Opportunities in the CBD market with Always Pure Organics
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With the recent announcement from the UK Government regarding its decision to enforce CBD’s status as a Novel Food, it has consequently become more difficult to create and sell new CBD food products.
In light of this, we have taken a look at other opportunities in the CBD market, such as cosmetics and patches.
A Novel Foods application is a considerable regulatory barrier for businesses to overcome, taking possibly years and a sizeable monetary investment to put new food products on the market. This is likely to increase interest in other areas of the CBD market due to more ease of entry. For this reason, we expect to see further growth in the already large cosmetics market as they are unaffected by the Novel Foods regulations. Realistic valuations put the CBD cosmetics market at several hundred million with two main forms of skincare topicals leading the category.
CBD topicals
The first form of cosmetic to spotlight is also the most common and is known by a variety of names: lotion, cream, balm, etc. There are many names for the range of CBD skincare products that are currently available, but typically they are a topical cosmetic that gets applied directly to the skin.
Consumers immediately know how to use topical skincare products from previous experience, and often know how much to use for their intended purpose. With how new CBD skincare products are this is not guaranteed, but topicals are still more intuitive than a sublingual oil.
These products also have the potential for other ingredients to be formulated into them, allowing for claims to be made on them. The inclusion of linalool for example, the terpene that is responsible for the distinct smell of lavender, allows for a product to make claims as a sleep aid. Creams are a versatile and well recognised range of products, easy to sell, and proven effective.
CBD patches
The other type of cosmetic that deserves attention is fairly new to the EU market: CBD patches.
Similar in design and function to nicotine patches to quit smoking, or paracetamol patches for pain-killing purposes, CBD patches are fairly common in the more developed NA CBD market. The CBD does not pass through the skin (referred to as transdermal) which would require them to be a medical product, instead they slowly deliver their CBD load directly into the skin in the same way an ointment or lotion would.
Patches have the advantage over a more traditional cosmetic in that they allow for more specific dose control. Each patch will have a set amount of CBD, making it more precise when calculating how much CBD you get from it, as opposed to a cream where you have to estimate how much to apply. They are also cleaner – leaving no oily residue – but are difficult to apply to parts of the body with lots of hair or that have to bend. This does make them slightly less flexible in their use (as it would be difficult to apply them to hands and would look strange stuck onto one’s face) but the ability to discretely stick one to an upper arm and receive constant CBD over the course of a day is a major selling point. Whether a consumer wishes to use a traditional lotion, or a more precise but specialised patch will depend on their specific requirements and preferences.
Given how large the CBD cosmetics market currently is and how much larger it is expected to grow, in conjunction with the restrictions on food products that the Novel Foods process has introduced, investing in new cosmetic products is a sensible decision for those looking to expand in the CBD industry. There are plenty of options available for a variety of consumer needs, and the inclusion of different ingredients can allow for health claims to be made – something that isn’t allowed for CBD as a solo ingredient until clinical evidence proves it has specific health benefits. Whatever direction a company decides to take in regard to producing CBD cosmetics, now is the best time to do so due to their expected increase in demand as a result of the constraints imposed by Novel Foods.
Lead Researcher 
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