If you’ve just begun to hear about CBD from your friends or read about it in magazines – or your first experience with CBD was a bottle of CBD oil from the local health food store – you’ve just stumbled down a rabbit hole in which you’re likely to be lost for a while. There is so much to learn about CBD that no one can possibly become an expert overnight. As you read about CBD, you’re going to learn about how genetic traits in the plants, extraction techniques and processing methods can all lead to major differences in the final product. You’re going to learn about terpenes, cannabinoids and the entourage effect. You’re going to read study after study suggesting that CBD could be useful for just about everything.
Before you go too far down the rabbit hole, though, let’s begin with a bit of basic education. When it’s extracted from the plant, hemp distillate is a thick, oily substance. CBD product manufacturers can make finished products by blending hemp distillate with other oils, or they can put the distillate through additional processing and filtering to obtain pure CBD isolate. CBD isolate is an oil-soluble powder that’s easy to mix with just about anything, making it possible to add CBD to an enormous variety of different products. Are you ready to learn more about what’s out there? These are the five most popular types of CBD products on the market.
CBD Oil
Out of all the CBD products on the market, oral CBD oil is the most common because it requires the least processing to get from the raw hemp extract to the finished product. You can get a perfectly serviceable CBD oil simply by diluting hemp distillate with a carrier oil, although many companies go a bit further by removing the plant waxes and chlorophyll from the hemp distillate to improve its flavor.
CBD oil is the most popular type of CBD product because it’s common – practically every brand in the CBD industry produces CBD oil – and because it tends to be less expensive per milligram of CBD than most other CBD products.
You take CBD oil by holding it under your tongue for several seconds and then swallowing it. Holding the oil under your tongue facilitates sublingual absorption, getting some of the CBD into your bloodstream within a few seconds. The remaining CBD enters your bloodstream through your digestive system. The balanced absorption profile – some CBD now and some later – makes CBD oil a good choice for most wellness goals.
CBD Vape Juice
Studies suggest that the best way to make CBD as bioavailable as possible is by inhaling it, and if you want to try that, you’re going to need some CBD vape juice. A good CBD vape juice contains hemp distillate along with propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and optionally, terpenes and flavoring agents. You can use CBD e-liquid in any vaping device, but you’ll probably have the best possible experience if you use it in a low-wattage vape pen rather than a high-wattage device like a sub-ohm box mod. That’s because CBD vape juice is much more expensive than nicotine e-liquid; if you use it in a vaping device that produces enormous clouds, you’ll run out quickly.
When you inhale it in vapor form, CBD absorbs through your lungs and enters your bloodstream almost instantly. That fact makes CBD vape juice ideal if you’re looking for a CBD product that produces fast results.
CBD Gummies
Some experts have predicted that CBD gummies will grow more quickly than other segments of the CBD market in 2020. That could be because eating a piece of candy is a much more discreet way of getting your daily dose of CBD – and much less likely to draw questions from curious onlookers – than holding an oil dropper under your tongue. On the other hand, it may just be because CBD gummies are tasty. Gummies are a perfect alternative, in fact, if you’ve tried oral CBD oil and found that you couldn’t tolerate the flavor.
Since CBD gummies absorb through the digestive system, absorption is slower than it is with CBD oil and CBD vape juice. After you eat a CBD gummy, it’ll take up to two hours for the CBD to peak in your bloodstream. While CBD gummies aren’t the ideal choice if you want to get CBD into your system as quickly as possible, they may be a good choice if you’re happy with a product that produces CBD levels in the blood that remain steady over a long period of time.
CBD Capsules
Since CBD capsules are taken orally, their benefits and drawbacks are essentially the same as those of CBD gummies. CBD capsules are made from cellulose or gelatin, and they’re filled with CBD oil or powdered CBD isolate. Like CBD gummies, CBD capsules are ideal if you don’t like the taste of CBD oil and don’t mind the fact that oral CBD products are slow to reach the bloodstream.
You might prefer CBD capsules over CBD gummies if you are diabetic or simply don’t want to consume excess sugar. Cellulose CBD capsules are also suitable for vegetarians. Most CBD gummies, on the other hand, contain gelatin.
One of the greatest benefits of both CBD capsules and CBD gummies is the fact that each serving contains exactly the same amount of CBD, facilitating perfectly consistent dosing every time. It’s virtually impossible to get the same level of consistency with CBD oil or CBD vape juice.
Topical CBD Products
Most CBD products are simply different ways of getting CBD into your general circulation. That’s not the case, however, with topical CBD products such as creams, balms, patches and rollers. CBD can absorb through the skin, so you can use a topical CBD product if your goal is to target a specific muscle or joint. If you want to use CBD on a specific area of the body, you’ll probably find a topical product much more beneficial than a product that you swallow.
