What are Nootropics?

Nootropics are substances that support brain function, improving performance across areas like focus, memory, mood, alertness, and cognitive clarity. The term was coined in 1972, but the use of natural nootropic substances goes back centuries. Caffeine, the thing most of us reach for every morning without a second thought, is technically a nootropic. So is L-theanine, the calming compound found in tea.

At WillPowders, we focus exclusively on natural nootropics, because nature, as it turns out, got there first.

Natural nootropics work by supporting and stimulating the release and processing of brain chemicals: the neurotransmitters, hormones, and energy pathways that determine how sharp, calm, motivated, and focused you feel on any given day. They don't make you superhuman. What they do is help you feel more like yourself on a good day, even when life is doing its very best to make that difficult.

Caffeine is the world's most widely used nootropic for good reason. It's a fast-acting stimulant that boosts alertness, reduces the perception of tiredness, and improves mood. Its effects are significantly enhanced when combined with L-theanine, which smooths out the jitteriness and leaves you feeling focused rather than frantic.

L-theanine is an amino acid found naturally in tea. It increases alpha brain wave activity, which is associated with creativity and calm focus, without causing drowsiness. Combined with caffeine it is demonstrably more effective than either compound alone. It also supports GABA levels in the brain and has been shown under clinical trials to improve sleep quality, reduce perceived stress, and enhance cognitive attention.

Choline Bitartrate is a precursor to acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter responsible for cognition, memory, and proper brain function. It increases brain energy, improves memory formation, and helps the brain repair damaged cell membranes. Usually found in eggs, most people don't get enough of it from diet alone.

Glucuronolactone helps build connective tissue, boosts energy, reduces lethargy, and improves concentration and reaction time. When taken alongside L-theanine and caffeine, it has been shown to improve mental performance, mood, and physical performance.

Taurine is valued for its potential protective properties for the brain. It appears in multiple studies as a compound worth paying attention to for long-term cognitive health, not just short-term performance.

Vitamin B3 (Nicotinamide) is a precursor to NAD (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide), which is essential for cellular energy. NAD levels decline with age and with exposure to viruses, making regular support increasingly important as we get older.

Vitamin B12 (Methylcobalamin) supports brain, nerve, and vision function. It plays a key role in cellular metabolism, the production of red blood cells, and the brain's ability to produce dopamine and serotonin, directly influencing mood, motivation, and anxiety levels.

MCT Oil provides a fast, clean fuel source for the brain that bypasses the lymphatic system entirely, travelling directly to the liver to produce ketones. The brain uses ketones readily as an energy source in the absence of glucose, making MCT Oil particularly useful for anyone managing insulin resistance, perimenopause, or the kind of mid-afternoon cognitive dip that drives people straight to carbohydrates. Research suggests MCT supplementation is significantly associated with better memory outcomes and may be a valuable tool for sustaining cognition as we age.

Lemon Balm has a long history in traditional medicine for its benefits to anxiety and stress management. Research shows consistent benefits to low mood and anxiety across the lifespan, and specifically notes that it may buffer against stress-induced cognitive decline, protecting performance under pressure.

Ginkgo Biloba, Panax Ginseng, and Phosphatidylcholine are a well-studied trio for improving memory, reducing anxiety, and enhancing concentration. They work particularly well in shorter cycles, with periods on and off, to prevent the brain from habituating to their effects.

Understanding why your cognitive function dips is as important as knowing how to support it. Here are the five most common culprits.

1. Stress, anxiety, and low mood

When your brain perceives threat, whether real or imagined, it prioritises survival over thinking. Your limbic brain doesn't distinguish between a genuine emergency and a badly worded email. It responds the same way: flooding the system with cortisol and redirecting resources away from memory formation, clear thinking, and rational processing. Under acute stress, cognitive performance can suffer significantly. L-theanine and lemon balm are both well-evidenced short-term supports here. For the longer term, glycine from high-quality bovine collagen peptides has been shown to improve both memory and attention in young adults, and supports the production of serotonin and melatonin, the hormones most directly linked to mood stability.

2. Poor sleep

Sleep debt is one of the fastest routes to cognitive impairment. Serotonin is a precursor to melatonin, your sleep hormone, so anything that supports serotonin production is also supporting your ability to sleep properly. L-theanine has been shown to reduce light sleep and improve overall sleep quality, while also easing the caffeine sensitivity that can keep people reaching for that one cup too many after their cut-off time. Tryptophan, found in bone broth rather than collagen peptides, also plays a central role in melatonin production and is worth including in your daily nutrition for this reason.

3. Perimenopause and menopause

Cognitive changes during peri- and menopause are both medically evidenced and widely experienced. The noun that's suddenly unreachable, the room you've walked into for reasons unknown, the study session where nothing will go in: these are well-documented effects of fluctuating and declining oestrogen, insulin resistance, and rising cortisol. Ginkgo Biloba, Panax Ginseng, and Phosphatidylcholine are all useful short-term supports. MCT Oil is increasingly of interest for its longer-term role in fuelling a brain that is becoming less efficient at using glucose for fast energy, offering a cleaner alternative that sidesteps the blood sugar rollercoaster entirely.

4. Alcohol

Researchers at Oxford University, studying 550 non-alcohol-dependent adults over the long term, found that even moderate alcohol consumption is associated with adverse brain outcomes including hippocampal atrophy, which affects memory and spatial navigation. Cognitive health is also directly tied to liver health: a liver busy processing alcohol has fewer resources available for the hormones that support clear thinking. If you do drink, supporting liver function with targeted nutrition is worth prioritising alongside reducing intake where you can.

5. Underlying health factors

Chronic pain, thyroid conditions, hearing and vision issues, and infections like UTIs can all compromise cognitive function in ways that are easy to dismiss as something else. Pain, in particular, absorbs enormous amounts of cognitive resource and tends to worsen overnight, compounding sleep disruption and creating a cycle that affects memory and concentration over time. Persistent inflammation is a common thread through many of these conditions: turmeric, curcumin, and piperine have a well-established anti-inflammatory legacy and are worth considering as ongoing nutritional support.

A nootropic stack is a combination of complementary nootropic supplements designed to work synergistically, with each compound supporting the others through different mechanisms. The whole, reliably, is greater than the sum of its parts.

At WillPowders, we've done the research, the formulation, and the ingredient sourcing so that you don't have to. Our nootropic range covers three distinct needs.

Brain Powder is our award-winning nootropic stack for mental clarity, focus, and energy, winning the Tatler Beauty Award 2024 for Best for Mental Function. Customers describe it as the moment the right lens clicks into place at the optician: suddenly everything is sharper and the effort stops. It draws on the caffeine and L-theanine combination for clean focus, taurine and glucuronolactone for energy and protection, and choline and B vitamins (B3, B6, B9, B12) for neurotransmitter support and mood. Useful as a pre-workout, a study aid, a jet lag hack, and a consistent daily support for mental clarity.

Calm is our L-theanine capsule for anyone whose relationship with caffeine has become complicated: the person who wants the focus but not the flutter, the racing thoughts, or the palpitations. L-theanine in capsule form means you can get the calm without giving up the coffee. Up to six capsules can be taken across a day, adapting to what you need. Customers report meaningful reductions in anxiety and a more settled, grounded baseline that they describe as not being without.

AH-HA is our nootropic stack specifically formulated for memory and cognitive function, containing lemon balm, Ginkgo Biloba, Panax Ginseng, and Phosphatidylcholine. It works well in shorter cycles and is particularly useful during periods of high cognitive demand: exam preparation, intense work periods, presentations, or any time you need to be on your A-game without the option of a bad day.

MCT Oil sits at the base of the stack as everyday brain fuel. A daily spoonful keeps the brain understanding that there is no shortage, no famine incoming, no need to reach for carbohydrates to get through a stressful afternoon. Clean, fast energy that bypasses the blood sugar ride entirely.

Here is something most people don't know: your sense of smell is the only sensory system hardwired directly into the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain, the area responsible for producing dopamine. Every other sense takes a longer route. Smell is immediate.

Research shows that olfactory perception plays a significant role in cognitive efficiency, both through the characteristics of the scents we encounter and through the emotional associations we hold with them. A pleasant scent can reduce distress, improve attention, and shift mood states faster than almost any other stimulus. When you understand why a specific scent affects you, the effect can be amplified further.

Coupled with touch, which triggers the release of oxytocin, the bonding and calming hormone, and the agreeable warmth that also supports oxytocin release, conscious engagement with scent and physical sensation becomes a genuinely effective, if frequently overlooked, nootropic tool.

It's one of the reasons we created At Capacity, our nootropic candle formulated with essential oils chosen for their specific effects on mood, cognition, and skin. Burn it for the dopamine hit from the scent. Blow it out and use the warm coconut oil on your skin for the oxytocin response from touch. The essential oils, including jasmine, sandalwood, cedarwood, orange flower, geranium, and heliotrope, each carry their own mood-supporting and skin-nourishing properties, and continue working after the flame is out.

If you're new to nootropics, start with what's most relevant to where you are right now. If focus and energy are the issue, Brain Powder. If anxiety and overstimulation are the problem, Calm. If memory and cognitive performance need support, AH-HA. If brain fog and cravings are the daily challenge, MCT Oil. If you're doing all of this and still not getting the sleep you need, revisit the foundations: glycine from bovine collagen, tryptophan from bone broth, and L-theanine from Calm, working together.

None of this is about becoming limitless. It's about removing the roadblocks between you and your best self on an ordinary day. That's what nootropics, used well, can do.

For a closer look at the nootropic ingredients in Brain Powder: Switch Your Brain to Swoosh

On L-theanine and caffeine: see linked research

On MCT Oil and memory protection with ageing: see linked research

On lemon balm and cognitive performance under stress: see linked research