Hippie-hip Cannabis in skin care is booming

Cabbage, matcha and lactic acid bacteria have to put up with standing in the shadow of cannabis, which is the latest trend in the beauty industry. The controversial plant gives more glow and less redness

It is well said that the cannabis plant's content of so-called cannabidiol - CBD for short - is not euphoric, but I honestly have my doubts when I try it for the first time.

It happens on a trip to Los Angeles, specifically the spa The Now, which is a hippie-hip underground place, authentically decorated in concrete and wood and with crystals and oils on the sales shelves.

I come straight from the airport and pay slight flight fatigue for a 50 minute massage in CBD oil focusing on shoulders and neck. After a few minutes on the bench, the tiredness has been replaced by a body on alert because something suddenly sounds a little too strange. It's not the wave-like background music, but rather the masseuse, Jeff, doing labor-preparation-like snorts and breaths that make me hold my breath. Not for all 50 minutes, but until I get up from the couch and fumble with some excuse.

Not euphoric
On the way back to the hotel, my fellow traveler and I laugh at the incident, attributing the situation to masseur Jeff having rubbed himself on too much CBD.

In California, it is found in everything from dog food to yogurt and face creams, and they are not reluctant to promise some kind of so-called "skin high" effect.

In New York, Standard Dose has opened the door to a three-story wellness universe with yoga classes, CBD in the coffee and soothing creams for your skin. - PR photo

Apart from jet lag, I don't feel anything. Because the effect of the most hyped ingredient of the time does not happen that way.

CBD is a cell-communicating, potent antioxidant that protects against premature ageing, has an anti-inflammatory, barrier-healing and thus moisturizing effect. Exactly that combination is the direct path to more glow.

Here at home, we have seen in the last few years how more and more skin care products start to write cannabis on the front of the packaging, even though it is not actually CBD, but hemp seed oil. A protective, solid and undoubtedly beneficial ingredient, which, however, is far from new.

Danish Naturecell has just launched serum, day cream, hand and foot cream with CBD. Prices from DKK 270-450 - PR photo

Cultivation of the hemp plant can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians and Chinese, who have used it for generations to relieve itchy skin.

It quickly comes to seem somewhat more potent when you focus on cannabis rather than hemp, not least taking into account the interest in the Danish medical trial scheme with cannabis.

In skin care, the new thing is that CBD is now added, which belongs to one of the most active substances in the cannabis plant, but without being euphoric, without making anyone nearly cranky, but with an allegedly much greater ability to definitely improve the skin - if compared to ordinary hemp seed oil.

Outside Denmark's borders, so-called cannabis wellness is exploding.

From being underground hippie chic, it has now moved into a league that is more Gwyneth Paltrow chic. Among other things, the CBD brand Standard Dose has moved into a three-storey wellness universe in the New Yorker neighborhood "NoMad".

Everything is stylishly kept in sand color and cold pink, while the imagination has no upper limit:

You can add CBD shots to your coffee, get help with sleep via CBD food supplements, put the active drops in salad dressing or as mentioned: spread it on the skin via a cream or an oil.

There is also yoga, various facial treatments and finally workshops for those who want to learn more.

Promising market
According to sociologist Eva Steensig, our tastes have changed when it comes to choosing beauty and skin care products in particular.

"In the past it had to look expensive. Now we are attracted to something that looks efficient," she says.

And here CBD plays on two horses, because there is partly the medical link, but also the connection to the natural, which many gradually demand in beauty products.

There seems to be broad agreement that CBD in skin care is really exciting, but this is based on few scientific studies.

Facial oil with CBD mixed with hemp seed oil from Bybi, DKK 115 - PR photo

But the fact that it is a promising market is evidenced by the acquisition of the British skin care brand This Works. Here, the world's largest producer of cannabis-based products, Canadian Canopy Growth Corp, has just paid 43 million. pounds, i.e. close to 365 million Danish kroner, for the company. The founder has stated on several occasions that CBD will revolutionize the sleep and beauty industry. According to the scientific journal Hemp Business Journal, sales of CBD-based products in the United States will increase from 390 million dollar in 2018 to a staggering 22 billion dollar in 2022.

More studies
Here at home, dermatologist and professor Peter Bjerring is also hopeful: "The skin is full of receptors that can capture the hemp plant's active substances and provide the benefits that make CBD obvious in skin care - not least in terms of redness or irritation, and much suggests that There is help available."

However, he calls for clearer indications in relation to what quantity is needed to obtain the mentioned benefits. Allan Gamborg tries to answer that. He has been dealing with cannabis since 2006 and is current with the skin care series Naturecell with CBD.

Prior to the launch, there have been lengthy dialogues with the Danish Medicines Agency and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, because as a manufacturer you must be able to document that the active CBD comes from the leaves and not the flower of the cannabis plant.

Facial serum with CBD and collagen peptides from Rodial, DKK 795 - PR photo

"We have achieved a good effect by having 300 mg in a cream, but with just 30 mg in our cleansing product, which does not remain on the skin. Finally, we are developing an ointment with 1500 mg in it, but here the price will be over DKK 2,000," says Gamborg, who says that the kilo price for CBD is 10,000 euros.

The next months will offer more investigations and studies that will make us even smarter in relation to CBD's effect on the skin.

I will spend the waiting time leaning on the fact that more calmness on the skin together with effective barrier protection not only paves the way for more glow, but is the entire prerequisite for it - and that is almost enough to get high with excitement about