Smearing cannabis on your face: the latest Asian beauty craze

The market for beauty products made from cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis plants, is projected to be worth US$25 billion by 2029

With Japan and Korea at the forefront of global beauty standards, experts say it is only a matter of time before they – and China – embrace the CBD trend

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CBD beauty products have already gone mainstream in North America – and now it is coming to Asia. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:30pm, 22 Jun 2019Updated: 7:30pm, 22 Jun 2019

You can smoke it, eat it, and now you can smear it on your face. Beauty products made from marijuana have blossomed as a lucrative new sector within the skincare and cosmetics industry, with the global value of this market set to hit US$25 billion – 15 per cent of the total global beauty market – in the next 10 years, according to investment bank Jefferies.

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis plants. Its effects are still not fully understood, but experts have claimed CBD can be used to treat a range of health ailments, including epilepsy, anxiety, insomnia and even skin conditions, due to its purported anti-inflammatory effects.

Offerings such as Estee Lauder’s Origins “Hello, Calm” hemp mask, Unilever-owned Murad’s hemp face serum and L’Oreal-owned skincare line Kiehl’s hemp-based face oil suggest CBD beauty products have already gone mainstream.

Throughout the United States and Canada, from chemists to multi-brand skincare retailers like Sephora and upscale department stores including Nordstrom, many mainstream retailers now carry a range of CBD-infused beauty and wellness products, and this will only continue to grow. In the US alone, more than 35,000 retailers have expressed interest in carrying CBD products, with 10 per cent of these shops already carrying such products, according to Hong Kong-based investment firm Regent Pacific. This trend comes on the back of the rapid expansion of the legal marijuana industry, thanks largely to the relaxation of laws in the US, Canada, Germany, Italy and Britain, with other countries set to follow suit.

The legal marijuana industry is set to grow to US$272 billion over the next decade, according to investment bank Barclays. Photo: Bloomberg

This “green gold rush” has proved so lucrative that while some estimates put the industry’s current value at US$150 million, investment bank Barclays reports that it is set to rocket to US$272 billion over the next decade. The legal market for edible and smokable marijuana is expected to be worth US$66.3 billion by 2025, according to consulting firm Grand View Research.