Simple Hemp Botanicals Review

Written by Tyler Swell — Edited by Cathy Rozyczko on February 9, 2021

We wish things with Simple Hemp Botanicals were well, a little more simple. Though their CBD oil catalog earns two badges with our methodology, we’re a bit uneasy about their lack of transparency. For one, they do not provide adequate test results for Safety, and secondly, we found a couple of discrepancies that have us pressing the pause button until this European CBD brand can clear things up.

Simple Hemp Botanicals is a subsidiary of Revolution Health Products Ltd out of the UK. They offer three categories of CBD products — CBD tinctures, capsules, and topicals — and even have the endorsement of a purportedly esteemed pharmacist. They claim that top nutritionists and pharmacists (not in the US) alike recommend their products backed by a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Let’s get into why Simple Hemp Botanicals currently is eligible for just two badges. First up, they claim to use CO2 extraction and source industrial European hemp, so we awarded the Quality Badge. However, when we took a look at the ingredients in their CBD oil tinctures, we found a proprietary hemp extract called nextHEMP™, which is manufactured by Hygia Nutrients from US agricultural hemp. Also, nextHEMP™ is water-soluble, something Simple Hemp Botanicals never mentions even once on their site.

This discrepancy is concerning because it leads us to believe that Simple Hemp Botanicals either is not clear on their source hemp and/or they aren’t disclosing the details consumers absolutely deserve to know before they buy. Perhaps the rest of their line indeed comes from European industrial hemp, but now it’s hard to trust what’s happening. Plus, consumers definitely need to know whether or not they are buying water-soluble CBD.

Also, the brand has just one CoA with a cannabinoid profile that they repeat four times, giving the impression they’ve conducted more tests than they actually have. Eek, this is a bad look, and since the company doesn’t have cannabinoid profiles for each SKU and contaminants tests, the Safety Badge is off the table.

Their actual CBD catalog is fairly basic; you can buy individual products, but SHB pushes packages and buying in larger quantities. And we have to cite another discrepancy here. SHB says they believe “natural, healthy products create healthy, happy customers” and that they’re CBD products are “so potent you won’t believe they’re natural.”

Maybe we’re splitting hairs here, but their CBD line is nowhere close to being all-natural. Their CBD tinctures contain PG (propylene glycol), and their CBD creams contain synthetics like phenoxyethanol and polysorbate 20.

The thing is, a lot of CBD vendors use these ingredients. While we’ll always call out the ingredients, we won’t call out the company unless they make natural or all-natural claims, as is the case here.

Our advice? Become way more specific with your customers about sourcing, ditch the natural claims (or better yet, ditch the unnatural ingredients), and up the testing protocols for the CBD oil. Oh, and if SHB indeed offers a water-soluble CBD tincture, they definitely need to be clear about it.

Bottom Line – Simple Hemp Botanicals makes us hesitant because of some concerning discrepancies that point to a lack of full disclosure when it comes to their CBD oil.