4 Reasons to Try Cannabis Body Butter

Cannabis body butters are the latest addition to the wider range of cannabis-infused skin care products on the market today. Promising to deliver healthier, baby-soft skin, these products are an intriguing option for skin care connoisseurs across America.

But can they really deliver on this promise? We’ve got four reasons why you should give them a try and see for yourself.

1. Moisturizing

The end may be in sight, but winter isn’t over yet and most of us are feeling the effects on our skin. Winter dries the skin out significantly, resulting in dry, cracked, and itchy skin — not just on our faces, but all over our bodies. Even in the mildest of climates, combating dry skin can be a challenge during the colder months. Staying inside all day won’t help much, either.  “Heated air in our homes, offices, and cars is generally very dry,” according to dermatologist Dr. Michael Swann. “The result is that our skin thickens (the dead layer stays on longer) and can crack in response to the slower turnover and dryer conditions.”

Body butters are famously rich in moisturizing ingredients such as cocoa butter, so they can help to treat and/or prevent this cracking. Typically containing shea butters or coconut oils, these products feel heavy on the skin, so they’re usually applied at night, giving them time to absorb deep into the skin and deliver some much-needed hydration. The addition of cannabis to body butters makes them even more effective thanks to the many skin-boosting benefits that cannabis has to offer, such as regulating the production of skin oil.

2. Anti-Inflammatory

Cannabis is a natural anti-inflammatory, and it’s this ability to fight inflammation which is the basis of much of its use as a medicine today (and in centuries gone by). But how does this help the skin?

Although inflammation is typically associated with chronic conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation of the skin is very common. Both acne and eczema are skin conditions whose symptoms are largely caused by inflammation can be not only embarrassing and stressful, but often quite painful. So, using cannabis topical products that can tackle this pain and inflammation could make managing the symptoms of these conditions much easier, thus making life much more pleasant for those of us who suffer from them.

A cannabis body butter could be an ideal product for someone who is dealing with inflammation of the skin. Not only will it soothe the skin, but cannabis’ anti-inflammatory properties could also treat the inflammation itself, delivering highly localized effects that have been proven in scientific studies.

3. Anti-Aging

Who doesn’t want their skin care products to have an anti-aging element to them? This doesn’t have to mean rushing out to your local drugstore to pick up $100 worth of anti-aging products, but instead making sure that the products you already use can keep fine lines and wrinkles at bay while working on your skin in other ways.

Enter cannabis body butters.

Cannabis research has discovered that CBD (one of the compounds found in cannabis) is a highly potent antioxidant. This means that it actively fights against the causes of aging skin. No, not time unfortunately —rather, free radicals. Free radicals cause oxidation of the cells in the skin and lead to not just fine lines and wrinkles, but also a sagging, tired, dull-looking complexion.

Antioxidants have always played a crucial role in anti-aging skin care because they can tackle the root cause of the problem. While vitamin C and E have traditionally been the antioxidants of choice, CBD is now becoming even more popular after researchers discovered it is more powerful.

Using a cannabis body butter can, therefore, help to prevent or treat the signs of aging on your skin while also bringing lots of other benefits, too. Ideal!

4. Stress-Busting + Sleep-Promoting

It’s no secret that our mental health can have a huge impact on how our skin looks and feels. We’ve all experienced stress breakouts during particular difficult times in our lives, and an anxiety-induced lack of sleep can be your skin’s worst enemy. Thankfully, the potential stress-busting and sleep-promoting abilities of cannabis could lend a helping hand here.

The word “potential” is doing a lot of work here: not only are the actual effects of cannabis topicals still in need of scientific confirmation, but to get the benefits of those effects for conditions like anxiety, you’ll need to find a transdermal body butter. “Transdermal” means that the body butter’s active ingredients — cannabis, in this case — can be absorbed by applying them on the skin. Most body butters are not transdermal, though you can find them with a bit of research.

And if you do, you could be in for a treat. There is literally centuries’ worth of anecdotal evidence touting the medicinal properties of cannabis, including its ability to reduce stress and anxiety, but the scientific research just hasn’t been able to prove it conclusively yet. It also isn’t fully understood to what extent cannabis can be used to treat anxiety and stress, and whether this form of self-medication is really a good idea in the long run.

With that being said, studies have shown cannabis can help with anxiety in some cases and there is a growing consensus among scientists that it is probably safe to use in the short term. It’s less clear what the long-term effects of using cannabis to treat anxiety might be, but if you’ve had a tough few days and it’s starting to show, slathering your tired skin in a luxurious cannabis body butter — and the essential oils that they often contain — before bedtime might be just the ticket to soothe your racing mind and bring you a much-needed night’s rest.

There are no guarantees, of course, and not all skin care products deliver on the promises they make. This is especially true of products that are trendy and new to the market. Oftentimes we get sucked in by the excitement of the latest craze, and end up spending our hard-earned dollars on something that not only doesn’t help, buy can even make our skin worse than it was to begin with.

Do some cannabis body butters fall into this category? It’s certainly possible. But the bigger picture is a positive one, and it has some promising science to back it up.