Androtics Direct Review: Not a Scam, But Very Shady (A314, Pherotalk Shills)

Androtics Direct used to be one of the top pheromone companies in the world. They provided excellent products at great prices, and Pherotalk was actually a worthy discussion board…

… but over the last few years, their behavior and actions have repelled a lot of users away… ultimately leading to their own destruction.

What I mean is that Androtics Direct is nowhere near as competitive as they used to be.

Frankly, there are pheromone companies that have overtaken them by leaps and bounds – which we’ll discuss shortly.

So why did I have a change of heart about one of my previous favorite pheromone vendors?

Actually, there are several reasons:

• Lack of innovation (although they are supposedly a “research” company – just look through all the pherotalk threads)
• Too much “smoke and mirrors” (dishonesty)
• Severely overpriced products
• Changing formulas (specifically a314)
• Alternatives to Androtics Direct

But before I carry on, let me just state that this is not a review of their product line.

This is more of an in depth look at their business practices, and how I have felt personally about their dealings with myself and other pheromone users over the years.

My goal as a pheromone reviewer is to filter out great, good, and bad products so you don’t waste your time and money on stuff that doesn’t work. Androtics Direct actually does have products that work, but as you’ll find out shortly… you can get much better for less.

But let’s start with the “lack of innovation” issue.

Androtics Direct calls themselves a “research” company, that sells unnamed pheromone molecules in order to get reports about what they do.

To get a “researcher” status at Androtics Direct, you have to report on their pherotalk forum what the effects were, at what dosage, etc… this will eventually get you access to “limited edition” mixes which will supposedly be released in the future.

From all the time, money and effort that people have put in over the years to report on the molecules…

Not a SINGLE new pheromone product has come to market for the last 3-5 years. 

They only thing they did try to improve was a314 which came in batches of new “revisions” – which got WORSE over time.

Unfortunately, they not only take the mixes off the market, they are never disclosed to the public either to recreate them. Which is extremely frustrating when you have a mix that works great, but can’t be sure if it will be there next time you order.

They also have not disclosed a single “blind” molecule to date, which was the whole purpose of them being a “research” company that advances pheromone technology.

Another major complaint: smoke and mirrors

While Androtics Direct claims to be a research company (which is far from the truth), they are also very dishonest in some ways about how they do business. This is unlike the Athena Institute where they do have “research” available, but it is often sketchy very difficult to verify.

One of the most irritating things about their approach to business is the “sacrificial lamb” angle that they take.

They claim that they lose money on certain molecules and mixes that they sell, in order to advance their research – even though they have not made any major strides over the last few years.

Another major issue I have with them is that there is likely a handful of sock puppets or shills on the pherotalk forum.

A “sock puppet” is a fake online identity, in order to frame Androtics Direct in a positive light.

Some of the things they do include:

• Dissuading people from trying other vendors
• ALWAYS available to answer basic pheromone questions from new people
• Promote the hell out of all Androtics Direct products

One very obvious poster goes by the username “mobocaster” on the pherotalk forums, who has racked up almost 10,000 posts at the time of writing.

It’s extremely obvious by the number of posts, and how he answers almost every topic posted on the forum… that he’s either a huge fanboy or the more likely explanation: a paid shill for Androtics Direct (or perhaps one of the owners trying to portray their products well, from the point of a crazed user).

One other thing about my first bulletpoint – they have also started censoring the name of other vendors in private messages by using ***** to block out the names.

This is one huge red flag in my books.

Some people don’t really care for a companies politics. If the products work, they buy them. if not, they move on.

However, they dissuade people from trying other vendors because of their OUTRAGEOUSLY high prices

Unfortunately, as much as they claim to be all about research, and taking losses for furthering pheromone knowledge… they also have a LOT of explaining to do.

Especially about why some very basic products – Instant Openness, Instant Honesty, and Instant Jerk – cost $120 for a 30ml bottle.

The last time I had ordered from Androtics Direct, the SAME products only cost $50 a bottle.

So what exactly justified such an extreme price hike?

When pressed for answers, they replied that they have some very scarce molecules which goes into the production of their products, which had their prices raised.

Unfortunately, this is a direct LIE.

Even if their cost prices were raised, it would not be enough to

“You won’t believe your ears”… exactly!

justify more than DOUBLING the price.

Those products are mainly some very basic molecules, which include androstenone, alpha androstenol, and beta androstenol. You can even buy all 3 molecules and make up your own mixes by changing the ratios, which would be far cheaper than wasting $120 on the products.

In the past, Androtics Direct was very well known and maybe even considered a “monopoly” on the pheromone market.

However, the last few years have turned up some OUTSTANDING vendors which offer far better products, for a much better price.

Sure, the products work (and some of them well) – but they are obsolete in terms of what other vendors offer.

Not just in terms of better prices – but there are simply more complex formulas, that do a lot more than provide basic effects of the “Instant” line at Androtics (luckily I found Pherotruth to be a far better forum for information on new vendors at this point).

As if that wasn’t bad enough, they also screwed up their flagship product…

They changed the A314 formula and then lied about it (BS claims on the Pherotalk forums).

In 2010, I got my first taste of pheromones. It actually wasn’t anything serious, or even a hobby at the time… by some stroke of luck, I ended up on the Androtics Direct website.

I read about a fantastic product called A314, which was designed to elevate my status, get me respect and attraction, and make people think I walked off the cover of GQ magazine.

My first few tries, I didn’t really even notice the effects – until one day I walked into class and noticed everyone avoiding me. Now, this wasn’t a bad thing…

I was actually quite amazed that people who were so friendly before, seemed somewhat terrified of me now.

That’s when I realized they worked – I just had to adjust my dosage.

And from there on, it was absolute MAGIC. 

I was stunned that a few drops of this oil could have such dramatic effects on people.

About 3 years later, I got through my bottles of A314, and it was time to restock.

At this point, I had tried a range of products from AD which included Turn Up The Heat, Ammo, Instant Shine, Instant Gentlemen, Instant Jerk, Instant Openness, and Instant Honesty. I also tried some of the putative single pheromones and enjoyed playing around with mixes at the time.

Nevertheless, I was pretty excited to get my hands on the magic a314 juice again.

Except when it got here, it didn’t work anywhere NEAR as well as I was used to.

The a314 magic was GONE.

Soon after, I started complaining on the pherotalk forums, telling them that there was something very wrong with the formula.

I started experiencing negative effects such as irritation, anger, and lack of patience in my personal life. There were no positive, confident self effects like I was used to.

Other people also started reporting that this batch was a dud, and that there was definitely something wrong with it. 

John Sebastian, a “higher up” at Androtics Direct addressed the a314 issue months later (once complaints started piling up).

At first, he had tried to blame the bad batch on “special” oils that are used to create it – claiming they are volatile natural compounds and deteriorate easily. He also tried to blame it on seasonal patterns, and other natural causes for poor quality of the product.

Unfortunately, they weren’t good enough excuses.

There were batches of a314 people have been saving for years which still worked perfectly fine.

After a lot of anger from people about the blatant lies, he decided to change the story and blame it on the formulator. He claimed that the formulator had unfortunately misread a sign, and added extra oil to the formula…

He said the reason for this screw up was because of something called “NLP”, or neuro-linguistic programming. He claimed that when this happened, he read a “DO NOT ADD OIL” sign as “ADD OIL” and added it anyway.

As stupid as that sounds, that’s what he actually told us. 

So what WAS the truth?

They never told us – but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that they wouldn’t change a winning formula if they didn’t absolutely have to. It WAS changed, because the original self effects, and outward effects were never restored to their old ways.

The most infuriating part is that it was not the first time it’s happened. 

Years before I ordered my first a314 bottle, there were users complaining on the pherotalk private forum that the formula had been watered down too (although I never got a chance to test the very first originals that came out).

I would trust them MORE, if they simply said something like “look guys, we can’t make this molecule anymore for X reason, so we simply can’t offer it anymore. We had to change the formula”.

The worst part about it is that even though they knew something was wrong, they continued selling it.

At that point, many people had left Androtics Direct to find better pheromone companies who didn’t lie so blatantly to them.

Of course, if you search the forums there will be outstanding a314 reviews, which are most likely shill accounts too.

It was time to search for alternatives

After this drama went down, I had started looking to other companies to find great products. I ran into quite few junky ones, but found a handful of legitimate vendors who offered even better products, at MUCH better prices.

I’ve even compiled a list of the BEST pheromones for men I’ve picked up over the years, when in the past Androtics would have taken up atleast a few spots in first place.

Some of them include Liquid Alchemy Labs, PheromoneXS, Alpha Dream, Pheromone Treasures, and Hax Pheromones.

Also, for the more advanced pheromone users who are looking to change over from Androtics Direct, here is a guide to alternatives for their putative pheromones line.

I have reviewed a lot of products and always have stuff on the back burner… plus, you can always email me if you need a specific product for a situation you’re in.

There are much more honest and affordable alternatives to Androtics Direct.

Hope you found this helpful.

• Phero Joe

P.S. If you decide to visit pherotalk, remember that even mentioning their questionable business practices will get you blocked. However, it will not be a typical message saying so. The forum will start to go extremely slow, and constantly give you an error stating that the “server is busy at the moment”. Very sneaky way to ban people without making it obvious. Myself and other posters noticed this recently. There isn’t much worth reading anyway – even if there was, it would be buried under thousands of other fake posts to try and make it look like an active community.

P.P.S. Currently, they are trying to sell “new” versions of a314, called “Royale”, and “Naturelle”. I’ve had several people email me complaining that both products do not work. One other thing — apparently, there was a batch of A314 which was supposed to be “subtle”, but people started complaining it did not work.

… They then released the other (presumably the “Royale” edition), shortly after with a different scent. It also doesn’t work, but it wouldn’t be surprising if they just added some fragrance and tried to sell off whatever A314 they already cooked up. Be VERY wary of people claiming that it works with made up a314 reviews, especially on their pherotalk forum – shills run amuck there, whereas many people have emailed me after dealing with them and finding my article.

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Joe Masters

Pheromone Researcher at House Of Pheromones

Hey, Phero Joe here. Quick backstory - I've been a pheromone enthusiast for over 8 years now - and have tested countless pheromone products... a lot of which are complete rubbish. That's why I created the House Of Pheromones so you can save time, money, and frustration and simply get quality products that work as promised. See more below for PROOF of my pheromone collection, experiences, and recommended reading.

Read more about House Of Pheromones here.

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