Healing Yourself With DIY CBD Topicals

As I reported earlier in Spirituality & Health, products made using hemp-derived CBD can provide comfort during this current global pandemic. Katie Stem, CEO of Peak Extracts, points to how CBD topicals can help balance one’s mind and body:

Since the endocannabinoid system is pervasive throughout the body, CBD topicals are a promising way to treat inflammatory conditions close to the surface. For instance, joint pain, muscle soreness, sprains, neuropathy and skin issues can be treated with a smaller, more targeted dose than would be used orally. The time of onset is much faster and the chance of drug interactions is practically eliminated.

Making my own CBD cream from seed to salve empowers me. I know I am making a product with my own hands that has therapeutic benefits. I have also been growing my own food and medicine during the pandemic. This process has proved to be meditative and has connected me to the earth while calming and clearing my mind.

While one can grow hemp plants indoors, I’ve found the added benefits of growing these plants using sunlight. Natural sunlight produces an organic medicinal plant filled with natural goodness. (East Fork Cultivars, an Oregon based USDA Organic Certified hemp, Sun+Earth Certified cannabis, and hemp farm with a compressive educational component, offers a comprehensive 12 step guide to growing hemp outdoors.)

In selecting hemp seeds, look for a reputable buyer like East Fork Cultivars whose products have high reviews, detailed flavor notes, and growing instructions. Now that hemp is legal across the United States, these seeds can be shipped to most places with no limit on how many plants one chooses to grow.

I start my seeds inside using a grow light and then replant them outdoors once the outside temperature remains at 60 degrees and above on a consistent basis. By starting my plants by early or mid-May, I’m able to harvest them by October.

After my plants are harvested and dried, I proceed to make my own CBD cream. In addition to the flower, the leaves and branches of the hemp plant can also be used in making topicals.

DIY CBD CREAM

Laurel Howard, mother of East Fork Cultivars founders Nathan and Aaron, offers this recipe for making one’s own CBD cream.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups/28 grams hemp flower (ground into a fine powder)
• 2 cups coconut oil
• 2 Ounces (approximately 46 grams) beeswax
• 1 oven dish or baking sheet
• 1 saucepan or double boiler •
• 1 jar
• 1 cheesecloth
• Fragrant oil of your choice (try lavender oil)

DIRECTIONS

First, decarboxylate the hemp. Place the shredded bud on a baking sheet for 15 minutes in an oven, that has been preheated to 120°C (approx. 250°F).

In the meantime, place the coconut oil in the saucepan or double boiler over low heat and stir continuously.

After 15 minutes, remove the hemp CBD from the oven and fold it into the warming oil. Continue to stir the entire mixture for the next 20-25 minutes. Keep the heat low, as it’s possible to burn up the cannabis if the oil is too hot.

After 25 minutes, remove the mixture from the heat and pour the infused oil through the cheesecloth filter into the jar. Make sure to squeeze the cheesecloth thoroughly so that all excess oil is collected into the jar.

Now melt the beeswax in the double boiler. Once it is melted, add 5 parts coconut-infused oil to one-part beeswax, mixing slowly and thoroughly.

Once you have combined all of the coconut oil with the melted beeswax, remove the saucepan from the heat and add the fragrant oil of choice to the mixture. (The amount of fragrant oil added is contingent on how strong of a scent desired.)

Pour back into the jar and let sit until hardened.

Then put your homemade CBD topical on sore joints and muscles, as well as any skin issues.

For a moisturizing CB infused oil using the hemp mixture you used in making the CBD cream. Put it in the saucepan or double boiler. Then add a 16-ounce bottle of MCT oil and cook over low heat for an hour and a half. After the oil cools down, add it back into the bottle and apply liberally to the skin.

CBD Resources

ProjectCBD.org is an accessible, credible evidence-based resource on the health benefits of CBD. Also, check out the videos from the Eminent Course Library and East Fork Cultivars’ Cannabis Class.