Episode Transcript

Rene: Welcome back! It's Rene here, back in the studio, and we're going to continue in this episode listening to a conversation that Trevor and Kirk had with Ripley and Jill of Blunt Botanicals, a very cool company. Well, we'll let them tell you a little more about it right now.

Kirk:  Well, as I'm listening to you, I was thinking when before you logged in, Trevor was kind of giggling at me because I was telling her how my face is shiny, you know, with this Hipbees product and I guess most of your customers are more than likely women because women tend to be more aware of their skin until all the guys hear this and they'll liven up their face with the Hipbees products.

Ripley Halfyard: Well typically men use their products that their wife or their mom bring home, so the women are making the decisions on that kind of stuff.

Kirk:  What? Not in this case. Go ahead. Go ahead, Jill.

Trevor:  Well, and all seriousness in the healthcare world, sorry, not to try to step on anyone, women do most of the healthcare buying. So, you know, the fact you are, we'll call it women forward, can't hurt because women will probably be the person in the family group who decides whether or not to buy the product. So women forward, even from a marketing slash business point of view, makes a lot of sense.

Ripley Halfyard: Well, that's a part of our mantra, but a lot of our products are still for everyone. Like Rapidcryo is not necessarily a women forward brand. It's a cooling topical. It's our performance topical. It's that's more of our mantra for who we hire. Who we work with. Who creates, you know, even when it comes to our vendors and working with different medical platforms, who create safe spaces for women, trans, non-binary folk like myself. And so I think that it's not just necessarily a marketing tool, it's our actual, like how we operate as a company. We don't necessarily use that as a selling point. And now I'm Blunt, we do, because it is a women forward brand, but for Rapidcryo, it for anybody who, is going out and working in their yard or is working on their feet all day or is, you know, out biking with their kids or, you know, for myself, you go golfing for the first time in two years and you're laid up for two days. And so, like, you know, I think our demographic is really for like working parents, even like people who have kids that you're on the go and you are trying to keep up with them. Um, and. You don't necessarily wanna take an edible or inhale something or, and be high around your kids. You know, there's a time and a place, like, you know, when I go camping, yeah, I like to take an editable. But when I'm at home and I need to be present for them, being able to manage soreness or pain and being able just put something on my skin as opposed to taking something that'll be intoxicating, that's our demographic.

Jill Provencal:  It's also a lot of steam.

Trevor:  No, I was just going to say I want to ask more about Rapidcryo anyway. So, sorry with Zoom, I'm constantly stepping on people. Rapidcryo, just from the name. Does this make my skin, you know, I'm an old man, I'll have no problem with that. Everything hurts, knees more often than other things. Does it make my knees feel cooler? Or is the cannabis extract in there extracted with like with cryo like with making the stuff cold to get the, or what's in Rapid Cryo and what would I put it on besides I'm hoping my sore knees, because if it'll help my sore needs, I might just start buying it in bulk.

Jill Provencal: You should try it for your knees. My husband doesn't use any of my products. He just doesn't products in general. But he reaches for the cryo stick at least once a day. It's the first thing. I mean, he used joint massage butter on his neck and his back and liked it, but Rapidcryo has changed his wellbeing because he has terrible knees, specifically Knees

Ripley Halfyard: And my mom had also tried a lot of our ointment and a couple of other of our products. And she's like, ah, it feels nice, but you know, I'm not getting a ton of relief that edible seemed to work better. And she tried the Rapidcryo. She was here about a month ago and had a flare, a rheumatoid arthritis flare in her hands. And she put the Rapidcryo on her hands and she was up the next day and she's like, my flares gone. And like, that's like... Like for me, that's like a huge part of our why as well is that when we make a product and people try it and it changes their life or it makes their quality of life better, um, that huge for us. Like we know we're helping people. And, um. Even with our bath bombs, like Jill has worked on these, but this bath bomb formulation for years and, uh, Kirk, you probably noticed that when you use that bath bomb, the oil doesn't sit on top of the, the water. It doesn't leave a film on your bathtub. Everything goes down the drain. Jill has formulated it so that the cannabinoids will emulsify with the water. All of the other good oils that we use also emulsified into the water, and it doesn't leaves a film in the tub, which for seniors is huge.

Trevor:  It's a safety hazard, that's fantastic.

Ripley Halfyard: The safety hazard of that, where if you have an oil slick in your tub and a senior slips, like they, you know, it's dangerous. And so that's, you now, like that's how intentional Jill, that's much intention Jill puts into the products that she develops.

Kirk:  Okay, this is a good segue because let's talk a little bit about the chemistry here and Trevor can probably help. You have, and I don't know if we've made this clear to our listeners yet, but your products are infused with cannabinoids. So the root of administration, when I'm sitting in the bathtub, are cannabinoids leaching into my skin? Like how is the cannabinoids helping me in the immersion of a bathtub and or putting it on my skin in your product?

Ripley Halfyard: I'll leave this one up to the chemist.

Jill Provencal: You did ask, you asked me, or like you asked a question earlier in the thing you said, are you a chemist? How, something to that effect. I do have two university degrees. Um, it's a bachelor of science and a teaching degree. The bachelor of sciences, not specifically in chemistry, but I did do, um, a course. So I felt like I needed to have a piece of paper that said I'm an organic or a cosmetic formulator. So I did, do a course on that. But I also have a dear friend who also I used to work with in cannabis for years that is a chemist. And so anything I do, I work closely with him and run everything by. So just to qualify that, answer that question. So in the bath, specifically for the bath I'll just speak to that to start. When you make a bath bomb that you would buy one of those pressed balls or anything, it's just like a pressed thing. Like a puck you throw it in and then it fizzes. That has baking soda and citric acid. And usually some color and some fragrance. And it's just going in the water and a certain amount will absorb topically because you're in a warm bath and your skin is more receptive to it. When we formulate our bath bombs, they're not in a puck because we mix them with Epsom salts, which is magnesium. And that actually will help and with the channels to open up and allow the cannabis to penetrate a little. Deeper which is why we don't put THC in the bath for us in our in our one line because you can people have reported feeling high from a bath bomb so we stick to CBD because we know it works on the receptors that help with inflammation. Not the same as THC. It's not the same as CBG but it is highly effective and we also formulate specifically with real cannabis derived terpenes, not just fragrance oils, because fragrance oils will do nothing but know, it'll smell nice and you'll have some mood elevation but it's not going to affect your cannabinoid or your endocannabinoids system. So those are important formulation pieces that we choose specifically and we chose strains that are high in beta-carophyllene and myrcene that do work for inflammation and pain. So that's how we formulate the bath bombs.

Ripley Halfyard: And the other thing is that your skin is your biggest organ, and you have the most CB1 and CB2 receptors in your skin. And so you do have receptors that will accept cannabinoids if the product that you're using is formulated properly and has the appropriate ethosome to help bring the cannabinoids through that epidermis.

Kirk:  So is there is a sort of the thought CBDs are anti-inflammatory in a since so that's going to calm you down that way. Rapidcryo does that have it you've got your t-shirt says two to one so that has so that has THC in it.

Ripley Halfyard: CBD and CBG.

Kirk:  And CBG? So CBD and CBG.

Ripley Halfyard: Yes.

Kirk:  No THC.

Ripley Halfyard: No THC.

Kirk:  Okay, all right. Go ahead, Jill. You look like you wanted to say something.

Jill Provencal: No, I was just going to say that's very different than a bath bomb and it was formulated to have three different effects. Four, actually, I guess, the cannabinoids being the first one, right? Your cannabinol are going to work with your specific endocannabinoid system. So everyone has a different amount of receptors in different parts of their body and CBG will work more in a similar way to THC than CBD will without having to add the potential intoxication factors. So the cannabinoids are doing their magic, but as we all know, cannabis, cannabinoids on their own are great, but they like a good party. So you can have the same amount of THC and CBD in a joint, but if you have different terpenes in the strain, it's going to change the effect. It's the same with your body. It's exactly the same, with your skin. So cannabinoids work differently with different plant botanicals, and they also work differently with different terpenes that are found, you know, in the cannabis plant. And in essential oils. So we paired our CBG and CBD with specific terpene profiles because the effect we're going for is analgesic. So you're gonna get pain relief, but then also treating the area. It's better for soft tissue. I mean, it's not gonna go down into your ligaments and your joints necessarily. So then we also added menthol, two different types of derivative of menthol. And we added essential oil for perceived cooling. So the menthol and the wintergreen, essentially, will, people love to feel that their topical is working. And how else do you feel that something is working than if you literally feel cold? My skin feels cold, I feel tingly, magic is happening, I fell better. That is not necessarily curing your pain, but your mind is on board.

Kirk:  The only problem I have with wintergreen is it just makes me smell like the age I am.

Ripley Halfyard: So I only use a very small amount of it.

Kirk:  I'm joking.

Ripley Halfyard: You've got to wait till we listen to the other ingredients.

Jill Provencal: Yeah, I personally actually detest wintergreen and this is the first topical I've ever made with it. Yeah, there's also a proprietary blend of our terpene formula.

Kirk:  Oh, come on, give it away. Give it away!

Jill Provencal: Well, the list is on the packaging. You just don't know the proportions.

Kirk:  Actually, I was snooping on your web page looking at your ingredients and as you know from my last visit, I've been experimenting with my own and I ended up making another version and I added wintergreen and the reason why I mentioned it because I apply it before I go to bed and my wife goes, God, you smell like an old man. It's like, okay, maybe next time we'll put less in it.

Ripley Halfyard: That's the old Vicks Vapor Rub.

Kirk:  Yes!

Jill Provencal: There's a reason people use it and the reason that old people smell like it is because it works.

Kirk:  It works, yeah.

Jill Provencal: And it does the trick for a short-term cooling effect and that perceived sense of relief.

Kirk:  I'm at an age right now that you know you go ahead if I smell like wintergreen, that's okay

Jill Provencal: Yeah, I'm not hurting. So whatever. Great. But anyway, the, I don't want to spend four and a half hours on this, which I could, but essentially in a cooling topically of a cooling arc. So the winter green will cool fast, but then it drops off fast. So you won't have a long term relief and you won't have a long term cooling. So we've added three different layers of cooling, we have menthol, another, a different menthol derivative, and then we have another cooling agent. So it covers that arc for three Some people have had success for up to six hours of cooling on the same body part. Myself, I max out at about three and a half, four hours, but the idea is when you mix it with a waxy base as well, it sticks on the skin longer and then you kind of deliver it. I don't want to say it's time release, but it's there and it's working.

Kirk:  That's amazing. I mean, really, because A535 and those other products, they go on, you go, wow, and then they're gone. They disappear. For it to stay there for three and a half hours, that's amazing, wow. You guys, I know you guys are busy.

Ripley Halfyard: The other the other thing is too is that the ingredients that that create that cooling effect are also an ethosome and they actually help with the penetration of the cannabinoids as well.

Jill Provencal: You're trying to get it to not sit on the surface of your skin.  To penetrate.

Ripley Halfyard: Um, but then yeah, and we'll be coming out as well with a spray, a Rapidcryo spray and a Rapidcryo gel, um, and so those will both have similar ingredients, like the active ingredients will be similar, just a different method for people sensory wise, um you know, also for convenience, some people would prefer a spray over a stick, um and so we'll be launching those in the early fall.

Kirk:  Very cool.

Trevor:  Trevor, any other questions? No, again, thank you very much, this was, yeah. I always like talking about topicals. Like I said, as a pharmacist, we used to make a whole bunch. So this is cool, learning from some people who know a whole much more than we do, and give Kirk a quick shout out. I have used at least one of his miscellaneous balms, ointments along the thing, and I think the, I was rubbing one on one knee and not on the other to see if it made any difference, and i think Kirk's helped a little bit, so kudos to Kirk, but yeah, it would be really interesting to see stuff, sorry Kirk, plug your ears, a little more professionally made. But yeah, no, this.

Kirk:  You know, what do nurses know, right?

Kirk:  We really appreciate this.

Kirk:  Yeah, is there anything about your business, about the topic you guys want to expand upon that we didn't touch on?

Ripley Halfyard: Well, I mean, these aren't the only things that we're going to be putting out over the next little while.

Kirk:  Of course. Of course not.

Ripley Halfyard: So there's definitely we are working on formulations for suppositories. We've got formulations in our Hipbees line that are all skin care products. So we will be putting a skin care line that's hopefully late 2027 is when we'll probably be launching that. Um, we, you know, topicals is the what I will say about topical is that it's the smallest line item on any medical platform in like when you look at the sales of things as the only thing that sells less than topical's is seeds and so um you know it's a the the category has a massive amount of growth potential which is what's really exciting for a company like ours because if you look at just the topical analgesic pain relief. Um, just in like North America alone, I think it's like 12 to 18 billion, right? Just for, you know, those Voltaren gels and, and A535, uh, bath balms is like a hundred million dollar market, right. Um, so like, um, we're not, we're not competing with other cannabis companies in that regard. We are, we are its own animal of category and, uh it's a huge undertaking for us to help educate consumers. And so, you know, we talked to a lot of medical folks, folks like you, and so really giving us a platform today to talk about topicals and how they work is huge for us to get out to all of your listeners. And so we just wanna say thank you and appreciate your time and for making space for us today.

Kirk:  You're always a good chatter there, you know, but to be honest, with honesty, this has been very topical for me because I've been growing my own medicine for a few years. And actually, a shout out to Parkland. You were the first seeds I got. The first crop was playing with the Parkland seeds. That's long gone. But I have come to a point where I'm now playing, as I said to you when we met in April or May, that I've in playing, so. Thank you, Trevor, for the shout out that my products might be working. But you know, we will contact you guys again and we'll have links on our web page of all your businesses. Oh, one thing I wanted to say is that the Hipbees does have hemp oils in it, right? Hemp seed oils? So there's a little cannabis link there, you guys.

Ripley Halfyard: Yeah, a little cannabis sativa.

Kirk:  Yeah, a little bit.

Jill Provencal: I love working with women. I also love working with that plant, that female.

Kirk:  Yeah, what I like about these interviews is that Trevor and I get to meet people who are passionate about a plant and one of what I like to do is like, how does he get into it? And you guys have told us over and over and over again, but this has been great. I guess we should let you go and

Trevor:  Really good meeting you, thanks guys.

Kirk:  We're going to carry on the discussion and we're going to talk more about you in a couple of minutes here.

Ripley Halfyard: Alright, that was good.

Kirk:  See you guys.

Trevor:  See you later.

Kirk:  So a couple things. Do you want to talk a little bit about skin as a route of administration?

Trevor:  Sure. So Rip said it's, the largest organ in your body. We kind of forget about that. And specifically designed to not let stuff in. Skin is sort of the outside of you, protecting you from everything else. They get all the dust and water and dirt and microbes and... That land on your skin don't get in. It is very difficult to get stuff through the skin into the body intentionally. So, you know, in the pharmacy world, you know, it was a lot of work to put stuff into a micelle. To get it through the skin into the body. So and it's still not the easiest thing. But an interesting thing about cannabinoids is they are oil soluble. They're big fatty molecules and that does make it a little bit easier to get them through the skin. And they mentioned it a few times, but they're fatty cannabinoids and terpenes are also we'll call them lipophilic or fatty in a fatty emulsified base which means you sort of have the little fat globs in tiny little amounts and they they did say nanoparticles so really small particles so both fact they're fatty and they're in little small particles kind of explains how they get through the skin which is otherwise difficult to get stuff through.

Kirk:  Certain oils penetrate the skin differently, right? So do the oils become carriers that draw the cannabis into the skin?

Trevor:  Yes. Short answer, yes. Different oils get through at different rates. We talked about that a little bit with I'm Forgetting Who right now. I think it might have been with our nozrr friends.

Kirk:  Yvette Webb, ya, we talked a little bit about her cream of the crop products.

Trevor:  Yeah so so different oils get through and different and i now i'm getting outside of my expertise but yes different oils get through in different we'll call them emulsifiers or stuff in the oil to help get the oil through the skin are are different as well so it will what you make it with will make a big difference and the fact they're making their their bases from scratch, and I keep... Coming back to nano, but if you make stuff really small, also makes it easier to get through the skin. The only way you'd know for sure, for sure is if you actually did a test and you got some, you know, possibly things like living skin and on a plate and then put something on the one side and measure to see how fast it got through to the other. I'm assuming they didn't do that and that's fine because on the other hand, if we put, you know something on on the outside of the skin and the knee felt better on the inside of the skin, then you know, we can just go by effect.

Kirk:  Okay, cool, anything else you want to chat with about this interview?

Trevor:  No, no, I really appreciate them giving us time, you know, it's not like we literally caught them as they were going in to examine another facility. So you know. Yeah, people do it doing wearing a lot of hats.

Kirk:  Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what happened. As I said to you, I interviewed them when I was in Edmonton Sherwood Park, St. Albert. I think they were in St. Albert, actually. And the interview was, it wasn't good for publications. So when I said, let's do it again, they said, sure, but we're on our way to a meeting. Can we do it in the car? I said yeah. And how about if Trevor and I log in and do it as one giant episode? And so here we are, doing something different at reefer medness the podcast and hopefully our producer makes something out of this.

Trevor:  Yeah, so it's been another good one again. I'm Trevor Shewfelt I'm the pharmacist you are

Kirk:  I am Kirk Nyquist, I'm the registered nurse and we are Reefer Medness the podcast, found at reefermed.ca. And over and over again, we are told by Meta that they will not promote our product. We're often shut down by Meta, and I think many of you will not get this unless you have been befriended by someone that sent this to you. So please, if you like what we do, Tell a friend link them to us. And help us grow this podcast by word of mouth

Trevor: Sounds good. All right, we'll talk to everybody later.