Salonpas Pain Relieving Patch, Large, 6 Count, for Back, Neck, Shoulder, Knee Pain and Muscle Soreness, 8 Hour Pain Relief

I'll give it five stars for a good effort, and it does what it says it does. But these large patches (camphor/menthol) are smelly. Ew smelly! You definitely wouldn't want to be hanging with someone close quarters and expect they wouldn't smell it, too, even if it's under your clothes. This hasn't been tested by me, as I'm all alone. I have the patch on my shoulder, just few inches from my nose. It's not that the smell is really strong, what's unpleasant is the way it smells, like ripe garbage (ew!). Hey, I like homegrown natural herbal and all that stuff as much as the next guy, but this recipe is more a demonstration of the fungus than the mushroom, so to speak. So, now, after 30 minutes, I still have my caffeine headache. Stiff muscles in the rear of my shoulder, always on the left side. Coffee is the only thing that makes it go away! It happens frequently these days as I've been drinking less coffee. The patch IS making a difference, muting the stiff muscle pain, and I might be able to sleep with this. It's late at night and luckily I don't have to get up in the morning, so instead, tonight I'm going to have a late night cup of coffee. Eh, screw sleep! Can't sleep with the coffee, but I can't sleep without it! Again! Just like I did last night! I'm recovering from surgery and have aches and pains all around (which is reinforcing my theory that coffee is the only thing that gets rid of this particular ache; I've taken a variety of pain meds over the past seven weeks as I recover, and this caffeine headache rises to the surface right through the best of them!). So this is about more than just a cup of coffee; it's about nearly debilitating sleep habits, which I am lucky to have time to work on. Thus I bought these patches. I'll also try the Salonpas Lidocaine version and write my review over there in the near future. I'm in a situation where, if I could find the patch that solves my problem, I'll be able to sleep. Now I'm 48 minutes in and the effectiveness seems to have increased a bit. This is great! I'm not moving much and I have taken some sips of my hot coffee, so it's not a perfect test environment, but I can actually feel the difference the local anesthetic is making, in a targeted area where I have mounted the patch. It feels relaxing, and that's a rare feeling for me, as I've been managing pain 24/7 for almost two months now. When something actually works, it's big. Generally speaking, I'm impressed with the targeted numbing effect I'm getting, and recommend this product easily! And to be fair, it's a full five stars despite the smell, figuring I didn't expect them to smell like roses!

Better than the 5% lidocaine patches that you need a prescription to get. I use them for knee patch. They help a lot with joint pain.

I hurt my rotator cuff a couple years back and this is when this product was recommended to me. I am not one to take pain medication so It literally saved me considerably as I didn’t want to have to have surgery and or future problems due to surgery etc:. Anyhow this patch got me through until the shoulder healed. I do not go without this patch in my home now. My shoulder pain just recently flared up again due to over using it and once again these saved me. They do last about 8 hours no joke. The only down fall is they obviously don’t want to stay in place or on when your sweating. I give this product a 10/10.

this product works really well EXCEPT for sensitive skin, there it burns a little

It really helped my back! And it stays on for hours! Thank you!

Back was killing me. Slapped one of these patches on and I was back to my old self. Works and will buy again

Have a bad back and after trying several other brands, this one works the best for me. The pads are larger than some others as well which covers the area I need. Only drawback is the medicinal smell.

The product works well, but it doesn’t stick well. The ends always pop off.