When is a free sample not free?

 When you've got to pay $3 plus some shipping and handling for it.

Albeit, it'd be worth it if it works because this is the type of sample that packs a punch. 

I have to start off by saying I'm not a doctor. I'm not in the medical field nor do I specialize in anything in the medical industry. I am not your doctor, nurse, therapist, dietitian, or any other person you may see in an office setting. The information in this blog post is just that - information. It does not constitute medical advice and you should always consult with a healthcare professional in regards to how your body will react to anything you take or do. I can tell you how I fared with a product, but as I am not you or your doctor. I can't tell you how you will react. Please consult your treating physician with any concerns.

Therefore, the contents of this website, such as text, graphics, images and other material are intended for informational and educational purposes only and not for the purpose of rendering medical advice. The contents of this website are not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Any links you click and make purchases on, I earn a commission (like Amazon) or earn a percentage of points that turn into money towards my own purchase.

For example:

* Plant People [you get $15 discount and I get a $15 discount]

* Barker Wellness [you get $5 off and I get $5 off]

* Native [you get 20% off and I get 20% off] 

* Pacha Soap [you get $6 off your first purchase of $20+ and I get $5 for each referral]

* Hit! Balm [you get $10 off and I get $10 off]. NOTE: Must be 21 and over in most states as the product contains CBD. Check your legal listings before purchasing.

Okay. Disclaimers over. Onto the show.

I recently signed up for Hit Balm and got a free sample (with the aforementioned three dollar charge plus shipping and handling) of the Extra Relief | Original Strength salve. I call it a salve because it's not oily like massage oil, but it's not super smooth like lotion. It's a waxy substance that ends up going on smooth when you rub it into the places that need a little help in the hurt department (back, legs, arms). It then disappears and leaves no residue. 

This sample, according to the website, states that it "is made from 17 potent plant extracts, cold pressed olive oil and harm free beeswax. Both warming and cooling, anti-inflammatory and pain relieving, Hit! Balm Extra is the go-to solution for anyone needing to feel better fast". 

In case the back of the pack is too blurry, the ingredients in this balm are: "Cold-pressed organic olive, grapeseed, and coconut oil, Colorado full spectrum hemp extract, harm-free beeswax, camphor, menthol, cayenne extract, essential oils of Japanese peppermint, eucalyptus, ginger, turmeric, clove and cinnamon, sunflower oil, angelica root tails, cinnamon bark, dragon tree resin, notoginseng, turmeric, and mint". Which is why I said it's got more of a salve texture than an oil base. It's the beeswax that is the thickener. 

BE ADVISED: HIT! products contain CBD (Cannabidiol). Hence the "Colorado full spectrum hemp extract". According to the website, CBD is "a naturally occurring compound found in the resinous flower of both hemp and cannabis, a plant with a rich history as a medicine going back thousands of years. Today the therapeutic properties of CBD are being tested and confirmed by scientists and doctors around the world for both internal and external application. A safe, non-addictive substance, CBD is one of more than a hundred “phytocannabinoids,” which are unique to hemp and cannabis and endow the plant with its robust therapeutic profile."

"CBD is closely related to another important medicinally active phytocannabinoid: tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound that causes the high that cannabis is famous for. Unlike THC, CBD does not make a person feel “stoned” or intoxicated. That’s because CBD and THC act in different ways on different receptors in the brain and body.

The fact that CBD is therapeutically potent as well as non-intoxicating, and easy to use in a variety of forms, makes it an appealing treatment option for those who want to explore CBD’s benefits."

So you can't smoke it. 

Side note: The Hit! Balm website disclaimer includes the following:
"These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Must be 21 years of age or older to purchase any hemp-derived product in Minnesota and Rhode Island. Must be 21 years of age or older to purchase full-spectrum hemp-derived products in Louisiana, Oregon and Virginia."

This is on the bottom of all their web pages. 

So it's another disclaimer as I've just referenced them and will reference the products even further.

Please take this into consideration before you order anything.

Back on track.

Your body "ingests" this in other ways, like a lotion in this instance. Rub it into the area that is painful and let the ingredients do their job. 

Other options include chew it in gummy form or use the dropper to just get a little liquid on your tongue and not worry about kids stealing what looks like your snacks. I'm sure they won't touch what looks like a medicine bottle, because what kid loves medicine? 

For you animal people, there are dog products too, in case your fur baby needs some extra support. 

When I decided to try the balm, I tried it on my ankle at first. I was getting pain in both my ankle and foot for a few days. It felt like I sprained my ankle, but I know I didn't. I might have just been tying my shoes too tight for a few days and that was making my foot hurt. 

So one night before bed, I opened the pack and rubbed it on my foot. There was no mess where I would have expected it to leak everywhere, but it was tough to get out because I was afraid I would actually make a mess. That and due to it being a little thick, it doesn't just pool out of the packet it was in. It's almost like you have to knead it like you're baking bread, in order to get it out. I don't know if that activates any properties before putting it on, but it did seem to work well when I finally got it on my foot. 

It was warm at first because it was in my hands, but then it does have a cooling factor due to the menthol in it. Again, it wasn't too oily but it felt like I was putting on lotion once I got it worked in. The smell is okay; there's definitely a mix of scents going on in it. You can't tell what each is, but if you're thinking there's a skunky smell due to the CBD, there isn't. 

Or at least the idea of what the more potent / smokeable version is like. This isn't at all what you would expect, although I don't think CBD has a smell overall. Unless it's being masked with whatever flavors are mixed with it, but how can you have unscented versions? 

I don't know; I'm no chemist, although I'd love to ask one of the old ladies I met at one of my jobs. She was a pioneer for her time - one of the first women in the science / chemistry field and if I recall correctly, she helped create some of the makeup and other female hygiene things we know and use today. Her patents went in to a wide variety of beauty products and those are sold world wide as we speak. I can't give a lot of information out for privacy reasons, but I can tell you I did see her old paperwork and photos and can attest to the validity of it. A (close to 90) year old woman wouldn't know how to fake any of this stuff, and I'm sure her (several years older) husband wouldn't have been able to falsely manufacture it either. They were both smart friggin people (he had advanced degrees in chemistry and psychology) but they wouldn't try to fake this. 

Anyway, I still have some of the salve left, so I'm smelling it as I type this. I can smell the cloves and cinnamon, for sure. Those two spices might be the most potent of the entire package, and this has been sitting / opened in my medicine cabinet for a week. Even my mother (who tried some of this on her knees), said she smells something with ginger - it's spicy. I said "cloves and cinnamon?" and she agreed that's what she smells. It got so bad for her that night she tried it, it was overwhelming to sleep because the fumes were that bad. However, she said her knees didn't hurt even though she would have killed for a shower and clean laundry, just to get the stench out (sometimes fragrances bother her).

As a whiff of the Bog of Eternal Stench is concerned, "smell bad"? 

Squirrel!

I ended up trying the stuff again, this time on my back, since I have lower back issues and am trying way too many things to get some relief (injections, exercise, topical ointments). Maybe something mixed with menthol and CBD would help, as I've noticed the ActivIce (roll on especially) really helps but it takes time to get into my skin because I use it all over my back. However, when you go through enough of it, you need to start looking for something else. Sometimes the menthol smell gets too much and it gets on my pillow because there's been times I've used it on my shoulders / upper back. I roll everywhere in my sleep so that doesn't help. 

But the Hit! Balm did seem to work. Larger area than my foot, mixed with a bigger smell, but no stickiness. I might have slept through the night (sometimes, as with different attempts at stuff, I end up waking up in the middle of the night because they don't last long). As it was last week when I did this, I don't remember the amount of hours I lost to the dark. However, I know it worked because it didn't feel as bad laying down and I really think I had a solid sleep. 

I know it's probably a mind over matter thing or at the very craziest, a placebo effect, but somehow it worked. Like it did on my foot because oddly enough, either I stopped thinking about it or my foot stopped hurting. There's not that kind of pain now, and I've been wearing the same type of socks and shoes since I first felt the pressure. No, there's been no trippy side effects from it, as you may think because it's derived from the same type of plant as the joint version. I felt just as sober as I do when I eat a poppy seed bagel with cream cheese from Dunkie's, as a drink my iced reglah on the side. 

In the end, maybe the creator of this balm (Lawrence Miller) is on to something?? 

If you try it, let me know.

Stay pain free because that's the way to be.

Cheers;

I feel like I need to find myself a hippy commune and live off that land, the way I'm going with all the "natural" products I'm trying...