My New Favorite Pain Relief

Ok, so I’m fully here for the CBD trend, in case you weren’t aware. It’s said to reduce stress, anxiety, nausea, depression and inflammation, including the sebaceous glands so bye-bye acne. It may even protect against strokes and heart attacks and it’s a natural product. So, I mean, yeah, I’ll try it. I’ve tested numerous brands and products from tinctures to bath bombs. You may be wondering, wow, Katie, are you just a super anxious ball of stress? Nope, I’m pretty chill actually, well, most of the time. However, I deal with chronic back pain so my main goal for CBD has been trying to find the queen of queens painkiller for this constant discomfort. While I’ve found products that are soothing or relaxing or at least have some sort of placebo effect, I had yet to find the product that could successfully ease my pain. But now, I’m here to tell you, I’VE FOUND THE HOLY GRAIL!!! I think.

So yoga studio/brand Y7 collaborated with Nice Paper, a content company focused on promoting cannabis education, to create two products, including the After Flow CBD Balm*. It is meant to soothe aches and pains and, let me tell you, it actually does. It’d probably be even better if I also used the After Flow CBD Bath Soak, but, hey, one thing at a time, people.

So I went to the gym this morning (I would love to do this more often, but a 5 a.m. wake-up call is not my idea of a good time) and ran a couple miles. By the time I got home, my knees were killing me and I knew I wouldn’t be able to last a whole day at work (I have a standing desk for those aforementioned back issues). I remembered I had a small stockpile of CBD products and figured it wouldn’t hurt to test one of them out today so I grabbed the After Flow balm. It was harder than expected so I kind of pushed a little deeper into it than I was probably meant to, but I wanted to get a good amount on my finger so I could apply to both knees and my lower back. I massaged it in, which obviously helps in itself, and then continued getting ready. The balm feels like solid coconut oil and that, plus the beeswax and shea butter, makes it extremely easy to smooth onto any affected areas. I assume the menthol, peppermint and tea tree extracts are what give it the Icy Hot-esque cool, yet burning sensation. At first, it freaked me out because I haven’t used Icy Hot in a hot minute, but then I realized the aching was going away. I got dressed about 10 minutes after application and the salve had already been absorbed so I didn’t even think to worry about anything getting on my clothes. At that point, my knees had already started to feel a little better.

Now, a few hours later, my back has started hurting again, but I expected that as it seems to be deeper than anything a topical pain relief product can reach. However, my knees are still feeling good as new! You better believe I’ll be breaking out this balm again, although probably sparingly because I don’t want to run out anytime soon.

Y7 x Nice Paper After Flow CBD Balm, $55, Y7-Studio.com

*I did receive this product for free, but this post is not sponsored. I’ll go ahead and state here and now, I will never promote any product I do not actually like.