CBD isolate oils strip things down to the most basic and straightforward level. While there are benefits to having other cannabinoids and THC in the mix, if all you need is CBD, isolate oils can be a great choice. Many people with anxiety, for instance, can’t have THC, and this is why most people try CBD to start with.
The challenge isn’t in finding the right blend: it’s finding CBD oil that’s high-quality. Our expert-backed Cannabinoid Product Quality Evaluation Framework is designed to do just that. We analyzed the options, and these are the three best oils we found.
What Makes a Good CBD Isolate Oil?
High CBD Dose
The main downside of isolates is that other cannabinoids boost the effect. A high-dose isolate oil is the best way to counteract this downside. Here, we went for higher-dose oils where possible.
No Other Active Ingredients
Some brands opt to incorporate other active ingredients to make up for the lack of other cannabinoids – stuff like valerian root, ashwagandha and other unregulated ingredients. While these may help in some cases, it’s better to stick to CBD if you want to know what works for you and what doesn’t.
Simple Oils
If you’re looking for CBD isolate oil, all you really need is CBD in MCT oil, with the possible addition of a little flavoring. We avoided more complicated formulations than this where possible.
From a starting point of 33 CBD isolate oils, only 3 of them scored high enough on our expert-backed framework to earn our recommendation. Here they are.
Carmen’s Medicinals Isolate CBD Oil
- CBD type: Isolate
- Potency: 200 mg per ml
- CBD:THC ratio: THC-free
- Top terpenes: Not tested
- Price: $129.95 / 1 fl. oz (30 ml) ($0.022 per mg CBD)
- Coupon: “CALM25” for 25% off
Carmen’s Medicinals always scores exceptionally well on our framework, largely thanks to the high quality of the hemp used in their products. It’s USDA Certified Organic, and they use a single strain grown in a single location. They have control over the whole process from seed to sale, and everything is manufactured in a GMP-certified, FDA-registered facility.
Their Isolate CBD Oil hits on all of the key points above: it offers a huge 200 mg of CBD per ml of oil, only contains MCT oil, CBD and peppermint oil for flavor, and has no other active ingredients. You just get the CBD you’re looking for, at a solid price of 2 cents per mg.
- USDA Certified Organic Hemp
- Potent oil – 200 mg CBD per ml
- GMP-certified, FDA registered manufacturing
- Lab-confirmed THC-free
- Only CBD and a small amount of CBDV present
- Great price of 2.2 cents per mg CBD
- Not tested for terpenes
Medterra Daily Relief Isolate Oil
- CBD type: Isolate
- Potency: 16, 33 or 100 mg CBD per ml
- CBD:THC ratio: THC-free
- Top terpenes: Not tested
- Price: $39.99 to $132.99 / 1 fl. oz (30 ml) ($0.044 to $0.080 per mg CBD)
- Coupon: “FLASH50VIP” for 50% off
Medterra is one of the most well-known and respected brands in the industry, and their Daily Relief Isolate Oil is a fantastic example of why. With three potency options available, organically-grown hemp, and no flavoring whatsoever, it’s pure, clean and reliable.
The three potency options (500, 1,000 or 3,000 mg per bottle) allow you to tailor your dose to your needs, and the oil couldn’t be simpler: just MCT oil and an accurate dose of CBD. Their manufacturing is also hard to beat, as one of the only hemp brands to be certified by the US Hemp Authority.
The only downside is that the oil is a little pricey, but the strongest option is worth it for the quality.
- US Hemp Authority Certified
- Three potency options
- Simple oil: Just MCT oil and CBD
- Lab-confirmed THC-free
- Unflavored oil
- Over 99.5% pure – a tiny amount of CBDV
- Organically-grown, but not USDA Certified
- Not tested for terpenes
- Not the cheapest oil
Sunny Skies CBD Isolate Tincture
- CBD type: Isolate
- Potency: 25, 50 or 100 mg per ml
- CBD:THC ratio: THC-free
- Top terpenes: Not tested
- Price: $59.99 to $189.99 / 1 to 2 fl. oz (30 to 60 ml) ($0.032 to $0.080 per mg CBD)
- Coupon: “Sunny20off” for 20% off
This is the first time Sunny Skies CBD has made one of these lists, and their CBD Isolate Tincture thoroughly deserves it. Like Carmen’s Medicinals, their hemp is sourced from a single location using only a single strain, and the brand has control over the whole process from seed to sale.
The tincture itself is very straightforward: it’s just MCT oil with pure CBD. While flavored options are available (vanilla and peppermint), we picked the unflavored version for this list. The price is good – just over 3 cents per mg CBD – and you can get a big 60 ml bottle. Like most isolate oils, it contains a little CBDV, but this is less than 0.4% of the total cannabinoids.
- GMP-certified and FDA-registered manufacturing
- Potent oil – 100 mg/ml
- Three potency options
- Unflavored, with flavored options available
- Good price of 3.2 cents per mg
- Lab-confirmed THC-free
- Over 99.6% pure – a little CBDV
- Organically-grown hemp, but not USDA Certified
- Not tested for terpenes
- Lower strengths can get expensive per mg
Other CBD Isolate Oils We Considered
From the 33 oils we started with, only three scored high enough on our framework to earn a recommendation. Generally speaking, for isolate oils, we’re looking for a CBD-dominant oil (with only trace amounts of other cannabinoids) that was full-panel safety tested in the past year.
We discounted oils for several reasons (note that some oils failed multiple checks):
- Old lab reports: 12 oils were discounted because they didn’t have a lab report from within the last year. Even though CBD oil is still usable after a year with good storage conditions, it’s unlikely that the potency will maintain for that long. So if the lab report is more than a year old, it’s not eligible for our lists.
- Not full panel safety tested: 10 oils didn’t have “full panel” safety testing on their most recent lab report. Full panel testing includes heavy metals, microbial contamination, mycotoxins, residual solvents and pesticides. While very few oils fail these checks in our experience, without this confirmation we cannot be sure that the oil is safe to consume. This is a crucial check in all our lists.
- No lab report at all: 3 oils didn’t have a lab report publicly-available at all. Two of these had probably been tested, but the manufacturer required a batch number to access the report. This is only available after purchase, which isn’t particularly useful for consumers.
After this, 8 oils qualified for final scoring. Options from PlusCBD, Extract Labs, Tanasi, CBD American Shaman and Elixinol scored adequately, but didn’t break the 80% required for a recommendation. However, these are still high-quality CBD isolate oils, if you want more options.
You can see our full evaluation spreadsheet here.
Methodology
- Expert insights: We based the key criteria for isolate oils on our interviews of experts conducted for our lists of CBD oils for sleep, pain and anxiety. These criteria informed the choice of a specific oil from a brand’s selection.
- Market research and analysis: We conducted an automated online search (using Bing) for “CBD isolate oil” (with additional terms to remove third-party lists like this), taking the top 250 results as our sample. The manually-coded algorithm looked for relevant internal links, and then scraped the text from all identified URLs. The result was then given to an LLM, which was tasked with finding up to two products per brand that met our criteria. The output was then manually checked, with one eligible product per brand being added to a spreadsheet.
- Qualifying and scoring: We then went through the basic checks (described above) to narrow the options down to a shortlist. These oils were then scored on our full Cannabinoid Product Quality Evaluation Framework. Any oils scoring over 80% were included on this list.
- Final ranking: The final ranks were based largely on the framework score. We did some extra checks to ensure the order aligned with our expert recommendations.