Shipping
USA, Japan, UK
Origin of Hemp
Unknown
Returns
30-Days
Established
2018
3rd Party Lab Results?
Yes
Customer Service
Key Hightlights
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Simple product lineup
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Full-spectrum CBD products
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Available in the USA, UK, & Japan
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Spruce Review
Spruce is a new CBD brand based out of North Carolina, USA.
The Spruce product lineup is basic — consisting of just two CBD oils and three topicals. The company also carries pet oil, but it’s exactly the same as the brand’s standard CBD oil offering.
The CBD oils from Spruce are well-made, but we didn’t like the vaseline consistency of their topicals, which leave the skin feeling oily and greasy for over an hour after application.
Overall, this company seems to be making moves in the right direction, but we recommend sticking to a more established brand that offers complete third-party testing and more corporate transparency.
We recommend checking out alternatives like Royal CBD, Gold Bee, Endoca, or Charlotte’s Web instead.
Mission/Charity 3/5
There’s very little information available on the Spruce website about its founder or leadership, or virtually anything about the company whatsoever. The mission statement suggests the company is selling CBD oils as an alternative to “dangerous pharmaceuticals.”
This brand’s mission statement is too generic to give them full points. There’s virtually no information to suggest the company is taking any real steps to solve this problem.
Hemp Source 4/5
Spruce doesn’t list where their hemp comes from. They suggest the extracts they’re using are “lab-grade,” but there’s no indication this company is doing anything different from any other CBD company on the market.
Product Range 3/5
This is an area Spruce falls short — they only offer two CBD oils (low-potency and high-potency) and three CBD topicals. They don’t carry any of the other standard CBD products we’ve come to expect, such as CBD gummies, capsules, concentrates, or vape oils.
Innovation 2/5
It’s hard to find an example of innovation with the Spruce lineup. Everything the company carries is about as basic as it gets. Their oils are made from a simple hemp extract and a carrier oil, and the topicals are a basic petroleum-jelly base infused with a hemp extract.
Safety 3/5
This company published its third-party lab tests live on the website and claims to use organic ingredients.
However, there seem to be some missing reports in the lab tests currently available, and not all of its products have any of these tests to begin with.
The company also doesn’t have any information on the proper dosing of the safety of its products, and there are no educational posts available on the website aside from a simple FAQ on the homepage.
Customer Service 3/5
The Spruce customer service team is available from 9 to 5 Monday to Friday Eastern Standard Time. They’re reachable via email, phone, or Facebook messenger.
We always reach out to the company to ask difficult questions to see how they answer and were disappointed with the response we got. The answers we received were generic and unhelpful and it took nearly five days for a response to arrive at all.
The other problem we found is with the company’s return policy. While the company will pay for return shipping, they only issue refunds for orders that remain unopened. Most of our favorite brands allow refunds on orders after you’ve tried them in the event they don’t work for you.
Spruce CBD Review
About the Company: Spruce
Spruce is a new addition to the CBD market. The company was founded in late 2018 and has only recently started to become recognized outside their home state of North Carolina.
Spruce recently added a headquarters in Spain to establish an EU presence as well.
This brand was founded based on the belief that modern medicine is broken. Doctors are prescribing too many medications when there are plenty of natural, plant-based solutions readily available.
There’s very little information available around the company’s founders or leadership and virtually no information on where the company obtains its hemp.
1. CBD Oils
CBD oil is, by far, the most common form of CBD products available today. They’re cheap, effective, and have a long shelf life.
Qualities that make for the best CBD oils include:
- Made from full-spectrum extracts
- Offers a range of different potency options
- Comes with up to date third-party lab tests
- Deliver good value for the money (premium CBD oils should cost around $0.10 – $0.15 per mg)
Spruce 750 mg CBD Oil Tincture
$89.00
Spruce
Spruce 750 mg CBD Oil Tincture 30 mL
| Total CBD: | 750 mg |
| Potency: | 25 mg/mL |
| Cost per mg CBD: | $0.12 |
| Extract Type: | Full-Spectrum |
This is a simple CBD tincture — it’s made with a full-spectrum hemp extract at a concentration of 750 mg CBD per ounce. This works out to around 25 mg per milliliter of oil (1 dropperful).
There’s nothing wrong with this oil, but there isn’t anything special about it either.
It comes with a fresh mint flavor by default, so if you’re not a fan of mint, you’ll have to use the brand’s other CBD oil instead — the 2400 mg bottle, which comes unflavored by default.
Spruce 2400 mg Max Potency CBD Oil Tincture
$269.00
Spruce
Spruce 2400 mg Max Potency CBD Oil Tincture 30 mL
| Total CBD: | 2400 mg |
| Potency: | 80 mg/mL |
| Cost per mg CBD: | $0.11 |
| Extract Type: | Full-Spectrum |
This is Spruce’s strongest CBD oil available. The way this brand positions the oil makes it seem like they’ve completely maxed-out the oil out in terms of how much hemp extract it can hold. They even suggest the reason they’ve held out on flavoring is that it’s too saturated with CBD to be able to diffuse the flavoring.
We find this unlikely — there are plenty of flavored oils on the market with this potency and plenty more that contain an even stronger concentration of full-spectrum hemp extract.
With that said, this oil is very strong — delivering 80 mg of CBD for every milliliter (1 dropperful) of oil. This works out to around 2.7 mg of CBD for every drop.
You can choose to order this oil with either a hemp seed carrier oil or MCT oil.
The hemp seed oil has a much richer flavor, so if you’re already not a fan of the taste of hemp, you may want to go with the coconut-based MCT carrier oil instead.
2. CBD Topicals
CBD creams and salves are the best options for pain affecting the skin, muscles, or joints. They deliver the active ingredients directly to the source of the pain.
Qualities that make for the best CBD creams for pain include:
- Made from premium full-spectrum hemp extracts
- Come with at least 5 mg of CBD per mg
- Contains other active ingredients to help with pain & inflammation
- Every batch is independently tested for quality and purity
Spruce Topical CBD Cream
$39.00
Spruce
Spruce Topical CBD Cream 60 mL
| Total CBD: | 300 mg |
| Potency: | 5 mg/mL |
| Cost per mg CBD: | $0.13 |
| Extract Type: | Full-Spectrum |
This was the first topical product offered by Spruce. It’s designed to be used as an all-purpose CBD cream for alleviating mild to moderate pain, inflammation, or dry skin.
Unfortunately, this product contains several known irritants — including methylchloroisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone. If you’ve got sensitive skin, we recommend avoiding this topical altogether.
Aside from CBD, there are no other beneficial ingredients in this formula. It uses a petroleum oil base, along with simple additives like paraffin glycerin and mineral oil.
Spruce Topical CBD Salve
$89.00 – $169.00
Spruce
Spruce Topical CBD Salve 25 – 50 mL
| Total CBD: | 1000 – 2000 mg |
| Potency: | 40 mg/mL |
| Cost per mg CBD: | $0.08 – $0.09 |
| Extract Type: | Full-Spectrum |
This topical salve is based on the brands CBD cream, but with 3 – 6 times the CBD content.
The Spruce CBD Salve is much waxier in consistency — resembling vaseline. It works great for use over small areas, but the greasy texture it leaves behind makes this salve difficult to use anywhere outside your own home. Applying this to your skin will leave it feeling greasy for up to an hour as the ingredients are slowly absorbed into the skin.
You can order this salve in two different bottle sizes, each containing the same formula and 40 mg/mL potency.
For a topical, this is quite strong.
Spruce Deep Chill CBD Lotion
$169.00
Spruce
Spruce Deep Chill CBD Lotion 100 mL
| Total CBD: | 2000 mg |
| Potency: | 20 mg/mL |
| Cost per mg CBD: | $0.12 |
| Extract Type: | Full-Spectrum |
This is the only Spruce topical we really liked. It doesn’t have nearly the same level of greasy application as the other topicals in the Spruce lineup and contains a variety of other quality ingredients in the formula.
Each bottle contains a blend of 2000 mg CBD (20 mg/mL), arnica, camphor, aloe vera, rosemary, menthol, and eucalyptus. It also uses shea butter and MCT oil base rather than the petroleum jelly used in the brand’s other topicals.
The addition of camphor and menthol gives this lotion a nice soothing sensation while stimulating blood flow to the muscles and joints.
3. CBD Pet Oils
CBD products are just as useful for pets as they are for humans. There isn’t much difference between a CBD oil for dogs, cats, or horses as CBD products for humans.
Qualities that make for the best CBD oils for pets include:
- Made from full-spectrum hemp oil
- Every batch is third-party tested for quality and purity
- Come in a few different potencies to match the size of your animal
- Come with pet-friendly flavors like bacon, beef, or peanut butter
Spruce Dog CBD Oil 750 mg
$89.00
Spruce
Spruce Dog CBD Oil 750 mg 30 mL
| Total CBD: | 750 mg |
| Potency: | 25 mg/mL |
| Cost per mg CBD: | $0.12 |
| Extract Type: | Full-Spectrum |
This oil is exactly the same as the company’s regular 750 CBD oil, but with MCT oil as the base instead of hemp seed.
This is only a subtle difference, but the company claims that dogs prefer the MCT oil to the hemp seed oil. Everything else about these two oils is identical.
Safety & Third-Party Testing
Spruce CBD claims to use lab-grade CBD extracts and provides the full panel of third-party testing for most of its products.
We’ve had a look through the most recent tests, and everything looks to be in good order. There were no failures, and aside from an abysmal terpene profile, there really wasn’t anything of concern in these tests.
Third-party testing is important for CBD companies to prove the quality of the products they’re selling.
With the lack of regulation in the current market, it’s easy for companies to fill CBD oil bottles with low-grade hemp extracts, slap a nice label on the side, and market it as a premium product.
Third-party testing is done to prevent this from happening by vetting the contents of the oil from a reputable, non-biased source.
Spruce Shipping & Returns Policy
At the moment, Spruce ships to all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Japan for free. UK customers can also order Spruce, but they’ll need to pay an $18 shipping fee.
Spruce offers a 30-day refund period and will even pay for return shipping — but there’s a bit of a catch. In order to qualify for a refund, the oil needs to be unopened, and you also have to have declared the product delivered within 30 days of purchase.
This isn’t a great return policy when you consider that most other CBD brands allow you to try the oil first before deciding if you like it or not.
Final Verdict: Room For Improvement
Spruce CBD is a newer CBD brand, so we can’t give them too much flak. However, we’re underwhelmed with their CBD lineup — which mainly consists of basic, unoriginal CBD products.
What this brand does well is their affinity for using full-spectrum and high-potency hemp extracts in all their products. They also provide extensive third-party testing on each product.
We’d like to see Spruce adapt the formula they use for their topicals to be less petroleum-based and leave less greasy residue behind on the skin. It’s hard to sue these topicals anywhere underneath the clothes without the risk of leaving stains on your clothes.
We love their Deep Chill CBD Lotion — which is the newest addition to the spruce lineup. If Spruce continues to release clever product formulas like this, we’ll be forced to change our stance on this brand.
Other brands worth considering instead include Royal CBD, Gold Bee, Endoca, and Charlotte’s Web.
Spruce
