Raw Botanics Review: CBD With Botanicals (2024)

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San Diego’s Raw Botanics is a boutique vendor that combines CBD with other functional botanicals like herbs and mushrooms. Its products are designed for different goals like recovery, immunity, and sleep. I tested out its CBD oils, softgels, and roll-on, finding them to have noticeable and somewhat different effects from most CBD products I’ve tried.

Summary

Raw Botanics offers innovative CBD formulas for specific benefits and the products I tested were effective. But the quality of the CBD extract needs to be improved.

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Raw Botanics Overview

The Raw Botanics Co. is a boutique CBD brand out of San Diego, California. It was founded in 2020 by lifelong friends Les Collegian and Brendan Smith, who experienced the positive effects of hemp and wanted to make their own quality CBD products.

The company is unique for combining CBD with evidence-based and time-tested herbs and mushrooms, like ashwagandha and cordyceps. Its products are tailored for different benefits like sleep, energy, and recovery, and are made without any artificial flavors, sweeteners, or additives.

The company sends all products to a third-party lab for potency testing and has been featured in major magazines like Vanity Fair.

Raw Botanics CBD Product Lineup

Raw Botanics sells CBD tinctures, softgels, topicals, and a pillow mist spray. Most are made with broad-spectrum (THC-free) hemp extract. You can peel back the label on each product to get more ingredient information.

For this review, I tested out the Rise CBD oil, Rest CBD oil, Restore softgels, and raw recovery roll-on.

Tinctures/Oils

Rise CBD Tincture

Raw Botanics’ Rise tincture combines 500 mg of CBD with ashwagandha and chaga mushroom, two ingredients that can help with energy levels and stress. There’s also an energizing blend of terpenes.

Third-party tests show good amounts of terpenes but ~8.6% minor cannabinoids, which is a tad shy of the 10+% I expect from high-quality full-spectrum tinctures.

And while the package and peel-back labels list the amounts of other ingredients as a blend, I’d like it to show the amount of each added ingredient (like ashwagandha) separately to better judge the effects.

My experience: I used the Rise oil an hour after waking up, taking 3 full droppers in 3 separate doses (~51 mg CBD). I felt increased energy, calm, and an improved mood.

Rest CBD Tincture

The Rest tincture combines 900 mg of CBD with 100 mg of cannabinol (CBN), the minor cannabinoid frequently used in sleep-focused products. It also carries ashwagandha and reishi mushroom, both of which can help you sleep as well.

I like the formula but it’s fairer to call this product an isolate since it combines pure CBD and CBN and doesn’t contain any other cannabinoids. 

My experience: I took two full droppers (~66 mg) about 30 minutes before bed. I did feel a subtle calming feeling and slept deeper with less turning than usual. 

Relax CBD Tincture

This tincture pairs up 900 mg CBD with 100 mg cannabichromene (CBC), a relatively rare minor cannabinoid, as well as ashwagandha and lion’s mane mushroom, two ingredients that can help with anxiety and overall cognitive function. 

Restore CBD Tincture

The strongest tincture from Raw Botanics, this one combines equal amounts of CBD and CBG (1250 mg each) with popular natural supplements turmeric, ashwagandha, cordyceps, and turkey tail mushroom. 

It’s designed for immunity and overall health. But again, the tests only show pure CBD and CBG (and a tiny amount of CBDV), which isn’t the greatest result for a broad-spectrum product. 

Softgels

Raw Botanics’ capsules come in the same four formulas with the same ingredients as the tinctures: rest, relax, restore, and rise. They’re made with gelatin. Again, it would be nice to see how much of each additional ingredient is in the capsules rather than the total blend amount.

My experience: I tried the Restore softgels several times, taking 4-5 capsules at a time. I felt a noticeable calm, relaxation, and a bit of energy about 50 minutes later. This was an interesting effect because I’ve previously taken CBD and ashwagandha separately but not together.

Topicals

Raw Recovery Topical Relief Cream

This cream is designed for the relief of pain and inflammation. It contains menthol and camphor, two popular topical pain relievers, as well as other beneficial ingredients like rosemary.

Raw Botanics claims that it contains CBD, CBG, and CBN, but third-party tests only show CBD.

Raw Advantage Body Lotion

The lotion is designed primarily for skin benefits and contains standard skincare ingredients such as vitamin E, aloe vera, ginger, and almond oil. But the CBD concentration is a tad low.

Raw Recovery Cooling Roll-On

The roll-on contains similar ingredients as the cream, including 2% menthol, but has a more convenient roller application. The description says it contains broad-spectrum hemp but third-party tests only detected CBD.

Our experience: I gave the roller to my friend Trinny who said it was effective in relieving her hip pain. 

Soothing Pillow Mist Spray

This unique product is intended to be sprayed on your pillow, bedding, or nightwear before heading to bed. It contains CBD alongside a calming blend of terpenes and other relaxing herbs like lavender and eucalyptus. 

Customer reviews say it helped with anxiety, stress, and sleep.

Price & Value

The easiest way to compare the value of CBD products is to divide the total cost by the amount of CBD. For example, if you have a 1500 mg CBD oil that costs $100, its price per milligram (mg) of CBD would be 100/1500 = 7 cents. The prices also vary depending on the type of product.

The prices for Raw Botanics are:

• CBD oil: 3-11 cents per mg of CBD
• Capsules: 6-11 cents per mg
• Topicals: 8-16 cents per mg

That’s pretty close to the average price for these CBD product categories, except for the Restore oil which is quite cheap at only 3 cents per mg. The only other savings you can get is 25% by subscribing to scheduled deliveries.

Still, you’re still getting above-average value thanks to the inclusion of many other active ingredients.

Hemp Source and Production Process

Rather than growing its own hemp, Raw Botanics buys finished CBD extracts and other ingredients from American suppliers. These extracts are made using carbon dioxide (CO2) extraction, the most popular extraction method in the CBD industry. 

Next, it uses a nano-emulsification process to blend the CBD extract with terpenes and other active ingredients like herb and mushroom extracts.

Third-Party Testing

Raw Botanics sends its products for independent testing to Green Scientific Labs, a Florida-based cannabis & hemp testing lab. The products are tested for cannabinoid and terpene potency but not contaminants. 

The latest test results can be found on the certificate of analysis (CoA) page. 

Third-Party Test Results

I always look at third-party lab test results to confirm that CBD companies sell safe, accurate, and effective products. Specifically, I check for:

• CBD content, which should be within 10% of the label (3)
• The levels of THC and minor cannabinoids like CBG and CBN
• Terpene content (if tested)
• Whether the CBD type (full, broad-spectrum, or isolate) is accurate
• Whether there are any contaminants

I looked at Raw Botanics’ certificates of analysis (CoAs), finding a few issues. For one thing, most products advertised as broad-spectrum only contained two cannabinoids (and one only had CBD), which is a weak result since broad-spectrum hemp extract should carry multiple minor cannabinoids. Most of the tests are also a bit old (about 1.5 years).

Another issue is that there’s no contaminant testing. Although contaminated CBD products are rare, contaminant testing is still a baseline requirement that I expect from reputable brands.

Nonetheless, the products contained accurate amounts of CBD. I was also impressed by the levels of terpenes detected in many products.

I added the test reports for two products to give you a sense of what you’re getting:

1. The 500 mg Rise oil CoA shows 459.2 mg CBD, which is quite accurate (only 8% less). There are also multiple terpenes and minor cannabinoids.
2. The 500 mg CBD cream test shows 532.5 mg, which is only 6.5% more. However, the tests didn’t detect any CBG or CBN mentioned in the product description. 

In summary, while the test results show accurate CBD levels and good amounts of terpenes, there are several areas for Raw Botanics to improve, like the lack of minor cannabinoids.

Shipping & Returns

Raw Botanics ships throughout the United States, with free shipping when you spend over $100. It also offers a 30-day customer satisfaction guarantee, which means you can get store credit if you’re not satisfied (although you may have to return the product).

Customer Service & Reputation

Raw Botanics is a relatively small, boutique CBD brand so it doesn’t have the strongest reputation. Having said that, the hundreds of customer reviews on its website are positive and the company has been featured in major publications like Vanity Fair. 

I also like the company’s transparency — it reveals the identities of its founders and other team members.

The Verdict: Innovative Brand With Room to Improve

I like what Raw Botanics is doing. I’m a particularly big fan of combining CBD with ashwagandha, which in my experience is one of the most effective dietary supplements out there. 

The other ingredients like mushrooms and terpene blends are great as well. Thanks to this, I definitely noticed different effects from Raw Botanics compared to standard CBD products. 

Having said that, the company has several areas to improve in. For one, its oils need to have additional strength options. The extracts used in the products also contain little minor cannabinoids. In fact, most only contained CBD and one other minor cannabinoid, which is a poor result for a broad-spectrum CBD product. 

Another minor issue is labeling. While it does tell you the total amount of the blend of additional active ingredients, it would be more helpful to see the exact amount of each herb or mushroom extract present. I’d also like to see third-party contaminant testing, which is a standard requirement these days.