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Topicals are the one category on this menu that does not get you high, and that is the point of them. Balms, lotions, creams, oils, bath products and patches, applied to the skin rather than consumed. Cannadreams delivers free to every neighborhood in Manhattan and packs orders for pickup at 862 9th Ave in Hell's Kitchen.
Your skin is a barrier, and it is very good at its job. A conventional topical is formulated to work in the layers of skin and tissue it is rubbed into. The cannabinoids largely stay local. They do not cross into your bloodstream in any meaningful quantity, which is why you can use a THC balm and feel nothing in your head at all.
This surprises people, and it is worth being plain about it. If you are looking for the effects the rest of this menu produces, a topical is not the product. If you specifically want something that stays where you put it, it is the only product.
Patches are the one format built to do the opposite. Transdermal products use permeation enhancers to carry cannabinoids through the skin barrier and into the bloodstream deliberately. A transdermal patch can be intoxicating, and it releases slowly over many hours.
The distinction is not decoration. A topical cream and a transdermal patch are different products with different outcomes, and the packaging will say which one you are holding. Read it.
Balms and salves are wax or butter based, thick, and stay put. They are the choice for a specific spot and they do not soak in quickly.
Lotions and creams are water based, lighter, absorb faster and cover a larger area comfortably. Better if you want to get dressed shortly afterwards.
Oils sit in between and spread easily, which suits massage.
Bath products disperse through the water and cover everything at once, at a much lower concentration per square inch.
Roll ons are the tidiest for application in public without getting product on your hands.
Topical potency is stated as total milligrams in the container, which tells you far less than it appears to. A 500mg jar of balm in 2oz is considerably stronger per application than 500mg spread through an 8oz bottle of lotion. Compare milligrams per ounce rather than the headline number.
Many topicals combine cannabinoids with the things that have been in muscle rubs for a century, menthol, camphor, arnica, capsaicin, eucalyptus. Those ingredients produce sensations of their own, warming or cooling, and a good deal of what you feel from a topical in the first minutes is coming from them rather than the cannabis.
Apply more than feels necessary and work it in properly. Under application is the usual complaint. Wash your hands afterwards unless your hands are the point, particularly before touching your eyes if there is capsaicin in it.
Cool and dry, with lids closed. Water based lotions can separate in heat, and anything with botanical oils will eventually turn. Most carry a period after opening symbol on the packaging, and a topical that smells off or has changed colour should be binned.
Topicals are usually a restock rather than an occasion, so they tend to ride along with the rest of an order. Free delivery over $35, every neighborhood in Manhattan.
Above 96th Street that means Washington Heights by Highbridge Park and the Cloisters, Central Harlem around Striver's Row and the Apollo, and East Harlem through El Barrio and Thomas Jefferson Park.
Between the park and the river it means the Upper West Side by Riverside Park and the Cathedral of St John the Divine, and the Upper East Side by Gracie Mansion and the Met.
Through Midtown it means Hell's Kitchen and Hudson Yards, Midtown by Madison Square Garden and Bryant Park, Midtown East around Turtle Bay, and Chelsea by Chelsea Piers.
Below that it means Greenwich Village and Jefferson Market, the East Village around Cooper Union, SoHo and TriBeCa along Canal Street and Duane Park, and the Financial District out to One World Trade and the Seaport.
Prepaid online by debit card or bank transfer through Aeropay, since New York does not allow cash to be given to a delivery driver. The driver checks your ID on arrival for every order, topicals included, because they are still regulated cannabis products.
Put an order through and collect it at 862 9th Ave, or come by unannounced. Topicals are worth handling before you buy, because texture and scent vary enormously between brands and neither comes across on a product page. In store we take cash, debit and Aeropay.
Cannadreams is licensed by the New York State Office of Cannabis Management under OCMCAURD-2022-000407. Every product is lab tested and batch tracked. New customers get twenty percent off a first order with code CANNADREAMS20 on orders of $100 or more.
