Cannapower CBD Relief Cream 1000mg

The blurb and the ingredient list name different things

The brand publishes an ingredient list for this cream in the standard cosmetic format. In full, it reads: aqua, sunflower seed oil, polysorbate 20, cetearyl alcohol, glyceryl stearate, phenoxyethanol, carbomer, potassium sorbate, sodium hydroxide, lavender essential oil, and CBD isolate.

The same website, describing the same cream, calls it a signature blend of jojoba oil, CBD extract, sweet almond oil, vitamin E, lavender and shea butter.

Four of those six appear nowhere in the ingredient list. Only the lavender and the CBD are in both. If shea butter and sweet almond oil were in the product they would have to be declared, and they would appear under their standard names, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter and Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis Oil. Neither is there.

That is not a copywriting quibble, and here is why it goes at the top of the page rather than in a footnote. Sweet almond oil comes from a nut. Someone with a nut allergy who reads the marketing paragraph will put this cream down. Someone who reads the ingredient list will not. The two documents give opposite answers on the single question where getting it wrong causes actual harm.

In cosmetics the ingredient list is the one that counts. It is a legal requirement, it has to be complete, and it is the document a consumer is entitled to rely on. The paragraph selling the product is not. So on the evidence the blurb is the thing that is wrong, and what we can tell you is precise: almond is not declared in this cream. We are not going to go further and tell you there is definitely none in it, because that is a laboratory question and we have only read two texts that disagree.

We have asked our supplier and the brand for the authoritative list. Until that comes back, if a nut allergy is the reason you are reading this section, this is not a cream to take a chance on.

A CBD cream is a cosmetic, not a food and not a medicine

Almost everything else in this shop is a food. Gummies, oils, teas and capsules all sit under food law, which is why the Novel Foods process hangs over them and why the Food Standards Agency's advice of no more than ten milligrams of CBD a day keeps coming up on our pages.

None of that applies here. A cream you rub into your skin is a cosmetic, and cosmetics are governed by their own regulation with their own requirements: a safety assessment by a qualified person, a product information file, and notification before it can be sold in Great Britain.

Two practical consequences follow, and no CBD seller we can find explains either.

First, the ten milligram daily figure is not the relevant number for a cream. It is advice about eating CBD. A cream is not eaten, so quoting it here would be as unhelpful as quoting it about shampoo. That also means there is no equivalent published figure to give you, which is a gap rather than a licence.

Second, and more importantly, a cosmetic is allowed to say what it does cosmetically and is not allowed to be presented as acting on a disease. A product that is presented that way stops being a cosmetic in the eyes of the law and becomes a medicine by presentation, which requires an authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The MHRA restated exactly this position about CBD products in April 2025.

That distinction is the reason the next section exists.

What the maker says about this cream, and why it is not on this page

Cannapower's own description of this product makes a series of statements about what it does for your body, including naming specific medical conditions.

We are not going to reproduce any of them. Not quoted, not paraphrased, not gestured at.

That is a deliberate decision rather than squeamishness. A cosmetic that is presented as acting on a disease is caught by medicines law, and repeating a claim does not become safe because somebody else said it first. It would also be dishonest of us, because we have no idea whether any of it is true and neither does anyone else selling this cream.

So what you will find on this page is what is in the tub, what regime it sits under, and what it is like to use. What you will not find anywhere on this website is a statement about what CBD does, for this product or any other. If that is the information you came for, we would rather send you away disappointed than tell you something we cannot stand behind.

We have raised the wording with our supplier, and it is on the list of things to resolve before this product goes live.

What is actually in the tub

A thousand milligrams of CBD isolate in a hundred millilitres works out at one per cent CBD by volume. That is a useful number to hold onto, because CBD creams are sold on milligram figures that mean very little without the volume next to them.

The base is a conventional oil-in-water cream and there is nothing exotic about it. Sunflower seed oil is the oil phase. Polysorbate 20, cetearyl alcohol and glyceryl stearate are the emulsifier system that keeps oil and water together. Carbomer thickens it. Phenoxyethanol and potassium sorbate are the preservatives, which any water-containing cream needs. Sodium hydroxide adjusts the pH. Lavender essential oil provides the scent.

There is no added colour, no fragrance blend beyond the lavender, and nothing animal-derived, which is why the brand describes it as suitable for vegans and as cruelty-free.

One thing worth flagging plainly. Essential oils are among the more common sources of contact allergy in cosmetics, and lavender is one of the more frequently reported. That is a statement about a class of ingredient rather than about you, and if you have reacted to scented creams before it is a reason to patch test this one on a small area first.

The formula being short and ordinary is not a criticism. Most of what a cream needs to be is stable, preserved and pleasant to apply, and this is a straightforward way of achieving that.

Using it, and who should skip it

It is a cream. You put it on your skin and rub it in. The brand suggests applying it to the area you want it on and massaging until absorbed, daily or as you like, and there is nothing to add to that.

It is a light cream rather than a balm, so it goes on thin and does not leave much of a film. The lavender is noticeable and lingers for a while, which some people like and some do not.

Skip it if you have a nut allergy, at least until the ingredient question is answered. That is the whole reason it is the first thing on this page.

Skip it if you have reacted to lavender or to scented creams generally.

Skip it if you came here because of something you read elsewhere about what CBD creams do. We cannot help with that and would not if we could.

And skip it if you want a stronger one. The brand makes a five thousand milligram version and a CBG cream at three thousand, neither of which we stock, so this is the only concentration available here.