Is CBD Good For Skincare?

CBD seems to be the go-to natural remedy for many many things these days – why not CBD for Skincare too? 

We’ve all woken up, ready to put our best face forward for the day, only to look in the mirror and be met with a colossal pimple that everyone will definitely notice. 

This less-than-desirable sight to behold may cause you to feel like you want to get back in bed and pull the blankets over your head.

Instead, we trade the covers for cover-up and hope for better odds tomorrow. 

Skin is the one item that everybody wears, so it’s no surprise that most people are likely to have experienced one skin condition or another during their life. 

The skin disorders and conditions people suffer from and experience range from acne and aging to skin cancer, but here’s some good news: CBD skincare holds beneficial potential for both. 

With today’s topical CBD products and this morning’s flare-up on your mind – and your face- you may be wondering how well CBD for skincare works and how it might work for you. 

Here’s a brief overview of CBD skincare and how it could make your morning routine a little bit happier. 

CBD Topicals: How Does CBD Effect My Skin? 

Using CBD for skincare requires the application of topical CBD products. 

Popular CBD topicals include creams, scrubs, balms, rubs, and lotions. 

When applying CBD topically, it is absorbed by your skin cells and sent to your bloodstream by receptors, part of a more extensive, complex communication network inside your body. 

This network is called the endocannabinoid system (ECS) and is an internal, homeostatic cell-signaling system that is a part of everyone’s human anatomy. 

The ECS consists of three mechanisms: endocannabinoids, receptors, and enzymes. 

Endocannabinoids, molecules present inside the body, serve as signal beacons and transmit communication received by the receptors. 

The enzymes break down and disperse the endocannabinoids. 

These three components travel the endocannabinoid system, working together to regulate your body’s Central Nervous System (CNS) and immunity. 

Facilitating CNS and immune functions causes your ECS to engage with many other networks. 

Modulating homeostasis also encompasses systems that monitor your appetite, sleep, pain, stress, and other biological actions and responses, including cutaneous or skin cell growth. This is why the ECS plays a part in skin homeostasis or the regulation of your skin. 

Can CBD Help Prevent Acne?  

Not only does CBD have a positive impact on our body’s ability to facilitate skin cell growth, but it has been determined that CBD is a sebostatic agent. 

More specifically, it can slow the amount of sebum (the oil your body produces to cover your skin) excreted by your sebaceous glands. 

Research has also uncovered CBD’s abilities to prevent lipogenesis, the process that turns fatty acids and glycerol compounds into fat. 

This prevention is another reason CBD is considered a contender for skin treatment, as this can help prevent dermatological conditions such as acne. 

Short for acne vulgaris, acne is a skin condition that millions of people suffer. 

Sebum (oil production) and lipogenesis are leading causes of acne because the overproduction of oil on your skin can cause infection. 

This infection causes an inflammatory response, which results in the zits, pimples, and bumps we are all too familiar with. 

For many, the inflammation can also cause pain and tenderness, symptoms that CBD is commonly administered and applied for outside of acne conditions. 

CBD’s anti-inflammatory and pain-reducing benefits can help soothe and smooth irritated skin while regulating new cell growth at the same time. 

CBD topical products are an excellent option for those looking to reduce oil production, swelling, scarring, redness, and blemishes while keeping your skin hydrated and your pores unclogged.

CBD can also stimulate and provoke anti-inflammatory and antioxidant actions produced by specific genes.

These antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of CBD and its ability to reinforce protective skin barriers and promote skin elasticity make CBD a prime candidate for acne and other skin disorder treatments. 

CBD for Itchiness: Psoriasis and Eczema 

Itchy skin is another irritant that CBD can subdue. 

Your endocannabinoid system receptors trigger the feeling of itchiness and the urge to scratch. 

As your receptors translate messages among skin cells such as keratinocytes (cells found in your epidermis, the outermost layer of your skin), immune cells, and sensory nerves, they produce itching as a reaction.

Preventing or altering this communication, which is precisely what CBD does when it enters the ECS, can help stop the natural itching sensations. 

This makes itch-prevention one of the top benefits of topical CBD care. 

The specific receptor types that can inhibit itchiness are CB1 receptors found in the CNS. However, scientific research has also found that CB1 receptors located in your peripheral system may also help alleviate itchiness. 

These findings support CBD and CBD products as an aid for psoriasis, a skin condition that causes itchy, flaky, and scaly spots or patches to form on the skin, especially on the knees, elbows, and scalp. 

Atopic Dermatitis is another skin disorder that, much like psoriasis, results in red, flaky, or itchy skin and bumps, peeling, and inflammation.

Also known as eczema, patients who suffer from atopic dermatitis often appear to have a rash. 

Like acne and psoriasis, CBD can help tame itchy or uncomfortable areas of the skin and limit pain, redness, and inflammation. 

CBD creams have also been found to help with dryness and peeling. 

CBD’s Anti-Aging Abilities 

Another central area of interest regarding CBD skincare is concentrated on CBD’s anti-aging benefits. 

CBD has been found to have antioxidant components that can help delay skin aging and loss of collagen. 

CBD skincare products that contain hemp oil further reduce aging, making hemp-CBD topicals a co-combative anti-aging skincare option. 

Stress, a significant contributor to breakouts, skin conditions, and facial signs of aging, can also be targeted by CBD. 

Whether the stress one may be experiencing is driven by sleeplessness, pain, hormonal imbalances, or oxidative production, CBD can help limit these triggers and mitigate skin reactions as a response. 

Oxidative stress, an imbalance that results from reactive oxygen and nitrogen species production causing aging damages, leads to the appearance of aging skin. 

Due to CBD’s antioxidant nature, the research behind oxidative stress and CBD shows potential barrier and anti-aging benefits. 

CBD for Skin Cancer 

Skin cancer causes atypical or abnormal growth of cutaneous skin cells.

The three most common types of skin cancer are melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and basal cell carcinoma.

Skin cancer is often the product of overexposure to sunlight and, more specifically, ultraviolet rays that penetrate the skin. 

The chemical compounds characteristic of the cannabis plant are called cannabinoids and include CBD. 

Cannabinoids have potential cancer-fighting properties and play a part in minimizing cancerous and noncancerous melanoma cell and tumor growth, a process known as apoptosis. 

Trials have also discovered that cannabinoids can influence autophagy, the cleansing or removing damaged cells that allow for new cell growth. 

As cancer, especially skin cancers, is known to resist conventional medical practices and applications, the use of cannabinoids like CBD as an anti-cancer agent provides an entirely new treatment option to be analyzed by medical researchers and professionals. 

CBD skincare isn’t a cure-all, but it can help soothe symptoms of skin conditions and disorders. 

Whether you’re aching from acne or itching for a break from eczema, take a look at some CBD topicals and talk to your medical professional today about how CBD can help give your skin the care it needs.