Are you curious about what you’re dabbing or vaping regularly? You should be.

Learning more about the differences between live resin and distillate can open you up to a whole new world of discerned cannabis shopping. While they are found in the same places, live resin and distillate develop in different ways, which influences their taste, pull, and psychoactive effects.

This guide will explain each concentrate's production process and experience, highlighting the differences between the two.

Discover concentrates and vapes at the Mood Shop today.

The Main Difference Between Live Resin and Distillate

To get straight to the point for those who might have less energy for all of the nitty-gritty details, the main way live resin and distillate differ is in how they are produced and the contents of the final product.

Generally, live resin is designed to preserve more elements and compounds of the cannabis plant. Distillate, on the other hand, has a more focused concentration of a single cannabinoid.

To fully understand the differences between live resin and distillate, it’s best to examine the extraction process that brings each to life.

From there, you will have more tools and resources to determine what’s best for you when shopping for hemp-derived cannabis solutions.

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What is Live Resin?

Live resin is designed to preserve the terpene profile of the full-spectrum cannabis plant.

Fans of live-resin vape pens and concentrates tend to enjoy its full-bodied flavor that’s reminiscent of the cannabis products they know and love.

Featuring a wide variety of plant compounds, live resin products also offer the benefit of a broader response due to the entourage effect.

How Is Live Resin Made?

Live resin and most concentrates are made most safely and commonly by lab professionals. Learning about the process can offer context to the products you're consuming and what’s in them.

The live-resin extraction process is pretty fascinating. Here are the main steps to making live resin:

• Professionals flash-freeze fresh, raw cannabis plants. This preserves their terpene profiles and cannabinoid ratios.

• The plant material is mixed with a solvent that extracts the live resin. Popular solvents include butane, butane hash oil, and propane.

• The lab collects the separated live resin oil from the plant matter and uses it for live resin carts and disposable vape pens.

The Benefits of Using Live Resin

Cannabis enthusiasts who favor live resin over distillate seem to appreciate its loyalty to the hemp plant.

Full Spectrum Because the flash-frozen plants used to make live resin preserve their cannabinoids and terpenes, the flavors and effects they deliver are more reminiscent of smoking cannabis flowers than more focused concentrates like distillate.

Entourage Effect

The entourage effect is described as the cumulative feeling of a full-spectrum cannabis experience, where you consume the natural blend of cannabinoids and terpenes the plant offers.

Dynamic Highs and Flavors

While taking a singled-out cannabinoid like Delta-9 THC can produce an intense and euphoric high, it’s simply less dynamic than what you get by consuming flowers and live resin.

The preserved terpenes also let the user enjoy the familiar, delicious flavors the natural cannabis plant produces.

Popular Live Resin Consumption Methods

Live resin comes in the form of live resin oils and live resin wax.

These substances are then most often packaged in live resin cartridges, disposable vape pens, vials, tinctures, or jars for dabs and refillable vape solutions.

Cannabis lovers can also use live resin to spice up a freshly rolled joint and for bowls in pipes and bongs.

For those who are interested in concentrates, you can also roll sam hash in live resin, and sprinkle that with kief for your own moonrocks.

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What is Distillate?

Distillate is a highly pure concentrate that devotes most of its concentration to a single cannabinoid — most commonly Delta-9 THC and CBD.

When the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 passed, hemp was removed from the federal government’s list of controlled substances. The bill differentiates legal “hemp” from illegal “marijuana” based on the level of Delta-9 THC present in the dry cannabis product.

Legal hemp products can have no more than 0.3 percent Delta-9 THC content by dry weight.

Distillate made with high levels of Delta-9 THC doesn’t qualify as hemp. In terms of compliance with the Farm Bill, distillate can feature strong concentrations of THCa, which converts to Delta-9 THC when smoked, vaped, or heated.

Nearly 98 percent THCa — this 1g of THCa Diamonds is available for $55 at the Mood Shop. Subscribe and save 15 percent.

How Is Distillate Made?

This in-depth piece from Precision Extraction describes how “cannabis distillation is a post-processing extraction technique done subsequent to a solvent-based extraction.”

While live resin extraction uses butane and propane for its extraction, cannabis distillation more often uses hydrocarbon and ethanol solvents. Using a short-path distillate-extraction method, lab professionals can extract distillate by:

• Heating crude oil

• Redirecting rising vapor

• Cooling the vapor in the condenser

• Recollect liquids

Through extraction, winterization, filtration, decarboxylation, and ultimately distillation — lab professionals can create oils and waxes that are over 90% purely THC or CBD.

The Benefits Of Using Distillate

Where live resin offers value in terms of variety and wholesomeness, distillates appeal for their focused design and high potency. Let’s take a closer look at some of the benefits of using distillate products.

Focused Highs

For those who are familiar with the effects of THC, having a vape or dab solution that’s mostly comprised of THC can allow you to maximize what might be your favorite part of consuming cannabis.

At the end of the day, the simplicity of a distillate high is just preferable to some cannabis consumers over the dynamic design of live resin.

More Potent Designs

By consuming forms of cannabis with higher THC levels, like distillates, users can experience more intense effects.

Users with higher tolerances and who may not prefer the incorporation of potentially soothing cannabinoids like CBD might prefer THC-forward distillates.

On the flip side, someone who appreciates the soothing elements of hemp products and is not looking for an intense THC experience might prefer CBD-forward distillates.

In simpler terms, distillates seem better designed for cannabis users at either end of the usage and preference spectrum.

More Predictable Effects

Every hemp plant has an extensive range of cannabinoids and terpenes throughout it.

While the entourage effect can expose you to a more dynamic range of psychoactive compounds, those blends can sometimes be unpredictable.

Because distillate cartridges, oils, and waxes are more singularly focused on THC or CBD, they’re, in a sense, designed to be more predictable, which a large population of cannabis lovers can appreciate.

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Popular Distillate Consumption Methods

Similar to live resin, distillate is a concentrate that’s used in a variety of ways.

You will most often find it in the form of distillate cartridges, vape pens, waxes, and oils.

Like live resin, you can also use distillate for making moonrocks and other highly potent cannabis cocktails.

Distillate can also be used to add potency when smoking flowers, and it’s used in a variety of edibles too.

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An Introduction To Vaping and Dabbing

Those who’ve made it this far in this guide without having an introduction to vaping or dabbing might be lost.

Let’s take a second to look at how these popular consumption methods for the most concentrated form of cannabis work.

How Vaping Cannabis Works

Whether you have distillate cartridges or live resin cartridges in your pen, knowing how the vaporization process works is useful and enlightening.

When you hit your pen, the heating device within it connects with the THC coil, which heats the oil or wax within at a rate that causes it to vaporize.

Basically, by heating the oil at lower temperatures, you can consume it via vapor, which can make consuming these more concentrated cannabis products more tolerable.

Consuming concentrates at higher temperatures is best done by either smoking them mixed with flowers or dabbing them.

Speaking of flowers, we recommend this 1g Wonder Bread Pre-Roll, which is $16 at the Mood Shop. Subscribe and save 15%.

How Dabbing Cannabis Works

While vape pens heat oils, waxes, and badders for consumption, dab rigs work in the opposite direction by heating a metal or glass tool and then using that to vaporize the concentrate.

Dab rigs can be set up with water pipes, like bongs, and in vape pens too. Dabbing effectively takes a potent hit of an already potent live resin or distillate.

Get this stainless-steel Dab Tool for $10 from the Mood Shop today.

Live Resin vs Distillate: 5 Key Differences

Now that we’re familiar with live resin, distillate, and their most common consumption processes, let’s review the key differences between these concentrates.

1. The Extraction Process

Live resin is most commonly extracted using flash freezing and solvents like butane and propane.

Distillates are extracted using a short-path extraction method with ethanol and hydrocarbon solvents.

2. Flavor Profiles

Live resin carts, pens, and concentrates feature full-spectrum terpene profiles with rich flavors that reflect the full-bodied fruitiness and murkiness of the hemp plant.

Distillate carts have a more neutral flavor, which could be ideal for those who want to keep a low profile or who may not prefer the rich flavors and smells of natural cannabis.

3. Psychoactive Effects

Live resin products deliver a more well-rounded high because of the entourage effect brought on by a blend of cannabinoids.

Distillate products produce intense and focused highs because of their higher concentrations of THC.

4. Variety

You can find live resin and distillate products that utilize any strain of cannabis.

With live resin products, you can discover a wider variety because of the many possibilities of varying levels of cannabinoids and terpenes across the diverse world of cannabis.

Distillate products feature less variety, which results in greater predictability — a potential plus for regular consumers.

5. THC Levels

Live resin won’t have as high THC levels as distillate, but it will feature a roster of complementary cannabinoids.

Distillate products will feature higher levels of THC, which might suggest amplified intensity or a better balance depending on the user’s tolerance and a range of other variables.

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Live Resin FAQs

Q: What’s the difference between live resin and live rosin?

A: While live rosin is another full-spectrum concentrate that preserves the plant’s many cannabinoids and terpenes, it’s extracted differently than live resin.

The chemical-free process of extracting live rosin includes applying intense heat and pressure to fresh cannabis, hash, or kief to separate.

Q: Why do some live resin vape cartridges taste different than others?

A: Live resin products will taste different depending on the strain used to develop them, the product type they’re consumed with, and the quality of the production process.

To ensure you’re buying live resin carts and vape pens that aren’t mislabeled or riddled with impurities, it’s important to prioritize dispensaries and distributors with transparent cultivation techniques.

Every Mood product, for example, is tested by third-party labs to ensure it meets federal legal and health standards.

Q: Can you use hydrocarbon to extract live resin?

A: While we discussed above how hydrocarbons are used to make distillate, they can also be applied to the live-resin extraction process.

Butane and propane are more commonly associated with live-resin production, but it’s unclear whether one method is more effective.

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Distillate FAQS

Q: Is distillate as high quality as live resin?

A: Determining something as vague as “quality” requires implementing one's personal preference. That’s why we created this huge Live Resin vs. Distillate Guide.

Generally, if you’re a cannabis user who prefers the full-bodied flavor and effects of flowers, then live resin will be more your speed.

If you’re looking for the most focused and predictable psychoactive effects, then distillate might be your preference.

And don’t forget, variety exists for a reason. You’re allowed to try different concentrates based on how you’re feeling or if you want to try a cool new product.

Q: Why do distillates feel harsher than live resin?

A: It’s not exactly clear. In fact, some cannabis users report that live resin products feel harsher. This is another case of a case-by-case basis.

The harshness of a vaping experience could be caused by a range of different factors, including vaping at too high temperatures or using a device that has a dry coil.

Q: What does 100 percent distillate mean?

A: Because distillates are so overwhelmingly concentrated on one cannabinoid, pure or close to totally pure products are often referred to as 100 percent distillates.

Vapes and Concentrates From The Mood Shop

For concentrates ranging from live resin to distillate, check out these favorite deals available at the Mood Shop.

Highly Concentrated Dab Badder

For those who appreciate a more THC-focused experience, dab badder is great for dabbing, smoking, and vaping. Its smooth buttery consistency is complemented by a rich flavor profile and potent design.

Get 2g of THCa Tropical Storm Dab Badder for $89 from the Mood Shop today.

Live Resin THCa Disposable Vape

Featuring a blend of THCa and CBD, this vape is designed to offer a more full-spectrum experience. Its Afghani strain and well-balanced design lend this vape to a classic high that could pair well with an afternoon walk, a movie night at home, or playing games with a group of friends.

Get a 1g THCa Purple Afghani Disposable Vape for just $60 from the Mood Shop today. Subscribe and save 15%.

Distillate-Drenched Moonrocks

This delightful blend of hemp-derived products is described as the caviar of cannabis. Featuring THCa flowers covered in THC distillate and rolled into CBD kief, these moonrocks can help users feel the entourage effect while also enjoying the potency of distillate. It’s a true best-of-both-worlds.

Get an eighth of THCa Moonrocks for just $49 from the Mood Shop. Subscribe and save 15%.

Discover more concentrates and hemp-derived products from Mood today.

Prices subject to change.