I can honestly say that one of the longest relationships I have had has been with Cannabis. It has spanned 2 decades. This is something I am neither proud nor ashamed of, it’s just a reality of my life. Like most relationships this is one that has evolved and matured over time. My views on it today are different from what they were 5 years ago and they may even be different 5 years from now.
The purpose of this post isn’t to educate you on my views, or overwhelm you with facts. If we got into politics, policies, research, studies etc. we would be here for quite awhile. What I would like to do instead is maybe give you something to think about.
CBD lately seems to be promoted as a cure all for almost everything headaches, cramps, sleep, focus, muscle recovery you name it. In fact, I’ve even used to for some of those reasons. But here is my thing, if your going to ingest something, or apply it directly to your skin in which you will absorb it shouldn't you know what’s in it?
I’ve tried and used a fair share of products, some which I really like and have referred to others. But, when it comes to using CBD for cooking and beauty products well honestly I prefer to make my own whenever possible. A big part of that reason is that this is still a relatively “new” market that some may even view as a “fad” so testing and quality control isn’t held necessarily to the same standards as it may be for other things. This gives me the ability to know exactly what I am using and having the option to decide what type of product I want to make with it. My personal preference is to work with the actual flower as much as possible (I go to a local shop that only sells CBD products).
So for me my go-to’s are the following, I want to have something that is highly moisturizing, something that I can cook with and something that fits both of those purposes. This allows me the most flexibility and creativity with what I’m going to make.
For highly moisturizing I think of things like coconut oil, shea & cocoa butter. So I then create an infusion of the CBD with those three items. I tend to use that as a base of a body scrub so that while I am using natural exfoliants I am also sealing in moisture (super important as we move into spring and summer). By doing it this way I can control exactly what is going into my scrub and it also allows me the ability to customize for other people.
In terms of cooking I prefer to go with a more neutral tasting oil so at the moment I'm using grapeseed which works well for salad dressings as well as to quickly cook veggies. Bonus you can also use grapeseed oil as a carrier oil to make a sugar/salt scrub as well. Another great option that can serve dual purposes is coconut oil.
To make infusions even easier I now use a Levo 2 (prior to that I went with a crock pot) which takes out a lot of the guess work and really streamlines the whole process.
If you use CBD how do you incorporate it into your life?