CBD isn’t your standard coconut oil. Selling beauty products with it requires farm-to-face knowledge and a comfort with allaying consumer fears. It also requires a refined Birkin-meets-Berkeley Bowl aesthetic as many of the consumers flocking to CBD are the same ones filling their closets and bathrooms with achingly chic merchandise from the likes of Glossier, Everlane, Goop and Allbirds. The e-tail landscape is rapidly sprouting CBD websites trying to capture those discerning consumers, and here are seven that could go the distance.
Standard Dose
Anthony Saniger, founder and CEO
Launch date: January 2019
Point of difference: Standard Dose is founded on trust and transparency. Our customers can shop with confidence, knowing that we require that all of our brand partners provide us with lab test results for all of the products we stock, and that we do our own third party lab testing in addition to that. Beyond offering a trusted curation of products, we are also looking to educate the community, fostering an open and informed conversation about CBD and our advancements in the field so that they can understand its benefits for their needs and their lifestyle.
Requirements for brands: In addition to sharing their own lab tests, we have internally used and tested 250 products in the market and curated our assortment based on efficacy and experience. We ensure product quality and require that the CBD used be sourced from industrial hemp.
Number of CBD beauty and wellness brands: 25
Bestselling brands: Standard Dose, The Good Patch by La Mend, Vertly, Mineral, Hora
Bestselling products: Mineral Maison Body Balm, Khus + Khus Rasa Restorative Potion, Vertly Peppermint CBD Lip Butter, Standard Dose Tincture
Svn Space
Grace Saari, co-founder and director of e-commerce and marketing
Launch date: April 2018
Point of difference: Our assortment is unique as we invest a lot of time procuring the right offering focused on the whole breadth of the hemp plant from beauty to fashion. Our goal is for consumers to discover the categorical range, benefits and unexpected surprises from hemp. In beauty, we carry both CBD and hemp seed oil products as they are different, but often get confused or mistaken as the same. We also focus on the brand as much as we highlight the product, sharing their story from asking why they started their company to what makes their product unique.
Requirements for brands: Take us to dinner! We are kidding. We are first drawn to the product and branding, but, like any first date, we want to know more and have a vetting process in place. Vendors must provide us with a COA (certificate of analysis) from a verified third-party lab. A COA is a document that confirms the product meets its product specification to ensure the raw materials have been tested for safety on an individual batch of a product. For sourcing and transparency, we want assurance our brand partners work with reliable and quality sources by asking where their CBD is sourced from.
Number of CBD beauty and wellness brands: 11
Bestselling brands: Shea Brand, Loden, Cannuka
Bestselling products: Shea Brand Restorative Lip Butter, Cannuka Eye Cream, Loden Hemp + French Clay Mask
LUMMIS
Marek Berry, founder
Launch date: January 2019
Point of difference: Lummis is committed to integrity. Many retailers in the CBD space have prioritized profit at the expense of quality and efficacy, but we have chosen to carry products made from premium ingredients that are truly effective, knowing profit will flow from that place of integrity. We want our customers to experience real, tangible results that make their days a little lighter and brighter. We strive to make sure customers are educated about what exactly CBD is and why it’s effective in beauty products. Also, all ingredients are clearly listed, front and center. We’re proud of the ingredients used in all products we carry and have nothing to hide.
Requirements for brands: They need to work. Beyond that basic prerequisite, products need to meet a few important criteria: premium, all-natural ingredients with no preservatives or fillers; elegant and thoughtful packaging; and, it’s not a prerequisite, but it turns out the majority of bands we carry are owned and operated by women who created formulas while searching for solutions to their own skincare issues. They are personally invested in the efficacy of the product, which reinforces Lummis’s commitment to integrity.
Number of CBD beauty and wellness brands: 6
Bestselling brands: Hora, Code of Harmony, Khus + Khus
Bestselling products: Code of Harmony 40 Winks, Khus + Khus SEN Face Serum, Hora Super Serum
Fleur Marché
Ashley Lewis, ceo and co-founder
Launch date: January 2019
Point of difference: We are female-focused. Fleur Marché speaks directly to women who are highly invested in health, wellness and beauty, but who don’t currently view cannabis as relevant or valuable to their self-care routines. We have built our platform based on what women care about, how they shop, the kinds of products they’re interested in and what they want to know about these products before purchasing.
We are beginner-friendly. Everything about our experience is meant to support the reluctant consumer. It’s the consumer who’s heard about CBD, may be curious, isn’t sure where to start, and likely has a bunch of questions about this whole CBD thing. From the way our site is to designed to how you’re able to shop (by need, delivery format, brand) to the approach we take to content (concise articles written to give clear, efficient answers to the questions we hear most), our goal is to make cannabis feel accessible, relevant and value-add.
Above all else, we value trustworthiness, transparency and curation. We want to be the trusted place to buy and learn about cannabis as a wellness tool. We want the customer to feel confident that, when she lands on our site, everything she finds will be safe, tested and of the highest quality. So, we have the strictest of standards when it comes to vetting products, we are very clear to report the facts in our content (we are also transparent about what we don’t know) and, on our product pages, we share all of the information that we have about each product and try to break it down in a user-friendly, easily-digestible format.
Requirements for brands: Branding, ethos and quality are the most important elements of our vetting process. First and foremost, we look for products that feel accessible, beautifully branded and delightful. Given that our mission is to rebrand cannabis as wellness, it’s important that we carry products our customers are naturally attracted to, products that feel like things that would integrate well into their medicine cabinets.
We talk to the brand. We want to know who’s behind it, why they got into this business, and what their vision for the product is. We only want to be working with brands who have the best of intentions, who care about the quality of value of the products they’re putting into the world, and who are really trying to help people. Finally, we put every brand through a strict vetting questionnaire that requires them to give us all information short of their proprietary formulas. Among other things, we ask about where the hemp is sourced, what kinds of facilities the products are being manufactured in and, most important, we ask to see all testing on both the hemp extract and the finished product. As noted above, we share all of that information directly on the website.
Number of CBD beauty and wellness brands: 21
Bestselling brands: Yuyo Botanics, Rosebud, Juna
Bestselling products: Juna Nude Drops, Yuyo Botanics PM Formula, The Good Patch by La Mend The Nite Nite Patch and The Calm Patch
ART OF CARE
Chris Ledford, co-founder
Launch date: July 2018
Point of difference: Our co-founder Serein Wu applies her years of experience in the beauty industry and deep understanding of what makes a great product to the decision-making process of what will be carried in our shop. Serein makes it a point to know as much about each brand and product as the creators who developed each item. Before the decision is made to carry any new product, The Art of Care makes it a point to first build a personal relationship with the brand so that, when someone makes a purchase from our shop, they can do so knowing that their order has gone through a vigorous vetting process and has been chosen based on ingredients and efficacy.
Requirements for brands: Any brand carried in our shop must be of the highest caliber in terms of quality, efficacy and dependability. Any brand we work with must be above all things honorable. Our mission from the beginning has always been to help people discover how CBD based products can help benefit their life and the only way to get people to spend their hard-earned money and try something new is to make sure they know that they can trust us and the brands we work with.
Number of CBD beauty and wellness brands: 7
Bestselling brands: Art of Care, Mondo, Wolverine
Bestselling products: Wolverine Skin Healing Bomb, Art of Care Pain Salve, Mondo Edible Hemp Powder
BIRCH + FOG
Anna Marchand, brand director
Launch date: June 2017 in Canada; Q3 or Q4 2019 in the United States
Point of difference: We are the world’s leading female-first wellness company. Our beauty products cater to the everyday needs of women, from relieving stress and anxiety to managing the symptoms of menstruation and menopause. We are focused on providing women with the tools they need to live their happiest, healthiest, most fulfilling lives through plant-powered wellness essentials.
Requirements for brands: Our curated selection of beauty products is dynamized by plant-based, organic ingredients that offer long-term solutions to a wide range of skin concerns. Our wellness products help women combat issues from acne and eczema to premature aging. In doing so, we help promote good health, confidence and empowerment. When a brand shares our ethos and offers natural beauty products that inspire the everyday heroine, then they have cracked the Birch + Fog code and we bring them into our portfolio of brands we carry.
Number of CBD beauty and wellness brands: 8
Bestselling brands: Apothecary Naturals, Sweet Jane, Deew
Bestselling products: Apothecary Naturals Hemp-Infused Lip Balm, Sweet Jane Healing Lotion, Deew Highly Nourishing Crème: Chill
Hydro Kitty
Alyssa Tucker, founder
Launch date: August 2017
Point of difference: Who makes our skincare products matters to us just as much as what goes into them. We take our time to not only get to know their product line, but their brand story as well. Over the past year and a half, we’ve discovered a supportive group of women-owned brands making quality CBD skincare products with their own unique flair.
Requirements for brands: It really helps to stand out from the crowd with good packaging design. At Hydro Kitty, we want to elevate CBD products, and quality packaging shows customers that you stand behind your product. While having great branding and packaging is a huge plus, if we can’t get a good sense of who the founders of the brand are, it’s less likely to be considered for our collection. Brands don’t have to be female-founded like the other brands we currently carry, but please let us get to know you a bit by providing some backstory. We create brand pages for each brand we carry so customers can easily get a sense of each brand. Finally, since we are a CBD boutique, we do ask about the source of your CBD and the percentage, so it helps to have a lab report from your CBD source handy to share.
Number of CBD beauty and wellness brands: 8
Bestselling brands: Code of Harmony, CBD & Honey, Herb Essentials
Bestselling products: Code of Harmony Virgin Skin Serum, CBD & Honey Bliss Balls Bath Bombs and Ache & Pain Relief Stick
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