Support
Frequently asked questions
Ordering and qualification, documentation, shipping, specifications, and what these materials are and are not supplied for.
Ordering and accounts
- Do I need an account to order?
- You can browse the catalog and build a cart without an account. Completing an order request requires contact and organisation details, and an order is accepted only after buyer qualification has been reviewed. The requirement is stated on the product page, before anything is added to a cart.
- Do you sell to individuals?
- No. Both catalog lines are business-to-business. Research materials are supplied to institutional laboratories, contract research organisations, and analytical facilities; cosmetic ingredients are supplied to manufacturers and formulators. Orders from personal accounts are declined.
- What happens after I submit an order request?
- You receive a reference in the form NLB-XXXXXX. Nothing is charged at that point. The accounts team reviews the qualification recorded with the request, then issues a written quotation covering price, lead time, shipping method, and tax. The order is scheduled only after you accept that quotation in writing.
- Why is there no card payment at checkout?
- Because no payment processing is connected to this site. Rather than display a card field that could not take a payment, checkout ends in a recorded order request. This is stated on the checkout page itself rather than discovered at the last step.
- Can I get a quotation before ordering?
- Yes, and for anything beyond catalog quantities you should. Bulk quantities, custom fill sizes, and repeat-supply arrangements are quoted individually. Send the catalog numbers and quantities you need to the accounts team.
Documentation
- How do I get the certificate of analysis for my material?
- Use the lot number printed on the container label. The lot lookup matches that number to the certificate issued for that batch. Certificates are issued per lot rather than per product, because a test result belongs to one batch.
- Why can I not download documents directly from the site?
- This catalog carries placeholder records, and no signed document corpus sits behind them. Publishing a generated certificate with results that were never measured would be a fabricated evidentiary document, so every document routes to a request handled by a person.
- Can you re-issue a certificate for material I bought previously?
- Yes. Lot records are retained so a certificate can be re-issued after the material has been consumed, which is usually when an auditor asks for one. A re-issued certificate carries the original content and is not regenerated from current data.
- What is the difference between a specification and a certificate?
- A specification states the limits every lot of a product is released against. A certificate states what was found in one specific lot. They look similar and they are not interchangeable — a specification presented as a certificate is the most common documentation substitution in this category.
Shipping and storage
- How is material shipped?
- Shipping method depends on the material and the destination, and is confirmed on the written quotation before an order is accepted. Materials requiring cold chain ship with the appropriate packaging and any surcharge is stated on the quotation rather than added later.
- Do you ship internationally?
- Destinations are confirmed per order. Some materials are restricted in some jurisdictions, and it is the buyer's obligation as importer of record to confirm that a material may lawfully be imported and held at the destination before ordering.
- How should material be stored on arrival?
- Storage conditions are stated on each product page and on the accompanying documentation, and should be followed from the moment the shipment is opened. Record the receipt date and the lot number at the same time — the storage history of a lot is not part of its certificate.
- What if a shipment arrives damaged or warm?
- Contact the accounts team before opening or using the material, and keep the packaging and any temperature indicator. Material whose transport conditions cannot be established should not be relied on for work that requires traceability.
Products and specifications
- Why are specifications marked unverified?
- Because they are. Every specification field on this site carries a status, and only fields verified against a released lot are treated as facts. Placeholder values are shown in a muted state with a badge and are excluded from the structured data the site publishes.
- Can you supply a material that is not in the catalog?
- Custom synthesis and non-catalog materials are handled case by case. Send the sequence or identifier, the scale, and the purity requirement to the accounts team. Some requests are declined, and a declined request is told so plainly rather than quoted and delayed.
- Is lot-to-lot consistency guaranteed?
- Consistency is demonstrated across certificates over time, not asserted within one. If lot-to-lot comparability matters to your work, reserve material from a single lot at the outset — retrospectively matching a lot is usually not possible.
- Do you publish stability or shelf-life data?
- No stability data is published on this site, because none has been generated for this placeholder catalog. Where a retest period exists it is stated on the specification for that product.
Use and compliance
- Can these materials be used in humans or animals?
- No. Research materials are laboratory reagents supplied for in vitro and analytical use by trained personnel. Cosmetic ingredients are raw materials supplied to manufacturers for formulation into finished products. Nothing in this catalog is supplied for administration to humans or animals, and no preparation, reconstitution, or dosing information is provided for any such purpose.
- Will you tell me how to prepare a material for personal use?
- No. Requests of that kind are declined rather than answered informally. This is not a formality: the question describes a use the material is not supplied for, and answering it would misrepresent what is being sold.
- Does a research-use-only label make a product lawful to sell?
- No. A label describes intended use; it does not change what a substance is or who may lawfully supply and hold it. Where a material is a controlled, prescription, or otherwise restricted substance, that status governs regardless of how it is labelled or marketed.
- Who is responsible for finished cosmetic product safety?
- The manufacturer or brand owner placing the finished product on the market. Northlake Bio supplies raw ingredients with identification and specification data; safety substantiation, labelling, and regulatory filing for a finished product rest with the party marketing it.
- What are my privacy rights?
- Personal information collected through this site is limited to what is needed to qualify an account and process an order request. Rights to know, delete, correct, and opt out are set out in the privacy notice, along with how to exercise them.
Questions we decline
Questions asking how to prepare, reconstitute, dose, or administer a material to a person or an animal are declined rather than answered informally or in general terms. The materials in this catalog are not supplied for those purposes, and an indirect answer would misrepresent what is being sold.
The full statements are in the research use policy and the cosmetic ingredient policy.
Still stuck?
Technical and documentation questions are answered by a person during Monday–Friday, 9:00–17:00 [TIMEZONE].