CBD-infused skin care products emerged as one of the most interesting and talked about new product categories in 2018 and the market is set to triple this year. “Have you tried CBD?” is a common question asked from the ski slopes of Wyoming all the way to the country clubs of the south. So, how did hemp (low-THC cannabis) extracts make such a splash?
One might suggest that it is a passing fad and has benefited from the legal marijuana movement, but that assessment would not be entirely incorrect. CBD is the non-intoxicating compound found in cannabis that became legal in 2014 with the Federal Farm Bill and was reinforced in 2018 with further legal clarity. This paved the way for some interesting scientific studies that began showing CBD to be the real medicine behind the cannabis movement. Interestingly, the federal government also owns a patent on CBD (cannabidiol) for the “treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory, and auto-immune diseases.”1
As is well-known in the skin care industry, the majority of skin related issues are due to inflammation, so CBD is particularly interesting when looking at scientific studies around the multiple benefit areas. This is where the fad theory loses credibility.
In a scientific study titled “The Endocannabinoid System of the Skin in Health and Disease: Novel Perspectives and Therapeutic Opportunities,” CBD was found to interact with the newly discovered endocannabinoid system whose “understanding could be extremely important in preventing, managing, or even treating chronic conditions.”2,3 This is where things get interesting. Per the study, “modulating the activity of the ECS has turned out to hold tremendous therapeutic potential for a multitude of diseases and pathological conditions affecting humans, ranging from inflammatory, cancer, and pain.” It also states that the “ECS has been implicated in the regulation of skin cell proliferation, survival, and differentiation, the delicate balance of which is a key determinate of proper cutaneous homeostasis.”
Benefit areas outlined specifically include acne, seborrhea, dry skin, dermatitis, pain, and itch. The most common of all skin disease is acne, which is “characterized by highly elevated lipid production of the SGs.”2 For dry skin, CBD “might act as a novel therapeutic tool in excessively dry skin by enhancing fat production in the SG.” For dermatis, CBD has “therapeutic values in skin inflammations” and a new product approved by the FDA has had an “80 percent increase in symptom resolution.”2 Lastly, for pain, the “addition to agents that increase the cutaneous levels of endocannabinoids (CBD) have been effectively used in various models of pain and itch.”
History shows that beauty fads are cyclical and many do not last longer than one to two years. Will CBD suffer the same fate and fade away to obscurity as new trends hit the market? Based on the overwhelming scientific proof around benefit areas, it is highly unlikely. In fact, as the health and wellness community continues to study the multitude of uses, CBD will surely become even more important in daily beauty routines. Is it the fountain of youth? Only time will tell.

References
1 Hampson, Aidan J., Julius Axelrod, and Maurizio Grimaldi. Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants. US Patent US6630507B1, filed April 21, 1999, and issued July 10, 2007. https://patents.google.com/patent/US6630507B1/en
2 Biro, Tamas, Balazs I. Toth, Gyorgy Hasko, Ralf Paus, and Pal Pacher. “The endocannabinoid system of the skin in health and disease: novel perspectives and therapeutic opportunities.” Trends in Pharmacological Sciences 30, no. 8 (2009): 411-420. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2757311/
3 Yoder, A. “The Endocannabinoid System and Chronic Disease: Opportunity for Innovative Therapies.” In Physical Activity and the Aging Brain. (2017): 65-73. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128050941000071