma Safran 1 capsule |
30 mg 2 % safranal, 3 % crocines |
— | — | B6 1.4 mg | 4 / 6 | 0,33 € 9,97 € / 30 j |
| SID Nutrition Rhodiola Safran L-Théanine 2 capsules |
30 mg standardisation n.p. |
40 mg | 200 mg standardisation n.p. |
Caffeine declared (1 mg) | 4 / 6 | 1,12 € 16,74 € / 15 j |
Public labels and brand pages consulted on 26 October 2026; detailed sources at the end. Formulas and prices change. SID Nutrition is shown at the two-capsule dose its label allows; at one capsule the figures halve. HUM and OLLY are gummies: the sugar is part of the label too.
3. What the table says, without softening it
4. The price, and the small catch
CALM AUTHORITY costs €1.66 a day. That is more than eleven of the fifteen products in the table. We are not going to dress that up. BIORYA is not a pharmaceutical group. We do not buy saffron by the tonne, we do not own a factory, we do not spread the cost of a formula across forty other products. Three standardised extracts at the full trial dose, a patented saffron, a French manufacturer, small batches: that is what the extra euro buys, and nothing else. There is no influencer budget hidden in it.
Now read the price next to the score. The three products more expensive than ours, LYMA, Mind Lab Pro and Arrae, check 3, 3 and 1 lines. The cheapest ones, Novoma and Nutri&Co at 33 and 40 cents, are honest products that do one thing well: 30 mg of saffron. That is one line out of three. Buy their saffron, then find a theanine at 200 mg and a rhodiola at 200 mg standardised, and you will be swallowing three jars and three invoices to reach what two capsules contain here. Cheap per jar is not the same as cheap per line.
5. Which one is yours?
You take gummies
OLLY or HUM. HUM is the only product in the table apart from ours to print 200 mg of theanine, and it deserves that credit. OLLY stops at 50 mg, a quarter of the trial dose, and leads with GABA, a molecule whose passage to the brain when swallowed is still debated. Both bring 2 to 3 g of sugar a day. A gummy is a sweet first, a supplement second.
You buy at the pharmacy
Arkorelax, Forté Stress, Granions, SID. The rhodiola is there, between 100 and 230 mg, almost never with its standardisation printed. Theanine, when present, sits at 20 to 40 mg. Two of the four declare caffeine on the box. Granions is the most complete of the group at 4 out of 6, and its 230 mg of rhodiola is a real figure. Ask the pharmacist for the rosavin percentage. If nobody knows, that is your answer.
You like French start-ups
Nutri&Co, Novoma, Epycure, D-LAB. The saffron specialists do the saffron right, at 30 mg and for very little money, and we say so. Then it stops. Epycure chose bacopa and a magnesium oxide, and its product page talks about anxiety and chronic stress. D-LAB stacks fifteen actives for hormones, energy and mood in the same two capsules: when a formula does everything, no single line is at full dose.
You pay for the box
LYMA, Moon Juice, Arrae, The Nue Co, Mind Lab Pro. This is where the money is, and where the figures are thinnest. Two of the five do not publish the amount of their theanine at all. One sells a cortisol percentage. One asks £199 a month for a saffron dose we match at a quarter of the price, surrounded by keratin and lycopene you did not ask for. Mind Lab Pro is the most honest of the group: every figure printed, every one of them small.
6. What this table does not say
| The shortcut | Verdict | The nuance |
|---|---|---|
| “6 out of 6 means it works better” | Not shown | The score measures what the label lets you check. No finished product here has been tested against another. The trials concern ingredients, at given doses, in given people. |
| “Ashwagandha should have been a line” | Fair | It is the most common adaptogen in the table and it has a real trial record. We did not choose it for CALM AUTHORITY, so we did not grade others on it. Our grid is our grid. Read it knowing that. |
| “n.p. means there is nothing inside” | No | It means the brand knows the figure and chose not to print it. Draw your own conclusion about why. |
| “BIORYA is the cheapest per line” | Not claimed | We did not price out three single-ingredient jars for you; we only note that saffron alone already costs 33 to 40 cents a day. Our claim is narrower: the only 6 out of 6, at the price of a coffee. |
Educational reading of public labels. Not a medical opinion, not a ranking of efficacy, and not a statement about the quality of anyone's manufacturing.
7. And day to day?
Go and get your box. Turn it over. Look for three numbers: saffron, theanine, rhodiola, each with a percentage next to it. Count how many you find. If the answer is three, keep your box, it is a good one. If the answer is one, or “proprietary blend”, or a cortisol percentage where the milligrams should be, you now know exactly what you have been paying for. CALM AUTHORITY is two capsules in the morning, the three numbers on the back, and sixty seconds of ritual. Nothing more is promised. Everything printed is there.
8. Sources
- BIORYA. CALM AUTHORITY, composition per 2 capsules. Saffron Moodreal® 30 mg (2 % safranal), L-theanine 294 mg (98 %), Rhodiola rosea 300 mg (3 % rosavins, 1 % salidroside), magnesium 40 mg, vitamin B6 2.55 mg. Public price €49.90 for 30 days, biorya.com, 26 October 2026.
- LYMA. The LYMA Supplement. lyma.life — Affron® 28 mg, Sensoril® 250 mg, Cognizin® 250 mg, HydroCurc® 300 mg, Cynatine® HNS 500 mg, LycoBeads™ 30 mg, Levagen®+ 350 mg, ActivAMP® 450 mg, Wellmune® 250 mg, D3, K2. Four capsules a day. Starter kit from £199 (UK), refill from $222 (US).
- Mind Lab Pro. Ingredients. mindlabpro.com — per 2 capsules: L-theanine 100 mg, Rhodiola rosea 50 mg (3 % / 1 %), Cognizin® 250 mg, bacopa 150 mg, lion's mane 500 mg, N-acetyl-L-tyrosine 175 mg, phosphatidylserine 100 mg, maritime pine bark 75 mg, B6, B9, B12. $69 for 30 servings.
- Arrae. Calm. arrae.com — $55, 60 capsules, “eliminate stress and anxiety in under 1 hour”. Supplement facts reproduced by The Feed and SuppCo: magnesium bisglycinate 63 mg, proprietary blend 950 mg (inositol, L-theanine, passionflower).
- Moon Juice. SuperYou. moonjuice.com — ashwagandha 250 mg, shatavari 450 mg, amla 150 mg, rhodiola 150 mg (3 % rosavins, 1 % salidroside). “Reduce cortisol by 24 %.” From $37.80 on the brand site, $54 at Ulta.
- The Nue Co. Destress 360. Listings at Cult Beauty (£45, 60 capsules) and Smallable (€44): ashwagandha Sensoril®, L-theanine AlphaWave®, marine magnesium, zinc, vitamin C, passionflower, liquorice, pine bark; no amounts published. Claims “reduce everyday stress and anxiety”, “decreasing overall stress levels by 62 %”.
- HUM Nutrition. Ashwagandha Calm Gummies (ex Calm Sweet Calm). humnutrition.com — per 2 gummies: L-theanine 200 mg, Sensoril® 125 mg, 3 g sugar. $26 for 30 servings.
- OLLY. Goodbye Stress. olly.com — per 2 gummies: GABA 100 mg, L-theanine 50 mg, lemon balm 75 mg, 2 g sugar. $13.99 for 21 servings.
- Arkopharma. Arkorelax® Stress Control. fr.arkopharma.com — per 2 tablets: rhodiola extract 180 mg, eleuthero extract 300 mg, magnesium 60 mg, B6 1.4 mg. €11.20 for 30 tablets.
- Forté Pharma. Forté Stress 24h. Label reproduced by Pharmaglobe and Extrapharm: per tablet, schisandra 200 mg, rhodiola 100 mg, ashwagandha 50 mg, green tea extract 100 mg standardised in L-theanine (20 mg), marine magnesium 100 mg, B vitamins; “contains caffeine (maximum 3 mg per daily dose)”. Pharmacy price €15.45 for 15 tablets.
- Granions. Complexe Anti-Stress Naturel. granions.fr — per tablet: rhodiola extract 230 mg, saffron extract 30 mg, ginseng extract 50 mg, magnesium 150 mg, B6, B1, chromium. €24.90 for 30 tablets.
- Epycure. Cure Anti-Stress. Label reproduced by Parapharmacie Lafayette: per 2 capsules, bacopa extract 300 mg (60 mg bacosides), magnesium 187.5 mg from oxide, spirulina 68 mg, vitamins, zinc, selenium. €24.40 for 60 capsules. Epycure product page titled “Réduit l'anxiété et le stress chronique”.
- D-LAB Nutricosmetics. Activateur d'Équilibre. Label reproduced by Paradermia and Comptoir de l'Homme: per 2 capsules, L-tryptophan 200 mg, lemon balm 400 mg, magnesium 60.5 mg from marine oxide, saffron extract 30 mg (0.12 mg safranal), CoQ10 20 mg, NAC 100 mg, resveratrol 20 mg, vitamins. €27 to €28 for 30 days.
- Nutri&Co. Safran. Sheet on NutreaLAB: 30 mg of branded saffron extract per capsule, one a day, no other active. €24 for 60 capsules.
- Novoma. Safran 30 mg, Essentials. Amazon.fr listing: saffron extract 30 mg standardised to 2 % safranal and 3 % crocins, vitamin B6 1.4 mg, one capsule a day. €9.97 for 30 capsules.
- SID Nutrition. Rhodiola Safran L-Théanine. sidnsante.com — per capsule: rhodiola extract 100 mg, saffron extract 15 mg, L-theanine 20 mg, caffeine 0.5 mg. One to two capsules a day. €16.74 for 30 capsules at Parapharmacie Lafayette.
- Lopresti A. L., Drummond P. D. (2014). Saffron (Crocus sativus) for depression: a systematic review of clinical studies. Human Psychopharmacology — the 30 mg band. Studies of an ingredient, not of a finished product.
- Kell G. et al. (2017). affron® a novel saffron extract improves mood in healthy adults over 4 weeks. Complementary Therapies in Medicine — 28 mg.
- Hidese S. et al. (2019). Effects of L-theanine administration on stress-related symptoms and cognitive functions in healthy adults. Nutrients — 200 mg.
- Edwards D., Heufelder A., Zimmermann A. (2012). Therapeutic effects and safety of Rhodiola rosea extract WS 1375 in subjects with life-stress symptoms. Phytotherapy Research — 200 mg twice a day.
- Hung S. K., Perry R., Ernst E. (2011). The effectiveness and efficacy of Rhodiola rosea: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials. Phytomedicine.
- Boonstra E. et al. (2015). Neurotransmitters as food supplements: the effects of GABA on brain and behavior. Frontiers in Psychology — the open question of oral GABA reaching the brain.
The only 6 out of 6 in the table. Two capsules, three numbers on the back, €1.66 a day. If your box does not pass the test, try the one that does.