CBD & Hemp: Can these contentious plants improve our skin?

CBD beauty products are being hailed as a 'beauty game-changer' overseas, but they're still illegal here. Stacey Morrison finds out if we're missing a trick.

Cannabidiol beauty products are illegal in New Zealand, but overseas they're being described as a 'beauty game-changer'.

Lauded for their anti-inflamatory and antioxidant properties, some CBD products even have major celebrity backing, like Lord Jones' Happy Dance range made with Kristen Bell.

But Professor Michelle Glass, head of pharmacology and toxicology at The University of Otago, is wary about jumping on this band-wagon.

"There are properties of CBD that suggest it might be quite good to apply on your skin," she told Stacey Morrison, "But there's very little to say that it actually is useful. So there's very few studies actually being done that are very conclusive."

"Most of our beauty products have antioxidants and anti-inflammatory components in them. So it's reasonable to expect that it might be able to have an effect, we just haven't seen it."

Glass said the preparation of the product will impact its effect, changing the oil used can make a huge difference.

"Also, in order to get the anti-inflammatory or antioxidant effects, you actually need to have quite high concentrations and a lot of the stuff that's on the market internationally have very low levels of CBD and is unlikely to have much effect on anything," she said.

Had we voted in favour of legalising cannabis in the recent referendum, we might have seen these sorts of products on our shelves

"The referendum was about recreational cannabis, but it would have put a lot more products just into the market as legal products and so there would have likely been CBD products as part of that because they would no longer be covered just under the Medicinal Cannabis Act," said Glass.

But Professor Glass is much more inclined to hemp-oil based beauty products, which are legal in New Zealand.

"I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to avoid it," she said, "There's good evidence to suggest there's a lot of good stuff in them."

But, at this stage, she would avoid CBD products if they were more readily available.

"My thinking is; this is an effective anti-epileptic drug, people are testing it in anxiety, psychosis and a range of other disorders and I wouldn't rub the medicines for any of those other things on my face," said Glass.

"If we want to believe it's a good medicine then you've got to believe it can do harm too."…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details