When I first started seeing CBD products and now hemp and cannabis, I thought it would just be a blip on the trend o’ meter but it’s really lasted longer than a blip. With more and more states legalizing it, it’s becoming more than a trend. And with products coming out with it inside and major beauty retailers like Sephora, Neiman Marcus, Barneys and ULTA getting on board, I’m interested. I mean, I don’t think the ingredient is a stranger in beauty but it’s literally exploded in the last year.

And it’s not just in a few things, it’s in edibles like gummies, tinctures (oil you take sublingually), makeup and of course skin care, the latter of which I’m most interested in.

 

I first heard of it last spring when I an article about LORD JONES ran in Footwear News how celebrities were using their cannabis cream to ease sore feet when wearing high heels. Busy Phillips did a whole post about it too and this has just led the way in the beauty world, from what I can see.

Around early summer, I then started seeing more and more tinctures and gummies infused with CBD and of course beauty, all over Instagram. So what does this all mean and how is CBD related to cannabis or is it? It was and still is so confusing for a while I ignored it for a while, I don’t think I can anymore! What’s a drawback right now is that there are really no clear guidelines or scales yet that anyone has come up with when it comes to amounts of CBD or cannabis inside a product. On some of these containers I have right here, one says ‘300mg of organic CBD,’ and another says, ‘20% cannabis sativa seed oil.’ So what does that mean to the average consumer? Like with the aforementioned Lord Jones, their High CBD Formula Body Lotion is $60 for a 1.69oz container and contains 100mg of CBD. And each pump dispenses 1ml of lotion containing 2mg of CBD. If I have no scale on which to measure that fact, I’m still not able to educate myself on the topic. This is one of the main reasons I put this topic on the back burner for so long.

As far as CBD and cannabis go, cannabis has two components that make it up, CBD/cannabidiol and THC. CBD is the non-psychoactive part of the hemp plant and will not get you high. It does, however, claim to have powerful healing effects on the body and overall brain wellness. Products containing CBD/cannabinoids are being used to treat everything from pain (my foot!) to anxiety and even sleeplessness. I’ve even heard some people replace their meds with some form of CBD. Now I’m not a doctor, so I wouldn’t know the details on that but hey, whatever works!

Since I’m mainly looking at the beauty side of cannabis, here are a few I’ve come across so far, if you want to get familiar. And one really worked for my foot!

FLORA + BAST – just launched @ sephora.com. This is their Age Adapting Facial Serum ($77/1oz @ sephora.com) and “uses phyto-cannabinoid rich cannabis oil, CBD-rich cannabis oil and full-spectrum cannabis oil.” Umm, huh? Now I’m really confused. I took a picture above of the side of the box as this one is supposed to help reduce face redness, clear up acne and work on your overall radiance. The reason I wanted to feature it solely because Sephora picked it up and they don’t just carry any brand. I’ll have to get back to this one.

HIGH BEAUTY High Five Cannabis Facial Moisturizer ($40/1.7oz @ sephora.com) is also carried @ Sephora as of Sept 2018 and this one contains high levels of cannabis sativa seed oil, not any CBD, which they claim is great for quick hydration and skin protection.

CANNUKA CBD Healing Skin Balm ($58/1.6oz @ cannuka.com) – this is the balm I’ve been using on my foot and by golly, it works to take the swelling and pain! This is one of those hard balms that warms upon contact. The formula also contains Manuka honey and vitamin E as well as Shea Butter among others. And the brand just launched all five of their products @ ulta.com and ULTA stores!

NOT POT Vegan CBD Gummies Dietary Supplement $39.99/30-day supply, $35.99/monthly subscription @ notpot.com

So what’s on the horizon? As of this writing, Lord Jones was just picked up by the Soul Cycle brand, a CBD fragrance is coming out called Dirty Grass and the Jelly Belly brand is coming out with a CBD-infused jelly bean. I feel like we are just at the beginning of this with so much more exploration to go in edibles and also in the beauty category and that’s pretty exciting to me. Have you tried any CBD or cannabis products yet?

Disclosure: Samples of these items were provided for review purposes.