I’ve been spending time focusing on my health lately, and part of that was reevaluating my daily multi-vitamin. I have been taking GNC Women’s Ultra Mega Energy & Metabolism for years now, even though I know they aren’t the best for me (they have caffeine, which I don’t love). As I was researching I came across a new company, Ritual vitamins, and decided to give them a try.

It’s hard to review vitamins, because there’s no really concrete comparison I can make. Even if I’m feeling better taking them, the placebo effect is real. So instead of a “this works” or “this didn’t work” review, I’m just going to lay out what I like about these particular vitamins.

Why Ritual?

Ritual vitamins are expensive, $30 for a 30 day bottle. It seems even higher when you figure there’s only nine different vitamins in the formulation. My old vitamins were the GNC. They’re $22 for a 45 day bottle, and have a blend of 34 different vitamins in the formula. Why were they worth the increased cost?

No Vitamin C – The limited ingredients is actually something that caught my interest. Vitamin C taken too closely to my ADHD meds it can screw up absorption. And since I can only remember to take my vitamin if I take it with my meds, not having vitamin C was a plus for me. (I also tend to get enough vitamin C from food.)

Transparent Sourcing – I’m also okay with the increased cost since Ritual is transparently sourced. You can go to their website and see where each vitamin in their blend is coming from.

Omega 3 & Vitamin in One – I’ve tried taking Omega 3’s before, and I just couldn’t remember to. I love that they’ve added the Omega 3 into the vitamin so I only have to remember one thing.

Subscription Based – Ritual is a subscription based service, so every month they just show up at your door. I don’t have to worry about placing an order, or running to the store as I run low. It’s nice.

What I Like About Ritual

I’ve been taking Ritual for a month now, which I feel is a fair trial. Here’s what I really like about them.

Don’t Make Me Feel Nauseous – If I don’t take my vitamins pretty close to a meal, I usually feel queasy. Some (One-A-Day) will even make me actually throw up. I don’t have that problem with Ritual. They say they use a more gentle form of iron, and that seems accurate in my case.

No Fish Burps – One problem with taking Omega 3’s is they give me fish burps. Ritual uses Omega 3 from algae. Problem eliminated.

No Bright Yellow Pee – My old vitamin would make my pee super day-glo yellow, making me think my body wasn’t absorbing them well. I don’t have that problem with Ritual atll.

They Don’t Smell – My old vitamins kinda smelled like dog pee. To the degree my husband would go looking to see if one of the dogs had an accident. These smell kinda minty. Almost like the fancy mints they have at weddings.

I Don’t Smell – I always felt my old vitamin made my sweat smell so much worse. I’m not noticing that issue with Ritual.

Easy Cancel – Subscription services have gotten ridiculous to quit. So many of them require calling and talking to a person (Adore Me, Fabletics, I’m looking at you). Ritual lets you cancel the way you join, online. I appreciate they have enough confidence in their product to make it easy to quit if I don’t like it.

Effectiveness – The only part I can somewhat judge effectiveness on is iron. I tend to have low iron, making me cold and bruise easily if I don’t take a supplement. I’m not having any low-iron symptoms.

What I Dislike About Ritual

I tried to think of something I disliked about Ritual, and I couldn’t come up with anything other than the packaging is a bit much. The box is bigger than it needs to be and seems a bit wasteful. But that’s really stretching it. Update 11/16/17: When I got my order from Ritual this month they’ve switched from the box to an envelope, so there’s not all the wasteful packaging anymore!

Overall

I’ve been happy with Ritual Vitamins and I’ll keep taking them. They provide the vitamins I need without a bunch of extra stuff. But of course, this kind of thing is super individual so your mileage my vary.

Disclaimer: I don’t get any sort of kickback from Ritual for this review. It’s just a product I bought, tried, and liked.