CBD- The Secret Ingredient for Glowing Skin!

Reading time – 16 minutes

It probably comes as no surprise to hear that your skin is the largest organ of your body. Here’s a little fun fact - did you know that your skin weighs over 20 pounds and takes up around 15% of your body weight?

With that in mind, there has been a massive public interest across the world to maintain a perfect and glowing skin condition as part of their plan to have a youthful and vibrant appearance. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have flawless skin?

Interestingly, there are only really a few ingredients that have taken the skincare industry by storm like CBD. If you were walking along the aisle of a cosmetic supply shop recently, you might have noticed that whether it is serums, sunscreens, moisturizers, or bath salts, there is a vast array of CBD-infused skincare products popping up on the shelves! 

To provide you with another perspective, Forbes reported that the worldwide CBD cosmetics market had been given an estimated valuation of more than USD 580 million, with the United States being in the lead. Moreover, Grand View Research predicted that the market would continue to expand, with expectations that it will hit the USD 1.7 billion mark by 2025. 

The reasons as to why introducing CBD into various skincare products is no longer a mystery either. Many experts associate the massive popularity of CBD with its highly versatile applications in promoting improved health and wellbeing. Meanwhile, a Wall Street Journal article revealed that the growing legalization of marijuana in several states in the U.S. has also resulted in the increased public interest in using CBD for cosmetic purposes. 

Nonetheless, you might be wondering to yourself – what kinds of skin problems could CBD be used as an effective treatment for? Good question. Let’s explore to find out more!

Back to the basics - what is CBD?

To bring you up to speed with the facts and details, CBD stands for cannabidiol. It is one of the 100+ variants of chemical compounds called cannabinoids, which are found naturally within the cannabis plants, namely marijuana (scientifically termed as cannabis sativa indica) and industrial hemp (scientifically named as cannabis sativa). If you want to extract CBD as a powder from the cannabis plant, you’ll find plenty of them within the plant’s leaves, flowers, and stalks. 

If you are now thinking to yourself, “will taking CBD make me high?”, the short answer would be not even close! CBD constitutes one of the two key active ingredients found within cannabis, with the compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) being the other one. Unlike consuming THC, taking CBD will not cause you to experience any mind-altering feelings of being “high”. Hence, if the cannabinoids derived from industrial hemp contain under 0.2% of THC, consuming CBD will be perfectly safe and legal. 

Another important point for you to keep in mind is that there is a major difference between CBD oil and hemp oil (also known as hemp seed oil). These two, although are often marketed to be the same products, differ in the aspect that CBD oil is highly concentrated in cannabidiol while hemp oil only contains little to negligible amounts of CBD. This is mainly because hemp oil is extracted from the seeds of the hemp plant, which does not contain any cannabinoids.

The science of CBD - how does CBD exert its function in our bodies?

Scientists are currently still trying to work out the “how” and “why” CBD functions in our body the way it does. Nonetheless, various studies have postulated that the therapeutic effects of CBD can be realized via its interaction with our endocannabinoid system, whereby CBD binds with specialized cannabinoid receptors within the system. 

The endocannabinoid system is a very complex network of receptors that present in every single mammal (that means us too!). It is tasked with a significant role in controlling many of your biological and cognitive processes to maintain a balance within your body, whereby this balance is scientifically termed as “homeostasis”. Such processes include (but are not limited to) the regulation of our immune system, sleep patterns, hormone production, appetite, pain, memory, mood and fertility.

The majority of existing research on our endocannabinoid system has placed greater focus on the system’s involvement in regulating our central nervous system and immune systems. Still, a reasonably high amount of research over the past two decades has showcased the ability of our endocannabinoid system to maintain various critical functions of our skin. Several studies have postulated a link between a working endocannabinoid system and numerous physiological processes that take place within our skin. Such processes include growth, proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis (meaning programmed cell death) as well as cytokine or hormone production by a wide variety of cells present in our skin and appendages (e.g. the hair follicle and sebaceous gland). 

When your body falls ill or is subjected to stressful situations, it essentially becomes deficient in endocannabinoids (i.e. cannabinoids naturally produced within your body). This is where CBD comes in to save the day, as CBD is a phytocannabinoid (meaning a cannabinoid that originates from plants) with properties that are equivalent to your endocannabinoids. Hence, CBD can be used to restore balance in your body.

CBD acts as a chemical messenger for your endocannabinoid system to initiate and deliver signals throughout our body. In particular, CBD interacts with the CB1 and CB2 receptors of the endocannabinoid system, whose sole responsibility is to process signals triggered by cannabinoids. You can imagine this system to be equivalent to a “lock and key” model, in which CBD plays the role of the “key” that can be inserted into the “lock” (which are the CB1 and CB2 receptors, in this case). Upon “unlocking” the receptors, the CBD would kickstart a series of reactions all over your body. 

Everything you need to know about the skincare applications of CBD

Ildi Pekar, a New York City-based aesthetician, Ildi Pekar, mentioned that CBD presents notable anti-inflammatory properties, which can be of high therapeutic value to be used in the treatment of skin conditions linked to inflammation. 

To introduce some basic details, inflammation is a natural and healthy immune response that is triggered whenever your body is under attack by a pathogen (meaning a microorganism that can cause diseases in humans, such as bacteria or viruses) or injured. Inflammation can happen anywhere in our body, and it causes a specific region of your body to turn red and become hot, swollen, and even painful. This process occurs to provide a certain degree of protection to your body while it undergoes the process of killing pathogens and then repairing itself. Nevertheless, there can always be too much of a good thing. Occasionally, your immune system can overreact to an infection or injury, even though they are not life-threatening, to cause more harm than good. If our skin was brought into this picture, conditions such as severe acne or eczema are one of the potential outcomes of excessive skin inflammation.  

However, this should not worry you too much as CBD has been shown to be an excellent anti-inflammatory agent and has a calming effect on your skin. The binding of CBD to the CB1 and CB2 receptors accomplishes this, whereby this interaction tones down the inflammatory response by lowering the concentration of interleukins in our blood serum. Interleukins are chemicals that serve as our immune system’s fire alarm that alerts the fire department whenever there is an emergency, and CBD can help to reduce the volume of that fire alarm.

Why is CBD an excellent ally in the battle against acne?

Acne can be a cause of frustration for people from all ages, with various factors contributing to visible breakouts. In addition, scientists have confirmed that acne is a type of inflammatory skin disease.

What’s more, natural solutions to combat acne breakouts are always warmly welcomed. Hence, taking that into consideration, you can use CBD to soothe your skin and prevent the establishment of any acne-associated redness. Three different studies conducted in 2007, 2013 and 2014, respectively, have demonstrated that CBD offers anti-inflammatory benefits to protect your skin against acne. Therefore, this makes CBD an appropriate choice to treat acne-prone skin, helping you to look and feel confident about your appearance. 

One other possible reason as to why CBD is capable of stopping acne breakouts is because it can arrest the excess production of sebum. Sebum is an oily secretion of our sebaceous glands and is typically essential for the protection of our skin. However, acne will be produced when our skin produces an unnecessarily high amount of sebum, as this leads to clogged hair follicles. As research has shown that inflammation can accelerate the sebum production, you could take CBD as the cannabinoid interferes with the CB2 receptors that are controlling our sebaceous glands. 

Meanwhile, CBD may also be a potent antimicrobial agent, which would be extremely applicable in the prevention of secondary bacterial infections. Excitingly, during the annual meeting hosted by the American Society for Microbiology in 2019, one preliminary research proposed that CBD can be used to eliminate a wide range of bacteria such as Propionibacterium acnes (the acne-causing bacteria), Staphyloccocus aureus, and Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Applications of CBD in psoriasis treatment - the research

To start with a little snippet of the basics, psoriasis is a type of chronic autoimmune disease where your skin cells grow and multiply at an astonishingly fast rate. The rapid and excessive cell growth rate is the by-product of a hyperactive immune system which signals the cells to proliferate unnecessarily, resulting in an accumulation of thick red patches clad in white scales on your skin. To make matters worse, these skin patches can occasionally crack and bleed, which can be a harrowing experience. 

In our world today, psoriasis affects 2% to 3% of the global population. Although several types of therapies have been developed to ameliorate the condition of our skin, no appropriate cure exists in the market yet. 

But to bring some positive light to this topic, a few research initiatives have highlighted the potential use of CBD to treat psoriasis. One study found the topical application of CBD oil (in the absence of THC) offers a safe and efficacious option to help psoriasis patients improve their quality of life. Meanwhile, another study independently extracted THC and CBD from cannabis. They reported that all the tested cannabinoids halted the overproduction of skin cells (known as “keratinocytes") commonly observed in psoriasis patients. 

Consuming CBD as natural remedy that you could combine with eating a well-balanced diet and maintaining a moderate exposure to sunlight. This simple lifestyle adjustment would be able to help you in treating psoriasis symptoms.

The wonders of taking CBD as a treatment for eczema

Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is another type of skin condition, which can be identified by its itchy sensation as well as its inflamed and red rashes on a person’s skin. It is widespread and often distressing for patients as it can creep out anywhere and anytime on your body. Although there are numerous versions of eczema, with each of them having a unique causative agent and set of symptoms, they all have one thing in common – inflammation as the main culprit for this disease. So, in simple terms, eczema is a skin inflammation disorder. 

Most doctors would prescribe steroid creams called corticosteroids for eczema patients. Even though this treatment is effective, it comes with a substantial cost. Specifically, patients often report many undesirable side effects caused by the prolonged use of this medication, in which corticosteroids are notorious for drying out your skin even more, and this can cause greater irritation. As a result, the original problem tends to return in no time.

Nevertheless, scientists from the University of Colorado proposed that CBD represents an exciting prospect for its use in eczema treatment. This is because the anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and even the anti-itch properties of CBD, creating a soothing effect for your skin, ultimately helping you to tolerate the symptoms of eczema better. 

Could CBD be used to combat wrinkles and anti-ageing?

Ageing is a natural physiological process, but there’s absolutely no harm for you to find an affordable way to make yourself look as young as your spirit? If that is the case, CBD might be your new best friend!

To explain some of the biology of ageing, there are several internal and external factors that contribute to early ageing. For example, unstable molecules like free radicals are usually generated by environmental irritants and toxins, such as ultraviolet rays and chemicals. These ecological factors impair our skin 90% of the time and accelerate the ageing process by interfering with the collagen production. Collagen is a type of protein that plays the role as a glue in our body, holding our skin, muscles, and bones together as part of maintaining a solid structure. As we increase in our age (especially after the age of 20), the production of collagen is reduced by 1% annually and our skin becomes loose and weak, thus this results in an older appearance.

However, the good news is that studies have indicated the potent antioxidant properties of CBD as one of the top contributors to assist you in dampening down any signs of ageing. As a matter of fact, the antioxidant characteristics of CBD are considered to be equivalent to the well-known antioxidants, vitamin C and vitamin E. Specifically, CBD consists of linoleic acid and oleic acid, which present a missing particle that can be used to stabilize the free radical. Thus, they stop the free radical from causing any more damage to your skin. By defending against free-radical damages and also stimulating the production of collagen, CBD can significantly reduce the visible signs of ruddy and dull skin, fine lines and wrinkles, while firming up your skin to promote a youthful appearance overall.

Using CBD to tackle dry skin conditions

Live in the city or countryside with a hot and humid climate? You can take CBD to maintain hydrated and healthy skin, for it has the perfect amount of nutrients (such as vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and essential fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6) as well as moisturizing effects to stop your skin from peeling, cracking, or turning into a rough texture.

A 2017 review concluded that CBD creams could lessen the symptoms of dryness. This also indirectly helps with diminishing itchy skin conditions. Furthermore, a small study observing 20 patients with either psoriasis, eczema, or scarring discovered that CBD could help to moisturize the patients’ skin and thus improve their hydration levels, skin elasticity and quality of life in general. 

How can CBD help improve your quality of sleep?

There have been scientific investigations supporting the hypothesis stating a plausible relationship between a person’s quality of sleep and acne breakouts, as sleep buys our body valuable time to repair any damages incurred from a long day of hard work.

With this in mind, CBD has been shown to be an excellent sleep inducer in various studies due to its ability to treat anxiety-associated disorders. One experiment studying animal models reported that CBD possesses anti-anxiety and antidepressant properties. Meanwhile, a case report described a study of whether consuming CBD could diminish post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as anxiety-induced sleep disorder symptoms in a young girl, and found that the CBD treatment has been a success. 

Much of this is attributed to CBD being able to interact with the CB1 and CB2 receptors of your endocannabinoid system, thereby altering the production of serotonin in your body. Serotonin is a type of neurotransmitter (meaning that they are chemicals that can send signals through our nervous system). It is often dubbed as the “happy chemical” for it is vital for good mental health. Plus, in several cases, people having lowered serotonin levels were observed as having symptoms of anxiety. Therefore, by taking CBD, you can enhance your serotonin levels to alleviate stress and anxiety while enjoying a better night’s sleep. 

Why should you consider taking CBD?

All in all, given that the therapeutic effects of CBD have been well studied and verified to be a safe option by the World Health Organization (WHO), you can consider using CBD as a viable skin care ingredient if you happen to be struggling with skin-related problems. 

In addition to that, the medicinal applications of CBD appear to be multifaceted. While there are a myriad of options in the beauty and wellness industry, no product seems to be an equal match to CBD. In fact, one research project studying CBD users and improvements in their medical conditions discovered that around 36% of these users are able to rely solely on CBD as their treatment regimen. Come to think about it, your body is technically already wired to interact and “absorb” all the medical benefits that CBD offers, thanks to the existence of our CB1 and CB2 receptors which forms part of your endocannabinoid system. 

What’s more, CBD is generally well tolerated by all skin types due to its non-intoxicating properties, with not much evidence that CBD could cause any harm to your skin. Plus, CBD products are typically extremely user-friendly and easy to play around with, so you can experiment with it for a short period of time to see if it is helpful for your skincare routine or not!

How to add CBD into your skincare routine?

To maximize the medical benefits of CBD in your skincare routine, it is definitely a recommended move for you to consult your trusted skincare expert or dermatologist, as part of figuring out which type of CBD skincare routine and products might work best for your skin type.  

Some of the popular ways in which people incorporate CBD into their daily skincare routine include orally ingesting CBD by them into their diets (such as soup, smoothies, or yogurt), infusing CBD into soaps, intensive repair creams or moisturizers, and vaping CBD oil. 

How to choose the right CBD product?

Whether you are a novice or an expert in CBD products, or just looking for something to relieve a discomfort in your body without risking yourself to “getting high”, taking CBD is an exciting way to boost the quality of your lifestyle!

However, there’s a little bit of a catch. As the CBD industry is currently still relatively young, buying CBD is not quite as simple as searching for the word “CBD” in the ingredients description section of a product and then calling it a day. The key reason behind this, to put it simply, is because not all CBD products are created equal. You need to be aware that there is a high volume of dubious marketing gimmicks within the industry, whereby a lot of companies make false claims about their CBD products. 

First of all, the most critical aspect for you to investigate would be the quality of the CBD product that you are buying. The majority of legitimate and reliable CBD brands extract CBD from their own 100% organically grown hemp plants or from licensed hemp cultivators to make sure that there is no pesticide contamination. These producers will typically use carbon dioxide, ethanol or olive oil to obtain CBD. 

Besides that, it is always recommended that you opt for CBD products with its ingredients having been tested and verified by a third-party laboratory. This certification helps to ensure that your chosen product is not contaminated by any harmful substances such as toxic heavy metals. 

Why are Amphora’s products a perfect match for you?

Are you ready to level up your skincare formulations? If you are all set to venture into the world of CBD-infused skincare products, Amphora offers top-quality CBD products for you to check out!

All the CBD products we offer have been extracted from hemp plants that have been grown 100% organically, using carbon dioxide. Most importantly, our CBD products have also been certified as THC-free. In fact, all the ingredients used in our CBD products were confirmed to be of the medical standard after they were tested and verified by a third-party laboratory.

Amphora is proud to offer four variants of CBD vape cartridges  and portable, stylish vape pens. These different cartridges are filled with four unique blends of CBD and flavouring to help you improve a specific aspect of your wellbeing. This includes assisting you with your sleep, anxiety relief, muscle recovery, or giving you a productivity boost!

In the case of assisting you in achieving your goal of getting a glowing skin, check out our ZZZ CBD vape pen cartridge to help you sleep better! Alternatively, our PEACE CBD vape pen cartridge would be the perfect match for you, if you are looking for something that can help you take the edge off the stress from a busy day! Several studies reporting the stress and anxiety can often trigger acne breakouts, but these can be managed more effectively by taking CBD. In particular, CBD has been shown by various investigations to be a fantastic anxiety and stress buster as well as a sleep inducer, and this would equal to you having beautiful skin!