CBD Beauty Products are Under Fire From the FDA

At the beginning of last month, celebrity hairstylist Jen Atkin announced that her OUAI line of haircare products – a favorite of Kim Kardashian – would begin selling a CBD-infused body and scalp scrub on August 21^st.

However, just one day before the planned product debut, Atkin announced that she would no longer be launching any CBD beauty products. “We researched CBD months ago and saw it naturally calms inflammation and irritation. We decided to add it to a small special batch of our Scalp + Body Scrub,” Atkin wrote on her Instagram. “We’ve recently been told that as of a few weeks ago the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] has decided to change the rules and put a ban on CBD being used in ‘food’ products. Because body scrub is a topical product it apparently falls under the ‘food’ category.”

The FDA is focusing on CBD beauty products

The legal status of CBD beauty products is unclear

Because the laws surrounding CBD remain foggy, most major beauty industry brands have avoided selling it altogether. Many companies have attempted to sell CBD beauty products only to run into issues further down the line. In 2017, Target began selling CBD oil online only, but that only lasted a few hours and no CBD products have been listed since. That same year, Walmart also discretely removed CBD products from their shelves and online store.

The issue that beauty companies have been facing lately when it comes to CBD, is that skin and hair care items are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as food products. “Any beauty product that contains CBD needs to go through the FDA drug approval process,” says Alison Malsbury, an attorney with the Harris Bricken law firm.

“Even if manufacturers think they are staying within the law by not making medical claims on their labels, including CBD as an ingredient may be enough to trigger the FDA drug approval process.” (Alison Malsbury)

While this is a major inconvenience to some companies that are already selling food and beauty products made with CBD, it shouldn’t last very long. CBD beauty products are particularly easy to accept because science shows that it’s beneficial and non-intoxicating and well, you just can argue with science.

The latest enforcement of CBD regulations are just the latest attempt to make the CBD industry regulated. California and Spain have lately declared that CBD can’t be used as food supplement without proper regulation and other countries are planning similar moves. If you are a company, trying to survive in an ever changing CBD markets, you first need to fully understand the current regulations you are subject too, or find yourself getting black-listed.

Have you used any CBD beauty products for your skin or hair care before? If so, we’d love to hear how they benefited you. Just drop a line in the comment section below!