I Tried the CBD Lotion Celebs Use for Heel Pain—and It Works

I've been traumatized by high heels. Every time I slip on a pair of stilettos, I wait with dread for the stabbing ache in the balls of my feet to reappear. And after one too many morning spent covering my blistered feet in bandaids, I find myself on autopilot, slipping on sneakers before I head to work. I've found workarounds, sticking to low, chunky heels or carrying around uncomfortable ones to change into before a meeting. But I recently caught wind of a trick to make heels more comfortable, courtesy of celebrity stylist Karla Welch.

In January, Welch posted on her Instagram about CBD-infused lotion. "A shout out to my friends @thelordjones," she wrote. "Their pain and wellness cream with CBD is the absolute CURE for aching feet on the red carpet." Welch went on to note that she keeps it in her styling toolkit and is a favorite among her clients. That's a pretty convincing sell to me.

As cannabis legalization continues across the country, a host of beauty and wellness products have been created to address any number of issues. For anyone worried about the psychoactive effects of a product like Lord Jones's lotion, there's no need to be. These topical lotions and oils are used for physical pain relief. In fact, when I chatted with a few marathon-running friends before testing the product out myself, they all swore by its ability to relieve sore muscles. But the real question: Would I find relief? I spent the better part of a week trying out different heels in my arsenal to see how things would go.

Day One

On my first day, I decided to kick things off by wearing a pair of Stuart Weitzman ankle boots. I love them, but they're just high enough that if I do any sort of walking during the day, I find that the ball of my foot starts to feel funky (and when I say "funky", it's more like a pounding, unignorable ache). I applied the lotion while getting dressed and reapplied later that afternoon and found that while there was still a general amount of discomfort (those heels are high!), I did think that the worst pains were gone. Where normally I'd be hesitant to do much walking around town in them, leaving the office to grab Sweetgreen was no big deal.

Was the pain truly lessened or was I convinced by the placebo effect? It's hard to know since there's no way to metrically track a difference in pain, but checking in with myself throughout the day, I felt better, so either way, I'd say it was a win.

Day Two

On Tuesday, I decided to break out my Who What Wear mules, which I love because they're backless (no blisters!), but I find them tricky for walking because they're particularly high and spindly. While I forwent wearing them on my 20-minute walk commute into the office, I did change into them once I arrived and wore them as I was in and out of the office at appointments through the day. Instead of applying the lotion preventatively, I decided to make it halfway through the day and then apply. When my feet started to bug me around noon, I made sure to use the lotion in hopes that it would help with the achiness. Success! While I can't imagine it's great for the back or ankles to do too much hiking in a stiletto, the cream helped me manage the pain and get through the day.

Day Three

Lucky for me, on day three, a pair of PVC pumps I'd recently ordered finally arrived, making it the perfect opportunity to see if the lotion would help me break in a new (and significantly lower) pair of high heels. The good news is that I spent the day without feeling any of the stabbing achiness that can come with heels, but the bad is that I'm not sure plastic footwear will ever be all that comfortable. I will proudly admit I made it through the day without blisters or bleeding, but PVC lacks a certain give you find in leather or suede. For these shoes, it's all about wearing them strategically.

Everyone's experience is bound to be different, but for me, CBD lotion is a particularly intriguing product, and in the end, it did help with muscle and joint pain in my feet through the day. While its purpose isn't to prevent blisters or rubbing, for deep aches and pains, all I can say is holy smokes—it was that good.