Ritual Vitamins Review

About Ritual

The benefits of a healthy diet^[1] have been studied many times over. Not only to help prevent cardiovascular risk factors, metabolic syndrome and diabetes, but to ensure we incorporate all the macro and micronutrients we need to support our body’s energetic and physiologic requirements. 

Unfortunately, putting the intentions of eating healthier into practice is not easy for everybody—I know this from my own experience of missing the mark on RDIs. Although diet supplements don’t replace a healthy diet, some groups may benefit from them. 

There is a global agreement in the medical community over the supplementation with folic acid in pregnant women or those planning to conceive^[2]. Women over 50 years old may also benefit from the supplementation with calcium and vitamin D if they are not meeting their daily requirements. 

Even Health Canada recommends vitamin D supplementation^[3] for men and women over 50. If you think you’re lacking some of these essential nutrients, you should ask your doctor or nutritionist if supplements are a good choice for you.  

As a picky eater with a diet that’s all over the map, I often wonder if the right supplement could be the answer to my bouts of low energy and brain fog, not to mention helping me live a more vibrant life in general.

Ritual is a start-up specializing in some of the best multivitamins for women 18+, 50+, and prenatal. The brand stresses the importance of traceability and sustainability in their products, educating women on where the vitamins are sourced from, their environmental impact, and associated health benefits. 

It’s this level of transparency I search for in brands but so often don’t find. What else did I find with Ritual? That buying would set me up to receive my multivitamins monthly, helping me establish a health ritual—something I so desperately need.

In this Ritual vitamins review, I’ll take a deep dive into the brand and what makes it so different from others, looking into feedback, promotions, and more.

Why You Should Trust Us

Our mission is to help you make better, more informed purchase decisions. Our team spends hours researching, consulting with medical experts, gathering insight from expert professionals, reviewing customer feedback, and analyzing products to provide you with the information you need.

Overview of Ritual

The story of Ritual starts with founder and CEO Katerina Schnieder and a 2016 US launch. While pregnant, Katerina turned her house upside down, getting rid of products with questionable ingredients, from her cleaning supplies to deodorant.

Much to her surprise, and now mine, in her search for the perfect prenatal multivitamin, she found many of these same toxic ingredients. Her solution? Build her own. 

After a little reading, I came to understand that Ritual isn’t satisfied with pseudoscience and half-truths. In fact, health fads make their eyes roll. Ritual’s leaders are women, backed by engineers and a scientific advisory board of biomedical sciences, physiology, and nutritional sciences experts. 

Another thing I love? That Ritual is all about transparency, recognizing that “too often, companies make their process and formulations intentionally confusing to keep their customers from knowing what’s really going on.”

That’s a pretty solid argument, and one that sends a shudder up my spine. How many times have I looked at the back of a vitamin bottle, a bottle of shampoo, or container of face cream, and didn’t know what most of the ingredients are? Too many.

How does Ritual do it? I learned that the brand maintains close relationships with their suppliers all over the world. Also, since Ritual wants you to know exactly where their ingredients came from, and the science backing their benefits, you can find profiles on each vitamin it offers.

Take their Omega-3, found in each of their multivitamins. It’s sourced from Saskatoon, Canada. Their partnered manufacturer is Algarithm Ingredients Inc. Ritual uses vegan algal oil, rather than fish oil; algal oil comes from the fermentation of microalgae, a process that results in minimal environmental contamination.

Ritual references the 13,101 studies on Omega-3 in counting, providing a link to research through the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. The consumption of Omega-3 has been broadly demonstrated to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and stroke^[4] and is recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA) and The World Health Organization (WHO).

This is only the beginning of my Ritual vitamins review, so sit tight and I’ll get into the fine details up ahead. For now, you can view the highlights here: 

Highlights

• Multivitamins are vegan certified, gluten and allergen free, non-GMO, with no colorants or synthetic fillers
• Supplements have a pleasant mint or lemon taste
• No-nausea capsule design
• Products are backed by extensive research and a Scientific Advisory Board
• Full transparency on where vitamins are sourced from and their suppliers 
• Encourages customers to create a daily supplements ritual through the Ritual app
• Highly positive customer feedback
• Free shipping aside from handling fees

How Does Ritual Work?

Getting to know the brand more, I discovered that Ritual wants us all to consider our health as a habit, one that will become second nature through reminders and repetition. When I pause to think about my current habits, adopting one of health sounds like a good idea.

Every Ritual vitamin bottle comes with 60 pills taken 2 at once daily (1 month supply). When you order your first bottle, you’re signing up to receive shipments every 30 days from then on with an automatic subscription renewal. 

Customers can use the Ritual app to keep daily track of their multivitamin use. I personally appreciate that there is no subscription fee for Ritual and you can cancel anytime. I’ve included more on the subscription in the FAQ section of this Ritual vitamins review, but up next, I’ll get into its multivitamins.

Ritual Multivitamins

As a 30-something, I often feel like I’m falling behind when it comes to optimal health. Balancing work and a healthy diet isn’t always possible, nor desired—especially on busy days.

Ritual offers three multivitamin supplements for women 18+, 50+, and prenatal. As the choosy person I am, the fact that every supplement is vegan certified, gluten and allergen free, non-GMO, with no colorants or synthetic fillers means a lot. As does the flexibility and ease of these regimens: Take your 2 pills/day all at once, in the AM or PM. Whatever works.

Though I don’t take them regularly, I’m no stranger to multivitamins. I know that most of them have 20-50 ingredients. But according to Ritual, many of these ingredients already come to us in our food, so they narrowed down their supplements to contain ones that we actually need.

Up next in this Ritual vitamins review, I’ll shine a spotlight on each of these supplements—which vitamins are included and why, plus pricing. 

Ritual Essential for Women 18+

Ritual’s Essential for Women is the all-round multivitamin reinvented for $33. As the best pick for someone like me, it’s formulated to help fill gaps in your diet and build a stronger health foundation. And I learned that the longer I take the pills, the more milestones I’ll reach:

• Month 3:  resolves nutrient shortfalls, helps maintain energy, immunity, and skin. While vitamin E has shown immunomodulatory effects conferring protection against infections, vitamin D3 has demonstrated anti-aging properties for the skin
• Month 6:  supports red blood cells and vital internal organs. Vitamin B12, folate, and iron have an essential role in red cell production and anemia prevention. There is evidence that boron improves hepatic metabolism and contributes to the central nervous system’s healthy function.
• Month 12: The intake of vitamin D strengthens bone integrity^[5] and calcium utilization. Incorporating enough vitamin D and calcium into the diet is extremely important, especially for those following a vegan diet who have a higher risk of bone fracture
• Ongoing: helps your body age healthily by maintaining tissue structure and fighting free radicals. Some studies suggest that the intake of vitamin D and magnesium improves physical endurance and muscle recovery^[6].

When I browsed the website for this Ritual vitamins review, I found it interesting to see not only where the vitamins come from, but what they look like in pure form. Better yet, Ritual customers have expressed their satisfaction with seeing immediate results:

“I’ve tried a few different vitamin brands and never felt like they do anything,” one user said. “I had an instant change with Ritual and I never plan on using anything else!“

Ritual Essential for Women 50+

Ritual reimagined a multivitamin for women post-menopause to support healthy aging from within. For Ritual, beauty is cell deep, not skin deep.

Though my mom is a vibrant woman, she often skips meals and subs in snacks. These would be perfect to help her fill nutritional gaps left behind by popcorn-only dinners. Essential for Women 50+ is priced at $39, targeting these areas: 

• Vitamin D3 from lichen supports normal immune function^[7]. Deficiencies in vitamin D are associated with respiratory infections.
• Omega-3 DHA from microalgae supports cardiovascular health
• Calcium-boosters like vitamin D3, magnesium, and boron help sustain bone health^[8]. When taken with calcium, vitamin D supplementation reduces bone fractures. Magnesium increases hip and femoral bone mineral density, while boron is vital in bone maintenance.

Visualize the vitamins separately, and voila.

In addition to the benefits listed above, Ritual customers that are 50+ enjoy the simple, easy to understand formulas.

“Love the fact that these vitamins don’t contain a bunch of ingredients that I can’t pronounce,” one user said. “Easy to swallow and easy on the stomach.“

Ritual Essential Prenatal

Ritual’s Essential Prenatal is designed to prep your body for pregnancy, maintain your health, and support your baby’s development in-utero for $39. I discovered that this supplement works well before and during pregnancy, unlike others in its category. Here’s how:

• Pre-pregnancy: supports energy production and mood with essential nutrients
• First trimester: folate supports neural tube development to help facilitate healthy brain development in the critical 28 days after you conceive
• Second trimester: supports continual development of newly formed organs and tissues
• Third trimester: supports nutrient needs of mother and baby in preparation for birth

Obsessed with the details like me? Ritual provides a breakdown on how each vitamin plays a role in their specific multivitamins. Be sure to head to their website to get the full story after reading this Ritual vitamins review, but take a look at this awesome customer comment first:

“I started using this product last year before I was pregnant, when a friend recommended the company. I love that this prenatal has choline and methylated folate, and it doesn’t make my stomach upset even if I take it without food, like I have experienced with other vitamins. I am so happy to have this option and have converted quite a few friends as well.“

Ritual Capsule Design

You might have noticed that Ritual pills don’t look like your average drugstore multivitamins. I think the engineering behind Ritual capsules is actually pretty interesting:

• Beadlet-in-oil encapsulation delivers nutrients effectively
• No-Nausea: delayed release formulation dissolves later, in the less sensitive and more absorptive areas of your gut (this means that you can take them on an empty stomach)
• Fewer pills: 2-1 design separates oily and dry ingredients, so everything can be taken together
• Essenced with mint or lemon: mint/lemon tab keeps the contents of each bottle fresh and provides a pleasant taste

Ritual Reviews: What Do Customers Think?

Before we take a look at some customer remarks about the brand, let’s check out some of Ritual’s ratings on the most trusted review sites:

• Innerbody: 5/5 stars
• Sitejabber: 5/5 stars
• Reviews.io: 4.7/5 stars
• Trustpilot: 2.3/5 stars
• Better Business Bureau (BBB): 1.77/5 stars, A+ rating

If you’re confused by Ritual’s ratings on the BBB, you should know that the brand closed 17 customer complaints in the last 3 years, and 9 complaints in the last 12 months, which means they’ve been responsive to feedback. This accounts for Ritual’s A+ rating.

Now, customers can leave reviews for the Essential Prenatal and For Women on their website (I’m not sure why For Women 50+ isn’t included). Essential For Women has 4.3/5 stars, and I saw that quite a few reviewers appreciated the “refreshing” mint taste and the fact that it doesn’t upset their stomach.

One described the supplement as “the only vitamin I’ve stuck to” and “a vitamin that makes you want to be consistent.” Swapping over, I found the same sort of feedback for Essential Prenatal, with 4.1/5 stars. One customer described it as “lemony wonderful,” and others commended the extensive research behind the supplement.

Many reviewers highly recommend Prenatal to other expecting mothers, which speaks volumes considering I’ve found there’s no one quite as discerning as mothers. I learned that monthly Ritual deliveries were especially convenient, according to the moms to be that struggled to run errands in the last trimester. Fair enough!

I didn’t limit my research to the brand’s website for this Ritual vitamins review though. A Ritual vitamins Reddit thread discussed Essentials for Women, and while many women loved the supplement, others were turned off by the price.

Another Ritual vitamins review Reddit featured included an expectant mother having been nauseated by the pill, despite it’s no-nausea claim. We’re all different, so I take this with a grain of salt.

The New York Times called Ritual out on its not-so-honest advertising. Ritual paid for positive reviews by websites like Well & Good and PureWow, then featured those reviews in their ads. This is a tough pill for me to swallow considering Ritual claims to be transparent, but didn’t mention they were paid endorsements. But still, I pressed on.

Heading over to a Ritual feature in Good Housekeeping, a reviewer who took Essential for Women felt some improvements within 30 days, which she found impressive, considering Ritual emphasizes long term results. I think that’s rather impressive too, and start visualizing my own ailments disappearing quickly.

A bit of a mixed bag here, overall, Ritual feedback is primarily positive. It was nice to read about the benefits of taking its vitamins, and though I was somewhat let down by the New York Times piece, I still love what this brand is all about.

Our Verdict on Ritual Vitamins – Are they Worth it?

It’s opinion o’clock at this point in my Ritual vitamins review. From what I found in my search, reviews on Ritual, both on and off their website, are promising. There were no skeletons hiding in other parts of the internet. This didn’t surprise me though, given the extensive research and ongoing testing conducted on its supplements. 

Though I’ll admit some people may not be crazy about having to sign up for an automatic subscription. There are quite a few brands that make this mandatory for questionable reasons, but in this case, I’ve found it to be integral to the Ritual philosophy: to make supplement taking a ritual, your multivitamins are delivered every month.

If I had to say, and I do, it appears that the biggest drawback with Ritual is its price points. You can find monthly multivitamins from big brands like Centrum and Jamieson for less than $10. That being said, they don’t operate on the same level when it comes to sustainability and environmental impact.

All in all, I give Ritual a thumbs up. If you have the funds to invest in multivitamins with more focused and traceable ingredients, then I think this brand is a solid choice.

Ritual Promotions & Discounts

I hunted down deals while writing this Ritual vitamins review, but unfortunately, I realized the pickings are slim. Ritual has a Military Discount for all military service members though, along with their dependents, and veterans for 20% off their first 6 bottles.

There is currently no Ritual vitamin promo code, but check their site regularly for promotions.

Where to Buy Ritual

Ready to start a new healthy habit? Ritual multivitamins can be purchased from ritual.com. Though I know that Ritual products were on Amazon at one point, right now, they’re not available. 

FAQ

Are Ritual Multivitamins FDA-Approved? 

Here’s something I learned about the FDA: The FDA doesn’t approve dietary supplements by law. Ritual products are manufactured in accordance with the FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs). Ritual also completes third party lab testing for heavy metals, microbes, allergens, and other contaminants. 

How Long do Multivitamins Take to Work?

In this Ritual vitamins review, I found this to be one of the most common questions on the internet (when it comes to vitamin supplements, anyway). Experiencing the results of multivitamins is a long game, according to Ritual: 

“Water-soluble nutrients (like Iron, Magnesium, Folate, B12 and Boron) get to work to help support your cells, blood, and more, while fat-soluble nutrients (like Omega-3 DHA, vitamins D3, K2 and E) may take longer. All in all, it can take 3-4 months for your body to reach a new equilibrium.” Be patient.

Do Multivitamins Expire?

Vitamins don’t expire in the traditional sense, according to Healthline^[21]. Rather than becoming unsafe to ingest, I learned that they become less potent over time. At the same time, fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin D can go rancid.

What Is the Difference Between Folate and Folic Acid?

I’ve found this question relates most to Ritual’s prenatal multivitamin. Folate is the generic name for a type of B vitamin found naturally. Folic acid is a manmade version sold as supplements and added to some fortified foods.

Ritual Shipping Policy

Ritual ships within the US and the only fees are related to handling (so technically, their free shipping claim is still true). Strangely, shipping and delivery estimates are not provided on the site or in their Terms of Service. 

Essentially all the terms says is that Ritual cannot be held responsible for shipment delays or failure due to circumstances “including, but not limited to, acts of God, war, terrorism, riots, embargos, acts of civil or military authorities” … I think you get the point. 

Ritual Return Policy

Ritual has a satisfaction guarantee, so if you’re not happy with the vitamins, they’ll refund your first order in full. No questions asked, no return necessary. Any other return inquiries can be directed to [email protected]. 

Cancel Ritual Subscription

Each month, your subscription automatically continues on a Renewal Commencement Date. You can cancel your subscription prior to the Renewal Commencement Date by logging into Ritual, visiting the Account Settings page, and selecting Change/Cancel Membership.

I’ll note here that if you cancel after the Renewal Commencement Date, you’ll still be sent outstanding vitamin supplements.

Contact Ritual

If you have questions I didn’t cover in this Ritual vitamins review, you can reach out to the team via: 

• Contact form on their website
• Email: [email protected] 

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