Women’s personal-care and ingestibles company Love Wellness is the latest to venture into CBD.
On April 9, the brand launched on LoveWellness.co a CBD-focused collection including Timeout CBD bath salts, ingestible supplements and tincture oils. The products retail for $29.99 to $49.99. Select products will also be available in Urban Outfitters’ 43 apothecary stores, which are located in metro areas like Brooklyn, as well as UrbanOutfitters.com.
“We’ve made a lot of progress with modernizing women’s wellness at Love Wellness. CBD can be used for stress, pain relief, anxiety and depression, and we think it’s a category that is still very misunderstood,” said Love Wellness founder Lauren Bosworth. “We think its a natural extension of what we are already doing.”
Launched in 2016, Love Wellness, which sees 90% of sales on its direct-to-consumer site, saw a 500% revenue growth in the first quarter of 2019, compared to the same time period last year. Like Lola and Nécessaire, Bosworth credits the millennial customers’ interest in the larger $4.2 trillion wellness economy with buoying her brand.
“We see our customers as those looking for homeopathic or natural alternatives to what they are used to finding in drug stores or pharmacies,” said Bosworth. She noted that two of the brand’s best-sellers are its Killer product, a boric acid suppository used to treat yeast infections, and its Good Girl Probiotic to promote vaginal health. The brand’s CBD supplement hopes to ride what is already working for Love Wellness, as most ingestible CBD products on the market are tinctures.
Though Love Wellness wants to stay DTC-focused, Bosworth understands that the retail partnership with Urban Outfitters helps bring the brand’s “healthy-not-high CBD mentality” to more 20- and 30-something millennials (Love Wellness’ target demographic). Love Wellness’ existing assortment is also sold in Urban Outfitters’ 43 apothecary stores and the retailer’s site.
Urban Outfitters has embraced the rise in CBD among beauty and wellness brands, as of late: In March, Kush Queen’s CBD bath bombs launched in Urban Outfitters, and Shea Brand’s natural pain relievers with CBD landed in doors in April. Currently, UrbanOutfitters.com carries 16 CBD products from nine brands.
Other CBD beauty and wellness brands have also turned to national distribution and retail partnerships for growth, as of late. Marijuana company Beboe recently launched its Beboe Therapies beauty line DTC-first, but with a presence at Barneys New York. CBD skin-care brand Cannuka landed in Ulta Beauty last month. According to cannabis market research firm Brightfield Group, the U.S. hemp-based CBD market will reach $22 billion by 2020.
“With the launch of our CBD assortment, it was imperative for us to not only curate a unique assortment but also partner with like-minded brands that want to educate on how to incorporate it into a healthy lifestyle,” said Harmony Boyer, Urban Outfitters’ associate buyer over global beauty and collaborations.
On April 20, Love Wellness will participate in the retailer’s first CBD panel-focused event at the Urban Outfitters in Brooklyn alongside Plant People, a line of CBD and adaptogen products. It’s meant to be a night of education around what CBD is versus THC and hemp.
“We need to explain what a hemp plant is, what the marijuana plant actually produces and why this won’t get you high,” said Bosworth. “We know advertising is still sticky with CBD, so we have to get creative with our content and chances to talk to the customer in real time.”
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