Just four years ago, there were only about a dozen or so CBD companies to choose from. Today, there are several hundred — and counting.

After the introduction of the 2018 Farm Bill, CBD was no longer listed as an illegal substance. Any products made from the non-psychoactive hemp plant can be bought and sold without any special prescriptions or licenses.

Now, you can order CBD oils online and have them delivered straight to your door.

Unfortunately, along with the change came a flood of low-quality companies and scams looking to make a quick buck in an emerging industry. There have been a ton of CBD brands that use clever marketing to make themselves look like a trustworthy brand — yet the CBD oils they’re selling you are virtually worthless.

It can be difficult to find quality CBD oils these days with all the noise in the market — so we’ve put together this list of the best CBD oils to choose from in 2020.

Best CBD Oils: 2020 Brand Reviews

1. Royal CBD Oil — Editor’s Pick

Product Details:

Royal CBD entered the market just before the 2018 Farm Bill came into effect. The founder, Justin Hamilton, has been using CBD products since 2014 after suffering a back injury — which eventually led him to form his own CBD company.

Royal CBD remains one of the top choices for CBD products in the United States — offering industry-average pricing with above-average quality. All Royal CBD oils are made from organic hemp and a premium MCT oil base.

The company uses state of the art supercritical CO2 to remove and concentrate the active ingredients in the hemp plant. This method is clean (no toxic solvents needed) and very efficient. The final bottle of oil contains a rich diversity of active terpenes, cannabinoids, and other phytochemicals produced in the hemp plant.

In order to provide undeniable proof that the company’s oils are as potent as they say they are, all Royal CBD extracts are batch-tested by an independent company. You can find all of these tests live on the company’s website.

Third-party testing is the best way to confirm the claims made by a CBD company. Virtually all the low-grade CBD oil brands on the market today don’t do this testing because it would quickly prove that what the company is advertising is inaccurate.

Royal CBD oils come in four different potencies ranging from 250 mg up to 2500 mg per bottle. For the best value, we recommend going for the high-potency 1000 mg or 2500 mg bottles of CBD oil.

Royal CBD has also claimed the top recommendation on publications including, CFAH, & LA Weekly.

2. Gold Bee CBD Oil — Runner-Up

Product Details:

Gold Bee has been producing organic honey and other superfoods for almost a decade. They own and operate a farm in rural California.

The founder developed an innovative method of extracting the active ingredients in hemp by keeping the size of the extraction runs very small. He found that by keeping the volume down, he could achieve a more thorough extraction of the active ingredients in hemp. Instead of releasing these oils to the mainstream public straight away, Gold Bee did a few trial runs at a few local dispensaries to gauge customer feedback.

Long-story-short, the oil was a hit. The price-point was less than what people were used to paying, yet the potency of the oil was exceptional. This is likely due to the high concentration of active terpenes maintained in these oils.

Gold Bee was featured among the best CBD oil brands in the country on several prominent media outlets — all within their first year in business. This brand has been mentioned on sources including Weed News, We Be High, Venture Beat and several others.

Demand for these Gold Bee oils quickly outgrew the supply — prompting Gold Bee to build two new extraction facilities at the start of 2020 just to keep up.

Despite the popularity of these CBD products, Gold Bee has been resistant to increasing the prices. The founder says he wants to keep the oils affordable by everybody despite pressure from competing brands to raise its prices.

Although all Gold Bee oils are well worth the price, the best value for the money is in the 1200 mg bottle. If you don’t like the natural flavor of hemp, we highly recommend you try the organic honey-flavored version of this oil instead.

3. CBD Pure — Runner Up

Product Details:

If you’re living outside the United States, you won’t be able to order from Royal CBD or Gold Bee. Both of these brands only ship products within the United States.

Instead, we recommend going for the full-spectrum CBD oils offered by CBD Pure.

This company is well-known in Europe as one of the best CBD oil manufacturers in the region for three reasons:

1. All hemp used to make CBD Pure oils were grown organically without toxic pesticides or growth-additives

2. All batches of oil are tested in third-party labs — which is rare to see in the UK CBD market.

3. Each 10 mL bottle of oil offers exceptional cost for the potency you’re getting.

A unique aspect of this brand was its decision to use small 10 mL bottles instead of the industry-standard 30 mL bottles.

The smaller bottles fit better in your pocket, yet deliver the same amount of CBD as competing brands. This means CBD Pure oils have a higher concentration of CBD per drop.

The 1800 mg bottle of CBD oil, for example, delivers an incredible 6 mg of CBD in every drop. This is about three times higher than the average CBD oil.

We recommend going for the 1000 or 1800 mg bottles of oil in order to get the best bang for your buck.

What is CBD Oil?

CBD is classified as a phytocannabinoid. It’s just one of over 100 individual cannabinoids produced in the cannabis family of plants.

Cannabinoids work by regulating a series of receptors in the body known collectively as the endocannabinoid system — or ECS for short. We’ll cover how this works in the next section.

CBD oil is made by removing the cannabinoids from hemp (along with dozens of other active ingredients) and dissolving the extract into a carrier oil. Using CBD in oil form improves absorption of the active ingredients, and makes it much easier to use overall.

How Does CBD Work in the Body?

In order to understand how CBD works in the body, we have to cover the ECS in a little more detail.

The ECS is located in almost every organ in the human body. It’s prevalent in the brain, muscles, digestive tract, immune system, and spinal cord. Here, it acts as a key regulator of homeostasis — which is a fancy word that means balance.

When homeostasis isn’t maintained, due to injury or illness, we experience side effects — such as chronic pain, autoimmune disorders, insomnia, metabolic disease, and more.

CBD works by regulating homeostasis through the ECS — which is what enables this supplement to offer such a broad and diverse set of benefits.

What is CBD Oil Used For?

CBD has many unique applications covering just about every organ system in the body. It’s used to promote weight loss by regulating metabolic balance, ease anxiety by tuning out excessive noise in the central nervous system, and much more.

Here are ten of the most popular applications of CBD oil today:

1. Chronic pain

2. Anxiety

3. Poor immunity

4. Autoimmune disorders

5. Insomnia

6. Weight loss

7. Arthritis pain

8. Inflammatory disorders

9. Indigestion

10. Depression and mood disorders

How to Use CBD Oil

Getting started with CBD oil is simple.

The first step is to find the recommended dose.

A recommended starting dose should be listed on the bottle. If not, you’ll have to figure this out yourself. But don’t worry, the process is simple.

First, determine the potency of the oil by dividing the total CBD content by the volume of the oil. For example, a 300 mg CBD oil in a 1 ounce (30 mL) bottle provides roughly 10 mg of CBD in 1 mL of oil.

One full dropper dispenses exactly 1 milliliter of oil. Using our example 300 mg oil, you’ll need about half a dropper (15 drops) for a 5 mg dose of CBD.

From here, add 5 mg of CBD per dose until you get the desired effects.

Gradually increasing the dose like this is the best way to find the right dose for your body without going overboard.

To use the oil, you can drop it directly into your mouth, or add it to another drink to mask the flavor. If you hold the oil under your tongue for a few minutes before swallowing, you’ll get an even faster onset of effects.

When To Use Cannabis Terpene Extracts

You can also order cannabis-derived terpenes to take alongside your CBD oil for added benefit. Companies like Finest Labs and True Terpenes manufacture dozens of individual terpenes to help you custom-tailor your CBD oil for specific symptoms or health conditions.

If you’re using a premium-quality full-spectrum CBD oil, you may not need to use cannabis terpenes. However, if you’re using CBD isolate oils, broad-spectrum oils, or lower-quality full-spectrum oils — you may want to pick up a bottle of terpene extracts.

Terpenes work synergistically with CBD to boost its effects and allow it to last longer in the body.

What Supplements Pair Well With CBD Oils?

A targeted nutritional and supplement regimen has a much greater impact overall than CBD oil on its own. This involves taking other health supplements that support the actions of CBD for a specific condition or symptom.

Here are a few examples you may want to consider taking CBD oil alongside:

1. For sleep — CBD oil + melatonin

2. For anxiety — CBD oil + L-theanine + magnesium

3. For joint pain — CBD oil + glucosamine + boswellia

4. For chronic pain — CBD oil + turmeric + boswellia

5. For immune health — CBD oil + reishi + vitamin C

Final Thoughts: Best CBD Oil Brands in 2020

CBD has become incredibly popular over the last couple of years ever since the federal government delisted it from its schedule I drug status.

In order to comply with the new laws, CBD oils need to be made from the non-psychoactive hemp plants. Unfortunately, the regulations end here, and just about anybody can produce CBD supplements.

This lack of regulation means there are a lot of bad players in the industry. It’s not uncommon to find CBD oils that contain less than half the amount of CBD advertised on the bottle. Others list its products as “full-spectrum” on the bottle, but a quick analysis finds this to be false.

In order to save our readers the disappointment of wasting their money on these ineffective and impotent CBD oils, we recommend you check out the product lineup at Royal CBD and Gold Bee.