Medterra’s Manuka CBD cream is an innovative combination of the best natural skincare ingredients. The result is a mild topical balm that can be applied directly to your skin and delivers 125mg of CBD in a 30ml tub.
Made in the USA, it contains an extract from organically grown hemp combined with twenty other beneficial ingredients. As with all Medterra’s CBD products, the packaging is well presented in purple and silver. It comes with lots of useful information about the product and even fits in mentions of the science behind it.
Manuka is often used in skincare, but I’ve never seen it combined with CBD before, so I was keen to give it a try. Medterra doesn’t suggest where it should be applied but state that it’s a ‘valuable addition to your skincare regimen’. I’ve decided to use it on the dry areas on my hands and face.
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Contents
Who is Medterra?
Certified by the US Hemp Authority, Medterra was founded by a small group of individuals who believe that CBD should be available to all at affordable prices. They use high-quality CBD isolate to create a broad range of products including oils, capsules, topicals and pet supplements.
Medterra employs numerous industry experts to ensure that they stay ahead of the curve and use the latest methods in farming, extraction and quality control. Based in the USA, all their CBD comes from hemp grown in Kentucky.
The farms and products are fully compliant with the rigorous standards of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. In fact, they are so confident in the quality of their products that they offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
3rd Party Lab Tests
The third-party lab tests for this cream are easy to access from a link on the product page. The batch number on the balm I received was K13192A, but the only example on the site was K13193A.
Although it’s useful to look at an example certificate, it’s preferable to be able to see them from every batch, including the one that relates to your product. For an example of a complete database of lab results, check out Endoca.
The certificate itself is easy to interpret with lots of detail. It includes a cannabinoid profile and an in-depth report of contaminants including pesticides, residual solvents, microbial and heavy metals. The only cannabinoid detected in the analysis was CBD. 134.2mg was present, which is a little more than the 125mg on the label, so you get a little extra for your money.
I prefer products that use full-spectrum extracts and contain a range of cannabinoids because they deliver the entourage effect, which can add to the potency of the product. However, Medterra makes it clear on their website that they are aiming for a pure product made with CBD isolate.
Medterra says that their products contain zero THC, which is difficult to achieve because it usually remains in some trace amounts. Although THC may still be present in an undetectable quantity, the results didn’t show any, so the claim may be correct.
The contaminants screening showed that all possible contaminants were either not detected or below the quantifiable level. This means that everything falls within safe levels with no concerns.
Other Relevant Certifications
Although this is not an entirely organically certified product, the hemp is grown without artificial pesticides and it contains several other organic products. The CBD and manuka honey are suspended in a blend of aromatic ingredients to make it easy to apply to your skin. They include aloe barbadensis, beeswax, coconut oil, grapefruit seed extract, cocoa seed butter, seabuckthorn oil, avocado oil, sunflower seed oil and palm fruit oil.
The packaging states that the Manuka honey is produced in New Zealand and has a Unique Manuka Factor (UMF) of 12+. The UMF is an official grading system used to identify genuine New Zealand produced Manuka. Most Manuka honey ranges from 5 to more than 16. A rating of 12+ puts this honey at the ‘medium’ grade.
Following my research into Manuka honey, I looked for the official mark and licensing number that should be displayed on the packet and couldn’t find it. Although I’ve been generally impressed by Medterra’s attention to detail on this product, because the honey is used as a selling point, there should be more information about it. I’d like to see the licensing information and details on how much has been added to the cream.
Ease of Use
This is a simple to use cream, that smooths onto your skin quickly. The tub is lightweight and seals easily without leaks. The cream itself is slightly greasy and after a while, the outside of the container can get slippery.
The instructions on the label are vague and advise you to apply it to your ‘desired area’. This is obviously to prevent the implication of any health benefits but leaves you wondering exactly what it should be used for.
Manuka CBD Cream Fragrance
The fragrance was very mild but pleasant. I was expecting it to smell of honey, but the most noticeable scent was of hemp. I’ve used some hemp topicals that are overpowering, but this was barely noticeable and had a very slight sweet fragrance which made the hemp notes more pleasant.
Potency/ Effectiveness
With 125mg in 30ml, this isn’t a potent CBD balm, but I found the blend of ingredients to be effective. It’s the kind of cream that works best if you’ve got dry, chapped hands or want to apply it to your face as a night cream. It’s too heavy to apply on your way out the door and leaves a slightly waxy feeling for a short while.
Once you’ve smoothed it on, it feels quite thick but absorbs into your skin quicker than you’d expect. After a while, you can still feel that you’ve applied something, but most of the greasiness doesn’t stay too long.
I found that it gave immediate relief to the dry patches on my forehead but didn’t seem to stop them from recurring in the long run. For me, the best use was as a hand cream. I get very sore dry hands once I’ve been outside for a while and this provided lasting relief. I also found that over time they dried out less and less.
Value for Money
For £34.99 you get 30ml holding 125mg of CBD isolate. If it was CBD alone, it would be an expensive product, but because it’s combined with other valuable products, it makes it quite affordable. Manuka honey itself is often very highly-priced, but for me to be confident in the value of this cream, I’d need to know exactly how much it contains.
In the past, I’ve spent large amounts of money trying to find a cream that effectively soothes my dry hands, this one does the job with ease. Most hand creams I’ve previously tried have been expensive and not as effective as the Medterra CBD cream. For the relief this cream provided, I consider it to be of good value.
Would I Buy Again?
Yes, I would buy Medterra CBD cream again. Whilst I wouldn’t use it for more serious conditions it worked well as a moisturiser. Currently, this balm is number five in our best CBD balm & cream reviews article, to appear higher, I would expect a more potent product.