By the time you get home from an afternoon in downtown Charleston, you may have walked farther than you intended. Lunch turned into a little shopping, then another few blocks, and now you’re ready to put your feet up.
If you use a CBD cream, this might be when you reach for it. Or perhaps you keep one in the bathroom and apply it before work. Either way, you’ll probably notice more than the CBD number on the jar. You’ll notice how it smells, how easily it rubs in, and whether your hands feel greasy afterward.
Those details deserve a place in the buying decision. A cream can have everything you were looking for on the label and still have a texture you don’t enjoy. Thinking about when you’ll use it helps you choose something that suits you.
Getting Ready for Work
There’s a difference between applying a cream when you have the evening to yourself and using it five minutes before you need to leave.
If you’re getting dressed right afterward, you may prefer something that spreads easily and leaves little residue. A richer cream might be perfectly pleasant when you have more time, but less convenient around a shirt collar or under a pair of trousers.
Before choosing a cream for your morning routine, look for:
- Texture: Is it described as a light cream, cream gel, or thicker balm?
- Residue: Do reviewers mention oily hands or cream transferring onto clothing?
- Scent: Does it contain menthol, essential oils, or added fragrance?
Reviews are most helpful when they describe those details. “Rubbed in easily” tells you more about the texture than a five-star rating alone.
If you dislike menthol, compare the regular versions with the cooling ones. Check the ingredients, though—“regular” doesn’t always mean unscented.
Coming Home After a Busy Day
After yard work, a workout, or several hours on your feet, a cooling cream may sound appealing. If you’ve used menthol products before, you probably already know whether you like that sensation.
Use that preference as a starting point. There’s little reason to choose a cooling version if you’ve never enjoyed cooling creams, simply because it’s the one featured in an advertisement.
Menthol contributes the cooling feeling. Some warming products use capsicum ingredients, and some creams combine ingredients associated with both warmth and cooling.
That feeling is separate from the CBD content. You can have a strongly cooling cream with a relatively modest CBD amount, or a more concentrated CBD cream without much cooling at all.
Your plans for the next hour matter as well. If you’re heading straight into the shower, wait until afterward to use the product as directed. If you’re changing clothes and going out again, you may care more about residue than you would on an evening at home.
These are small considerations, but they’re the ones you’ll run into every time you use the jar.
A Quiet Evening at Home
At home, you have a little more room to choose by preference.
You may like taking a few minutes to massage a richer cream into your shoulders. Or you may want something light that rubs in without leaving your hands slippery when you pick up a book or the television remote.
The same goes for fragrance. A scent you barely notice during the day may seem stronger when you’re getting into bed. If you share a bedroom, the other person may notice it, too.
Think about the lotions you already buy. If you consistently choose light, mildly scented products, that preference probably won’t disappear because a cream contains CBD.
You don’t need a completely different set of standards for this purchase. Start with what you like applying to your skin, then look at the cannabinoid content and the rest of the ingredients.
A Quick Comparison for Your Routine
When you’ll use it
What to look for
Before work or getting dressed
A finish you’re comfortable having under clothing and a scent you enjoy
After exercise or yard work
Cooling or regular ingredients, depending on your preference
While relaxing at home
A texture you like massaging into the area
Before bed
A scent and skin feel that won’t bother you or your partner
Find the Formula, Then Compare the Strengths
It helps when a brand offers more than one version.
Quiet Monk CBD’s cream collection includes original and cooling formulas, with cream strengths ranging from 3,000 mg to 20,000 mg per four-ounce container. That lets you compare strengths within the kind of formula you prefer.
If cooling is important to you, start with those options. If you’d rather skip that sensation, look at the original versions and check their ingredients.
Then open the individual product pages. Along with the CBD amount, look for any separately listed cannabinoids, such as CBG, and the description of the cream itself.
This is more useful than choosing the biggest number first and hoping you’ll like everything else about the product. You’ll be applying the whole formula, including its oils, moisturizers, and sensory ingredients.
What the Number on the Jar Means
The CBD amount usually refers to the entire container.
For example, 5,000 mg in a four-ounce jar works out to twice as much CBD per ounce as 5,000 mg in an eight-ounce jar. Both labels show the same total, but the creams have different concentrations.
When reading the label, check three things:
- Total CBD: How much CBD is in the whole container?
- Container size: How many ounces or grams of cream does it contain?
- Other cannabinoids: Are ingredients such as CBG listed with their own amounts?
“CBD,” “hemp extract,” and “total cannabinoids” aren’t interchangeable. Separately listed amounts make the comparison easier.
A laboratory report can help you check the tested contents against the label. Look for one connected to the product or batch you’re considering.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health notes that some over-the-counter CBD products contain more or less CBD than their labels say. That’s a good reason to choose a company that makes its testing information easy to find.
If you don’t understand a result, ask the company to explain it. You shouldn’t need a chemistry background to get a clear answer about what’s in a cream.
Buy an Amount That Makes Sense for You
Once you’ve narrowed the choices, compare the price and quantity.
A larger jar may cost less per ounce. That can be useful when you already know you like the product. For a first purchase, a smaller size or sampler can give you a chance to try the texture and scent before ordering more.
Check the package size rather than judging it from the photograph. A jar against a plain background can be surprisingly difficult to gauge.
The container itself may influence your choice. Some people like jars because they can take out the amount they want. Others prefer a tube or pump. Neither needs to be a major selling point; it just needs to work for you.
You’ll still want to follow the directions and use the product for its intended purpose. Beyond that, the buying decision can be fairly straightforward.
Picture where you’ll keep the cream and when you’ll reach for it. If the scent, texture, ingredients, and strength suit that moment, you’ve found an option worth considering. The jar should be something you’re happy to open, rather than another product that sits untouched at the back of the cabinet.