Energy-E Happy Caps

1. Energy-E Happy Caps

Energy-E is the straightforward one: five stars for energy, one for relaxation, and a formula that reads more like a pre-workout than a party pill.

It is built on 390 mg of beta-alanine with L-arginine, L-carnitine, rhodiola and guarana. The guarana supplies the caffeine and bioperine is there to help the rest absorb. One of those ingredients produces an effect people find alarming if nobody warned them, which is section 3.

One practical note. We also list this cap as a four-piece pack at a different price. As far as we can tell these are the same product under two catalogue entries, and we are consolidating them — if you are comparing the two listings, that is why they look identical. Check the pack size before ordering, and ask us if it is not clear.

2. Specifications

2.1 Manufacturer’s profile

3. The tingling

Twenty minutes after taking this, a lot of people feel a prickling or tingling across the face, scalp, neck and arms. It is the single most common thing anybody asks about this cap and the answer is completely reassuring:

1. It is beta-alanine. The effect is called paraesthesia and it is a documented, harmless and very well characterised response to the compound.
2. It affects most people at this sort of quantity. Around 390 mg is comfortably enough to produce it in the majority of users.
3. It passes within twenty to thirty minutes and leaves nothing behind.
4. It has nothing to do with an allergic reaction. Beta-alanine is thought to act on sensory neurons in the skin; it is a nerve effect rather than an immune one.
5. Every pre-workout supplement on the market does this, for exactly the same reason. It is not peculiar to this product or to smartshop capsules.

3.1 What the rest of the formula does

• Beta-alanine 390 mg — the largest ingredient. In sports science it is studied for buffering muscle acidity during sustained effort, and like creatine it works by accumulating over weeks rather than acutely.
• Guarana 160 mg — the caffeine source, and the ingredient actually producing the acute lift.
• L-arginine 180 mg — a nitric oxide precursor, involved in blood vessel dilation.
• Rhodiola rosea 160 mg — an arctic root used traditionally for fatigue resistance.
• Bioperine 80 mg — standardised black pepper extract, included to improve absorption of everything else.
• L-carnitine and the vitamin, mineral and amino acid complexes — supporting micronutrients.

Read honestly, this is a sports formula rather than a party one, and the acute effect you notice will mostly be the guarana.

4. Cautions

• Strictly 18+.
• Not a substitute for a varied diet, and never exceed the stated maximum.
• Do not combine with medication or with other stimulants — including energy drinks, coffee and anything else on a night out.
• Never with MAO inhibitors. This is the interaction that matters most on this list.
• Do not use if you have high or low blood pressure, a heart condition, a thyroid disorder, kidney disease, or if you are being treated for depression or anxiety.
• Not during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
• Go easy on alcohol. Stimulants mask how drunk you are, which is how people misjudge the evening.
• Stimulants plus dancing plus a hot room means dehydration. Water, breaks, and somewhere cooler every so often.
• Keep out of reach of children.

The prickling across your face twenty minutes in is beta-alanine. It is harmless, it is well documented, and every pre-workout on the market does it.