During my first visit to a cannabis dispensary earlier this month, I purchased a ½-ounce jar of cannabis topical cream for $10. I used it on three painful areas – knees, mastectomy scars and spine. It was like magic cream for creaky body parts, so I went back and bought a 1-ounce jar for $20.
Then I just made it myself.
The store-bought topical runs about $20 per ounce. I have two capital expenses – a Magical Butter Machine ($175) and a Nova decarboxylator for $180. Excluding those costs, my topical balm weighed in at about $4 an ounce! And it was easy.
Topicals are a great way for older adults to experience the benefits of cannabis. Most of us have more aches and pains as we age, and there’s strong evidence cannabis helps. Topicals do not get in your bloodstream, and that means there’s no high, even if the product contains THC. However, I do believe it shows up on a drug test. I recommend you purchase topicals from the dispensary until you decide:
A) It works
B) You can’t live without it
C) You’d like to save money
D) You are willing to go to the trouble of making it at home
I hope to share success stories for homemade topicals in the future, but be forewarned, my recipes will use the Magical Butter Machine. Many DIY cannabis cooks live just fine without a Magical Butter Machine, but it makes everything so much easier. Since I plan to keep myself in cannabis products for many years to come, I decided to spring for the decarboxylator.
Here’s how I understand decarbing. When you smoke or vape cannabis, heating it up releases the cannabinoids such as THC or CBD. But if you’re cooking with it for edibles or topicals, you have to heat it up differently to release the cannabinoids. That process is called decarboxylation. The first time I decarbed using a Corning casserole in the oven, and it worked fine, but I was convinced to buy a specialized machine because there’s less waste and no smell.
I used a combination of recipes from the book that came with the Magical Butter Machine for infused coconut oil and the website Wake & Bake for the balm. The cannabis was on sale at a local dispensary during 411 week, and pretty much everything else came from Amazon or the local grocery store – beeswax, lecithin, olive oil, coconut oil and essential oils. I used tea tree and peppermint. The little jars came from Amazon and the labels from Staples.
I’m not declaring it a victory yet, which is why you don’t see the recipe. Just teasing you! It looks great – the texture of chap stick or shea butter. It’s firm but melts when you touch it and is easily spreadable. The store-bought version was creamy like a lotion, and I think it’s just a matter of whipping it up.
I started using it today and gave free samples to my focus group – two neighbors! Both were excited. One personally thanked God I moved next door and said I am using my retirement wisely.
All I asked in return was their honest feedback. What did you use it for? Did it work? Do you like the smell or not? How was the consistency to work with? I’m looking for some validation that I’m on the right path so I can begin to experiment with other recipes.
Bottom line: I don’t actually want to sell the product, but I would like to share quality-checked recipes on this blog and maybe even put together a cookbook for DIY cannabis topicals! It’s so much fun to think about.
Have you tried topicals? Are you interested in learning more about how to make them yourself?