When the Farm Bill was signed into law in late December of 2018, making hemp products legal throughout the US, independent business forecasts were quickly rewritten projecting CBD rich hemp product sales to rise into the hundreds of millions of dollars in retail sales, with some suggesting revenues to eclipse the trillion-dollar mark, in the coming decade.
As quickly as hemp is growing in world esteem, it is most accelerated in the field of beauty. According to a story published on December 19, 2018 in In Style magazine, CBD was the most popular beauty ingredient for the year. While there are dozens of lotions, serums, balms, bath salts, etc. on the market, CBD has also recently made itself into the best-selling products aisle at Neiman Marcus, Barney’s and even Sephora first with Milk Makeup’s new line of Kush cosmetics including hemp infused vegan mascara, brow gels, lip balms and glosses. As Zanna Roberts Rossi, co-founder of Milk Makeup points out in the article, “CBD is great when it has a function in a product.” Simply putting a milligram or two or CBD in a product with chic packaging is not the answer. Dr. Jeanette Jacknin, a board-certified dermatologist specializing in topical cannabinoids in skin care echoes this important point by referencing a landmark study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (2015, Vol. 135, 1629-1637) while saying “If you can manipulate the endocannabinoid system, you can extend the life cycle of the basal cells for more radiant, youthful skin.”
While there are many new companies flocking to the beauty space every month now, the space is still very new, and therefore highly fragmented. The clear leader in the beauty space has yet to emerge but it will be a company that offers excellent, upscale branding with the correct proven product mix and that has the proper marketing collateral to give widely distributed evidence-based information to customers throughout the entire US. And, of course, that company must be able to supply a multitude of distribution channels online and in normal everyday retail as well.
The future is indeed exciting for CBD rich hemp based beauty products, especially those formulated with proper functional terpene rations to create accelerated, lasting change.
