To CBD or not to CBD, this is the question of our times. Like Hamlet said, it is not an easy decision. In the past year has your marketing department asked you to break all speed records to put a product on the market that will beat everyone on this gangbuster trend? Alas, poor chemist, you know it all too well. Let’s break down some of the issues surrounding CBD.

Technical Issues
What to put in the product? Sources? Is it safe, regulated and/or sound inviting?

Last year the commodity price of quality CBD isolate, the pure extract from hemp flowers and stems, was more than $15,000 a kilo. Fortunately, you may not need much: 0.01% of a 99% pure isolate will go a long way toward making “contains CBD” claims, has under the legal limits of THC, and has no malodor.

During the past year, COVID-19 be damned, so many people bought farms speculating on a CBD boom, that the price of CBD has plummeted to under $5,000 a kilo. Still, this price can be too high or even too “drug-like” for most personal care marketers—especially the ones trying to make mainstream cosmetics featuring a CBD twist.

As a result, hemp oil has returned to the field of play. Of course, hemp oil by “definition” doesn’t contain CBD; it is extracted from the seeds, which do not contain cannabidiols (all of them). But a fact like that has never stopped a good cosmetic company (or industry) from finding what it needs to find; hence the emergence of the total hemp plant extract. All of these seeds, stems, and flowers yield an oil with a CBD level of 7-8%. That’s not bad, but with the goods come some issues. It is a mixture of all CBDs (see Figure 1) and may contain levels of the evil THC. No moral judgements here—I went to college in the 1970s—but the U.S. government has not ruled definitively about the legality of topical products. The authorities seem to be okay if the limit is under 0.3%. The typical analysis is shown in Figure 1.

A High Price to Pay
The cost of a “good hemp oil” is going under $1,000/kg, but with that lower price comes a warning—hemp oil has a characteristic odor. Forget fragrance-free. The old rule of thumb when formulating featured ingredients was set years ago, by the “Egg Shampoo” example (i.e., if you use the ingredient in the name you should put at least 2% of the equivalent of a whole egg). However, if you say just “contains” the material (egg), it’s at least 0.2% of the formula. The odor may help you decide to stay on the lower end when formulating with hemp oil. Still, some nice herbal extracts that have a better scent may be blended to come up with a nice pleasant scent and be natural to boot.

The claims for hemp oil are all over the place. Soothing, calming and natural seem innocuous, but may convey the interest of the consumer—something we do for many products. The FDA will frown on the stronger “anti-inflammatory” that may also be true, but too bold at least on the primary packaging. A good choice for CBD, no THC, good odor is Cherry Blaze MCT or Hemp Oil from Bio Component Research (BCR), Elmwood Park, NJ (see Figure 2).


Marketing Claims
Everything seemed clear to formulators and marketers for a while. Then major road bumps and cul-de-sacs were put up not by the FDA, but by our best partners. Facebook and Amazon, have, as this issue went to press, banned the use of CBD products on their websites. Any mention of CBD on ads or packaging will remove your formula from their sites. In sharp contrast, retail stores seem to have taken an opposite position; entire CBD walls and aisles are common, and hemp oil is accepted by all. Just don’t mention if it may have CBD in some venues or your websites. You have to love the insanity of it all. Ultimately, the question isn’t “to hemp or not to hemp?”; it’s “when and how to hemp?”  

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About the Author: Jules Zecchino is co-founder and COO/ CTO of Simply Active Cosmetics Inc. More info at www.beautystatcosmetics.com. He has developed cosmetic products for decades and worked at Miles Laboratories, Chesebrough-Ponds, Bristol-Myers, Elizabeth Arden, Avon and Estée Lauder.