Welcome to our Elixinol review!
As a CBD industry frontrunner, Elixinol is expected to maintain the highest standards of safety, quality, and product innovation, core tenets to which they frequently voice their commitments.
But nobody coasts on reputation alone, which is why we made sure to apply the same 27-item assessment we do for all other brands in the case of this Elixinol brand review.
According to our assessment, Elixinol earns a 93.4/100, which earns them entry into our highest tier of brands.
The six major ranking criteria we use include:
Every criterion is linked to a weighted score, adding up to an overall score out of 100 points.
For more information on how we review brands, check out this simple and informative guide.
Now, for a look at some of our favorite Elixinol products from the review process.
Powered by a proprietary ginger extract as well as CBD, these Immune Gut Health capsules are among the most potently formulated products we’ve reviewed.
In addition to supporting gut health, which in turn promotes dozens of positive changes in the body, these capsules helped us feel calm and relaxed.
As usual, they’re formulated only with clean and effective ingredients.
Competition is thickening in the CBD topical department as industry-leading brands continue to one-up each other, and Elixinol is no exception.
This highly concentrated, botanically enriched powerhouse contains more than a dozen essential oils and extracts, and zero harsh surfactants.
Our team noticed significant improvements not only in post-exercise soreness, but in work-related aches and pains, allowing for a smoother and more productive workday.
Based in Westminster, Colorado, Elixinol was founded in 2014 by Paul Benhaim, who has a 30-year legacy in hemp.
The Elixinol brand is owned by Elixinol Global, a holding company with a hemp-based food company in Australia, as well as an emerging medical cannabis operation also based in the oceanic country.
Elixinol offers broad-spectrum and full-spectrum hemp products, specializing in capsules of many different concentrations and formulations.
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Elixinol differentiates themselves from other CBD brands in a number of ways, including:
Brand loyalty: VP of Product Marketing Lindsay Topping told us that Elixinol has managed to build brand loyalty in a market where bouncing around from brand to brand has long been the status quo. The Elixinol team attributes this to their quality and testing protocols, research-driven formulations, and more.
Transparency: Elixinol offers detailed, comprehensive certificates of analysis (COAs) that give customers all the information they need to know. Customers can access third-party results directly by scanning QR codes on the products they purchased.
Education: Elixinol has one of the most comprehensive and robust learning platforms that our team has ever seen, covering what CBD is, how it interacts with the body, the difference between hemp extract types and major cannabinoids, and much more. The information is clear, concise, and highly relevant for everyday customers.
Research: Elixinol has partnered with several medical institutions and public-health-focused organizations on studies examining the efficacy of CBD and other cannabinoids for various health challenges. Moreover, they actually use this research to shape their research and development efforts (not just to say they did it).
As mentioned, we evaluate brands based on six major criteria, each of which are comprised of various subcriteria covering everything from the CBD extraction method to the brand’s involvement in community-level and global philanthropy.
First, let’s start with the all-important issue of product quality.
Max score = 35 points
Elixinol = 35 points
Far beyond the quality of the ingredients and formulations alone, we measure everything from product packaging to hemp sourcing methods when considering a brand’s overall product quality because all of these factors can affect user experience.
Here’s how Elixinol stacked up in this regard.
Elixinol sources their hemp from partner farms in Colorado that are registered with the state department of agriculture.
They use CO2—the industry gold standard for safety reasons—to extract cannabinoids from the hemp plant.
The CBD oil tinctures, capsules, and topical products we reviewed came in durable and informative packaging.
Each container was housed in a box, and both of these items took full advantage of the space, offering multiple paragraph-long blurbs about CBD, Elixinol, and the intended use of the product as well as basic product information (supplement facts, concentration, warnings, etc.).
Concerning ingredient quality, Elixinol makes use of many supporting botanicals, including turmeric, boswellia, ashwagandha, peppermint essential oil, and the first FDA-approved terpene, beta-caryophyllene.
This colorful palette of plant-based compounds allows Elixinol to offer their many formulation types (especially in capsules), including products to accommodate comfort, sleep disturbances, active lifestyles, stress, and more.
What we didn’t see ingredient-wise was equally as important; there were no artificial sweeteners, fillers, or harsh preservatives of any kind.
Finally, Elixinol provides full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD products, which we award full points for in the hemp extract availability subcategory.
Both on the website and the packaging, every Elixinol product we could find was linked (QR codes on packaging, links on the site) to a certificate of analysis from highly reputable labs like Botanacor and Eurofins.
With the exception of terpene readouts, these labs provided full-panel testing, reporting on major cannabinoid levels, any toxins detected, residual solvents, and everything else we needed to know.
Elixinol also backs up their products with US Hemp Authority certification and, for one product, USDA Organic certification, two prestigious credentials that are hard to obtain.
Supercritical CO2 extraction allows manufacturers to cleanly and efficiently remove cannabinoids from the hemp plant biomass, as CO2 is a very human-friendly solvent.
As such, we reserve a 100/100 score for this subcategory only for brands that use CO2, which Elixinol does.
Max score = 12.5 points
Elixinol = 10.375 points
Who is leading this brand, where are their products from, what’s in them, and are they backed by lab testing?
This category is all about how easy it is for customers (and reviewers like us) to access vital information like the above.
The “About Us” page on Elixinol’s website provides a decent introduction to CBD and the brand’s values, but there are no headshots/bios of company leaders and no specifics (i.e., dates) relating to when the company was founded and how they’ve grown over time.
However, customers can quickly and easily access certificates of analysis on packaging and on the site, which helped the brand recoup a lot of points in this category.
Finally, the product pages do an excellent job conveying all the necessary information and then some—ingredients, general guides, FAQ, etc.—so it’s full marks for product information accessibility.
The only two tidbits of information we could exhume relating to Elixinol’s supply chain (where the hemp is grown, where it goes from there, etc.) were that the product is grown in the US and the oil is extracted with CO2 and ethanol.
We don’t expect a super-detailed breakdown of every small step in the supply chain, but it is important for consumers to at least know where/who the farms are, who formulates and packages the products, and so on.
As such, Elixinol took a solid hit for supply chain transparency, but were still able to round out the category with 10.4 out of 12.5 points because of their solid performance in other areas.
Max score = 7.5 points
Elixinol = 7.375 points
Regardless of the product, a well-designed website can convey trustworthiness and authority while making the learning and purchasing experience as seamless as possible, all of which convert to higher brand loyalty in the end.
For these reasons, we prioritize a brand website’s educational resources, mobile responsiveness, and of course, e-commerce experience.
It was very easy to access product categories and browse Elixinol’s fairly sizable catalog; we rarely had to rely on the “back button” or a tangled mess of filters.
The overall aesthetic is minimalistic and attractive, and on both product category pages as well as individual product pages, a wealth of supplemental information made us feel more confident as we donned the perspective of first-time CBD users.
Overall, the site was responsive on mobile devices, but we made a very small deduction for some minor user interface issues (i.e., scrollable image carousels not responding to swiping properly).
In addition to the educational info peppered across product and category pages, Elixinol maintains one of the most well-written and robust information platforms in the business.
Between the “CBD 101” page, the 50+ blog posts, and the FAQ section, all of which are conveniently grouped under the “Learn” section of the Elixinol site, new and veteran CBD users alike can learn something new.
Max Score = 10 points
Elixinol = 9.5 points
Here is an arena where a brand’s actions towards their customers can be held up to their promises, which is why customer service is such a telling indicator of a brand’s overall integrity.
More than just accommodation and responsiveness, it’s also important for the customer experience that a brand provides common support channels (phone, email, chat) and maintains fair shipping and return policies.
Though Elixinol has phone, email, and live chat services, the live chat isn’t really live—it routes you to a support bot that can either submit a ticket through the email system or direct you to the Elixinol knowledge base.
Still, all three channels we tested were highly responsive and accommodating, so we awarded 90/100 for this ranking factor.
The shipping and return policies are fair in that customers are protected with a 30-day, money-back guarantee (and 72 hours for products received damaged), but we made a small deduction here because Elixinol doesn’t reimburse for shipping on returns.
Max score = 10 points
Elixinol = 6.44 points
Some brands can justify charging premiums with their above-and-beyond quality standards, ingredients, etc., which is why we incorporate an “ingredient quality relative to price” factor alongside scoring for raw price.
Our standard practice when scoring raw price for a brand is to find a basic CBD oil tincture, and adjust the closest available concentration to a month’s worth of CBD (1500mg).
Then, we plug the raw price for that month’s supply into a scale we developed after assessing the pricing structure of industry-leading brands.
It costs roughly $110 for a month’s supply of Elixinol’s standard CBD oil tincture, which earns 17.5/100 for raw price.
This may seem harsh, but some of our trusted, high-quality brands charge as little as half of this amount.
On the back end, however, we gave Elixinol the maximum possible points for ingredient quality relative to price, since they have botanically enriched, clean ingredient lists every time.
Max score = 25 points
Elixinol = 24.75 points
Finally, this broad category measures a particular brand’s imprint on the CBD industry, their local communities, and the world at large.
This encompasses many efforts that don’t always fit nicely into boxes, so we cast a wide net by awarding credit for the following:
Between Elixinol’s synergistic capsules; high-quality oils, gummies, and topicals; and innovative liposome-enhanced formulation; it’s no question that they’ve earned full marks for product innovation.
Elixinol has partnered with Realm of Caring and Johns Hopkins on several studies related to CBD’s effects, earning full points for research investment and participation.
We also default to a full score for community and industry involvement (as well as legislative activism) for members of the US Hemp Roundtable, as this particular association has been instrumental in moving hemp legislation forward.
Regarding supply chain oversight, Elixinol has the maximum amount you can have without owning the hemp production itself, earning 95/100 here.
Institutional knowledge runs deep throughout the leadership team, between Global CEO Oliver Horn’s experience leading major corporations (L’Oreal, Treasury Wine Estates, etc.) and Global R&D Director Beata Silber, PhD, who is a neuropsychology expert with more than a decade of experience in research departments for major companies.
Finally, on the philanthropy side, Elixinol is among the most generous CBD brands when it comes to donating both bulk sums and a percentage of their ongoing sales to various organizations.
The brand donates 5% of every purchase to a non-profit of their customers’ choosing, and their work with Realm of Caring and Leaf411 has taken aim at public health with a pro-CBD lens.
All totaled, Elixinol receives a score of 93.44, entering the top tier of brands that score over 90 points.
Here are some key takeaways to sum up our review:
We highly recommend Elixinol for CBD newbies and veterans alike, not just for their high-quality products, but for how well they educate and accommodate their customers.
We tested several of Elixinol’s products across all of their major categories, including the following:
Following are our comprehensive reviews of the products we sampled as broken down by category, starting with oils.
The broad-spectrum Daily Balance CBD Tincture we sampled came in a 500mg concentration, though it is also available in 133mg, 1000mg, and 4000mg strengths.
Here is the cannabinoid breakdown for our product according to the certificate of analysis:
The CBD level is right where we want it (and then some), and the supporting cannabinoid content is right around five percent of the CBD content, which is average as top-tier brands go.
The 500mg Daily Balance CBD Tincture we reviewed retails for $39.99, which reduces to just under $0.08/mg.
Though this price point isn’t outlandish by any means—especially not for a highly reputable brand—it lands just outside of that highly competitive $0.03-$0.06/mg range.
As mentioned in the brand review, Elixinol made up several points on the back end of the price ranking factor for overall quality.
The packaging (small box, darkly tinted bottle, and standard dropper lid) was consistent with Elixinol’s other products, which are consistent with the best brands in the industry.
Both box and bottle contained a QR code for easy access to lab reports, the labeling is succinct and highly informative, and the bottle/lid held up throughout our entire use of the product.
Here is the ingredient list for this Daily Balance CBD Tincture: Hemp extract (aerial parts), medium-chain triglyceride coconut oil, steam distilled peppermint essential oil, beta-caryophyllene (BCP).
While still fairly simple and straightforward, the rare addition of both a health-affirming essential oil and an FDA-approved terpene (BCP) bodes very well for the quality of this product.
This is among the most impressive ingredient lists we’ve seen for a “standard” CBD oil tincture.
We thoroughly enjoyed the Winter Mint flavor of this broad-spectrum tincture, which somehow almost completely masked the hemp taste without assaulting the palate with extreme mintiness.
This was a smart play for three reasons:
Peppermint oil has various health benefits
It effectively masks the hemp taste while consuming
It leaves you with a pleasant aftertaste as well
Overall, we highly recommend the flavor, and would love to see more products from Elixinol and/or other brands using essential oils as flavoring agents.
This tincture was moderately effective at reducing stress throughout the day, and when taken in the morning, it helped us wake up and get on with our day earlier (sometimes even skipping the coffee!).
In most cases, we had to take at least 2-3 full droppers (32-48mg) a day to achieve these effects.
Overall, this tincture was as effective as most other standard CBD oils from top-tier brands.
Let’s start with the pros for this Daily Balance CBD Tincture:
And the cons:
All four of the capsules we tried—Immune Gut Health, Good Night, Stress Less, and Body Comfort—came in 15mg/capsule concentrations.
We also kept the unit count consistent at 60, so each product should contain 900mg of CBD.
Here are the CBD, THC, and total supporting (non-THC/CBD) cannabinoid readouts according to the certificates of analysis for these four products (per capsule):
Overall, THC levels were well below the legally mandated 0.3% cutoff, and supporting cannabinoid concentration varied between a decent 4-7% range, but the CBD was under-delivered in a couple of cases.
However, the melatonin (Good Night) and ashwagandha (Stress Less) help to make up for this.
All four of these products retail for $64.99, which reduces to $0.07/mg.
As expected, this price point is slightly lower than that of Elixinol’s CBD oil tinctures, but it’s still slightly higher than most.
Once again, when the quality of the clean, synergistic ingredients are taken into account, we still consider these to be well worth the price.
All of our capsules came in the same box/container combo, complete with ample supplemental information, basic product info, and a QR code for lab report access.
The lids secured tightly after each use, and the labeling was very helpful.
Simply put, there’s nothing more to ask for here—the packaging is top quality.
Here are the ingredient lists for each product we sampled:
Immune Gut Health: GinfortTM, (Ginger extract, 26% gingeroids, active gingeroids, hemp extract (aerial parts), medium-chain triglyceride coconut oil, vegetarian capsules [hypromellose, purified water, D-sorbitol], silica.
Good Night: Melatonin, hemp extract (from aerial parts), MCT coconut oil, vegetarian capsules [HPMC, purified water, D-sorbitol], silica.
Stress Less: Ashwagandha extract (withania somnifera), hemp extract (from aerial parts), MCT coconut oil, vegetarian capsules [HPMC, purified water, D-sorbitol], silica.
Body Comfort: Boswellia extract (boswellia serrata) (gum resin), hemp extract (from aerial parts), MCT coconut oil, vegetarian capsules [HPMC, purified water, D-sorbitol], silica.
With the exception of the immune gut health capsules, all of these products had little to no scent or taste.
The immune gut health capsules didn’t taste of ginger on initial consumption, but we were able to detect faint remnants of ginger flavor about half an hour after consuming.
Overall, there were no major concerns in this department; everything in the scent and flavor department was consistent with CBD capsules from other top-tier brands.
Even more so than the CBD oil tincture, these capsules all helped with relaxation and stress.
It was difficult to gauge the effect of the Immune Gut Health capsules in our case, both because this benefit is more of a “background application” and because we weren’t experiencing any digestive issues throughout the sampling window.
However, after several consecutive days of taking at least 3 of the Body Comfort capsules, we noticed a decrease in soreness, both after exercise and long bouts of working in a seated position.
Finally, the Good Night capsules helped us to fall asleep faster if we took at least 3 in the evening.
Let’s start with the pros:
And now the cons:
The Elixinol Sports Gel we sampled provides 1000mg of CBD in a 3.4oz (100ml) bottle.
Considering the majority of topicals stop somewhere between 500-750mg, we consider this broad-spectrum product to be among the stronger CBD topicals on the market.
Here is the cannabinoid breakdown according to the certificate of analysis for our product:
Considering the CBD content “falls short” of the label claim by less than one percent, we’ll call it an even 1000mg.
That said, the supporting cannabinoid concentration is a little low, at roughly 1.2% of the CBD concentration.
Overall, the product complies with the THC limit and delivers the CBD as promised.
This product retails for $59.99, which reduces to just under $0.06/mg.
This is where Elixinol starts to climb into a more competitive price range; high-quality topicals typically cost at least $0.08/mg.
Considering the brand behind the product, we consider this particular topical to be an especially strong value.
The pump bottle this topical comes in—which is housed in the usual box—is better than most at preventing messy build-up around the opening after a few uses.
As usual, the box and bottle both contain helpful and succinct info in addition to basic product details and a QR code for accessing lab reports.
Here is the ingredient list: Water, SD alcohol, glycerin, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, aminomethyl propanol, arnica montana flower extract, cannabis sativa (hemp) extract, capsicum frutescens resin, carbomer, chamomilla recutita (matricaria) flower extract, cinnamomum camphora (camphor) bark oil, cinnamomum cassia bark extract, citrus grandis (grapefruit) seed extract, cymbopogon schoenanthus oil, eucalyptus globulus leaf oil, hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) bark/leaf/twig extract, limnanthes alba (meadowfoam) seed oil, mentha piperita (peppermint) oil, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf oil.
As expected, this topical contains upwards of a dozen natural oils and extracts, and no harmful preservatives.
There’s no room for critiques here; top marks for high-quality ingredients.
As most topical creams and ointments go, this Sports Gel by Elixinol was not very intense in the way of burning and cooling sensations.
We did notice a mild-to-moderate tingling sensation setting in roughly two minutes after application and lasting roughly twenty minutes after the fact.
The gel smelled of mint, pine, and just a touch of citrus.
It was slightly more viscous than average, leaving no drippy residue whatsoever, and massaged nicely into the skin in just a few seconds.
This product was moderately effective at relieving aches and pains in smaller joints (sore wrists and knuckles) as well as larger application sites (hip and low back), though we have to say it really shines in the first application.
On most days, we were able to keep sore wrists and hands at bay by applying a very small amount of the gel to these areas every two hours or so.
This may not be the ideal product if you’re looking to cover up a nagging issue with intense burning and cooling sensations, but the discomfort relief it provided lasted significantly longer than most.
Let’s start with the pros:
And now the cons:
This powerful, yet gentle blend of CBD and melatonin helped our testers fall asleep in less time.
Engineered to work with the body’s circadian rhythm, this product never left us feeling groggy.
They were most effective when taken 3-4 hours before bed.
Easy on the THC (as in, zero) and packed with supporting cannabinoids, this tincture is the best of both worlds.
At two full doses a day, it was effective at smoothing out stressful moments.
Plus, the refreshing Winter Mint flavor covered up the hemp taste wonderfully.
These innovative CBD capsules are fortified with Boswellia to support joint comfort.
When taking this product between workouts, we found it improved recovery time and soreness.
Like the rest of Elixinol’s catalog, this product is made with safe and natural ingredients.
Elixinol has a moderately sized product selection, offering CBD oils, capsules, and topicals featuring full-spectrum and broad-spectrum extracts.
While they aren’t necessarily the most active brand we’ve seen in terms of frequently updating their catalog, when they do so, they make sure that each carefully curated addition is supported by sound science.
Elixinol offers five tincture products:
Though it isn’t the largest CBD oil tincture selection, Elixinol does an excellent job accommodating a broad audience (THC-free, full-spectrum, sleep and general use).
The Liposomal delivery system used in the Rapid Reset and Rapid Rest “tinctures” is particularly promising in how it greatly enhances the body’s ability to absorb the CBD.
In simple terms, these liposomal tinctures use microscopic bubbles that are compositionally similar to most cells (both are enclosed in a phospholipid bilayer) as a means for delivering the CBD contained therein to tissues it could not reach otherwise.
Elixinol has eight CBD capsule products:
Besides Daily Balance, which is the brand’s standard capsule, each of the other versions contain a special blend of synergistic herbs that are intended to produce a specific benefit, such as relief or relaxation.
The latest addition to the Elixinol product catalog – the Adaptogen Complex – is particularly robust in terms of a botanically supported formulation, considering the use of reishi mushroom, ginseng, gingko and rhodiola rosea.
For anyone unfamiliar with adaptogens, which applies to all four of these ingredients, the term applies to any food and/or compound shown to enhance the body’s ability to “adapt” to stressors of various forms.
Elixinol has two CBD topicals:
The most unique product to Elixinol is the Sports Gel, which has a creamy, gel-like consistency.
Elixinol now offers a line of full-spectrum and broad-spectrum hemp gummies in various flavors and targeted applications.
The vegan, THC-free Sleep Gummies contain 15mg and 2mg of CBN per gummy, and come in a blueberry flavor.
The full-spectrum Extra Strength Gummies, also vegan, provide a more potent 25mg of CBD per gummy, and are available in strawberry (naturally flavored).
After completing our review, we concluded that Elixinol is an excellent brand with products that are safe, high-quality, and affordable.
The company is transparent about its entire operation from “seed to sale.”
The hemp is organically grown, the oil is extracted with CO2, and the purity of the products is proven with extensive, comprehensive third-party testing.
As for their products, our team was simply surprised at how affordable Elixinol made each product.
If we had to describe Elixinol in a word, it would simply be: impressive.
After personally testing their products and thoroughly vetting their operation, we are excited to recommend Elixinol.