Much to my chagrin, it’s becoming abundantly clear to me that I am merely mortal. This sadly means that I am no longer able to go out until 4 a.m., hit the hay for three hours, and re-enter the world feeling and looking brand new, but — and this is the worst — things hurt. A night in a lumpy hotel bed feels like torture. Spending several hours slumped over my laptop makes my back feel like it’s been trampled on by a herd of cows. And overextending myself with the weighted Hula-Hoop I got for my birthday leaves me hunched and clutching my muscles for help. (I am kidding about the hoop, but I do have a weighted skipping rope.)
Fed up with turning to the traditional solutions for muscle ache — creams like Deep Heat liberally applied at bedtime left the sheets smelling so menthol-y they doubled to clear my blocked nose too — I discovered Wildflower CBD Cool Stick entirely by accident. Just before Christmas, I was browsing an online beauty store for an eyebrow pencil and added the stick to my cart immediately. Until this point, CBD has somehow passed me by — a sentence that seems strange to type when it’s in practically every product from lube to face oil to scented candles — but something about this little balm spoke to me that day, possibly its tidy packaging and multiple five-star reviews.
The stick itself fits in my hand like the bigger sister to a lip balm, chunky and solid. Its clean white packaging and type is both medical and minimal and doesn’t look out of place in my handbag or on a dresser; it’s not old-timey looking or overly designed. A screw-on lid keeps the balm fresh (and also from escaping everywhere), and that’s it. A little twist of the screw at the bottom and the balm pops up, meaning you can apply it to those harder to reach places yourself with ease. Being made from coconut oil, cocoa butter, and beeswax means that it glides over your aching muscles easily. (I apply it liberally and then try and find someone to massage it in as a treat, but leaving it as is works too.)
Pleasingly, it doesn’t leave any skid-y, deodorant-like marks on clothing as it’s clear, and it is absorbed by the skin at the same speed as a rich body moisturiser. It’s fragranced with peppermint and menthol so it feels cooling and tingly on the skin while the CBD kicks in, which works as anti-inflammatory and produces pain-relieving effects (apparently). It’s so discreet to use that I even used its cooling properties on a long-haul flight recently when I overheated. It’s good for more intensive uses too — my girlfriend regularly uses it up and down her legs and on her lower back after she’s been horse-riding and says she feels her muscles being healed as it cools them down. Despite this, there’s still plenty left in the stick, which I imagine will keep us going for another two months. And in the meantime, while I disappointingly remain a mortal, this little stick makes me feel like a god once more.
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