Percentages and milligrams: how to read a CBD label.
CBD explained
Two bottles of 5% can contain completely different amounts of CBD. That is because a percentage is about concentration and a milligram about quantity. Keep those two apart and you'll see through half of all comparisons.
What does a percentage tell you?
The percentage is the concentration: how many grams of CBD there are in 100 millilitres of oil. At 5%, that is 5 grams per 100 ml.
What it doesn't tell you is how much CBD you are actually buying. For that, you need to know the size of the bottle.
What does the total number of milligrams tell you?
The total number of milligrams is the amount of CBD in the whole pack. You work it out from the concentration and the contents. An example: a 10 ml bottle of 5% CBD contains about 500 mg of CBD (5% of 10 ml is 0.5 grams). The same 5% oil in a 30 ml bottle contains about 1,500 mg. Same percentage, three times as much CBD.
What does the amount per unit tell you?
For oil, the practical unit is a drop; for capsules, a capsule; for patches, a patch. To convert oil, you need to know how many drops a bottle holds. For Renova oils that is about 225 drops per 10 ml and 675 drops per 30 ml. Continuing the example above: 500 mg spread over 225 drops is roughly 2.2 mg of CBD per drop.
The exact values differ per product. They are in the specification table on every product page and are checked for each batch in the quality reports.
At a glance: three numbers, three questions
| Number | The question it answers | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage | How concentrated is the oil? | 5% = 5 grams per 100 ml |
| Total mg | How much CBD is in the pack? | 10 ml of 5% contains ± 500 mg |
| Mg per unit | How much CBD is in one drop, capsule or patch? | ± 2.2 mg per drop at 225 drops |
A pitfall: mg of CBD is not the same as mg of extract
Some labels give the amount of hemp extract instead of the amount of CBD. Besides CBD, an extract contains other plant compounds, so 25 mg of extract is less than 25 mg of CBD. Check on the label whether the number refers to CBD itself. For capsules and patches, the amount of CBD per piece is the number to compare.
How long does a bottle last?
You work that out from the number of drops per bottle: divide the number of drops by your daily number. Purely as an arithmetic example, not as advice: someone using five drops a day gets about 45 days out of a 10 ml bottle (± 225 drops); a 30 ml bottle (± 675 drops) lasts about 135 days at the same rate. The number of drops that goes with your product is on the label.
How do you compare two products fairly?
Always compare in the same unit. Put products side by side on total mg of CBD and on mg per unit, and only then look at price and form. That way a high percentage in a small bottle won't wrong-foot you. The product comparison puts all these numbers side by side for each Renova product, and the CBD oil overview shows the four strengths from 3% to 16%.
Frequently asked questions about strengths
Is a higher percentage better?
How many mg of CBD are in one drop?
Why does one pack give a percentage and another mg?
Ready to put the numbers side by side?
The product comparison lists total mg, amount per unit, carrier and THC result for every Renova product.