Beauty Bails on CBD
Plus: A magic nose.
The Broccoli Report
Monday, July 31, 2023
Time to read: About 5 minutes. Contains 985 words.
Good Morning!
I hope everyone’s enjoying peak summer right now. For me, it’s been a lot of pico de gallo, corn on the cob, window blind management to keep my AC-free apartment cool, and trips to the movies when I fail to do so. On that note, I recommend Talk To Me to any horror fans out there—a fun, scary Australian indie from A24 with good music and a fresh, talented crew behind and in front of the camera.
If you haven’t listened yet, my unedited chat with writer and baker Christina Wong about cultural barriers and other unseen obstacles prohibiting many from comfortably exploring the cannabis space is live. We discuss a few ways that shops and brands can provide tools to help more people reclaim their relationship with the plant, as well as share resources to help talk to family members still burdened with outdated stigmas. This episode is only available to paid subscribers, but if you haven’t yet, I recommend trying out a free trial to listen to recent podcast drops and peruse the helpful library of past dispatches about product trends, business advice, and cannabis cultural shifts.
One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
CBD has a real, scientific impact on our skin. I spoke with one of Dieux’s co-founders, Charlotte Palermino, all about that when they launched their clinically tested cannabinoid serum. I see the results when I end my nightly regimen with a few drops of TONIC’s Renewal Oil (no ad; just my sincere observation). But not all CBD is created equal, and the less-responsibly sourced chickens have come to roost in the beauty industry. Not one but two recent stories on the death of CBD in the beauty realm ran in recent weeks. The Allure story points to searches for CBD beauty being down 63.1% year over year (from June 2022 to June 2023) and how Sephora’s CBD offerings have steadily decreased in the past years.
Because of the legit efficacy of quality CBD—Palermino herself is quoted in the other Fashionista story that their serum formula would suffer if it was removed as an ingredient—I don’t think it’s going to truly die out of the beauty scene. And, in one light, this purging of brands that weren’t delivering very thoughtful formulas in the first place could be a good thing in the long run. I think it’s about longevity and consumer education in the coming years—give consumers a chance to find and understand CBD beauty products that work, and they’ll be coming back for more.
Last week on Capitol Hill, there was finally some movement on federal hemp regulation. (Sort of). The hearing was about acknowledging the multi-year wait for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop a regulatory pathway for the sale of ingestible hemp products such as CBD and the dangerous impacts of these delays. Witnesses like General Counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, Jonathan Miller, and members of Congress discussed the urgent need for a regulatory framework for hemp-derived cannabinoids and the fact that, at this point, the FDA has plenty of existing data, tools, expertise, and authority to start writing some rules. You can listen to the entire two-hour hearing here.
If it’s any consolation to small businesses out there, the big dogs aren’t having a great summer either. In Illinois, Cresco Labs is suing Green Thumb Industries over a former key employee’s alleged violation of a non-compete clause. In California, multiple investors are suing Cookies over mismanagement of funds and falsifying numbers. The chief financial officers of Weedmaps and Trulieve quit in the past month. I want to believe we’ve hit the bottom of this industry-wide freefall, but it looks like we’re not out of the woods yet.
As folks navigate ongoing challenges at every level, I wanted to share this LinkedIn post containing recommendations from a cannabis business consultant named Mitchell Osak based in Canada. He’s not exactly offering the sunniest perspective, but I think some of his honest advice about surviving as thoughtfully as possible could benefit many.
Which New York-based reader can visit the Olfactory Art Keller and put some dank buds beneath this enormous scent-detecting nose on my behalf? The sculpture—the “Adnose” by Adnan Aga, a creative technologist who was born without a sense of smell—uses a combination of image recognition, machine learning, text to speak tech to assess an object and compose a scent description through speakers.
High Finds: Lifestyle Goods I Like
During a Sunday stroll in my corner of Portland, OR, I came upon a craft fair in front of Radius Art Studio featuring a handful of local ceramicists, one of whom sold delightful, petite bongs with a no-frills, no-downstem-styled design. The artist and “pot dealer” Lex Brinkman also makes beautiful teapots, all available to order via DM on Instagram.
The Afends X Broccoli collab is on sale right now, which means it’s a good time to pick up a fresh hemp-cotton blend tee or the biggest, most fun, and most useful oversized tote I’ve found anywhere. I love this Australian brand for implementing hemp in frequent and stylish ways and for the founders’ sincere and involved efforts toward normalizing hemp cultivation for textiles.
Cadence—a travel storage brand that’s embraced the versatile nature of their modular, magnetic containers since launch (as in: their label system includes a weed leaf option)—has expanded their offerings in both sizes and colors to very satisfying results.
I’ve never enjoyed golf, but I respect the stoner sensibilities therein. Calm walks punctuated with playful roasts of your friend’s tee shots, essentially hanging out in nature and talking for hours. For those who take their golf and cannabis interests equally seriously, Bespoke Post is selling a very cool set of nug jugs, one-hitter pipes, and a mini grinder, all camouflaged to look like golf accessories.
See you on the green,
Lauren Yoshiko