CBD American Shaman Review + Our Best Rated CBD Brands

This CBD American Shaman review has been medically reviewed by Gavin Van De Walle, MS, RD and was written by the team at CBDStudy, a CBD research publication.

CBD American Shaman is a CBD franchise that has over 300 locations across the United States. They are one of the most prolific CBD companies on the market.

CBDStudy’s Top 5 Brands

1. Penguin CBD – EDITOR’S CHOICE (Best CBD Oil Out of 50+ Lab Tests)

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4. Lazarus Naturals

5. cbdMD

CBD American Shaman Overview

This company’s product line is huge. They offer the traditional CBD products, like tinctures, topicals and gummies, as well as more unique products online, such as CBD candies, tea, honey sticks and CBD popcorn. They also have a skincare line and CBD products that are specifically designed for animals.

One of the things the company talks about most is their proprietary nanotechnology. This technology is supposed to make their products one of the most bioavailable on the market. In fact, their website claims a bioavailability rate nine times higher than anything else on the market. However, it’s unknown whether this claim is supported by clinical research.

CBD American Shaman recently had a class-action lawsuit filed against it for inaccurate certifications of analysis.[1] The plaintiff claims he sent a sample of the products he purchased from CBD American Shaman to the same lab where they do their testing, only to find out that the COAs the company showed are inaccurate. The lab results the plaintiff received were said to report a dangerously high level of heavy metals and biotoxins.

However, our third-party results did not show heavy metals or pesticide residue. At the time of writing, there are no results about this case. The company provides recent news and information about the hemp world on the front page of their website, which is helpful and important.

The Good:

• Unique products
• Large selection of products
• Franchise locations for greater accessibility
• Accurate CBD labeling

The Bad:

• Lots of drama surrounding the company, both past and present
• Unorganized website
• Incomplete product descriptions
• High prices

Who Is CBD American Shaman?

CBD American Shaman was founded in Kansas City in 2015 by Vincent Sanders, who saw how CBD helped one of his family members suffer less as they went through a terminal illness. Sanders actually has a criminal record, which isn’t necessarily a reason not to support a brand. However, his current business tactics coupled with this criminal record raise some red flags. The charge wasn’t small potatoes: He was part of a multimillion-dollar marijuana scheme around 20 years ago, and spent time in prison.[2]

Their Approach

CBD American Shaman aims to deliver concentrated, terpene-rich CBD products to the market. They want to stand out with their formulations and technology, which is why they offer such a wide variety of products. Their hemp is mostly grown on their 1,000-acre farm in Montana. The company processes most of their products in-house, with a facility located on the same property as the farm itself. They use a wiped-film distillation process.

We appreciate the level of detail they go into on their website as far as their testing processes and how they are doing things differently from other CBD brands. The COAs don’t appear to be found immediately on the website, but if you visit a retail store, they usually have COAs available for you there.

CBD American Shaman: Product Highlights

CBD American Shaman has a vast product line. They have the traditional tinctures, topicals and capsules, but they also carry CBD flour, tea, edibles, gummies and candy. They even have CBD water!

CBD Oils

CBD American Shaman has a variety of oils to choose from. The prices range from $34.99 to $144.99. We wish the product descriptions went into more detail about the differences between the tinctures, but we did talk to an associate of one of their retail locations, who explained the differences for us. We will get into that later on.

CBD American Shaman has a water-soluble CBD formula, as well as an extra-strength water-soluble formula. These are made with the company’s proprietary nanotechnology to increase bioavailability. The water-soluble CBD oils are good to add to your drinks and they come in 10, 15 and 30 milligrams of CBD per dose. There are a few flavors to choose from, including lemon, cherry limeade and grape. It is not recommended to consume these products without adding it to something else, such as a beverage.

The Cloud Tincture is an oil. According to the retail associate we spoke to, it can be vaped or administered sublingually. This is a unique product, and we appreciate how versatile it is. You can choose 150 or 300 milligram strengths. They offer a wide variety of flavors: apple, lemon, strawberry banana, tropical punch, tutti-frutti, watermelon, cherry limeade, cool berry, grape and natural.

In the product description, CBD American Shaman simply says they recommend “researching the Internet” to discover the benefits of CBD for yourselves. We were a little turned off by that, and feel the company could have at least directed us to a blog post on their website to teach us about the benefits. This product retails for $34.99.

The terpene-rich hemp oil is meant to be taken sublingually and comes in four different strengths of CBD: 150 milligrams, 300 milligrams, 400 milligrams and 750 milligrams per bottle. You can choose from flavors like natural, strawberry banana and cinnamon.

CBD Capsules

There isn’t as much diversity with the capsules. There is only one kind, and it contains 15 milligrams of CBD per serving. You can choose between 30 and 60 capsules, and they retail for $59.99 and $109.99, respectively. We appreciate the option of a capsule formula for people who can’t tolerate oils, but we would have liked to see a more diverse product line.

A lot of CBD companies have a nighttime formula or a unique product such as anti-inflammatory blend, so more choices would have been nice. Even just offering the capsules in different strengths would have given us more options.

CBD Gummies

There are a lot of choices for CBD gummies from this company. There is no information we could find about whether these gummies are an isolate, broad-spectrum or full-spectrum. The price is pretty high considering we don’t have this important information. The cheapest option for gummies is $19.95, with other products hovering around $50 or $60.

CBD American Shaman has gummies they refer to as “gourmet.” According to the retail associate we spoke to, the main difference between the gourmet and the regular gummies is the concentration. The gourmet gummies have 25 milligrams of CBD per gummy, while the regular gummies have 10 milligrams. We were unable to determine if the gourmet gummies are broad-spectrum, full-spectrum or isolate.

You can choose between blackberry, tropical, watermelon and blue raspberry, and all the flavors are available in sweet and sour variations. The gourmet gummies retail for $49.95. With only 10 gummies in each package, we definitely feel this price is a little high, especially since we can’t properly determine the extract of the gummies.

You can also choose between sugar-free, energy, nano CBD gummies, sugar-free gourmet gummies and CBG gummies. The product line for gummies is definitely extensive, but we would like to see more information about the products.

CBD Topicals

We found that we couldn’t get information about what kind of spectrum is being used in the topical products. There is a pretty large range of prices for these products, starting at $10 and going up to $109.99, so there’s something for every budget. Let’s look at a few of their other products.

Their CBD face cream contains 30 milligrams of CBD per ounce. The product features other ingredients to promote healthy skin, including pumpkin oil, aloe vera gel, lanolin, hemp oil and lavender oil. There are some discrepancies between the picture of the ingredient list and the product description, so we recommend verifying with customer service or visiting your local store to determine the true ingredients.

We do appreciate the diverse range of ingredients to give your skin an extra boost, but there could definitely be more CBD in it. Some face creams come with as much as 1,000 milligrams of CBD, but at only $30 a container, we guess this product isn’t too bad.

There is also what they call a “terpene rich topical serum.” This is the same formula as the water-soluble tincture, and you can think of it as a water-soluble formula for your skin. This product contains dimethyl sulfoxide or DMSO, which is used in numerous products for its ability to penetrate the skin.[3] Similar to the face cream, this has 30 milligrams of topical serum per milliliter, and you can choose between three different sizes: 15 milliliters, a sample five-milliliter bottle, and a 10-milliliter roll-on bottle. There could definitely be more CBD in this, especially at $90 for a 15-milliliter bottle!

CBD Pet Products

CBD American Shaman has CBD products designed for dogs, cats and horses. Our animal friends are in need of a wellness boost every now and then too, and CBD is perfect for that. The prices for their pet products range from $29.50 to $99.99.

The soft chew treats for dogs come in a bag of 40 treats, with each chew containing two milligrams of CBD. Like other products, the website doesn’t specify which formula these treats are made with, and the picture of the package was no help.

The liniment cream is designed for horses who may struggle with joint soreness, abscesses or skin wounds. The product page says this product has 500 milligrams of CBD, but we aren’t sure if this is per dose or the whole container.

Our Lab Findings

Our goal is to always give you unbiased, honest reviews. We can’t do that without testing the product for ourselves, so we sent a sample of the 450-milligram extra-strength, water-soluble, full-spectrum formula to an independent lab.

We are happy to report that the CBD content is labeled correctly. Our lab results read out at 448 milligrams of CBD, which is in the 10 percent variance range. The additional cannabinoids, however, could be more potent. There were no residual pesticides or solvents found in our test results for CBD American Shaman.

Shipping and Returns

The company offers free shipping anywhere in the United States for all orders over $99. Our product got to us in seven days, and we feel that was a little long to have to wait. It was nothing major, but most brands get theirs shipped out in three to five business days.

CBD American Shaman offers a 45-day money-back guarantee and 30 days to return any item that was purchased at a franchise location.

Our Verdict on CBD American Shaman

There are a lot of questions surrounding the integrity of this brand, which leave a bad taste in our mouths. We do appreciate the accurate label, which at the end of the day is one of the most important aspects of a CBD company.

We think CBD American Shaman can do a better job of providing quality information about both their products and CBD in general, especially on their product page. Their blog does offer some good information, so customers can always check that out.

The current and past issues surrounding the brand make us nervous, especially on top of the sort of incognito product descriptions and other issues with transparency. On top of that, the rather high prices leave us suggesting you purchase your CBD elsewhere.

References

[1] Corrado Rizzi. (2020). Class Action Claims ‘All Natural’ CBD American Shaman Products Contain ‘Multiple’ Heavy Metals. ClassAction.org. Retrieved from https://www.classaction.org/news/class-action-claims-all-natural-cbd-american-shaman-products-contain-multiple-heavy-metals

[2] Mark Davis. (2019). The Man Behind Kansas City’s Fastest Growing CBD Chain Is Gaining Notoriety and Making Some Enemies. KCUR.org. Retrieved from https://www.kcur.org/health/2019-09-03/the-man-behind-kansas-citys-fastest-growing-cbd-chain-is-gaining-notoriety-and-making-some-enemies

[3] Kara Capriotti and Joseph A. Capriotti. (2012). Dimethyl Sulfoxide: History, Chemistry, and Clinical Utility in Dermatology. J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3460663/

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Published September 25, 2020