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!

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.

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

Work well, however they are so sticky that I was screaming trying to take it off the next day! It felt like it was ripping the skin off my back and rump!

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 have a bad knee these work well for the pain

Wife loves these applied to her back during work when she has strained a muscle. Personally I hav3 to much body hair to use these patches but it does the job for her. BTW these are the larger patches which work better for her back.

I am not sure if these are different than the ones I’ve purchased in the past, but they are certainly less sticky than before. I used to be able to order 1 box of these at a time, and I believe the manufacturer was based in Japan, not New Jersey. I know it’s the same brand, but the quality feels different. I get bad pain on the back of my neck, near my skull, so it’s also possibly due to location (near your hair and needing to curve a bit around the neck). Still would buy again, because they work provide better immediate relief than other options I’ve tried.