Last updated 9 August 2026 · Originally published 14 March 2020
CBD turns up in shampoo, mascara, lip balm, bath bombs and face masks, usually at a price that suggests it is doing something. Some of it might be. Quite a lot of it almost certainly isn’t.
The difference doesn’t come down to the number on the bottle alone. It depends on how the product is made, how concentrated the CBD is, and how long it stays on your skin.
The bit that decides everything
CBD doesn’t pass through skin easily. It dissolves in oil rather than water, and skin’s outer layer is very good at holding such things at the surface rather than letting them through.
So how a product is made matters more than the number printed on the label. Whether CBD gets anywhere depends on what it’s mixed with and how long it sits on your skin — which is why the same 25 mg behaves completely differently in a night cream and a shampoo.
As a rough rule: leave-on products have a better chance than anything you rinse straight off.
Product by product
Creams, balms and serums — the best case
These stay on for hours, which gives CBD far more opportunity to reach the upper layers of skin. Whether it actually gets there still depends on how the product is made — and whether any particular moisturiser contains enough to matter is another question again. But the category makes sense.
Lip balm — reasonable
Lips have no oil glands and burn easily, and a balm sits there half the day in a waxy base. Good delivery conditions.
Though be honest about what’s working: most of what a lip balm does comes from the balm. CBD isn’t why your lips stop being chapped.
Facials — depends what’s used
A mask or serum left on for twenty minutes does better than a cleanser and worse than an overnight cream. The claims — less redness, less inflammation, less oil — are the plausible ones. Nobody has run a trial on a CBD facial.
Shampoo — probably not
It’s on your scalp for ninety seconds and then it’s gone. Shampoo is also designed to strip oils away, not leave them behind.
Hemp seed oil in a conditioner may well do your hair good — it’s a decent emollient. But that’s hemp seed oil, which isn’t CBD, and the two get muddled constantly on labels.
Bath bombs — a very weak case
An ordinary bath bomb has a fundamental delivery problem: CBD doesn’t dissolve in water.
Drop a bath bomb with 25 mg of CBD into a 150-litre bath and that CBD disperses, clings to the tub, floats on top, and mostly goes down the plughole. Unless a product has been specifically formulated to keep CBD dispersed and in contact with your skin, it’s hard to see how you’d get a meaningful dose.
Which doesn’t make CBD bath bombs a waste of money exactly. A hot bath is genuinely relaxing, and the fragrance is part of why you bought it. Just be clear that the relaxing bit is the bath.
Mascara — no
CBD mascara is sometimes sold as a lash treatment. There’s no controlled evidence that CBD makes eyelashes grow.
The argument you’ll occasionally see connects it to the glaucoma drug used in prescription lash-growth products — but that drug isn’t CBD, and what it does tells you nothing about what CBD does.
CBD oil can affect a mascara’s texture, and it turns up in formulations marketed as vegan. That may make it a useful ingredient. It doesn’t make it a lash treatment.
So what does the research actually say?
Less than the packaging implies.
The good news is that skin has its own endocannabinoid system, and lab studies show CBD acting on the cells that produce oil — calming inflammation and reducing excess sebum.[1] That gives topical CBD a plausible biological basis. It doesn’t show that finished cosmetics work.
Because almost all of it is cell studies. There’s no trial showing that a moisturiser with CBD beats the same moisturiser without it. And the one properly controlled trial of a topical CBD treatment for acne — a purpose-built pharmaceutical product, not a face cream — didn’t meet its main target, though it did show a benefit on one secondary measure.
If you’re buying anyway
Look for a percentage, not a total. “500 mg CBD” means nothing until you know how big the tub is.
Prefer things that stay on. A serum beats a face wash.
Check it’s actually CBD. Hemp seed oil is not CBD, and plenty of products blur the two.
Ask for the lab report. When researchers tested 105 topical cannabinoid products, only a quarter were accurately labelled — and a third contained THC.[2]
Judge the whole product. A nice moisturiser with CBD in it is a nice moisturiser. Paying extra specifically for the CBD is a different decision.
None of this is medical advice, and for a persistent skin problem a dermatologist has better options than a cosmetic.
For more, see does CBD work on your skin?, our guide to CBD and what the research actually shows, or browse Skin & Beauty.
References
- Oláh A, Tóth BI, Borbíró I, et al. Cannabidiol exerts sebostatic and antiinflammatory effects on human sebocytes. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2014;124(9):3713–3724. doi:10.1172/JCI64628
- Spindle TR, Sholler DJ, Cone EJ, et al. Cannabinoid content and label accuracy of hemp-derived topical products available online and at national retail stores. JAMA Network Open. 2022;5(7):e2223019. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.23019
About this article
Substantially rewritten in August 2026, bringing together our earlier reporting on CBD cosmetics. This update explains why how long a product stays on your skin matters more than how much CBD it contains, and goes through the main product types one by one. With earlier reporting by Lisa Rennie.
