Mistakes to Avoid When Buying CBD Skincare

CBD is the all-natural wonder ingredient. It’s a product our body generates and understands, making it the ultimate healer. It reduces inflammation, promotes healthy muscles and supports our immune system.

But before you shout ‘sign me up!’ (we know, CBD really is that good), why not take a look at the common mistakes people make when buying CBD skincare? Then learn how best to avoid them!

Mistake 1: Not realising the full potential of CBD

CBD works in harmony with your body and skin. It’s a truly unique ingredient, as it is bio-available – meaning your skin recognises it and knows exactly how to set it to work.

However, if you jump on the CBD bandwagon without understanding how it works, you may not choose the right product or make the most of CBD’s wealth of benefits. The good news is, you can avoid wasting your time on products that don’t address your skin concerns by understanding how CBD functions and the ways you can use it.

After all, CBD is uniquely adapted to support our body’s endocannabinoid system – something no other ingredient can do.

“What does that mean?” you ask. Well, our skin relies heavily on its endocannabinoid function. This complex system regulates our body: maintaining skin cell function, promoting oil balance, and working to strengthen the body’s defences and immunity.

Human skin is covered in cannabinoid receptors to benefit from the endocannabinoids we naturally create to heal ourselves. CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a natural ingredient derived from the Cannabis Sativa plant that our receptors pick up and immediately recognise.

This is why CBD is so effective – it’s used by our body to reduce inflammation, regulate the oil glands, and naturally calm aggravated skin. Clever, right?

While some people take CBD oil capsules orally to support their general health, it is also present in:

• Creams and moisturisers
• Body butters
• Cleansers
• Exfoliating scrubs
• Topical oils

These products can be used on the face, neck, or body to target key areas of stressed skin and inflammation.

Mistake 2: Not knowing where the hemp comes from

Where and how the hemp plant is grown is crucial to the quality of CBD in skincare products. In fact, it means everything. Read that again. EV-ERY-THING. It’s so important to ensure that the key ingredient in your CBD product is healthy and grown in quality soil. But why?

Hemp is a natural ingredient and a bioaccumulator. This means that the plant absorbs everything from its surroundings – good and bad. This is why soil quality is vital.

Some CBD oils have been found to contain hazardous chemicals from the contaminated soil the hemp was grown in… and they can be passed straight onto you.

Common toxins found in poorly grown cannabis plants include:

• Arsenic
• Lead
• Cadmium
• Other heavy metals
• Dangerous pesticides and herbicides

Hemp has been described as a ‘toxic substance vacuum cleaner’ and is often used for ‘phytoremediation’. This term, coined by scientist Ilya Raskin, refers to using plants to reduce the toxic effects of contaminants in the environment.

Raskin was part of a team that used hemp to draw heavy metals from the soil in Chernobyl in the 1990s. In this experiment, hemp was found to have excellent phytoremediation properties, dramatically reducing the toxicity of the soil in the radioactive area. Hemp has since been used to clean up soil containing pesticides, solvents, explosives, and crude oil.

It’s a clever plant with so many useful applications, but it’s ability to suck toxins from the ground can make shopping for CBD products a bit of a challenge! It’s essential to choose a brand that uses farm-fresh CBD, ethically grown in good soil.

Take a look at ‘Getting tripped up by the label’ to see how you can get peace of mind that a manufacturer's products are made from top-quality hemp.

Mistake 3: Buying low quality or a low concentration CBD product

If you’re shopping for CBD products in the US or Europe, you’ll likely come across a large number of products of sub-optimal quality. While CBD is widely recognised as a unique skincare ingredient, the world of CBD marketing can be a little… murky.

For example, you may well come across a few brands that put one or two milligrams of CBD in their products (which is miniscule) just to capitalise on what the beauty industry is calling the ‘green rush’.

Another thing to be wary of is brands boasting the benefits of natural hemp seed oil in their products. Be aware that this is not CBD – in fact, hemp seed oil contains virtually no CBD. An easy way to tell is by checking the price tag – CBD is far more potent than hemp oil and the process by which it’s extracted isn’t cheap, so if a product’s price seems too good to be true… it probably is!

“I’ve found a product containing well-sourced CBD, what’s the next step?”

Now it’s time to look at the concentration of the CBD oil. While higher CBD potency will yield better results (we don’t want those 2mg CBD products, thanks!), there is a sweet spot you want to hit.

Too little CBD won’t have the desired effect on your skin, but there’s also a point where the benefits of CBD no longer increase, even as the concentration of CBD in the product rises.

This was discovered in a study where a group of young, healthy people were given either a placebo, a low CBD concentration, a medium CBD concentration or a high CBD concentration. The study confirmed the results fell within a bell curve, meaning the medium CBD concentration was the most effective for the subjects.

Mistake 4: Getting tripped up by the label

While interest in CBD continues to grow, regulation hasn’t massively improved. The CBD market is still polluted with products of questionable quality and ambiguous labelling.

In the US in 2017, it was found that 70% of CBD products were being mislabelled. At the time of the study, there were no standards for producing, testing or labelling CBD oils – and the global CBD market hasn’t changed hugely today. As recently as 2019, a study of the UK market found that CBD products often have inaccurate potency information on their labels, and may even contain elevated levels of solvents and heavy metals.

“What do I need to look for to ensure I’m buying a quality product?”

First, it’s important to seek out a brand that shares the type and concentration of CBD in their products. If this information isn’t on the label, don’t waste your time looking into that product any further!

Once you’re satisfied with what you’re reading on the side of the bottle, then you can look for:

• Certificates of analysis (from an accredited laboratory)
• Quality stamps
• Information on where the product is produced – look out for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facilities, which are strictly regulated.

A reputable brand will share this information of their website – and they won’t be afraid to show you the full certificate to confirm the product’s safety, quality and potency.

At Juana Skin, we only source our hemp from EU-certified fields, grown from EU-certified, premium grade seeds. Our production facilities are GMP certified and follow the strictest manufacturing practice standards. We've also partnered with independent clinics and research institutions in Germany and France to conduct clinical studies, confirming the medical grade effectiveness of our formulations.

Beyond that, all our products are third-party tested and validated by independent EU-accredited laboratories, and you can download the certificate of analysis for each product here for complete peace of mind.

We’re also proud to announce that we are the first European CBD brand to be accredited by the Environment Working Group (EWG). This US non-profit tests every ingredient in a product’s formulation and strictly abides by the regulations of every country, making it the most rigorous testing process for CBD products globally.

Own your natural beauty with Juana Skin. We preserve the natural healing aroma and true colour of CBD in our products, so you can enjoy the potent sensory profile of CBD as it is in nature.