CBD oil has been hailed by medical experts and casual users as a novel method to treat a variety of conditions such as neuropathic pain, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and more. As a result, the CBD business has exploded, additionally more and more scientific studies demonstrate the benefits of CBD and other cannabinoid treatments.
For someone who has never made the foray into the CBD world, all the terms, descriptions, and science might seem impenetrable. That is why Progressive Botanicals put together this comprehensive guide on the best full-spectrum CBD oils. We will cover the science behind CBD, which CBD companies have the best full spectrum oils, and how CBD can benefit both your physical and mental health.
Without any further ado, let’s get to it.
Top Full Spectrum CBD Oil
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Nuleaf Naturals – Highest Potency
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Diamond CBD – Most Product Variety
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CBDistillery – Most Affordable
Creation Info: How Did We Make This List?
Many websites just give their opinions about CBD oil without providing much information or research about the company. We strive to be different so we hold our product research to a higher standard. To curate products for our list, we have analyzed over 2,000 user reviews on brand websites and social media websites such as Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and more. We have also consulted with experts and scientists in the CBD industry, and have done a deep dive into the history and reputation of every brand we consider.
We have also marshaled our personal experience and have personally tested over 20 brands of full spectrum CBD oils, so you can have the most objective picture possible. Many people write about CBD without having ever experienced it so their perspective is sorely lacking. We aim to combine solid scientific research, brand research, and personal observations and experience to provide the highest quality information for you. When it comes to your health, you deserve the utmost clarity when making decisions about which products to buy.
Best Full Spectrum CBD Oils
1. Nuleaf Naturals – Highest Potency
First up on our list is Nuleaf Naturals, a CBD company based out of Colorado and founded back in 2014. Nuleaf Naturals has some of the best organically produced CBD oils that we have had the pleasure of sampling and include extremely high potency blends for serious chronic issues. Nuleaf Naturals focuses primarily on CBD oils though they have recently expanded their products list to include edible products such as gummies.
Nuleaf was founded with the intention to provide a line of health and wellness products that can help people live happier and more fulfilling lives. To that end, they make their products with the highest quality and are very transparent with their methods.
Nuleaf’s full spectrum blends are the crown jewel of the company. Their full spectrum hemp oil comes in 300mg, 900mg, 1800mg, 200mg, and 6000mg potencies. The full spectrum blend contains a diverse array of cannabinoids and other molecules such as terpenes. All of Nuleaf’s CBD products are made using two-stage supercritical CO2 extraction, which is considered the gold standard for CBD oil production.
Nuleaf Naturals uses hemp locally sourced from organic farms in Colorado that use sustainable green techniques. All products are also third-party tested for purity and quality. Also, Nuleaf offers free shipping to all 50 states.
Product and Brand Highlights
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High potency full spectrum blends
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All products are made with supercritical CO2 extraction
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Hemp is locally sourced in Colorado
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Free shipping on all orders in the US
Hemp Source
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Colorado, USA
Lab Results
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62.42 mg CBD per mL
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0.14% THC
Shipping and Returns
Customer Experience
Price
Coupon
Summary
Nuleaf Naturals is one of the best CBD oil companies around and makes superior quality, high potency products. They take great pride in their transparency and all products are made using cutting-edge extraction techniques.
2. Diamond CBD – Most Product Variety
Diamond CBD is a brand owned by Potnetwork Holdings and is based out of Colorado. The company stands out due to the sheer variety of full spectrum CBD products they offer. Diamond CBD offers tinctures, edibles, capsule, lotions, balms, drinks, and CBD vaping products, among others.
Diamond CBD also uses a sophisticated CO2 extraction process to make its products.
In addition to its diverse array of full spectrum products, Diamond CBD has a special Relax line of products for promoting good sleep. Every product on Diamond CBD has a corresponding lab report, all of which are listed at the bottom of the webpage. Sizes of blends range from 100mg to blends with over 1,500mg.
Also, Diamond CBD includes several flavor profiles for their oils. Popular flavors include natural, honey, mint, lemon, watermelon, and blueberry.
Product and Brand Highlights
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Diamond CBD has an extremely wide range of products. There are over 4 pages of listings for their tincture products alone.
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All products are made with supercritical CO2 extraction methods.
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All hemp is locally and organically sourced
Hemp Source
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Colorado and Kentucky
Lab Results
Shipping and Returns
Customer Experience
Price
Summary
Diamond CBD has an extraordinary range of products, including CBD products for pets. They also offer free returns on all products within 30 days of the delivery date. We rate Diamond CBD very highly.
3. CBDistillery – Most Affordable CBD
Last but not least on our list is CBDistillery. CBDistillery is another Colorado-based CBD company that was founded back in 2016. CBDistillery has a mission to make fair-priced, high-quality CBD products that anyone can afford. That is why they won our pick for the most affordable CBD oil. CBDistillery claims to have over 1 million satisfied customers from around the country and has experienced enormous growth since its founding.
CBDistillery also uses a unique substance in their blends called MCT oil. This oil makes CBD more bioavailable so it is absorbed more readily into the bloodstream. This makes their products more effective. CBDistillery offers product potencies ranging from 500 to 2,500mg. They also offer full spectrum capsules and CBD gummies.
CBDistillery offers shipping to “virtually an address in the world,” although there are some regional restrictions for certain products. Shipping rates for items vary by weight. They also provide a generous 30-Day return policy for all unused and unopened items.
The best feature of CBDistillery is how affordable their products are. Some of their high-concentration blends are a fraction of the price as blends from other companies. As such, they offer affordable and high-quality CBD products.
Product and Brand Highlights
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Very affordable prices
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Great range of product variety, including vapes, tinctures, pet products, e-liquids, and more
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Shipping to virtually any address in the world
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30-day return policy for all CBD products
Hemp Source
Lab Results
Shipping and Returns
Customer Experience
Price
Coupon
Summary
CBDistillery is a great company that offers affordable and high-quality products. They have a diverse lineup of products and all CBD oils have a corresponding lab report showing their quality. We rate them highly as one of the best places to find cheap, affordable, CBD.
Factors That Help Us Decide the Best Full Spectrum CBD Oil Brands
We take our research seriously so we consider several relevant categories when choosing our products for the best CBD oils.
Hemp Source
We make sure to choose brands that only use the highest quality organically sourced hemp. We also try to find brands that source their hemp from the US. We analyze the company’s supply chains to make sure that their hemp is ethically sourced and produced using sustainable green technologies and techniques. The overall quality of the CBD oil depends largely on the quality of the underlying hemp used to make the oil, so this is an extremely important aspect of our selection criteria. Bad hemp equals a bad CBD oil, so we only accept the best.
Potencies
Potency is another important factor that we consider. The specific potency of the blend is determined by the volume of the mixture as well as the concentration of the mixture. Potency of CBD oils is usually measured in milligrams per milliliter (mg/mL). Most of the time, the brand will have the concentration of the mixture on the bottle label. If not, you can figure out the potency yourself using a simple formula: Cbd in mg / Bottle Volume in ml = CBD in mg/ml.
It is important to get the concentrations right because that determines the effectiveness of the dosage.
In most cases, CBD oil bottles will come with a dropper with mL measurements marked on the outside. That way you can gauge the amount of mL you get in each dosage.
Ingredients
There are several different types of CBD oil, each with a different mix of ingredients. CBD oils can be full spectrum, broad spectrum, or isolate. Full spectrum oils contain CBD but also several other important cannabinoids such as THC, Cannabigerol (CBG), and more. Full spectrum oils also contain other substances such as terpenes and essential oils, all of which augment the potency and effects. Full spectrum oils take advantage of cannabinoids’ tendency to synergistically work together and augment each others’ effect.s this tendency has been labeled the entourage effect and has been a highly studied phenomenon.
Broad spectrum oils also contain a wide selection of cannabinoids but usually exclude THC. THC is known for producing psychoactive effects so broad spectrum oils typically leave that chemical out. Isolates, in contrast, contain only CBD. Isolates contain CBD molecules suspended in some inert matrix such as vegetable glycerin or glycol.
Out of the three main kinds, full spectrum blends tend to be the most expensive because they involve the most ingredients. Isolates can also be expensive too because it takes more work to separate out CBD from the other cannabinoids in the hemp plant.
Lab Results
CBD is not yet regulated by the FDA so unfortunately, there is a big problem with scam products. In fact, according to one study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, approximately 40% of CBD products bought online either have inaccurate labeling or do not even contain any CBD at all. With the lack of regulation, it is up to individual companies to verify the integrity and composition of their blends.
That is why we only choose companies that subject their products to rigorous third-party testing. All products that we pick have been put through rigorous lab testing to verify the blends and make sure that there are no impurities or hazardous materials. Brands that do not list the lab results from testing are excluded from our list, with no exceptions.
Shipping Policy
We also take into account the company’s shipping policies. Since most CBD retailers are run through online stores, they need to have good shipping policies in order to be worth buying. Specifically, we favor brands that offer either free shipping on all orders or free shipping on orders over a certain amount. We also make sure that companies we choose offer shipping to different countries. After all, it would be a big letdown to find a product that you like but the company does not ship to your location. So we only choose companies that have good shipping policies.
Refund Policies
Refund policies are another important factor that we consider. All companies that we choose have return policies for their products. Most of the time, you will be able to return unused and unopened products within 30-60 days of your purchase. Unfortunately, due to the nature of CBD oils, most companies will not accept returns of opened products. This is because there is a possibility that the mixture was tampered with.
Taste
One thing many people criticize CBD for is the taste. Pure CBD isolates have been described as having a slightly bitter and earthy flavor, one that does not sit well with everyone. So we make sure to find full spectrum blends that offer a diverse array of flavors. For example, many companies add essential oils and other natural flavorings to give their CBD oils a more palatable taste. Some popular flavors include lemon zest, berry, mint, citrus, and even flavors like peanut butter and chocolate. That being said, most companies will offer a natural-flavored oil so you have room to choose the taste.
Price
The price of a CBD blend depends mostly on the concentration, quality of ingredients, and extraction method. In general CBD oils made using supercritical CO2 extraction are the most expensive because the process is labor-intensive and requires some specialized technologies. Fortunately, CBD brands have made large strides in recent years and advances in technology as well as brand competition have greatly reduced the average price for CBD.
In our estimation, CBD oils can be divided into low-quality, mid-grade, and high-quality blends, each with an average price point. Low-quality blends usually hover around $0.10-$0.15 per mg of CBD and mid-grade blends cost about $0.15-$0.25 per mg of CBD. High-quality blends can cost upwards of $0.25+ per mg of CBD.
So 1000 mg of a low, mid, and high-quality blend would cost about $100, $170, and $250, respectively. Isolate and full spectrum blends tend to cost the most because they require more work to create and more refined technologies.
Brand Transparency
Brand transparency is an extremely important factor for use when choosing brands. Factors we look for when determining brand transparency include company history, online reputation, and the quality of information they provide about their products on the website.
A reliable company will have thorough documentation about its products, process, supply chains, and hemp sources.
Website Experience
Lastly, we consider the overall shopping experience on the website. Factors we look for here include a logical layout, clear product categories and descriptions, relevant information for each product, and how streamlined the checkout process is. A bad website experience can ruin your shopping and greatly affects brand reputation. That is why we weight website experience very highly when making our decisions.
How Does CBD Help You?
We take the science of CBD very seriously so we have compiled this primer on the health and wellness benefits of CBD.
First, though, we should talk about where exactly CBD comes from. CBD is a cannabinoid, a type of organic molecule that interacts with cannabinoid receptors in the human nervous system. CBD is just one of the hundreds of cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant. Another well-known cannabinoid in cannabis is THC.
THC is the molecule that is responsible for producing the psychoactive effects associated with ingesting marijuana. CBD and THC are chemically similar but interact with receptors in a different manner, so they produce different effects. Specifically, CBD is not known to produce psychoactive effects.
CBD comes from the cannabis plant. Despite what many people think, the term cannabis does not refer to a specific species of plant but is a genus of plant that has different species. Scientists have identified two major species of the cannabis plant C. sativa and C. indica. Some scientists also include a third species C. ruderalis, however, this specific taxonomy is still a matter of debate among biologists and botanists.
Most full spectrum oils are made from C. sativa, which includes higher concentrations of THC. In contrast, blends that focus mostly on CBD are usually made from C indica.
Cannabis plants are also chemogenically differentiated based on the relative concentrations of cannabinoids. Marihuana is the term given to cannabis plants that contain more than 0.3% THC by mass whereas hemp is the term used for cannabis plants that contain less than 0.3% THC. CBD oils can be made from either hemp or marijuana.
Health and Wellness Benefits of CBD
CBD and CBD oils have received a lot of recent attention from medical researchers for their potential medical and therapeutic benefits. Specifically, there are promising avenues of research for using CBD to treat:
The study of how CBD exerts its effects has something to do with what is called the endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system is a network of connected CBD receptors in the human body and consists of two main kinds of receptors, labeled CB1 and CB2 receptors. Research has provided evidence that the endocannabinoid system is responsible for mediating several homeostatic processes in the body.
As such, there is a growing consensus that several seemingly disparate chronic medical conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, and migraines may share a common cause in endocannabinoid deficiencies. CBD is currently under research as a therapeutic treatment for these kinds of disorders. Studies on the endocannabinoid system imply that CBD may be an effective chemical agent for managing endocannabinoid deficiencies.
What Makes Full Spectrum Blends Superior to Other Oils?
Full spectrum CBD oils are made from hemp and contain more cannabinoids besides just CBD. Common other cannabinoids added include THC, cannabigerol (CBG), cannabinoid (CBN), and cannabichromene (CBC). Full spectrum oils also contain other naturally occurring molecules from the cannabis plant such as terpenes, vitamins, fatty acids, and proteins.
The main benefit of full spectrum blends comes down to what is called the entourage effect. Research seems to imply that different varieties of cannabinoids work together synergistically to augment each others’ effects. In other words, CBD oils are more effective when they contain a more diverse array of cannabinoids.
For example, a 2015 study from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found that full spectrum oils were more effective at managing inflammation than CBD isolates. The proposed explanation is that the entourage effect increases the overall effectiveness of the CBD oil blend. Other studies suggest that full spectrum CBD oils can effectively manage inflammation, depression, cancer symptoms such as pain and loss of appetite, and neurological conditions such as epilepsy.
Keep in mind that full spectrum oils contain THC. However, most of the time the concentrations of THC will be low enough that you should not experience any psychoactive effects. As such, you won’t get “high” from taking full spectrum oils.
How to Use CBD Oil
Most of the time, CBD oil is made in tincture form that you can directly ingest. Most blends come with an eyedropper so you can measure out a dose and consume it orally. You can also add oil to whatever food and drink you want.
Alternatively, many companies make CBD edibles that can be consumed like normal food. This method of ingestion usually takes longer to exert its effects as the CBD must be processed via your digestive system first.
You can also vaporize and inhale THC. This method is the most intense and exerts its effects almost immediately. However, vaporizing CBD can be intense, so this method is not recommended for novices who are not used to taking CBD. Vaping CBD can also cause a sore throat and breathing trouble for those with asthma or other breathing disorders.
Keep in mind that CBD oil is not medicine. Aside from one or two uses, CBD is not approved by the FDA as a cure for any diseases. Rather, it can be an effective way of managing symptoms. CBD is not meant to replace or act as a medical treatment for any disease.
Dosage & Side Effects
The exact dosage you should take depends on the frequency of administration and your body weight. Scientists still have not reached a consensus about what an optimal dosage is, but experts and CBD connoisseurs recommend starting with a dosage of 1mg of CBD per every 10 pounds of body weight. So for example, if you weigh 150 lbs, then a dosage of 15 mg should be a good place to start. You can then increase the dosage as you get more comfortable until you reach the desired effects.
These dosage recommendations are just guidelines as the appropriate dosage will depend on individual factors. It is recommended to start low and increase the dosage by about 2mg as you get more comfortable.
Regardless of the dosage, CBD has been found to be extremely safe to take and is associated with little to no side effects. Animal studies have shown that CBD is non-toxic, even in extremely high doses. For example, the LD50 of CBD in dogs is around 246mg per kg of body weight, which is extremely high. Therefore, it would be extremely difficult if not impossible for a human to overdose on CBD oil.
The most common side effects of CBD are very mild and include dry mouth, fatigue, and drowsiness. Scientists have still not worked out exactly how CBD interacts with other medications, so you should always speak to your doctor before trying CBD products. At the very least, CBD has been shown to not create physical dependencies and there is no such thing as CBD withdrawal.
Conclusions
CBD oils have quickly become extremely popular due to their potential medical benefits. CBD oils can be used to manage a wide range of symptoms ranging from inflammation and pain to cancer-related symptoms. Full spectrum blends are favored because they contain a wide range of cannabinoids that work synergistically to augment each others’ effects. As CBD is researched more by scientists, more companies are finding ways to produce high-quality full spectrum blends for cheaper prices. The result is there are several great companies to buy CBD oils from. So, if you are looking for excellent full spectrum CBD oils, then our guide will give you a good place to start.
