Home › Before you open the vial
Five minutes now saves a ruined vial later. Every point below comes from something that actually went wrong for a customer, not from a list of good intentions.
Everything we supply is lyophilised — freeze-dried powder, sealed under vacuum. It is stable like that for a long time. The moment solvent goes in, the clock starts and most of the ways an order gets spoiled happen in the next ten minutes.
Compound and vial size, on the label, against what you ordered. Check the label, not your memory of the order. If a line was out of stock we sometimes send a larger vial instead at no extra charge, and we will say so — but a 20mg vial reconstituted with the volume you had planned for a 5mg one gives you four times the concentration you intended, and some compounds will not hold at that strength.
If what is in the box is not what is on your order, tell us before you open it. Unopened we can swap it. Opened, we cannot.
We ship powder. Nothing is included to dissolve it with, so order the solvent at the same time as the vials or you will be waiting twice.
Which one depends on what you are doing: bacteriostatic water where the vial will be opened more than once, sterile water for single use, and acetic acid water for the compounds that will not go into plain water. Our guide on which solvent to use sets out the difference properly. Solvents and accessories do not count toward the bulk discount on vials and are not discounted, but adding them does not reduce the discount on your peptides.
Let the vial reach room temperature before you start — straight from cold storage it will sweat. Run the solvent slowly down the inside wall of the glass, never straight onto the powder, which foams it. Then leave it alone. Most peptides are in solution within a minute or two.
Swirl gently. Never shake. Shaking denatures peptides and whips up a foam that will not go away, and neither is reversible.
This is the one that catches people, because it sounds like the careful thing to do. It is not. Solubility falls as temperature falls, so putting a vial in the fridge before the powder has dissolved holds material out of solution rather than helping it in. You can end up with a thick mass stuck to the glass.
Dissolve first, at room temperature, until the solution is completely clear. Then refrigerate at 2–8°C, protected from light.
Some compounds are simply less water-soluble than others, and a few are noticeably stubborn. If yours has gelled, clumped or stuck to the glass:
If it still has not cleared, email us at orders@pioneerpeptides.co.uk with the order reference and a photograph. A hydrophobic compound usually wants acetic acid water rather than more of the same, and we would rather sort it out than have you write off a vial.
Sealed and dry, a vial keeps at 2–8°C, protected from light. Once reconstituted it lives at 2–8°C and its useful life is shorter — how much shorter depends on the compound and on the solvent, which is the main practical reason to choose bacteriostatic water when a vial will be opened more than once. Label what you have made with the compound, the lot and the date. You will not remember.
Cloudy, discoloured or visibly particulate material should not be used for anything. Tell us.
Tell us first, before you do anything else with it: orders@pioneerpeptides.co.uk. We would much rather hear about a problem while it is still fixable. What can and cannot be returned is set out on the returns page — sealed goods have limits, and we say what they are.
Questions about handling, storage, solvent choice, purity figures or the certificate for your batch: ask. That is the part we are good at. We do not advise on human or veterinary use, and we will not pretend otherwise — everything we supply is for laboratory research use only.
For laboratory research use only. Not for human or veterinary consumption. 18+.