Over the last few months I’ve been trying out various CBD products to see what works and what doesn’t when it comes to common problems for our community like pain, lack of sleep and anxiety. CBD is becoming increasingly popular despite its often hefty price tag, and companies are popping up all over the place offering oils, tinctures, patches, sweets, vapes, creams and more. I tried a variety of companies and methods of taking it, from oils under the tongue, to drinks, sweets and bath bombs.
I paid for everything myself except for Orange County CBD who gifted me their products in return for a review, but there was no pressure for that review to be positive, and I’ve been completely honest in what I’ve said about what they sent us here. They also gave us an affiliate link – you can get 15% off any order with the code AWESOME15.
I definitely had mixed success with the products we tried. Some had no effect, others worked better. Only one helped pain, none really had an effect on sleep but anxiety was markedly improved and by extension that helped my sleep because I wasn’t kept awake by anxious thoughts. It has to be said that I had to take quite high doses to feel anything, and that makes the CBD even more expensive per ‘dose’. Maybe this is because I’ve taken strong pain medication for several years which has heightened my tolerance to things like this? I don’t know enough to say, but it does make the products too expensive to use as an every-day add-on to my treatment regime.
Oils
CBD Life Raw Hemp Extract Oil
(1000mg CBD+CBDa – 10ml – 5mg CBD + CBDa per drop – £0.04 per mg CBD)
We had heard that oils could taste bad, and it did even with the supposed (but hard to find) peppermint flavouring we chose to go for. We followed recommendations and took 5 drops under the tongue, but didn’t feel any benefits, also the case at 10 drops. We had tried this to help with sleep and anxiety and didn’t feel it helped with either, which surprised us as the sublingual (under the tongue) delivery route is supposed to be the quickest and most effective. 1/5
Orange County CBD 500mg CBD Oil
(500mg CBD – 1 pipette = 17mg CBD / 0.85mg per drop – £0.5 per mg CBD)
I put this under my tongue expecting the same foul taste as the CBD Life drops only to find no bad taste at all. So this is what it can taste like?! They get a point just for not tasting horrible! But this wasn’t strong enough to do anything for me and it doesn’t feel cost effective either. I’d try the stronger strength if I wasn’t happy with the gummies (see below). 2/5
Gummies
CBD Life Vegan Hemp Gummies
(10mg per gummie – £0.08 per mg CBD)
These tasted nice enough but at just 10mg per gummie, and just 15 in a bottle, these either didn’t do much or didn’t go very far. As one of the first products I tried, I started off at the recommended one gummie serving and felt absolutely no difference, ditto eating two gummies at a time and going for two meant I went through the two bottles I got pretty quickly. For me, these just aren’t strong enough to be effective from a physical, emotional or cost perspective. 2/5
Orange County CBD Gummy Buttons
25mg per gummy – ranges from £0.04 – £0.06 per mg CBD depending on quantity bought
While Orange County CBD were kind enough to send some of their products for free, I was sceptical because of my experiences with CBD Life products. I figured CBD just didn’t work for me. Orange County CBD proved me wrong with their gummies. It does take a couple to make a difference (at least 50mg per ‘serving’ for me), but where I had been waking up at night and then being kept awake by anxiety, a couple of gummies were enough to allow me to return to sleep without being plagued by those troubling thoughts. They taste good, are vegan, have a great 25mg CBD per gummy, and have impressed me enough to spend my own money ordering more. They even had a real person on hand to help me via chat at 8pm on a Saturday night. My only wish is that the gummies had been enough to help my pain but sadly no luck there. 4/5
Bath Bombs
CBD Life 100mg Bath Bomb
(10mg per bomb – £0.08 per mg CBD)
I had wanted to try one of each of the ‘relax’ and ‘refresh’ bath bombs but relax was out of stock so I only got to try ‘refresh’, apparently a blend of peppermint and eucalyptus. The bomb certainly turned the bath a lurid shade of blue, and smelled nice, but compared to the Lush bomb, this one smelled comparatively artificial. All baths are relaxing to an extent, but I got out of this bath feeling no more relaxed than usual. As an added annoyance, that blue colour rubbed off me onto my towel so I immediately had laundry to do – thankfully it didn’t stain. 1/5
Lush 4.20 CBD Bath Bomb
(25mg per bomb)
Scented with patchouli, sandalwood and ginger oils, this bath bomb smelt good right out of the box. I used this on a day of global muscle pain (thanks lupus), and having not had much success with the CBD Life bath bomb, I wasn’t expecting anything beyond the usual benefits of a bath. I’m pleased to say I saw a big difference in how I felt after soaking in water steeped in this lovely bomb. Not only did I smell nice, my skin was soft and my pain was all but gone. Not only that, the pain I’d been struggling to shake for at least a week is still gone the next day as I write this. Hooray! Larger than the others we tried, and great smelling though it is, the lack of individual packaging means that you might struggle to store several if you don’t live near a store (like me) and want to bulk order. Nonetheless 5/5
Orange County Bath Bomb
(150mg per bomb)
This smelled nice, and not too strong, but like the CBD Life bath bomb, I didn’t feel like it made me any more relaxed than a normal bath would have done despite a lengthy soak. That surprised me because at 150mg of CBD this far and away beats the other two in terms of CBD content, plus it contains epsom salts which also have muscle relaxing properties. I can’t tell you why this didn’t work for me, only that it didn’t. 2/5
Other
Drink 420
(15mg per can – 0.06 per mg CBD)
Drink 420 was the first CBD product I tried way back when, having stumbled across it in a vegan café. Available in three flavours, elderflower lime is by far my favourite flavour, and when lockdown and we first went into shielding hit I ordered 36 cans (12 of each flavour) to help keep my anxiety under control. The first couple of times I tried them were at lunchtime, and both times I slept soundly in the afternoon (once in the cinema), but that’s something I’m quite capable of doing without CBD so I can’t say if the drink made a difference. I do feel though that it probably helped at the beginning of lockdown, even if it was a placebo effect. I had one each evening before bed and enjoyed them just for the taste, and would continue to if I could afford to. They get stars for the taste with no added sugar, but at just 15mg I’m not sure to what extent they really have an effect. 3/5
Holland and Barrett CBD Muscle Balm Ultra
Oh dear, where to begin. I was hoping this would be good as a massage balm for my super tight neck and shoulder muscles (thanks unstable neck) but this did nothing more than any other balm or massage cream for my pain. What it did do was smell. It has a very strong smell, in fact I’d recommend it as a decongest if you ever run out of Vicks vapour rub at any point. Worse, any fabric it came into contact with the balm was impregnated with its smell, which persisted even after going through the washing machine. So not only is it costly (£40 for 50ml at full price, I got it on offer), I won’t be using it again. 0/5
