The products CBD cosmetic that we plan to expand represents a booming market worldwide! Below, we offer you a article written by Katie Shapiro, freelance journalist, published on Forbes on January 7, 2020. We have translated this article for your convenience.
Enjoy reading this incredible American adventure of Mrs. Casey Georgeson.
Sephora is launching its biggest CBD skincare lineup with Saint Jane
As a new decade begins, the beauty industry's enthusiasm for cannabis continues. CBD as a skincare ingredient has proven to be more than just the next big thing, thanks to conscious and clean beauty companies like Saint Jane, which will debut on January 10 in 281 Sephora stores across 22 states in the US.
This is the biggest CBD the LVMH-owned multinational beauty retailer has ever backed since its foray into cannabis skincare – introducing Lord Jones online and in-store (across 171 locations by comparison) in 2018. Saint Jane is also one of Sephora's fastest-growing commercial successes, with its best-selling luxury beauty serum debuting just four months after the brand's launch.
Gaining Sephora's support was a huge moment for founder and CEO Casey Georgeson. While studying for her MBA at Stanford University, she begged for an unpaid internship at the company's North American headquarters in San Francisco to pursue her passion for beauty products. Unlike Sephora's high school and undergraduate interns, Georgeson had prior career experience as a producer at CNN and was the creative force behind Cupcake Vineyards for The Wine Group, one of the world's largest wine companies.
After graduating, she was quickly hired by the beauty brand incubator Kendo to head its partnerships division, where she led the development of designer brands like Marc Jacobs, Kat Von D, and Disney for Sephora. But even the beauty industry veteran thought launching her own product was a long shot.
“Even with my background, to be totally honest, I thought, ‘There’s no way Sephora can bring this to the table,’” Georgeson explained over the phone. “We’re not even a brand yet. We have 100 followers on Instagram. They’re just going to see this as a favor and say, ‘Okay Casey, that’s a nice little idea you have here. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.’”
Georgeson received an email response from Sephora's Vice President of Skincare Merchandising, Cindy Deily, within 15 minutes of receiving the sample of luxury beauty serum at her office. The rest is CBD skincare history.
The Saint Jane brand was launched on January 28, 2019, and as it approaches its first anniversary, it has already achieved what most beauty companies aim for in a lifetime. The private-label beauty retailer Credo was the first outside retailer, with Sephora, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Space NK following shortly after.
The patron saint of healing herself was born on the same date in the 1500s, and that is what Georgeson wanted to honor through his company, which is still 100% self-funded.
“Saint Jane was a real person who specifically healed women that French society rejected—older, sick, or single mothers,” Georgeson explained. “And like this pioneering feminist, we have a healing-centered approach to beauty. This also has a double meaning for the innocent side of ‘Mary Jane,’ as I always wanted CBD to be the hero ingredient.”
Georgeson views and treats CBD like a vitamin, classifying it as a superhero ingredient for skincare alongside hyaluronic acid and vitamin C. He added, "It's a molecule, not a miracle, and depending on what it's combined with, it works even better. As the industry becomes more informed about cannabis, people are starting to see it as a supplement, a good ingredient for you rather than a psychoactive substance."2
She personally sources her Saint Jane hemp from sustainable, women-owned farms and has each batch tested for potency and purity by a third-party lab partner. According to the brand, the Luxury Beauty Serum contains the highest concentration of CBD for a facial serum on the market (and at Sephora) with 500 milligrams in each bottle; the Luxury Body Serum contains 200 milligrams of CBD oil
More than 20 additional effective botanicals enhance its formula, such as wood oil, prickly pear, sea buckthorn, rosehip and pomegranate, which together improve radiance, reduce inflammation, detoxify impurities and soothe the skin.
“We strive to provide customers with the trendiest and most sought-after products,” said Deily. “We’ve seen a strong desire for a range of prestige CBD offerings, and Saint Jane has been a pioneer in growing this space. With its focus on bringing CBD to the forefront as an effective ingredient in prestige skincare, Saint Jane is passionate about education and innovation in categories and ingredient exploration and is excited to introduce more of our community to this new independent brand.”.
As such, Saint Jane will be sold in-store on Sephora's Indie Beauty Wall, a showcase for the most promising up-and-coming brands. As part of Saint Jane's commitment to consumer education, outreach includes a video tutorial, written materials, and product samples for Sephora staff.
The Luxury Beauty Serum bottle itself looks and feels luxurious – think thick, matte black glass with a gold-plated brand badge – but it's what's inside that justifies the opulent packaging and high price tag (the regular size retails for $125!).
With customer testimonials ranging from regular use resulting in flawless skin to the elimination of cystic acne and relief from rosacea pain, Saint Jane has rightfully earned accolades from the Zoe Report (Best New Luxury Skincare Product of 2019), O, The Oprah Magazine (Best Body Product), Santé (Best Facial Oil), PopSugar (Most Innovative Product), and more. It has also cured chronic skin concerns for two leading beauty editors at Glamour and Refinery29.
The accolades and overwhelmingly positive customer feedback are now further validated by an official stamp of approval from medical cannabis pioneer Dr. June Chin, who was recently announced as the company's chief medical advisor as part of the Sephora expansion. A chronic pain survivor practicing in New York City, Chin holds multiple degrees in nutrition and osteopathic medicine. Her personal experience led to her discovery of CBD, which she incorporates into her integrative approach to holistic patient care and the treatment of conditions such as epilepsy, cancer, and autism.
“Saint Jane is the most innovative CBD beauty company in the United States, with an impressive team developing cutting-edge products,” said Chin, a recognized expert in the field who has been featured on the “Today Show,” in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. “Since its inception, Saint Jane has brought significant transparency to the world of CBD beauty products. In this strategic role, my goal is to empower consumers to make more confident decisions with accurate and reliable information and to demystify CBD.”
Georgeson added: “In all my years in the beauty industry, I have never seen an ingredient with this level of potential and performance in the world of skincare and wellness.”
During the first quarter of 2020, Georgeson plans to add Sephora-specific roles to her small team of 10 (she is also a mother of three young daughters) to help oversee day-to-day operations and communication with stores. Saint Jane is also working on marketing additional exclusive products only for Sephora, underscoring her company's commitment to the retailer, its largest distribution point. In addition to Saint Jane's Microdose Lip Gloss collection, a line of CBD-infused lipsticks will launch later this year.
Co-founder of CBD.fr
Julien Cordobes is the editor of CBD.fr. Born in 1978 in the Paris region, he first trained in e-commerce before turning to natural health approaches, a dual perspective that now structures his way of writing about cannabidiol: reading the scientific literature as it is, without hardening the conclusions, and presenting it in a language that everyone understands.
He discovered CBD at a time when the French market was developing faster than the information available to it. He acquired CBD.fr in 2022 and then took on editorial responsibility for the blog. Since then, he has published numerous articles covering the daily use of CBD, the interpretation of laboratory analyses, the evolution of the legal framework, and precautions for use.
