The question I hear most in the shop isn't "which oil should I choose?" – it's "how many drops should I take?" And honestly, most people leave with a bottle without really being able to answer that themselves. The result: some take too little and conclude "CBD does nothing", others take needlessly high amounts with no extra benefit. Here's how I approach it with my customers, step by step.
Understand what the percentage on the bottle means
A bottle of CBD oil always shows a concentration as a percentage: 5%, 10%, 20%, sometimes more. This figure is the amount of CBD in the whole bottle, not in a single drop. For a 10 ml bottle, a 10% concentration corresponds to about 1,000 mg of CBD in total. Brought down to the drop, that gives roughly the following guidelines, knowing a bottle usually holds between 200 and 300 drops:
5% oil: about 2.5 mg of CBD per drop.
10% oil: about 5 mg of CBD per drop.
30% oil: about 15 mg of CBD per drop.
These are approximations – the exact concentration varies slightly between manufacturers depending on the dropper size. That's why I always advise checking the precise information on the label of the product you have rather than relying on a general rule.
The starting dose: less than you think
Most beginners start too strong. My advice, and that of most gradual titration protocols, is to start at around 1 mg of CBD per dose, twice a day, morning and evening. For those who prefer to think in terms of body weight, 0.3 to 0.5 mg per kilo gives a reasonable starting point for everyday wellbeing use.
It seems small, and that's normal. The idea isn't to feel an immediate, dramatic effect on day one, but to let your body adjust gradually.
The step method
Once the starting dose is set, don't change it for at least seven days. This is the step most people skip: they increase the dose after two days because they feel nothing, when CBD settles in gradually and its effects can take several days to stabilise.
If after seven days at a stable dose nothing has happened and the product is well tolerated, increase by about 1 mg per dose, then wait another three days before judging. You can then move to 5 mg steps every three to five days if needed, until you reach the effect you're looking for. Then allow at least two weeks at a stable dose before concluding whether a dose works or not.
A customer once told me he'd "tried CBD and it didn't work". Digging deeper, he'd taken 40 drops of a 5% oil on the first evening, felt nothing and given up the next day. I suggested starting again with a proper three-week progression. He came back a month later to buy his second bottle.
The sublingual route, and why it changes everything
How you take the oil matters almost as much as the dose. Swallowed straight away, CBD oil passes through the liver before circulating in the blood, and much of the CBD is broken down along the way: oral bioavailability is around 5 to 10%, averaging close to 8%. By holding the drops under your tongue for 30 to 60 seconds before swallowing, some of the CBD passes directly into the bloodstream through the mucous membranes, noticeably improving absorption. It's a detail many customers don't know, and it can explain why two people taking the same dose feel very different effects.
What makes the right dose vary from person to person
There's no universal dose, and I'm wary of ready-made charts promising a single figure based on weight. Metabolism, individual sensitivity, what you're looking for and how used you are to CBD all play a role. One important point of caution: CBD can interact with some medicines by slowing their breakdown in the liver, notably via the CYP450 enzymes that process many prescribed treatments. If you take regular medication, talk to your doctor or pharmacist before starting.
What I recommend in practice
Choose a concentration suited to your use rather than the highest possible: a 30% oil forces you to handle very small amounts that are hard to dose precisely drop by drop, while a 10% oil leaves more room to fine-tune. Keep a small notebook or a note on your phone with the dose and how you felt each day – it helps enormously to see objectively what works. And above all, give it time: patience matters more than quantity here. Browse our Swiss CBD oils.
CBD is not a medicine. For adults (18+) only.
