Though California, Colorado and Washington have definitely become the hot spots for legal weed products in the last few years, the rest of the country is definitely catching up. In Nashville, Carly Ripp and her twin sister Ashley Winton have discovered the benefits of CBD and founded their own brand, Best Bud, to help other people in their community (and beyond) begin to understand and access all the ways this compound can help with healing.
Rooted in a struggle with infertility and all that can entail, the sisters began to pursue natural solutions to help cope with the disappointment of that experience, and CBD popped up as one of the most effective and simple ways to improve overall health. After daily use of CBD, the two sisters were spurred to create their own brand to help share the sometimes-misunderstood hemp product with others. First and foremost, CBD doesn’t get you high! Best Bud includes no more than 0.3% THC, the legal Or as they put it: It won’t get you high, but it might take the edge off.
One thing I immediately appreciated about Best Bud’s approach is that they understand just how little most of us know about CBD and how to use it. They recommend a two-week CBD challenge, where you’re using a dose of the tincture daily for at least a week or two, so the cumulative effects become more obvious. Since I’d mostly used topical CBD balms and oils rubbed directly on sore muscles before, I had no idea ingesting CBD was such a build-up, so I decided to take their advice and do the two-week challenge.
If you’re new to CBD, particularly tinctures, Best Bud is a great brand to start with as a jumping off point because their website is chock full of information about how and why CBD works, and even whether or not it shows up on drug tests. (Spoiler alert — if used regularly, the trace amounts of THC just might, so if your company is still living in the stone age when it comes to cannabis, please consult HR before regularly ingesting CBD). They get in deep about just how important farming practices are to the production of CBD (hemp pulls impurities from soil), and explain why their hemp oil is almost clear — it’s been ethanol extracted, and then extracted a second time to further remove other impurities.
Onto the good stuff — feeling better. CBD works within the body’s built-in endocannabinoid system, which impacts everything from pain, mood and appetite, to stress, sleep, memory, and metabolism. It also works within immune and reproductive function, so it’s more about giving that entire system the boost via ingesting CBD regularly than targeting any one thing. In the two-week period where I committed to take CBD every day, I would put half a dropper of the tincture under my tongue every morning (10 mg) during the first week, and moved up to a full dropper during the second week (20 mg).
What I noticed more than anything else was my mind’s tendency to loop in swirls of anxious thoughts immediately diminished. Similarly to when I’m regularly practicing yoga or meditation, it was easier to just not get caught up in the cycle, and make another choice in the pathway of my mind. Given the current state of the world, it’s been a tough year when it comes to intrusive thoughts, but strangely enough that was the first place I noticed an impact from regular CBD usage.
I’m also very active and tend to get ache-y or stiff very easily, and I saw an immediate improvement in how my joints were feeling during the day when I was using the tincture. My Best Bud sample was the travel set ($95), with a small bottle of the tincture and a sample of their all over oil, so it didn’t last me much longer than a month or so. I haven’t re-upped it since, but I’ve definitely been considering investing in another batch, not just to get back into using the tincture regularly, but because the essential oils blended in with the CBD in their other product smelled amazing: frankincense, sandalwood, copaiba, myrrh, geranium, lavender, and grapefruit.
The other thing I loved about this brand is how cute the bottles looked on my shelf — aesthetic is everything in a crowded market like the CBD world, and Best Bud set themselves apart not just with quality ingredients and an effective product, but beautiful packaging as well. You can purchase either the tincture in various sizes (.5 oz for $55, 1 oz for $79) or the topical oil in two sizes (.3 oz for $48, 2 oz pump for $195) via their website and get it shipped directly to you — and for Nashville locals, simply shoot them an email for pickup.
Wherever you live, if the values and aesthetic behind Best Bud interests you, then make sure to also check out co-founder Carly Ripp’s incredible home + interiors blog Life Of Plenty. Ever since being introduced to her and Best Bud last fall, I routinely return to the site to check out what she’s doing and designing, and stare at all the beautiful photos she posts. Come for the CBD, stay for the interior design — either way, this brand is one to keep an eye on as both they and the CBD industry itself continues to grow.
Learn more about Best Bud here and follow them on Instagram here.
