• by Steve Ellwanger , December 22, 2022

Consumer research suggests that two potential routes for success in CBD-infused skincare are adding CBD to existing products as complementary or “hero” ingredients, and targeting men.

Those findings are based on a survey by research firm New Frontier Data of 4,682 adults who consume some form of cannabis and 1,250 who don’t.

What’s not surprising is that 68% of cannabis consumers reported being “very” or “somewhat aware” of CBD as a skin-care ingredient, compared to 39% of non-consumers.

Both groups do have things in common.

At 49%, cannabis consumers were only slightly more likely to report having facial skincare routines than non-consumers (44%).

However, cannabis consumers spend more on skincare options—with 49% paying in excess of $25 per product compared to 35% of non-consumers.

“They’re likely to spend more on skincare and to buy more products,” Dr. Amanda Reiman, New Frontier’s chief knowledge officer, said of cannabis users in a recent webinar with executives from health and wellness biotechnology company Purissima Inc. “They’re out there looking at what’s new and trying different things.”

The top five reasons for using skin-care products—dryness, anti-aging, fine lines and wrinkles, dark eye circles and acne—were the same among consumers and non-consumers.

And contrary to general gender trends in skincare, men expressed slightly more interest in cannabis-based skincare than did women. This was true among both consumers (78% of males, 74% of females) and non-consumers (55% versus 51%).

The gender divide surprised Purissima’s vice president of brand development Karen Raghavan.

“My theory—and this is just kind of me shooting in the dark here—but I feel like females are very familiar in general in terms of the options regarding skincare products,” said Raghavan. “So their universe of potential skincare options is very, very broad [compared] to a typical male customer demographic out there.”

Instead of positioning CBD as the main ingredient in a skincare product in a market that lacks sufficient research and consumer education, Purissima chief business and strategy officer Rob Evans suggested an alternate approach.

“There’s a tremendous opportunity to offer a secondary benefit to existing products,” said Evans. “For example, if you’re used to a moisturizer and you understand a little bit about the formulation that works best for you, it’s an opportunity to say ‘okay, we now have a moisturizer that maybe has some calming properties or resurfacing properties.'

“So I think there’s an interesting marketing angle to add an additional feature to existing products.”