Qualia Mind & Qualia Focus are both fast-acting, research-backed nootropics designed to support a range of important cognitive skills, including alertness, motivation, attention (e.g., focus, concentration), and memory. We believe that Qualia Focus delivers exceptional value and stands on its own as a great nootropic; however, it does not offer the premium nootropic experience of Qualia Mind.
While Qualia Mind and Qualia Focus support some of the same cognitive areas, Qualia Mind was formulated to also support a wide range of additional cognitive skills, such as executive functions, emotional resilience, and skills within an area called social cognition. And, Qualia Mind was designed to offer more robust support for processes and functions involved with attention, accuracy, and focus in stressful environments and demanding situations.
So, at a high level, Qualia Mind (1) supplies a much broader range of brain essential nutrition, (2) more holistically supports a wider range of cognitive skills, and (3) offers more robust support in areas involved in neuroplasticity, long-term brain health, and stress resilience. Qualia Mind can do this because it has (1) a larger number of ingredients—Qualia Mind has 28 ingredients, while Qualia Focus has 14, (2) the recommended number of capsules to take is far more (7 for Qualia Mind and only 2 for Qualia Focus), and (3) Qualia Mind’s higher price allowed us to include a combination of quite a few high-cost ingredients that won’t be found together in nootropic doses in products at the Qualia Focus price point (such as DHA, PQQ, Cognizin® Citicoline, Alpha-GPC, Phosphatidylserine, Uridine, and Rhodiola Rosea).
Because of the combination of capsule count and price, while both products have similar cores—the powerful nootropic pairing of theanine and caffeine, Celastrus paniculatus seed extract (the “intellect tree”), nootropic and adaptogen herbs for memory and stress support, and B-vitamins—there’s quite a bit of difference between the two products. This starts with what we use to supply caffeine, which is arguably the favorite ingredient among neurohackers for supporting alertness, energy, processing speed, reaction times, and motivation. Qualia Focus uses anhydrous caffeine (which is the most studied and commonly used type of caffeine among neurohackers and athletes), while Qualia Mind uses a more premium Organic Coffeeberry® Whole Coffee Fruit Extract as a source of caffeine because it also provides brain-supportive antioxidants and polyphenols. Another difference is that, while you’ll see most of the same B vitamins in both products, Qualia Mind can supply higher amounts of them because of the extra capsules—doses of B vitamins that Neurohacker Collective thinks of as “nootropic doses”—while Qualia Focus supplies B vitamin doses that are closer to the recommended daily intake.
Both Qualia Mind and Focus include herbs and nootropics to support functions like acetylcholine neurotransmission, neuroplasticity, and synaptogenesis, which are important for cognitive skills such as focus, learning, and memory. But Qualia Mind offers far more support in these areas. It has the two nootropic forms of choline (e.g., Cognizin® Citicoline, and Alpha-Glycerylphosphorylcholine [alpha-GPC]), the Ayurvedic herb Bacopa monnieri, and Huperzia Serrata Leaf Extract to offer more support for acetylcholine neurotransmission. Qualia Mind also contains more support for synaptogenesis and neuroplasticity—these are critical functions for learning and memory—with the inclusion of the neurohacking combination of Artichoke Leaf Extract and Coleus forskohlii Root Extract, as well as taurine.
While both Qualia Focus and Qualia Mind support dopamine signaling—critical for motivation and learning—Qualia Mind offers much more support, especially when it comes to building dopamine neurotransmitter molecules, by including three different dopamine precursors (N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine, DL-Phenylalanine, and Velvet Bean (Mucuna pruriens) Seed Extract) that are not included in Qualia Focus.
We also designed Qualia Mind to be a go-to product when it comes to healthy brain aging. Because of this, Qualia Mind places more emphasis on a number of areas that are important for long-term brain health, including mitochondrial support (which is why it has Pyrroloquinoline Quinone [PQQ] and Acetyl-L-Carnitine), nerve cell membrane fluidity, and health (which is why Qualia Mind contains Phosphatidylserine, DHA, and Uridine), and neuroprotection. It’s also an upgrade when it comes to stress support, with ingredients like DHA, Phosphatidylserine, and Rhodiola Rosea.
Which one should you buy? If you can afford it, Qualia Mind is our most comprehensive and premium product. If cost is an issue, Qualia Focus is a powerful product and we're delighted to be able to offer it as an option.
NOTE: Qualia Mind and Qualia Focus are not intended to stack together.