Cannabinoids including CBD have multiple cosmetic and therapeutic skin benefits including antioxidant, soothing, anti-inflammatory, moisturizing, anti-acne, wound-healing, and anti-aging properties.
Trait Biosciences (Trait) has developed Trait GlycoRenew, the company’s branded water-soluble CBD specifically innovated for topical and cosmetic skin applications.
The benefits of conventional CBD are limited by its lack of water solubility and low skin permeation, which lead to different challenges in formulation, absorption, and ultimately therapeutic efficacy. Conventional CBD needs oils to be dissolved and incorporated into topical formulations. These oils further require additional chemicals and manufacturing steps to make a stable product (emulsions). While current technologies overcome the majority of such challenges, skin permeation is still limited by the lack of water solubility and high lipophilicity (the oil-loving property). Research has shown that permeability of CBD can be greatly influenced by the oil used (e.g., coconut, almond, jojoba, and avocado oils) and the manufacturing process (when and where CBD is added during manufacturing). This makes the efficacy of topical CBD products unpredictable and limits the positioning of CBD as an effective topical ingredient for cosmetic and therapeutic use.
The lack of water solubility of conventional CBD also brings additional issues:
Stability risks: Products that rely on emulsions are inherently less stable and prone to separation over time, where oil and water separate. While this issue can be mitigated with strong formulation and process control, true water solutions do not carry this instability risk. Additionally, emulsion instability during storage may occur long before separation becomes visible. In such cases, even if the product appears stable, the amount of CBD within different parts of the product may vary, leading to dose variability.
Manufacturing complexity: Making products with emulsions requires more materials, manufacturing steps, and equipment compared to formulations where the active ingredient is truly water-soluble.
Trait Biosciences (Trait) has developed structurally modified CBD molecules through proprietary enzymatic and chemical processes that convert conventional water-insoluble CBD into water-soluble active ingredients. Trait GlycoRenew molecules are truly soluble in water. They can be used to create products that are true aqueous solutions with simplified formulation ingredients and manufacturing steps. Trait GlycoRenew facilitates the preparation of aesthetically attractive, transparent products (e.g., sprays, serums, shampoos).
Compared to conventional CBD, Trait GlycoRenew allows:
Stable topical formulations: Being a true water solution, Trait GlycoRenew eliminates the risk of oil and water separation. Additionally, there is no risk of unseen separation that leads to inaccurate dosing.
Simplified manufacturing process: Trait GlycoRenew can be manufactured in a simplified process, reducing formulation steps and equipment requirements.
For an active ingredient to effectively penetrate the skin, it must maintain a balanced profile between lipophilicity (oil-loving) and hydrophilicity (water-loving). Even with a stable formulation, penetration into deeper skin layers remains a major hurdle for conventional CBD due to its high lipophilicity. In contrast, Trait GlycoRenew molecules are structurally modified to optimize this balance, making them less lipophilic and better able to penetrate the skin to deliver the expected therapeutic benefits.
One Trait GlycoRenew molecule was tested and compared with conventional CBD and demonstrated approximately 100× higher absorption in a laboratory skin model.
