Bengay vs Salonpas: what's actually in each patch and cream

Bengay and Salonpas sit next to each other on the pharmacy shelf, and the boxes look interchangeable. The labels aren’t. The Bengay Ultra Strength patch contains one active ingredient, 5% menthol. The Salonpas Pain Relief patch contains 10% methyl salicylate plus 3% menthol, and its FDA label calls methyl salicylate an NSAID. So the honest answer to Bengay vs Salonpas: for a pulled muscle, Salonpas has the better evidence, and the Bengay patch is the one with fewer medication warnings. Bengay’s Ultra Strength cream is a different animal again, at 30% methyl salicylate. And if your pain doesn’t go away after a few days, neither was really built for you; there’s a third kind of patch further down.

I’ve had rheumatoid arthritis since I was 15, more than 30 years now, and I spent many years on NSAIDs, including Celebrex. Here’s what the FDA labels and the published trials say.

What’s in each product

Both brands sell several formulas, so compare by label, not by name.

	Bengay Ultra Strength patch	Bengay Ultra Strength cream	Salonpas Pain Relief patch	Reclaim Labs 50mg CBD patch
Active ingredients	Menthol 5%	Methyl salicylate 30%, menthol 10%, camphor 4%	Methyl salicylate 10%, menthol 3%	CBD isolate 50mg, zero THC
Salicylate (aspirin family)	None	Yes	Yes; label classes it as an NSAID	None
How often	Up to 3 to 4 times a day	Up to 3 to 4 times a day	8 to 12 hours per patch; max 2 a day, 3 days in a row	One patch, 24 hours
Stomach bleeding warning on label	No	No	Yes	No
Built for	Minor aches, strains, backache	Minor aches, strains, backache	Mild to moderate muscle and joint aches	All-day, every-day pain; people who can’t add an NSAID

Bengay is made by Kenvue, Salonpas by Hisamitsu. Bengay also sells a 4% lidocaine cream and a 2.5% menthol gel. Salonpas sells a camphor-menthol-salicylate patch and its own lidocaine line. For Salonpas against the other big US brand, see our Icy Hot vs Salonpas comparison.

One thing in the table surprises people. The Salonpas patch carries a full NSAID stomach bleeding warning; the Bengay cream, with three times the methyl salicylate concentration, doesn’t. Different regulatory paths. Salonpas Pain Relief was approved under its own new drug application, NDA 022029, while Bengay cream follows the older OTC monograph rules. The ingredient doesn’t care which form it was filed under.

How well they work

Salonpas has the stronger trial. Higashi et al. 2010 (PMID 20171409), run by Hisamitsu, randomized 208 adults with mild to moderate muscle strain to one Salonpas-formula patch or a placebo patch. Over 8 hours, the active patch produced about 40% more pain relief with movement, and adverse events were similar between groups (6.7% vs 5.8%).

Menthol alone has smaller studies. In Sundstrup et al. 2014 (PMID 25298894), a triple-blind crossover in 10 slaughterhouse workers with carpal tunnel syndrome, a menthol gel cut arm and hand pain by 1.2 points on a 10-point scale more than a menthol-scented placebo over the next three hours of work. That supports the Bengay patch for short, local relief. Nobody has published a head-to-head trial of Bengay against Salonpas.

The bigger picture on salicylate rubs is less flattering. A Cochrane review, Derry et al. 2014 (PMID 25425092), found that the positive results came from older, smaller trials, that larger recent trials showed no effect, and concluded the evidence does not support salicylate rubefacients for acute injuries or chronic conditions. Neither brand is an anti-inflammatory you can rely on for a joint that stays sore for months.

So for an occasional strain: buy whichever is cheaper this week. Salonpas if you want the patch with a trial behind it, Bengay’s patch if you take other medications. You don’t need anything stronger, and you don’t need us.

Why the salicylate matters if you take other medications

Methyl salicylate gets into your blood. In Morra et al. 1996 (PMID 8876850), 12 healthy volunteers applied a 12.5% methyl salicylate ointment twice daily for 4 days; salicylic acid showed up in serum within an hour of the first dose, and absorption increased with repeated applications. Bengay’s cream is 30%.

That matters most with warfarin. Joss 2000 (PMID 10860133) reported a 22-year-old woman on stable warfarin whose INR climbed to 12.2 after eight days of a topical methyl salicylate gel on her knees. Case reports aren’t trials, but the interaction keeps recurring in the literature, and the Salonpas label spells out the same risk group.

You take	Salonpas patch or Bengay cream	Bengay menthol patch
Warfarin or another blood thinner	Salonpas label: higher bleeding risk; case reports of INR spikes with methyl salicylate	No salicylate
Prednisone or other steroids	Salonpas label: higher stomach bleeding risk	No salicylate
An oral NSAID (ibuprofen, naproxen, meloxicam)	Salonpas label: higher stomach bleeding risk	No salicylate
A diuretic, or high blood pressure	Salonpas label: ask a doctor first	No label warning
Aspirin allergy	Salonpas label: do not use	No salicylate

Our pages on CBD and warfarin, prednisone and NSAIDs go deeper on each of those.

If your pain is there every day

Picture who that table describes. Someone on prednisone, an oral NSAID, blood pressure pills, maybe methotrexate. That’s a typical RA medication list, and close to mine over the years. For us, Salonpas and Bengay cream add salicylate to a list that’s already long. The Bengay patch avoids that, but it’s a cooling sensation you re-apply three or four times a day, and Salonpas’s own label caps you at 3 days in a row. Chronic joint pain doesn’t stop on day three.

That’s the gap our 50mg CBD patch is built for. It’s a transdermal isolate patch: one patch, worn for 24 hours, instead of re-sticking through the day. It contains no NSAID, no salicylate and no menthol, so it adds nothing to an NSAID load you’re already carrying, and there’s no menthol tingle to fade by mid-morning. It’s THC-free, so it’s safe for drug tests, and it’s waterproof enough to shower and swim in.

What it isn’t: a counter-irritant you feel in thirty seconds, or an anti-inflammatory drug. Nobody has run a head-to-head trial of a CBD patch against Bengay or Salonpas, and I won’t pretend one exists. It’s a different tool for pain that doesn’t switch off.

One safety point, especially if you’re on warfarin. CBD inhibits CYP2C9, the main enzyme that clears warfarin. In Bansal et al. 2023 (PMID 37313955), a CBD-dominant extract with 640mg CBD raised exposure to a CYP2C9-cleared probe drug by 77% in 18 healthy adults. That dose is many times one patch, but a CBD patch is not a free pass on blood thinners either. Tell your prescriber, and expect them to want an INR check.

How I navigate this

I take Prozac, lisinopril and metoprolol every day, alongside CBD. I was on prednisone for 23 years, and on methotrexate earlier in my disease history. With that history, I read the active ingredients panel before the brand name, every time. A rub or patch with methyl salicylate in it gets the same question from me as an aspirin would: does my prescriber know?

For one sore spot, the NANO roll-on is my localized option. For everyday background pain, the 2800mg oil: half a dropper a day for the first two weeks, then a full 1ml dropper from week three.

Which one to buy

• A pulled muscle, no other medications: Salonpas Pain Relief patch. Cheap, OTC, a placebo-controlled trial behind it. Keep to the 3-day limit.
• A minor ache and you take a blood thinner, steroids or an NSAID: the Bengay Ultra Strength menthol patch, not the cream. Nothing from the salicylate family.
• You like Bengay cream: know it’s 30% methyl salicylate and treat it like aspirin when you check your medication list.
• Joint pain that’s there every day, on top of a long medication list: that’s the case for a 24-hour CBD patch, with your prescriber in the loop. Our guide to pain patches by type covers the rest of the shelf.

Pick by the active ingredients panel, not the box. Two products with the same brand name can be completely different drugs.