There are four checks worth doing, and they are not equally useful. Only one of them actually answers the question — the other three narrow it down. Ranked by what they prove: independent lab analysis, then batch-code verification, then packaging inspection, then price sanity. Everything else you will read online, including purity percentages, is inference dressed as fact.
Start here: why the purity figures are invented
Search any brand in this market and you will find pages quoting precise-sounding assay results — “tests at 97–102% of label”. Ask three questions of any such figure:
- Which laboratory ran it?
- On which batch, and when?
- Where is the report?
In the overwhelming majority of cases there is no answer, because the number was invented once and copied since. The same range appears verbatim across dozens of unrelated brand pages, which is not what independent testing of different manufacturers produces.
We do not publish purity figures for any brand we stock, for exactly this reason. A specific-sounding number with no traceable source is worse than an honest gap — it converts uncertainty into false confidence, and someone makes a decision on it.
1. Independent lab analysis — the only real answer
Several independent laboratories will analyse a sample for a modest fee and tell you what is in it and at what concentration. This is the only method on this page that answers the actual question rather than approximating it.
It is worth doing when the stakes justify it: a new source, a large order, or a compound where being wrong matters a great deal. It tells you about that batch — not about the brand in general, and not about your next order.
2. Batch-code verification
Most manufacturers run a verification page on their own site where you enter the code from the box. It is quick, free, and catches a large share of counterfeits.
What the results mean:
- Code fails — treat as counterfeit. There is no benign explanation.
- Code validates twice — if you check the same code and it reports as already verified when you have not checked it before, the code has been cloned across multiple boxes. This is the clearest single counterfeit signal available.
- Code validates cleanly — good, but not proof. A sophisticated counterfeit can carry a genuine code lifted from real packaging.
Go to the manufacturer’s site directly. Do not use a link printed on the box or supplied by the seller — that is trivially pointed at a page the counterfeiter controls.
3. Packaging inspection
Counterfeiters have largely solved holograms. They have not solved consistency. Look at:
- Print quality — fuzzy edges, slightly wrong font weight, uneven ink density. Compare against images on the manufacturer’s own site rather than a retailer’s.
- Label alignment — genuine labelling is applied by machine and is consistently square. Hand-applied labels sit very slightly off.
- The crimp — the metal cap should be tight and even. If the cap rotates freely, or the stopper sits proud, stop.
- The stopper — should be firm and reseal cleanly after a needle. Soft, tacky or crumbling rubber is a bad sign.
- The contents — oil should be clear. Visible particulates, cloudiness or separation in an oil-based product means do not use it. (Water-based suspensions are a legitimate exception — those are meant to be cloudy and to settle.)
4. Price sanity — a fraud signal, not a quality signal
Price tells you almost nothing about quality. Two manufacturers with identical standards can price 40% apart on overhead and positioning alone.
What price does reliably indicate is fraud. A listing far below the established band for that brand and compound generally means one of three things:
- It is underdosed — the cheapest way to make margin on a real-looking product
- It is a different, cheaper compound entirely
- It does not exist and the order will not arrive
Treat a bargain as a warning rather than a win. Our per-brand pages list the actual price band for each range so you have something to compare against.
What none of this addresses
Every check above is about the product. None of them is about you. A perfectly genuine, correctly dosed vial still suppresses your own hormone production, moves your lipids, and loads your liver or kidneys depending on the compound.
Blood work before, during and after is what tells you how you are responding, and it is the only part of this process that catches a problem while it is still reversible. It is also the part people skip because it costs money and produces no immediate gratification.
And the legal position
Verification says nothing about legality. Anabolic steroids are Class C controlled drugs in the UK — possession for personal use is not an offence, supply is, even without payment. Peptides are generally unlicensed medicines, a different offence structure. GLP-1 compounds are prescription-only medicines.
We set these out properly in are steroids legal in the UK? and are peptides legal in the UK?
Frequently asked questions
Is a hologram proof a product is genuine?
No. Holograms are among the easiest security features to reproduce. Print consistency, label alignment and crimp quality are harder to fake and tell you more.
What if the batch code validates but the product seems weak?
A valid code can be cloned from genuine packaging. If the code checks out but the product does not behave as expected, lab analysis is the only way to settle it.
Should I trust forum reviews?
For detecting gross failures — badly underdosed or contaminated batches — yes, they work reasonably well. For anything subtler they are close to useless, and they aggregate across batches so a single bad run disappears in the average. We go into this in what forum consensus is actually worth.