GLOW blend: what one draw actually delivers
GHK-Cu, BPC-157 and TB-500 in one vial, at a ratio the compounder chose. Work out what a single draw delivers of each — the three are not close to equally dosed.
GLOW is a three-peptide vial: GHK-Cu, BPC-157 and TB-500, the name being a loose acronym rather than a formulation. There is no standard recipe. A frequently circulated ratio is 50 mg of GHK-Cu to 10 mg each of BPC-157 and TB-500, which is the reference this page's worked example uses — but yours may differ, and the only reliable source for what is in your vial is the label on it.
The ratio matters more here than in a two-peptide blend, because the components are further apart. At 50:10:10 the vial is five parts GHK-Cu to one part of each of the others, so any draw is dominated by the copper peptide. Whether that suits what you are trying to do is not something a calculator can tell you — but what the draw contains is, and that is worth knowing before it is in a syringe.
volume to draw (ml) = dose wanted (mcg) ÷ that concentration
what the draw delivers of any other = that other (mg) × 1000 × volume ÷ water
units on a U-100 syringe = volume to draw (ml) × 100
Only the last line is specific to a blend, and it is the one people skip. A draw is a fraction of the vial, so it takes the same fraction of every component. Draw a fifth of the vial and you get a fifth of each thing in it.
The ratio problem, in numbers
Each row below anchors on one component at the low end of what the literature and community practice describe for that compound on its own, then shows what the same draw delivers of everything else in the vial. Computed for the reference vial — 50 mg GHK-Cu, 10 mg BPC-157, 10 mg TB-500 in 5 ml of bacteriostatic water — and the calculator above will redo it for yours.
| If you dose for | Draw | GHK-Cu | BPC-157 | TB-500 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GHK-Cu at 1 mg | 0.1 ml (10 u) | 1 mg | 200 mcg | 200 mcg (10% of its own low end) |
| BPC-157 at 200 mcg | 0.1 ml (10 u) | 1 mg | 200 mcg | 200 mcg (10% of its own low end) |
| TB-500 at 2 mg | 1 ml (100 u) | 10 mg (10× its own low end) | 2 mg (10× its own low end) | 2 mg |
The amounts each row is anchored to, and where they come from:
- GHK-Cu — 1-2mg/day, Daily SubQ (SubQ systemic, from this site's compound reference)
- BPC-157 — 200-250mcg/day, Once daily SubQ near injury or orally (Starting, from this site's compound reference)
- TB-500 — 2-2.5mg twice weekly, SubQ or IM (Loading, from this site's compound reference)
Off-label or community practice None of these compounds is approved for human use, and the amounts above are what is described in the literature and in community practice rather than established doses. They are here as the yardstick the blend is being measured against, not as a recommendation. What matters on this page is the gap between the columns: it is a property of the vial's ratio, and no injection technique changes it.
Why this blend is put together the way it is
GHK-Cu is a naturally occurring copper-binding tripeptide, best evidenced topically, where its use is cosmetic and over the counter. Injected use is research only, with no approval anywhere, and it is the component that carries a genuinely dose-dependent consideration the other two do not: it carries copper. The app's own monitoring note for it says to watch copper levels with extended high-dose use, and a blend that is mostly GHK-Cu by mass is how someone ends up at a higher intake than they realise.
BPC-157 and TB-500 are both research compounds with no human approval and modelled half-lives — four hours and about two days — that are estimates rather than published human figures. As in any blend, their schedules and GHK-Cu's cannot be set separately once they share a vial.
What is in the reference vial
- Components
- GHK-Cu · BPC-157 · TB-500
- Also called
- GLOW blend, GLOW peptide blend
- Reference vial
- 50 mg GHK-Cu + 10 mg BPC-157 + 10 mg TB-500 in 5 ml bacteriostatic water
- Regulatory status
- GHK-Cu: Topical use is cosmetic/OTC. Systemic SubQ use is research only — no FDA approval.
BPC-157: Research compound — no FDA approval. Not for human use label.
TB-500: Research compound — no FDA approval. Not for human use label. - Before mixing
- Sealed powder tolerates room temperature in transit, but keep it refrigerated at 2–8 °C (36–46 °F) for anything beyond a few weeks, or frozen for months. Keep it dark — the carton it shipped in is doing a job.
- After mixing
- Once reconstituted with bacteriostatic water: refrigerate at 2–8 °C and use within about 28 days. The benzyl alcohol in bacteriostatic water is what buys that window — plain sterile water has no preservative, so a vial mixed with it should be treated as one sitting only. Kits are usually ten vials: only the one you mixed is on that 28-day clock — the sealed ones keep their own, much longer shelf life, so store them as powder, not as solution.
- What ruins it
- Do not freeze a reconstituted vial. Repeated freeze–thaw is one of the more reliable ways to degrade a peptide.
- Handling caveat
- General handling practice for this formulation. Your supplier’s own insert or COA overrides anything here.
Questions people actually ask
What does GLOW stand for?
Nothing official. It circulates as a name for a GHK-Cu, BPC-157 and TB-500 vial, and different sellers use it for different ratios and sometimes different components. Treat the name as a rough description of the contents, not a specification, and read your own label.
Is the copper in GHK-Cu something to think about?
It is the one component here with an accumulation question attached, and it is why this page shows the GHK-Cu number first. The app's monitoring guidance for GHK-Cu is to keep an eye on copper levels with extended high-dose use. A blend where GHK-Cu is the bulk of the mass makes that easier to overlook, not harder. If you are using one for any length of time, that is a conversation for a doctor, with a copper level in front of you rather than an estimate.
Can I separate the components once the vial is mixed?
No. They are dissolved in the same water and go into the syringe together, in whatever ratio is in the vial. The only way to set each compound's amount independently is separate vials.
How do I know what is actually in my vial?
You do not, beyond what the label claims. None of these compounds is sold as an approved medicine, so nothing on the label has been verified by a regulator, and a blend adds a second unknown on top of the first: the ratio. The calculator is exact about the numbers you give it, and those numbers come from a label nobody checked. That is worth holding in mind before treating any output here as precise.
What about storage once it is reconstituted?
Mixed with bacteriostatic water, refrigerated at 2–8 °C and used within about 28 days is the rule the app applies to reconstituted peptides, and it applies to a blend as a whole rather than to each component. General handling practice for this formulation. Your supplier’s own insert or COA overrides anything here.
Does the calculator know these are research compounds?
It does arithmetic, and nothing else. None of the compounds in this vial is approved for human use, and a calculator that tells you a draw is 40 units is not telling you the draw is a good idea. Anything you are considering injecting belongs in a conversation with a doctor who can see your whole picture.
A blend is one vial with several clocks running in it. The app keeps the vial, the concentration and every draw you take from it, so the split only has to be worked out once.
Save this draw to your logThis calculator does the arithmetic you typed and nothing else. It does not know what is actually in your vial, whether the label is accurate, or anything about you. Confirm the vial strength and the diluent volume on your own label before you draw, and take dosing decisions to a qualified provider.