FormulaTested — Know What’s Inside Before You Buy
If you have landed on this page you probably want to know who is actually writing these reviews and whether you can trust what you are reading. Fair question. Here is the honest answer.
WHO I AM
Marcus Reid is the editorial pen name I use for FormulaTested. I use a pen name to keep my private identity separate from the public site, not to imply medical credentials, clinical qualifications, or a separate expert identity. The products, purchases, testing notes and firsthand observations described on FormulaTested are my own unless a page clearly states otherwise.
I am not a doctor, pharmacist, or clinical researcher. FormulaTested is a consumer testing and research site. My role is to document personal trials where they exist, check current product information and published evidence, and separate those sources rather than presenting personal experience as clinical proof.
I started FormulaTested in 2026 because I was tired of reading supplement reviews written by people who had clearly never opened the bottle. Most of what you find online in this space is either a thinly disguised sales page or a listicle scraped together from manufacturer websites. Neither of those things helps you make a real decision.
This site exists to be different from that.
HOW I TEST
When FormulaTested labels a product as personally tested, I buy it at full retail price and disclose the trial length and protocol. Some comparison and formula-analysis pages also cover products I have not personally used; those pages are clearly labeled as researched rather than tested. No free sample or affiliate relationship changes that distinction.
For completed personal trials, I try to keep the major variables as consistent as practical: sleep schedule, diet, exercise baseline and existing supplements. I record observations during the trial rather than reconstructing them afterward. The exact protocol differs by product and is disclosed in the relevant review, including important confounders and anything I did not measure.
I measure what I can measure. For nootropics that means focus session length, reading comprehension scores, and subjective clarity ratings tracked daily. For fat burners that means weight, body measurements, appetite ratings, and energy levels. For sleep supplements that means sleep quality scores and morning alertness ratings. The data is not clinical-grade but it is consistent and it is mine.
I also deliberately document the negatives. If I felt a side effect you will read about it. If an ingredient is underdosed compared to clinical research I will tell you. If a product did not work for me I will say so clearly and explain why someone else might have a different experience. The “Who This Is NOT For” section in every review is not a formality. It is often the most useful thing on the page.
WHY I DO THIS
The honest answer is that I have wasted a lot of money on supplements that did not work. Not because the ingredients were fake but because the marketing overpromised, the doses were too low to do anything meaningful, or the product simply was not right for my situation. I wanted a resource that would have saved me that money and that time.
There is also a personal reason. I work remotely doing research and writing. Long focused work sessions are how I earn a living. When I started looking seriously at nootropics and cognitive supplements a few years ago I found almost no trustworthy information. Most reviews were either written by affiliates with a financial incentive to be positive about everything, or by critics with an ideological opposition to the entire supplement industry. Neither extreme was useful.
FormulaTested tries to sit in the middle. Genuinely useful, genuinely honest, financially transparent about how the site works.
HOW THIS SITE MAKES MONEY
FormulaTested participates in affiliate programs. When you purchase a product through a link on this site I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This is how the site covers its costs and my time.
I want to be clear about what this means and what it does not mean. It means I have a financial incentive when a page contains an affiliate link. It does not mean commission determines the verdict. Scores and conclusions should reflect the testing status disclosed on the page: some come from completed personal trials, while others are research- or formula-based assessments.
I separate firsthand testing from research. A page may compare or analyze a product I have not personally used, but I do not present researched-only experience as a completed trial, invent a score from personal use, or imply that I observed results I did not observe.
WHAT I HAVE TESTED
FormulaTested contains a mix of completed personal trials and researched comparisons across nootropics, weight management, sports nutrition and men’s health. Each page should tell you which evidence comes from my own use, which comes from the current product label, and which comes from published research.
The site is still growing. New reviews and comparisons are published when there is enough testing, sourcing or decision-useful analysis to justify the page. I do not use a fixed publishing schedule as a substitute for completing the work behind a review.
A NOTE ON TRUST
I know that trust is earned and not assumed. If you read a review on FormulaTested and something does not feel right, compare the testing status, protocol and evidence on that page with the methodology here. Corrections should be based on what was actually tested, measured or sourced.
I will not claim to be perfect. I will not claim my personal experience applies universally. What I will claim is that every word on this site reflects a genuine attempt to be accurate, honest, and useful to the person reading it.
That is the only standard I hold myself to.
Marcus Reid
Editorial pen name used by FormulaTested