Don’t worry this isn’t our list of CBD wellness predictions for the new year or the old new year/new you talk. 2019 was a tough year for a lot of us (an understatement for some). Let’s learn from it as we prepare to usher in the new decade.

I was trying to think of what this year might look like, a stock market graph with some hella intense peaks and valleys, Gollum, an abominable snowman?! Undeniably, this year was mythical, the highs were some of those pure joy moments while the lows felt like they might break us. But damn we’ve grown, chosen higher paths, gotten focused and have no doubts the new decade will be what we make it.

Let’s give 2019 a moment of silence! Bye. Felecia.

The Power of Reflection

Kush Queen model reflects on 2019 while holding CBD bath bombs.

One of the most powerful things to do at the end of the year is reflect. Reflection can be the growth element tool we need to process and adapt from what’s happened to us, our emotions and our path.

This is our reflection and what we’ve learned throughout the cycles of 2019.   

Get To Know Yourself

Kush Queen model taking a daily dose of CBD wellness with Bare.

In the truest sense. Take time to understand exactly who you are, what you want and where your boundaries lie. We are living in a time where things can quickly get hectic and there is always other people’s lives and drama to get swept up in.

On the flip side, examine where you need to grow. It’s easy to forget that we do have [some] control in how our life gets shaped. Only you can alter the path that you take.

This year some of us had to turn inward and check-in. We faced the hard facts and got life coaches, quit toxic jobs, took our health and wellness more seriously, had bad hair for an extended amount of time and did things that scared the shit out of us. In every situation, we are all better for taking those leaps, working through the discomfort and giving our truest self a chance to shine through.

Lean In and Go For It

Kush Queen CBD Gummies is a artistic circular photo.

Real talk, it can be scary but if you can trust yourself, you can do it. As a collective, we took major strides in bringing Kush Queen closer to mainstream this year. Everything involved in doing so was high stakes, level-up type projects that were a real test for our team.

The night before BeautyCon La kicked-off was filled with what-ifs, triple and double-checks with how to present our cannabis and wellness company at a mainstream beauty and make-up conference. And you know what? Kush Queen was so well received! The crowd was curious about CBD wellness, loved our CBD 101 kits and engaging with our team.

Before taking that leap our team was focused, we leaned in together, did the work and succeed when we went for it!

Health and CBD Wellness, First

Our bodies are so good to us, it’s easy to forget how to be good to them on a daily basis. I’ll be the first to admit in 2019, I let my health go. Even in the worst of times, giving our bodies the time, love/attention, and fuel it needs will only benefit us in the long term.

Kush Queen is committed to daily wellness. Our CBD health and wellness products are geared to nourish your body in different ways. The targeted effects and CBD dose of each product seamlessly blends in with everyday rituals.  

Here are our daily CBD wellness favorites:

  1. Bäre CBD Tincture – Every morning. Bare is the BEST for your daily dose of wellness. For my mom, it makes people easier to deal with and dulls out her hand aches. Win/win.
  2. MELT CBD Lotion – This is our most appropriately named product. Everyday aches and pains melt away with this combo of CBD and targeted essential oils. I don’t leave home without MELT.
  3. GummiesRX – In 2020 night-time chill out is a must. GummiesRx is the wellness tool for transitioning from your high activity days to getting the rest your body needs.

Conclusion

We’re dedicating the new decade and new year to wellness in all senses of the word! When you hear from Kush Queen in 2020, know that we are coming from a place of love, positive energy, CBD wellness, and inclusion! We love you.

When things get tough, trust yourself, lean in and know you have an entire team of people that are in your corner!

When things are going well, ENJOY THE RIDE! You don’t need permission to soak it all up and feel the joy of your hard work.

And when you feel like the wheels are falling off, pour some CBD on it and call it day! That’s our go-to!

CBD and Flu Season Prep – Get My 5 Tips For Staying Healthy

Flu season is upon us, there is no denying it! It’s that time of year where a cough and sneeze can send me into deep panic. I’ve been on the fence for years about the flu shot. Do I? Don’t I? It’s kind of crazy that it depends on who you ask. In my current CBD and flu season immune-boosting preparation routine, I stick to the basics. 

Here’s a walk through of my immune system boosting routine to ward off colds, flu and other ailments. In my CBD consumption diary you can see what a typical week looks like for me during this time of year.

Olivia Alexander talking about using CBD to boost the immune system.

CBD is My Go To For Immune System Support

One thing is for sure, CBD helps keep my immune system strong AF. Back when I was on a lot of pharmaceuticals, my immune system was compromised because the medications were affecting my white blood cell count. 

This made me prone to catching everything including the dreaded flu. After two bad flu seasons where I was completely taken out for two weeks at a time, I developed a serious CBD and flu season regimen. I am happy to report *knocks on wood* that I have been able to avoid getting the flu for the last two years. 

In regards to using CBD in this setting, one of the biggest things I think people miss when it comes to this time of year is that you have to up your daily dose. In the words of Drake “ALL THE WAY UP!” 

My CBD and Flu Season 5 Step Prep Breakdown

  1. Serious Hand Washing – This step is surprising always overlooked. If you are out in public, be mindful of regularly washing scrubbing your hands. I try to go by the 45 second rule and get everything from palms to fingernails. 
  2. Essential Oils – It’s no secret I believe in and love using essential oils. Every Kush Queen product is based on targeted effects delivered by essential oils for a variety of uses. My go-to for this time of year is the Shield for Immunity blend which is inspired by the 15th-century legend of four thieves.
  3. Baths – Submerging your body in warm water has multiple health benefits that go well beyond leisure. You’ll find me taking a bath almost every day this time of year. 
  4. Vitamins – Having a good balance of minerals and vitamins is crucial to giving your immune system the fuel it needs to fight off infection. I’m not known for having the most balanced diet so I cover the necessities with daily vitamins. 
  5. CBD Loading – Think carb loading like before a workout but with CBD. I up my daily dose and use a mix of delivery methods when I’m trying to keep my immune system healthy. 

CBD is so much more than making great products to me, it’s also about how you use it within your daily life. So many of us now have access to CBD, but don’t know how much to use. Here’s a week inside my CBD infused life to give you insight into how the cannabinoid works for me! 

Kush Queen Relieve CBD Bath Bomb dissolving in a warm bath.

Olivia Alexander’s CBD Consumption Diary

Sunday November 3, 2019 – A Stay At Home Day
6:15am

My little cloud son, Reggie wakes me up early. After I feed him I dose my coffee with our 1000mg Bäre Tincture. One dropper is 33mg of CBD. I also pop in my vitamin gummies as I start my Sunday. 

3:30pm 

I did chores all day so I am feeling pretty gross and in need of a hot shower! I jump in the shower and use my Soaked shower gel. The rich lather and bright tangie scent invigorate me for the rest of the afternoon. I’m feeling refreshed!

10:45pm

I have 2 Gummies RX before bed with my nightly edible for sleep. Each CBD gummy is 25mg bringing my dose to 50mg. 

Total Daily Consumption – Approx. 100mg of CBD

Kush Queen Soaked Shower Gel lathered up in the shower.

Monday November 4, 2019 – Typical Workday

8:15am 

After my morning Shower with Soaked, I lather up my face in Defynt. Then follow it up with our alice and olivia x kush queen collab CBD body lotion. Monday morning’s call for a triple threat treatment, chill on the inside means chill on the outside! 

11:30am

A bunch of Monday crap (no need to sugar coat) comes my way and I find myself feeling super stressed. Stress is a KILLER to your immune system and increases your risk of getting the flu. Running a business is non-stop problem solving and adapting, so I keep a 1000mg Bäre in my purse at all times. When I feel stress coming on, I have 2 droppers of 1000mg Bäre for a 60mg dose of CBD. 

9:00pm 

A day like today calls for a high dose CBD bath bomb! I soak in our 100mg Shield For Immunity CBD bath bomb. This bath contains a mix of clove, lemon, cinnamon, eucalyptus, and rosemary essential oils known to boost the immune system. The cinnamon really gets me every time and I feel so deeply relaxed, I head straight to bed.

Total Daily Consumption – Approx. 220mg of CBD

Kush Queen Melt CBD Relief Lotion being used by person wearing black leggings.

Tuesday November 5, 2019 – Work From Home Day

5:45am

It’s an early morning with my puppy son and I slept wrong. My neck is KILLING ME. For me that means a topical and oral approach. First I apply Melt CBD Lotion to my neck. Then, I take 5, 25mg CBD GummiesRx. 

12:30pm 

I’m not feeling so great, so I decide to work from home today. Acknowledging that my pain has reached a more serious level, I medicate with THC. 

9:45pm

My energy is low and the bed is calling my name. I rub my body down with alice and olivia x kush queen cbd body lotion and the lavender helps ease my mind and drift to sleep. 

 Total Daily Consumption – Approx. 180mg of CBD, 164mg of THC

Wednesday November 6, 2019  – Crazy But Typical Workday

Full transparency here! I had a crazy day at the office and forgot to log my consumption. I know I had 2 CBD gummies in the morning. 

Total Daily Consumption – Approx. 50mg of CBD

A CBD and Flu season must have is Bäre CBD Tincture.

Thursday November 7, 2019 – Crazy But Typical Workday

For the second day in a row, my day took me over. I used to really get down on myself when this happened, but I’m practicing acknowledgment and acceptance. 

9:30pm

I need a CBD bath. After sitting in traffic all day, my body and neck is a mess. So I draw a bath for one of our new high dose 200mg CBD Bath Bombs in the Relax blend.  

10:45pm

I forgot my morning dose of CBD, so I double up on my night dose. One full dropper of Bäre and 3, 25mg CBD GummiesRx put me right to sleep. 

Total Daily Consumption – Approx. 300mg of CBD

Friday November 8, 2019 – Late Night

7:30am

I realize I’ve been in contact with people that were sick so I add an emergen-C  to my morning routine. In the shower, I scrub my entire body with our Renew CBD Sugar scrub and then I wear our CBD primer Foto Blur under my makeup for the day. 

12:45pm

Today was looonnngggg. I got home way past my bedtime. When this happens, I have a mandatory before bed bath and then lather down with Melt CBD Lotion. I use a 200mg Sleep CBD Bath Bomb and the level of relaxation and ease I felt before bed is why I make Kush Queen CBD products!

Kush Queen CEO, Olivia Alexander talks CBD and Flu Season

Conclusion

I write this series to help people understand how I consume CBD. While we see lots of information about CBD in general or what pain points to use CBD for, most people (even daily users) are still trying to figure out how much CBD to take.  

When it comes to CBD and Flu Season, I up my daily dose intake and check in with myself regularly. Stay healthy out there friends!   

If I had to pick one Kush Queen CBD product to use during this time of year, it would hands down be our Shield for Immunity CBD Bath Bomb.

Grab one today!

By: Olivia Alexander

It’s been a long journey since we formulated our first bath bomb and CBD has exploded on a national level. Some that use Kush Queen products have experience with the plant, others have never even tried a CBD product before. The two most important things at Kush Queen are the products and the people that use them. Being transparent is a part of that commitment, so I wanted to break down the entire process from soil to the time it arrives to your door. As the CEO of Kush Queen, I use our products daily. Its the daily exposure to cannabinoids that helps me achieve homeostasis in my body. Every ingredient is important to me because I use the products every single day.

At Kush Queen, we make the products, but long before we compound our bath bombs and lotions our CBD has to be grown and extracted. The life of hemp begins with a seed. We source our hemp from Oregon, where the soil is rich with nutrients and the climate allows a full growing season. Some hemp in other parts of the country is grown on land where tobacco was previously grown (and sprayed with endless pesticides). The health of the soil, nutrients, and climate all matter. Once the seeds are planted, the plants then grow and flower, the entire process takes around six months (generally planting in late spring and harvesting in the fall). The way a farmer cares for its plants is important. Genetically modified nutrients and pesticides could be introduced to the plant if the farmer does not carefully follow natural or organic practices. Once the plant is fully grown, its time to harvest it.

Once the hemp is harvested, it’s what we call ‘bio mass’. This is the part of the process where the hemp is extracted from the physical plant. There are a number of ways you can remove the desired active molecules from the harvested plant, which is known as extraction. Alcohol, CO2, butane, even just water or heat and pressure are known methods used in cannabis extraction. We only use hemp extract that has been processed to the point where it is absolutely free of any residual solvents or is extracted through solvent-free methods.

Once the oil is extracted it goes through a process called chromatography. This process separates the oil into different phases that contain different concentrations of molecules in order to create different types of finished extracts.

Here’s a gallery of the hemp processing:

Our team creates each product by hand, carefully weighing out each amount of CBD for our batch, so your products are accurately dosed. We combine it with other ingredients that we source with the same care as we do our CBD. Our production team compounds each product in our facilities, not just with care to the forumulas, but with the shared passion of the products that we all love and use daily.

Most of our products take, on average, 3-5 days to make; including compounding, drying, filling, labeling, packaging, lab testing, and quality control. At any given time, I will personally pull samples off the line and use them. I am looking for the same fizz in the bath bomb from our original batches of 12. I’ll use Melt to soothe my aches after a long day to make sure it is consistent in appearance, texture, and scent.

Then our team ships them to your door or to one of our 750+ retail partners for you to enjoy. I hope this blog has given you some insight to how much work goes into your Kush Queen CBD products. Our brand is a labor of love and every product is a part of our journey and yours.


Don’t forget to follow and tag @kushqueenshop & @kushqueenco in your Instagram posts and Stories.

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I had bought tickets for Ariana Grande’s Sweetener tour when they first came out. My most diehard Ari fans live outside of San Jose, so we agreed that I would book the $75 roundtrip flight, and they would buy me dinner before the show.

It was supposed to be a nice 3-day getaway… and then our team decided to bring Kush Queen to Hall of Flowers in Santa Rosa… and then I had the opportunity to meet with a couple of our coolest NorCal dispensary partners… during the week after the tradeshow and concert.

I love getting out of LA and seeing other parts of California, and I knew I’d get to spend time with some of my favorite people during this trip, but my 3-day getaway quickly evolved into a 12-day working road trip with an Ariana Grande concert in the middle of it.

 

Whether I’m traveling for work, for pleasure, in-state or across the country; there are a few things I find absolutely essential to my comfort and happiness.

  1. Knowing where I’m going to spend the night

  2. Understanding the boundaries of my hosts regarding when/where/how I’ll use cannabis

  3. Planning to stay hydrated with minimal single-use plastic waste

  4. Comfort with constant carb consumption

I’m usually planning these things for 3-5 days of travel, maybe a whole week at most… but this 12-day trip would include 6 places to lay my head and 3 very different activities. Fortunately, my planning paid off and resulted in a GREAT trip – so here are just a few more details about how I prepare for traveling.

1. I’m not the type of person who can just “wing it” when it comes to sleep.

I’ve always been a firm believer in getting enough sleep, which is hard when one of my best friends is a classic “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” ‘type’ of person. I was recently affirmed on this via a Goop podcast (minute 18:30) where Emily Gagoski explained how even just one night of bad sleep – nevermind sustained lack of sleep – has the same effect on our bodies as being drunk.

6hrs/night or fewer for 2-weeks, and the typical person will be as impared as someone with .1% blood alcohol level.

So when planning a trip, I have no shame in asking my potential hosts questions about their home (if I’ve never been) – temperature, animals, linens – I can prepare for each if I know what I’m preparing for. The same can be said for cannabis restrictions, which brings me to…

2. I smoke so openly and privately at home, and sometimes forget what a luxury that is.

If you’re paying attention you know my favorite way to enjoy flower (high-CBD hemp flower, or cannabis) is by smoking it through a bong. And to be honest, I brought a bong with me on this trip because I knew we’d have some privacy at our AirBnB in Santa Rosa. But between hotels, friends’ city apartments, and a high fire risk mountainside, there had to be other solutions.

This is where a few things came in handy:

  1. Bare CBD Tincture

  2. High-potency vaporizer cartridge

  3. CBD Edibles (including Gummy RX and Big Pete’s Treats)

  4. THC Edibles (another shout out to Big Pete’s!)

3. Just like sleep, hydration is crucial to our health.

But I was also raised by parents who own a recycling-based company, so my hydration comes with a sincere effort to reduce the number of single-use plastics. If that doesn’t immediately resonate with you, I suggest reading/watching something that will tell you far more than I can.

To stay on topic though, here are a few of my tricky tricks for doing this while traveling. I bring:

  1. My reusable Starbucks-style cold cup, with metal for ease of consumption while driving

  2. One extra large insulated bottle for keeping a backstock of cold water

  3. A small mason jar with powdered electrolytes to help keep my energy and hydration up

  4. An extra metal straw, and cleaning tool

4. And lastly, as your resident #CarbInfluencer, I’m here to remind you that carbs are fuel; don’t let your body or your car run on empty!

My final advice is that once you open your heart and your stomach to carbs, there can sometimes be an overwhelming number of choices to make. Have no shame in adding some bakeries and restaurants to your “travel” bookmarks on Yelp or Google Maps. Some of my favorites on this trip included:

  1. this insane handmade French pastry with goat cheese from ALTA in Monterey

  2. every single pasta at Locanda in San Francisco

  3. orange + chocolate chip scone at Batter Bakery in San Francisco

  4. Classics: Whole Foods pizza and cookies – you can find a Whole Foods ANYWHERE and there are always reliable choices


Don’t forget to follow and tag @KushQueenShop and @KushQueenCo in your Instagram posts and Stories!

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