2018 is set to be the year of extending the beauty boundaries with the rise of body part specific masks for the décolletage, arms and breasts, silk cocoon finger balls that you place on your fingertips to help with exfoliation and one of the hottest ingredient trends on the radar this year, cannabis.

A lot of this has to do with the legalisation of cannabis in anumber of states in the US: nine to be exact States - Alaska, California (the first state to do so in 1996), Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have legalised cannabis’s recreational use and a further 29 states have legalised it for medical use.

In Australia, recreational use of marijuana remains illegal across all federal, state, and territories. While Victoria was the first state in Australia to introduce legislation to legalise medicinal cannabis in early 2017 and the other states and territories and then followed suit.

Co-founder of Cult Beauty, Alexia Inge told Harper’s Bazaar late last year that, “The legalisation of Marijuana [in multiple American states] has led to a flurry of research on the effects it has on the human body. It’s widely celebrated for its medicinal properties, but one of the unexpected side effects was the discovery of how amazingly calming and anti-inflammatory certain cannabinoids are on the skin”.

Armed with this knowledge, the brand has launched some cannabis-based products including MGC Derma, with its cult CBD Herbal Repair Cream that helps to calm and soothe irritated skin and Marley Natural. (This comes hot on the heals of Malin+Goetz’s flirtation with the whole cannabis theme with their highly sought- after Cannabis EDP and The Escentric Molecules Escentric 04 with a dedicated cannabis note which both launched last year.)

So, what are the benefits of cannabis-infused skin care? The central ingredient is CBD, that stands for cannabidiol, which is found in hemp plants and has no psychoactive or intoxicating effects but lots of health benefits including helping to reduce pain and inflammation.

Holland and Barrett were trailblazers in the UK as the first high-street stockists’ of CBD oil; Gwyneth Paltrow is also a fan. She swears by CBD oil, telling Beauty website, Into The Gloss, in January this year, “If I have a particularly stressful time, someone gave me some CBD oil in a little drop. It doesn't make you stoned or anything, just a little relaxed.”

So, apart from all the hype, CBD-based skin care does have bona fide anti- inflammatory properties and can be used an alternative for those suffering from eczema, psoriasis and acne. But, it is a controversial topic and not everyone is convinced, like London dermatologist Dr Frances Prenna, who says, “I think it is a bit of a hype. It is a great ingredient, but no more special than a lot of other emollient and anti-inflammatory ingredients like ginger, for instance.”

While hemp-based products are having a moment, they have actually been around in The Body Shop’s best-selling Hemp range for decades. So is this all just a re- branding exercise?

Legality issues are still in play as far as CBD skin care is concerned. Funnily enough, the UK is the world’s largest exporter of legal cannabis used in overseas medical products; while usage is not legal on home turf where UK law classifies it as a “Class B drug that is ‘illegal to possess in any form’.” Confused yet? The situation on CBD oil is quite unclear here too. I guess the proof will be in the pudding (or the cookie).

In the meantime we have two cannabis-inspired products to try:

The Body Shop Hemp Heavy Duty Lip is chock full of hemp seed oil and acts to soothe and hydrate parched lips. Malin+Goetz Cannabis has a nod to hippy trippy headiness with its spicy floral notes of bergamot, black pepper, magnolia and patchouli. Dope.