CBD BALM UK
A firm balm you rub in by hand. Total CBD and tub size listed on every one.
CBD Balm UK Products
CBD DEEP FREEZE BALM 1000mg
Cooling • Menthol • Witch Hazel
CBD ACTIVE HEAT BALM 1000mg
Warming • Invigorating • Rosemary
HOW TO CHOOSE A CBD BALM
Reading the strength properly, and what's in the tub besides CBD.
READ THE GUIDETrusted by CBD Customers Across the UK
Originals is a UK CBD shop built on doing things properly. Every review below is from a verified UK buyer, in their own words.
ABOUT CBD BALM
CBD balms, and what we publish about ours
A balm is the simplest thing we sell. No dropper, no measuring, no working out what a serving is. You open the tin, take a bit on your thumb, and work it into the skin where you want it.
Past that, balms differ in two ways worth caring about: what the base is made of, and whether there's a cooling or warming active in it. Most of the rest is smell. What doesn't change is what we print. Total CBD in the tin, the size of the tin, and the mg per ml that falls out of the two.
Where you want it, and nowhere else
The appeal of a balm is that you decide where it goes. One shoulder rather than all over. The backs of your hands rather than the whole arm. Nothing to measure, nothing to swallow, no thinking about it.
How often is up to you, and where you keep it tends to decide how often that turns out to be. Most people end up putting a tin somewhere it actually gets used: a kit bag, a bedside drawer, the shelf by the back door.
Cooling, warming, or neither
Most CBD balms fall into one of three camps. A cooling balm has an active in it you notice going on, usually menthol. A warming one does the opposite, and it's normally a capsicum or ginger extract behind that. The third kind has neither: just the base, the CBD, and whatever botanical it's built around.
Eucalyptus, lavender, rosemary and arnica are the botanicals you'll come across most. They bring their own smell with them, and the compounds behind that smell, linalool and limonene among them, turn up on the ingredient list under their own names. It's why the list on a scented balm runs longer than you'd expect.
The numbers we print, and why
Two numbers decide how strong a balm really is, and most sellers give you one of them. Total CBD in the tin is the number on the front. Tin size is the one that tells you what that total is spread across.
Every balm product page here lists both, plus the mg per ml you get when you divide one by the other. That third figure is the comparable one, and it's usually the one you have to work out for yourself. The full ingredient list sits alongside it, so you can see what's in the base before you buy rather than after it turns up.
True of every balm on this page
BUYER'S GUIDE
How to choose a CBD balm
Balms are easy to buy badly, because the number on the front of the tin is the thing everyone advertises and the thing that means least on its own. Six things worth knowing before you buy a CBD balm, ours included.
Balm, cream, gel or salve
The base decides how it feels. A balm is oil and wax with no water in it: firm in the tin, and it takes a bit of rubbing. A salve is the same idea, usually softer. A cream has water blended into the oil, so it's lighter and spreads further. A gel is water-based and the lightest of the four.
Balms stay on the skin longest. Creams and gels cover more ground and are easier on hairy areas. That's most of the difference, and it comes down to what you prefer.
Reading the strength properly
Two numbers, and you need both. A 500mg balm in a 30ml tin and a 500mg balm in a 100ml tub are advertised the same way, and one has more than three times the CBD in every fingerful.
Divide the mg by the ml. That gives you a figure you can hold up against another brand. When people search for a strong CBD balm, this is the number they're after, even when the box doesn't print it. We print it on every balm in the range.
What's in the tin besides CBD
Mostly base. The oils and the waxes are the bulk of any balm and they're what decides the texture. After that come the botanicals, any named active, and whatever the fragrance is made of.
Ingredient lists are usually written in order of quantity, most first, so the first three or four are most of what you're buying. If CBD is sitting near the bottom of a long one, that tells you something.
How to put it on
Less than you think. A pea-sized amount goes further than people expect, and a balm that's been over-applied just sits there.
Warm it between your fingers so it softens, then work it into clean, dry skin until it has gone in. Wash your hands after and keep it away from your eyes. Not on broken skin. If you've never used a product like it, put a little on the inside of your forearm and leave it a day before you commit to the rest of the tin.
Keeping it, and how long it lasts
A balm is wax and oil, so heat is the thing that undoes it. A tin left on a sunny windowsill or in a car in August goes soft, then grainy, and it doesn't come back the same when it cools. Cool, dry, lid on, out of the light.
The smell goes first. If you can't remember when you opened a tin and it doesn't smell the way it did, that's your answer. Which is an argument for buying a size you'll actually get through rather than the biggest one on the page.
Balms and the rest of the range
A balm goes on your skin. An oil goes under your tongue. Two different formats, and knowing one doesn't tell you much about the other.
If you're weighing up both, our CBD oil UK range is the other half of what we do. An oil is measured in drops and sold by the bottle, so the numbers you compare are different ones to the numbers on a tin.
CBD BALM QUESTIONS
A firm, wax-based product you rub into the skin by hand. Think of a lip balm scaled up into a tin. It sits on the surface, softens with the warmth of your fingers, and you work it in where you want it.
Most CBD balms you'll find in the UK are built the same way: a base of oils and waxes, CBD, and usually a botanical or a cooling or warming active on top of that. What changes from one tin to the next is the base, the smell, and how much CBD is in there against the size of the tin.
Start with when you'll use it. Cooling and warming balms are the ones you feel going on, so they suit a particular moment: after a session, after a shift, at the end of a long day on your feet. A balm with neither active in it is the one you can put on at any point without thinking about it.
Then it's the smell, honestly. You'll be wearing it for a few hours and so will whoever's sat next to you. Menthol and eucalyptus are the loud ones. Lavender and rosemary sit quieter. Pick one you don't mind being near.
Read the total for the tin and the size of the tin together, because one on its own tells you nothing. A 500mg balm in a 30ml tin is stronger per use than a 500mg balm in a 100ml tub, and both get advertised as 500mg.
The arithmetic is one line. 500mg in a 30ml tin works out at roughly 17mg per ml. The same 500mg in a 100ml tub is 5mg. That figure is what people are actually after when they search for a strong CBD balm, and it's the only fair way to hold two brands up against each other.
If you're new to balms, start lower. Not for any cautious reason, just because you'll want to know how quickly you get through a tin before you commit to a bigger one.
Start with less than you think. A pea-sized amount covers more than people expect.
Warm it between your fingers so it softens, then work it into clean, dry skin until it has gone in. Wash your hands after, particularly if it's a cooling or warming one, and keep it away from your eyes.
Use it as often as suits you. Don't put it on broken skin, and if you've not used a product like this before, try a small amount on the inside of your forearm and leave it a day.
No. THC is the cannabinoid responsible for that, and UK law requires our products to be free of controlled cannabinoids. There's nothing in a balm that could produce that effect.
Briefly, yes, on both counts. A balm is oil and wax, so it sits on the surface while it warms through and works in. That's the trade you make for something that stays where you put it.
Use less than feels right, work it in properly, and give it a minute before you pull a sleeve over it. If you'd rather have something that sinks in faster and covers more ground, that's a cream or a gel rather than a balm.
We're not going to tell you it can't. Drug tests vary, thresholds vary, and we've no visibility of the one you're taking. Nobody selling you a CBD product is in a position to guarantee your result, whatever they say on their site.
What we can tell you is exactly what goes into the product, and we'll tell you that honestly. If you're tested at work, that plus a conversation with whoever runs the testing is a better basis for a decision than a promise from a shop.
Face products are formulated differently, usually lighter and with a shorter ingredient list, because facial skin is thinner and more reactive. A body balm isn't designed for it.
We don't make one for the face. If you want one, buy one made for the face. Either way, keep any balm away from your eyes and lips unless the label says otherwise.
Plenty of places now. High street chemists and health shops stock it, and there's a long list of sites like this one. Finding a CBD balm isn't the hard part any more. Telling two tins apart is.
So the check worth doing wherever you buy CBD balm is what the seller puts in front of you before you hand over money, rather than what turns up on the tin afterwards. Total CBD, the size of the tin, and the mg per ml that comes out of dividing one by the other. The ingredient list too, so you know what the base is. Ours are on this page and on every balm product page here. Where a seller won't give you those, you're buying on the strength of a number on a lid.