Our approach
We didn't come from the health industry. So, we questioned everything.
We read the category from the outside in, and we refused to keep anything we couldn't defend.
The gap · 137 women surveyed, Dec 2025
So we asked the women we were building for what was actually wrong.
named energy as their primary goal.
were living with low energy and fatigue.
were taking nothing, or taking something that left them unsatisfied.
The decision
Stand at the pharmacy wall and the category tells you to buy three products. Or four. Or more.
Shelves of overlapping promises, each asking you to become your own formulator. We found the overwhelm exhausting, and we were the ones researching it full-time.
So we made a constraint the centre of the design: two products, not a regimen. Rise for the morning. Rest for the evening. Everything a day needs, and nothing it doesn't.
The research funnel
Here's how we did it.
brands surveyed across the category, end to end.
individual products read, logged and compared.
distinct ingredients catalogued and assessed.
shortlisted on weight of evidence alone.
active ingredients earned a place in Rise and Rest.
The refinement
Then we brought in the experts.
Our research produced a hypothesis: 41 active ingredients, at the doses the evidence supported. Then we took it to people who knew more than we did.
We chose our manufacturing partner through a rigorous process across five New Zealand manufacturers, looking for capability and a shared belief: every ingredient should be present for a proven reason, and nothing for show.
We gave them our formulation, our research and our brief, and asked them to challenge it. They refined 41 down to 29, removing anything without the research to earn its place.
We intend to run our own clinical trials, which meant building only on ingredients already proven in theirs.
The test
There was a sweetener, erythritol, that tasted incredible. It made the formula better in every blind tasting we ran. Then emerging evidence raised some concerns, so we dropped it from our formulation.
A reception check, not a result
Before launch, we put Rise and Rest in the hands of a small group of triallists.
We ran an observational study to understand: did people like it, would they reach for it again.
We received an average rating of 4.8 / 5. A few even got impatient waiting for their next batch.
Friends and family flavour trial, n=8.
The receipts
Every ingredient. Exact form. Exact dose. A page each, with sources you can check.
Nothing here rests on our word. Open any ingredient below to see why it earned its place, and the evidence behind it.
element3 Rise
MORNING · 21 INGREDIENTSelement3 Rest
EVENING · 8 INGREDIENTS29 ingredients. Two products. And a page for every one, so nothing rests on our word alone.
