No doubt you’ve heard of some form of CBD skincare—and if not, check out our post! But you may be wondering whether CBD face cream, in particular, is useful, and how it compares to regular face cream and CBD body lotion.
In this post, we’re going to recommend the best CBD face creams—in fact, the only ones we like. We’re also going to compare CBD face cream vs. CBD body cream, answer the question of whether you should use any CBD cream on your face, and describe how CBD face creams compare to regular face creams.
Koi Skincare CBD Moisturizer Cream
Koi CBD has been changing the CBD market since it jumped in with both feet in 2015. Back then, the founders’ goal was to bring proper traceability to their products, thereby bringing CBD to more people.
As a young business, Koi CBD pointed to a lack of standardization in the cannabis industry. Their team felt this random outcome made it difficult and sometimes impossible for CBD to live up to the promise science seems to hold for it because it was too hard to find high-quality CBD products.
To help change this issue, Koi focuses on traceability from field to bottle. All Koi CBD products move in fully traceable batches from the package through the lab and back to the raw plant. Everything you buy from Koi starts with American-grown hemp from southern Colorado farms.
Koi CBD uses 99 percent pure cannabidiol CBD extracted in-house in a cGMP facility using a pharmaceutical-grade CO2 extraction process. You can trust that Koi’s products are all THC-free if you need to pass a drug test or just want to be sure.
But that’s not the only reason you can trust Koi CBD face cream. Koi CBD is a member of the US Hemp Roundtable, the Hemp Industries Association, and the California Hemp Council. That cumulative quality control process means that every batch comes with complete ingredient lists and a certificate of analysis (COA) with a full-panel analysis of verified reports and tests. For example, if you’re worried about phenoxyethanol in personal products, you know you’re safe with Koi CBD face cream.
In particular, Koi’s Moisturizer Cream is designed to be an essential piece of anyone’s skincare regimen. This hemp-infused facial moisturizer will leave your skin feeling supple and smooth, but not greasy or over-moisturized.
Each Koi Moisturizer Cream contains 500 mg of CBD, plus cucumber extract, vitamin C, chia seed CO2 extract, camellia seed oil, glycerin, Kakadu plum extract, aloe vera juice, vitamin E oil, and more. These ingredients may prevent wrinkles, improve complexion, and leave skin feeling revitalized, refreshed, and replenished.
Free shipping for orders over $35, and customers who refer and regular users get discounts!
Extract Labs CBD Face Cream
We love Extract CBD because they create products from high-quality natural ingredients and offer a wide selection. We also appreciate the organic, natural choice here, especially since several of our team members are sensitive to artificial ingredients such as artificial scents, flavorings, and colors. Extract Labs products were usable for all of us—one of our required criteria.
Along with the CO2-extracted full-spectrum hemp seed oil, the ingredients include beeswax, jojoba, lavender, rosemary, and shea butter. This promises to soothe, nourish, and moisturize your face and relax your mood with its smell.
Extract Labs CBD face cream is thick and smooth enough to spread onto the face easily. Each tin contains 1500mg of CBD. The cream soothes, hydrates, and calms irritated skin, including inflammation and redness from acne and rosacea.
This CBD-infused face cream from Extract Labs is full-spectrum. Full-spectrum CBD offers your skin the entire range of beneficial plant compounds, cannabinoids, and terpenes that occur naturally in the cannabis sativa plant.
All Extract Labs products are lab-tested in-house, according to cGMP (Certified Good Manufacturing Processes). You can find COAs (certificates of analysis) for this CBD face cream and other products right on the site along with some pretty serious five-star ratings and customer reviews from real people.
Each tin is convenient and easy to use, and honestly, the packaging itself is pretty appealing. And all of these vegan certified CBD products are also certified kosher.
If that’s not enough for you, Extract Labs goes above and beyond selling CBD. Founder and CEO, Craig Henderson, is a former combat veteran who, as a civilian, works hard to help everyday people incorporate top-notch CBD into their lives. His commitment to this—beyond providing great products—is that Extract Labs offers veterans and other qualifying customers up to 50 percent off at checkout on all orders.
Highly recommended!
CBD American Shaman CBD Face Cream
We’ve talked a lot about this brand elsewhere, but let’s get into it a little here because it relates to this face cream’s quality.
CBD American Shaman sources its hemp from non-GMO, organic Colorado, and Kentucky farms. The team then subjects the hemp to both CO2 extraction and proprietary nanotechnological processes to create essential CBD extracts. They also test each batch of products in-house using ultra-performance convergence chromatography, including their face cream.
As far as the CBD American Shaman Replenishing CBD Face Cream itself goes, it features several high-quality ingredients even beyond the CBD and hemp oil base. Aloe vera gel, lanolin, pumpkin oil, safflower oil, and vegetable glycerin all nourish, protect, and moisturize the skin, and the lavender oil adds a relaxing scent. The CBD and vitamin A, D, and E oils add the anti-aging effects of any powerful antioxidants.
Purchases of CBD American Shaman face cream, like its other products, applies toward the Compassionate Care Program for customers with disabilities or chronic illness and financial hardships. If you apply for the CPP and get approved, you may get 30% off all products on orders above $34.99.
Our favorite thing about this CBD American Shaman Replenishing CBD Face Cream is that it is very effective and highly pure and straightforward. There’s no kitchen sink in this face cream, so if you like to keep things basic and clean, you’ll love this CBD face cream.
CBD Face Cream vs. CBD Body Lotion
Everyone wants healthy, hydrated, soft skin. But getting that isn’t so easy, especially given how many products are out there. If you’re interested in CBD’s benefits and you’ve decided to try a CBD topical, maybe you’re hoping to save money and stick to just one for the face and body—is that possible?
One thing to consider is that almost all products formulated for the face are creams, while products for the body are typically lotions—unless they are specialized for treating pain, in which case they may be balms or salves. In any case, creams work best on the face. Here’s why.
Lotions have a higher water content than creams. Any lotion, including one infused with CBD, is typically a mix of droplets of oil and water and is both non-greasy and lighter weight than cream.
So what is CBD lotion, how does it differ from CBD face cream? The cream needs to retain that non-greasy quality, but it needs to be thicker, richer, and heavier. Like lotion, a cream is a blend of water and oil, but with at least a 50/50 ratio of oil to water—a higher concentration of oil. This makes creams thicker and richer and allows them to keep skin ultra-hydrated beneath a more substantial barrier.
Body creams or butters mimic the thickness of face creams—and they are costlier. And while they are intended to feel oilier than lotions as all creams do, a cream intended for the face should never feel greasy. It will have a different composition than a cream for the body.
Creams and lotions that contain CBD typically suspend CBD serum, extract, or oil in a base. CBD and other cannabinoids themselves actually attach to fatty acids, which is why it is important to have the right base for your CBD product.
The skin absorbs body lotion more readily because lotion is less viscous than cream. This means CBD lotion typically leaves a less greasy residue than cream, works best for normal to slightly dry skin, and is ideal for use during warmer weather and the daytime hours.
This biggest issue with CBD products is that absorption time matters. Thicker cream or salve sits longer on the skin and allows the product to work its way into the skin. On the other hand, a nice lotion that absorbs well can sink in and go to work. (Remember, this is just one of the reasons you can’t use a CBD tincture or other oral CBD product on your skin.)
The real question is whether you want CBD absorbed faster or whether you’d like it to go to work topically. Enter CBD face cream.
Can You Use Any CBD Cream On Your Face?
The short answer is no. You should only use CBD cream specially formulated for your facial skin. This is because you should really only use cream formulated for your facial skin, whether or not it has CBD in it!
The main difference between the skin on your body and your facial skin is thickness. The skin around the eyes, called the periorbital skin, is some of the thinnest on your body. You probably already know that, because most of us get fine lines there first!
The facial skin contains the most sebaceous glands compared to the rest of the body. Those sebaceous glands are the guilty parties when it comes to producing oil, and how much they make can depend on environmental conditions, hormone changes, and other factors.
That thin skin on your face, along with all of its greasy glands, is way more sensitive than the skin on the rest of your body. To make things worse, it sees the outside a lot more, meaning it gets the weather, sun, and all kinds of injuries. It’s vulnerable!
All of this means that the skin on the face is highly specialized. Face creams go far beyond moisturizing and are designed to meet the needs of that special skin, including treating dark spots, problem pores, wrinkles, oiliness, acne and blemishes, and fine lines.
Furthermore, body creams, compared to body lotions, are heavier and designed to seal moisture into the skin. This is great for standard skin on the body, but overwhelming for the sensitive skin on the face, which is easily irritated. It’s not marketing. It’s a real difference in ingredients, from things like collagen-producing peptides and hyaluronic acid to rare hydrating botanicals.
Using thicker CBD body creams on your face means running the risk of breaking out. Many body creams lack UV protection, too, so you also risk a sunburn. Body creams can clog the pores around the eyes, in particular, leading to small, white cysts called milia. And especially for anyone who suffers from psoriasis, eczema, or any other inflammatory skin condition, using body moisturizer on the face can actually make the symptoms worse.
The bottom line is that companies will bother to pay to test anything under the sun for safety when it comes to face cream. They have to—or people won’t use it. And they charge more for high-quality face creams and face masks because consumers who use them will pay for better products.
And think about it this way. Would you slather a lip balm on your face? Or one of those icy pain salves? (Ouch!) Get the right tool for the job.
How CBD Face Creams Compare to Regular Face Creams
Adding CBD to face cream could really improve your skincare outcomes. Here’s more on how the harmony between CBD and skin care can benefit you:
Acne breakouts. Much acne is caused by hormones, but acne causes redness and swelling, and research shows that CBD helps fight that related inflammation and normalize skin cell growth.
Inflammation. As a powerful anti-inflammatory, CBD has a lot of promise for skin issues such as rosacea, eczema, and psoriasis and reduces pain and inflammation in rats.
Scarring. One study found that a CBD topical “significantly improved” scar tissue in patients.
Anti-aging. Because CBD is an antioxidant, CBD face creams can treat dryness, free radical damage, and inflammation, including signs of damage from aging like fine lines, dark spots, and wrinkles.
Soothe skin. The anti-inflammatory qualities of CBD face creams can soothe itching, dryness, and red skin.
Balance complexion. CBD assists the skin’s endocannabinoid system in stopping excess oil and maintaining hydration in the face of the skin—and this helps prevent an oily T-zone or patchy spots, for example.
CBD works with any skin type, and the World Health Organization has deemed CBD safe. Note: The Food and Drug Administration or FDA does regulate CBD products, but there is not much consistency out there. As always, whenever you try a new product, check with your dermatologist or other healthcare providers, and share your prescription medications and further details of your routine with them.
Final Thoughts
CBD face creams have specific benefits to offer. CBD skincare products generally are fantastic for your skin, and the skin on your face needs more care and protection than the rest of your skin put together. It makes sense to get the right product for the job! Which of these CBD face creams is your favorite?