Your skin is alive – it is our body’s largest organ and acts like a protective gate. The active barrier that is our skin, is constantly undergoing biochemical processes, that can be affected by what we eat, the sun’s UV rays, and the products we put on it, such as lotions and soaps. Since the skin is made of living cells, it’s part of your body just like your heart or brain. This means that anything you use on your skin should be safe and healthy, just like the food you eat. Given this, skin care products are more than mere cosmetics; they often contain sophisticated mixtures of active ingredients whose interactions and effects on the skin’s structure and functions are not often fully appreciated or understood.

“The skin is the mirror of our inner health.”

For our purposes, we will examine a product or two from the real world, marketed under the brand Avexia (See photos for labeling and listed ingredients). We will focus on an Avexia lotion that is formulated with THC, CBD, shea butter, cocoa butter, sunflower seed oil, which can also contain extracts of ginger or compounds such as menthol. Skin care products are numerous and perplexing, yet there are often commonalities among formulations for specific uses, for example, shea butter is a prominent ingredient in many skincare products and menthol is commonly used in pain relief rubs.

The purpose of this article is to offer some insights about why certain products are included in topical formulations and provide the reader with information about the ingredients to help make informed decisions about a product that will offer the best outcome for their uses. Although cosmetics rarely cause serious adverse events—unlike risks from oral drugs—they can still significantly impact various skin functions, and the full implications of these effects are often not well known.

Ingredients for Avexia’s Pain Relief Lotion and Balms

Shea butter

Shea butter is a versatile natural product widely used in cosmetics, skin care, and in the food industry. It is derived from the nuts of the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) and has historical use in Africa as a medicine, food, and cosmetic. Shea butter is referred to as ‘women’s gold’ due to the livelihood associated with the many businesswomen engaged in shea production and processing.

The butter’s composition is a nourishing and moisturizing mixture, rich in fatty acids such as oleic acid, stearic acid, linoleic acid, and palmitic acid. It’s used in products like lotions, balms, soaps, and hair conditioners. It is used to help with dry skin, eczema, stretch marks, and maintaining skin elasticity.  It is also used as an industrial feedstock in global supply chains serving the confectionery, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries. Aside from these value-added applications, the wood of the shea tree is used to produce charcoal of very high quality in terms of its density and performance

Cocoa butter

Cocoa butter, also known as theobroma oil, is an important ingredient in both the food and cosmetic industries, valued for its rich properties and delightful fragrance. Cocoa butter is best known for its role in chocolate making, the physical properties of cocoa butter give chocolate its smooth and silky consistency. It also impacts the melting point of chocolate, which is why chocolate melts so pleasingly in your mouth. The smooth, silky, and melting properties are also important qualities for cosmetic products.

Depending on the processing, cocoa butter can be natural, directly extracted from cocoa liquor, or deodorized, where its scent and color are removed or adjusted via steam. Cocoa butter is a natural fat that is extracted from the cocoa bean, the seed of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao). Cocoa products are produced in countries such as Ecuador, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Indonesia.

Rich in fatty acids such as oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids, cocoa butter is known for its stability, a property that contributes to its long shelf life and melt-at-body-temperature characteristic.

Sunflower seed oil

In cosmetics, sunflower oil is valued for its emollient properties. As an emollient, sunflower oil forms a protective barrier on the skin’s surface, trapping moisture and preventing water loss. It is often used in formulations to help moisturize, regenerate, and condition the skin. Sunflower oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, primarily linoleic acid (omega-6) and oleic acid (omega-9). It also contains vitamin E, which acts as a natural antioxidant. Due to its high vitamin E content, sunflower oil has antioxidant properties that can help protect cells from damage. It is often low in saturated fat, which makes it a heart-healthy choice for cooking oils.

Ginger

Ginger’s taste and spicy flavor comes from compounds called Ginsenosides. These fancy sounding compounds can stimulate receptors and ion channels associated with pain signaling and blood flow. Additionally, Ginsenosides and ginger extracts are used in cosmetics such as skin creams and lotions for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. The chemical properties of ginger that increase circulation in the skin, help to even out the appearance of the skin, sometimes referred to as enhancing skin tone or radiance. While ginger is beneficial for many, it can cause irritation to sensitive skin. It’s always recommended to do a test on a small part of the skin before using a new product extensively.

Menthol

Menthol is an organic compound that can be synthesized in a lab, but it is naturally derived from mint oils. Menthol is known for its cooling sensation on the skin and mucous membranes. This effect is due to menthol’s ability to activate cold-sensitive TRPM8 receptors in the skin, mimicking the feeling of cooler temperatures. Menthol’s cooling effect is commonly experienced with topical analgesic and muscle rubs, used to relieve minor aches and pains of the muscles/joints (such as arthritis, backache, sprains). In cosmetics, menthol is added to products like shampoos, conditioners, aftershaves, and shaving creams for its cooling effect, which can soothe irritation and redness.

Skin and Cannabinoids

Nearly every plant or extract thereof has had a moment where their popularity grew to historical fame owing to phytopharmaceutical properties, or it simply became useful across the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. Plant-based Cannabinoids, such as THC and CBD type compounds, are of renewed interest in dermatology due to their widespread use by consumers, and for their documented anti-inflammatory, antipruritic and antinociceptive properties in scientific publications. This is reflected in higher rates of economic growth and diversification of several hemp or cannabis-based products, including skin products.

Tips for picking out a product for your skin:

One note is that topical creams, salves, and lotions can have specific effects. Topical products cannot do everything all at once, here are a few examples:

• Moisturize or dry out the skin
  • If you are trying to treat acne, typically this involves drying out the infected areas, moisturizing acne has been known to worsen acne. Topical products either dry or moisturize the skin – they cannot do both at the same time.

• Penetrate or stay on the surface
  • Products intended to penetrate the surface of the skin, are not best suited to treat surface issues (dryness, skin inflammation, etc.). A product that treats the surface of the skin, will not target anything below the skin.

• Whether the product is a facial foundation, an anti-aging night cream, a sunscreen, a topical antioxidant or a skin-lightening serum, the formulation is basically a moisturizer.