Benefits of Cannabis for Skin: Topicals & CBD

cbd topicals

Cannabis has shown a large spectrum of beneficial properties over the years. Unfortunately, the reasons that cannabis often makes the news doesn’t showcase the plant’s amazing healing benefits. Not only does cannabis help relieve pain, reduce anxiety and depression, and ease the symptoms of cancer, but the use of topical cannabis and cannabidiol (CBD) can even help your skin. Today, we’re going to look at how topicals and CBD can improve the quality of your skin.

What are topicals and CBD?

Before we talk about how topical cannabis and CBD can help your skin, let’s first discuss what these terms mean. When most people think about using cannabis, they consider its two most common forms: smokable cannabis (marijuana) and edible cannabis. However, there are many ways to use cannabis. When you’re using cannabis medicinally, inhaling it or consuming it isn’t always the best option. Topicals and cannabidiol are two other options you have for using cannabis.

What are topicals?

Topicals refer to any number of lotions or balms that have been infused with cannabis. One of the best things about topicals is the fact that they offer therapeutic benefits without inducing a high. This makes them a great option for people who only want to use cannabis for its medicinal benefits.

What is CBD?

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a naturally-occurring chemical found in the cannabis plant. Unlike THC, CBD offers the medical benefits of cannabis without inducing a high because the compound doesn’t contain THC. That’s why, in states where cannabis is legal, you’ll see CBD lattes offered at coffee shops and CBD facials offered at local spas. CBD is a safe way to reap the benefits of cannabis without any of the side effects some people worry about with THC substances.

How do topicals and CBD work?

So, if topicals and CBD don’t contain THC, how do they work?

Topicals and CBD work not by entering your bloodstream but by binding to receptors in your body called CB2. Not only does this mean that they don’t induce a high, but, because they don’t enter your bloodstream, it means that they can be used for localized issues rather than treating your entire body in one broad stroke.

How do topicals and CBD help your skin?

Now that you understand what we mean by the terms “topicals” and “CBD”, let’s discuss how these cannabis-infused substances can improve the quality and luster of your skin.

CBD oil can reduce acne

One of the greatest plagues of skin is acne. Unsightly and all-around gross, acne is caused by a number of factors. One of these factors is inflammation. Another factor is the over-production of oils in your skin. CBD oil reduces acne because it can both reduce inflammation and limit the production of oil in your skin.

Topicals and CBD can relieve eczema

Atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema, affects an estimated 15% of all Canadians, with up to 20% of children suffering from some form of eczema. Luckily, with the use of topicals and CBD, the symptoms of eczema can be relieved. How? Cannabinoids are known to both relieve inflammation and have anti-itch properties. This means that not only can they calm the terrible itchy feeling that eczema sufferers deal with on a daily basis, but they can also make the affected areas look less inflamed.

Topicals and CBD help with irritation

From bug bites to rashes, topicals and CBD are primed to help the everyday skin irritations most of us deal with at some point or another. The same anti-inflammatory and anti-itch properties that make them a great choice to relieve eczema also prime them to help with these other irritants. They’re also shown to be able to help with skin psoriasis.

Topicals and CBD reduce symptoms of aging

Of course, itchiness and inflammation isn’t the only complain we have with our skin. Age lines and wrinkles creep up on all of us. But by using topicals and CBD, those age lines don’t have to creep up as quickly. One study shows that CBD is a better antioxidant than either Vitamin C or Vitamin E, meaning that cannabis-infused topicals are more capable of slowing the aging process than salves or balms made with those popular vitamins.