COVID quarantine fatigue has made self-care a priority and consumers are increasingly keen on incorporating CBD into their daily routines as the scientific community continues to validate CBD-related health benefits. Brands from all market categories are happy to oblige, especially in the cosmetic and personal care realms.

According to a market forecast published by consumer research firm BDSA, the entire 2020 cannabis market is projected to top $19.7 billion in 2020 (this includes the impact of COVID), representing a 38% increase over 2019 sales of $14.8 billion. Drilling deeper, Million Insights forecasted that the global CBD skin care market is expected to reach $1.7 billion by 2025 (+32.9% CAGR), and cited ongoing “awareness related to the healing properties of CBD infused beauty products” as a major growth driver.

“As laws continue to change around the country, making CBD products more commonplace, we have seen demand for products incorporating CBD in their formulations grow,” said John Ziemba, vice president, sales and operations, USS LLC. “Consumers have to balance societal stigmas associated with CBD products, legitimate research supporting any claims and their trust in a brand, [and they] are looking at these products more closely to ensure they are pure and free of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).”

Keisha Broadway, North American cosmetics sales manager, Hoffmann Neopac, said there’s definitely been an expansion of CBD innovations in beauty products. “Initially, there was a focus on CBD in skin care due to its health benefits and its ‘anti-aging’ results, now more brands are beginning to explore CBD in other cosmetic products such as foundations and lip glosses,” she said.

Brands are enthusiastically on board with CBD. On the heels of its successful 2019 Cannabis Sativa Hemp Seed Oil collection, e.l.f. Beauty expanded its skin care portfolio in May with the debut of Full Spectrum CBD, a prestige collection spanning a facial oil, moisturizer, eye cream, body cream, and lip oil. The products are formulated with a proprietary blend of CBD derived from the plant’s flowers and leaves and feature Japanese citrus and chamomile to help soothe, moisturize, and restore skin.

In October, Cronos Group launched Happy Dance, a fun CBD skin care range that’s co-founded and fronted by actress Kristen Bell. The collection features a body butter, a coconut melt and a bath bomb formulated with Bell’s favorite clean ingredients and high-quality CBD from full spectrum hemp extract blended with plant-based oils and butters.

And to demonstrate CBD’s benefits for the scalp and hair, Fekkai unveiled its CBD Scalp Calming collection consisting of a shampoo, conditioner, hydrating scalp mask and a hair oil formulated with non-THC, broad spectrum CBD from organically cultivated hemp extract. The line’s packaging consists of 95% high-grade repurposed plastic that’s
100% recyclable.

CBD Packaging Trends

CBD cosmetic and personal care products have enjoyed incredible traction among consumers in a relatively short amount of time, consequently giving rise to a noticeable packaging evolution.

“The product development efforts in the CBD beauty and personal care market segments have always been about who could get to market first [and] with that, stock primary-packaging options played a huge role in providing speed to market for the initial entrepreneurs,” said Michael Warford, director, business development, ABA Packaging Corp. “The packaging trend in many cases has been to establish an apothecary look in order to provide an apothecary vibe for the products [and subsequently], demand for cosmetic quality Boston Round bottle packages and heavy glass jar packages exploded in the early stages.”

Formula discoloration due to ingredient photosensitivity also presented an early challenge. USS LCC responded by developing a proprietary coating that provides protection even on clear glass, giving brands an alternative to traditional amber bottles.

Tubes and jars have also become important CBD packaging options, though each comes with its own caveat that packaging suppliers have created solutions to overcome.

“The trend seems to be finding packaging that eliminates some of the concerns of product contamination,” said Sean Kavanaugh, senior account manager, JSN Industries. “The CBD industry was heavy into jars that the consumer would insert their fingers in to get the product out. Covid-19 has caused a shift in that thinking and now they are abandoning jars and moving to tubes to [overcome] the contamination perception.”

Kavanaugh added that CBD oil can pose some packaging hurdles; however, JSN offers coextruded multilayer tubes in PCR that would eliminate most of these concerns. The company also offers monolayer tubes created using sugarcane resins for other applications.

“CBD and skin care products require both compatibility between product and package as well as airtight fits to ensure the freshness of the contents,” said Katie Campbell, business development, CPP Global. “The addition of a child-resistant closure that fits flush with our jar to meet regulatory requirements and maintains a sleeker appearance than what one finds in the market is one of our recent offerings to meet current and future needs.”

To ensure sensitive CBD formulas are a good fit with a brand’s chosen packaging, Hoffmann Neopac strongly recommends compatibility testing. “Depending on the ingredients and the barriers needed, a tube with multiple barriers may be best suitable,” said the company’s Broadway. “For example, the Polyfoil tube offers protection against light, air, and water vapor diffusion, which is great for sensitive ingredients.”

“CBD is an ingredient that by legislation requires stricter packaging conditions than other cosmetic formulas,” said Rosa Porras Mansilla, marketing communications manager, Virospack. To that end, the company developed a dropper dispensing package specific to CBD, with strong sealing requirements and a high degree of water tightness. The result is the first dispenser dropper pack for cosmetics with Child-Resistant Packaging certification.

As the CBD market continues to evolve, customers are getting more discerning and brands are searching for ways to distinguish themselves. “CBD is growing more sophisticated, much like the skin and personal care markets, so a luxe look and feel is allowing some companies to stand out amongst the crowd, particularly with a range of decorations to apply,” Campbell said. “Fortunately, with products we offer around a heavy wall PET-PCR jar, they can achieve both sustainability and luxury cost effectively.”

Sensibly Sustainable

Sustainable packaging is a huge draw for CBD brands.

“Most all of our CBD beauty and personal care customers had two almost non-negotiable requirements: they need the packaging quickly and it must be sustainable,” said Warford, who noted that ABA Packaging offers recyclable stock glass bottles and jars that are amenable to quick decoration.

LuxLeaf is another company offering many sustainable packaging options including recyclable and reusable solutions. Its most popular new material is Knoll Ecoform, a plastic alternative made from bamboo, wood, and sugarcane fibers. The material is recyclable, biodegradable, and compostable, and can be molded, cut to order, and color matched.

As the CBD market continues to grow, so does the importance of using packaging that stands out from the competition. LuxLeaf’s new KnollLuxe Premium Board Platform is both a recyclable and sustainable solution that features finished edges and cavities to hold the product for an upscale look.

“There’s been a shift toward paperboards that are FSC-certified or made with post-consumer recycled (PCR) fiber,” added Dennis Bacchetta, director of marketing, Diamond Packaging. “Uncoated, specialty or textured paperboards (such as Neenah Folding Board or Ecological Fibers Flexpack Lumina Pearlescent) have also become more popular, [while] another trend is the use of decorative effects (e.g., specialty coatings, foil, embossing) to add texture and dimension to packaging and reinforce the premium positioning of a brand, while inviting closer inspection and interaction on the part of the consumer.”

Diamond Packaging recently worked with Truest Hemp, which markets physician formulated, laboratory tested, THC-free, organic, non-GMO products made with 100% hemp extracts. Diamond designed a packaging solution that conveyed the positioning of a high-quality natural hemp product and also reduced the need to inventory multiple cartons and insert styles.

Truest Hemp folding cartons were converted using Clearwater Candesce .018 SBS paperboard with cold foil and four-color offset printing plus UV matte coating. “The striking graphic design incorporates soft gradients, bold colors, and an overall grain pattern that simulates natural-looking hemp paperboard,” said Bacchetta. “Overprinting transparent green ink over cold foil creates shimmering, colorful metallic effects that catch the eye and invite closer inspection, especially of the most important product attributes.”

The brand’s folding cartons utilize recyclable paperboard and were manufactured using 100% clean, renewable wind energy and produced in a Zero Waste to Landfill (ZWL) facility. The structure incorporates a die cut window in a common outer carton that’s partnered with one of two custom inserts to accommodate the brand’s Vaporizer Kit and Liposomal Oil.

Hemp has emerged as another important eco-friendly packaging material. Ecological Fibers recently announced two new versatile hemp solutions for both the CBD and cannabis industries, as well as the luxury packaging industry at large. Both materials are bright white and contain rustic hemp fiber inclusions, although custom color variations are available upon request. Hemp percentage is also customizable per request.

Flexpak Hemp is an 18pt self-supporting folding carton material made from 100% PCW (Post-Consumer Waste) and 10% hemp fibers. It is an environmentally friendly, recyclable luxury packaging solution which maintains outstanding stamp and print capabilities.

Ecological Fibers is also introducing Rainbow 80 Hemp, an 80# (118gsm) 100% PCW (Post-Consumer Waste), 10% hemp fiber Kraft material that maintains exceptional stamping and printing capabilities in a diverse and environmentally friendly cover solution.

In the dropper category, the responsibly sourced, 100% Natural Wood Dropper Cap from Virospack is billed as the only fully organic, compostable, and recyclable wooden dropper cap on the market. Mansilla said the creation, which earned FSC Certification to guarantee its manufacture, met Responsible Forest Management standards, and was a uniquely complex undertaking.

“Normally a dropper would have a plastic inner cap glued to the wooden shell; in this case, we got rid of the plastic piece and the gluing process, greatly reducing the carbon footprint of the dropper,” said Mansilla. “As with all other droppers, the sealing is done with the bulb, which could be recyclable and food grade [and] the natural wood collar can be decorated with different varnishes according to the wishes of each client, and ensuring differentiation.”

Gary Fast, business development manager, Alpha Packaging, said his company’s most popular request is for 100% recycled plastic. “We also get a lot of inquiries for ocean-bound post-consumer resin (PCR), which is plastic collected from locations in developing countries within a short distance from oceans and major tributaries,” he said. “There are several companies that certify the authenticity of the ocean-bound PCR and we’ve successfully launched projects using this food-safe resin.”

Hoffmann Neopac is launching a novel line of monomaterial barrier tubes that provide exemplary product protection while being fully compatible with existing HDPE recycling processes. It’s the first tube solution in Europe to receive full RecyClass technology and product approval per the organization’s “Recyclability Evaluation Protocol for HDPE Containers” standards. Neopac’s Polyfoil MMB tubes are the first tubes incorporating high-density polyethylene (HDPE) caps with low-melt index HDPE to receive full technology approval from RecyClass. The tubes can reduce tube body weight by as much as 50% compared to the company’s conventional Polyfoil technology, and incorporate a novel mono-directional-oriented (MDO) barrier film technology.

CPP Global has introduced PET and PET-PCR heavy wall jars to replace less sustainable PETg jars. The company also uses PP-PCR and bio-resin in other products to reduce use of virgin plastics and fossil fuel-based material, while lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

JSN’s Kavanaugh is excited about the growth and expansion in CBD packaging. During the industry’s infancy, he attended a CBD convention and was disappointed with what he perceived to be basic grade packaging options. “We are now seeing more and more products from various customers and the packaging is starting to take shape into some nice presentations that grab the consumers’ attention.”

Given the exponential growth CBD beauty and personal care have experienced in the short amount of time since the category’s debut, USS’s Ziemba said it’s challenging to predict what lies ahead.
“As much as we have seen with CBD products to this point, it may only the tip of the iceberg,” he explained. “If CBD is embraced by some of the creative minds I know in the beauty industry, there will be no limit to what we can expect to see, because they don’t push the envelope, they expand the envelope—and that’s an exciting prospect.”