Instagram for CBD balm and topical brands
Topicals are the one hemp category where the applicable rulebook is different. A balm is usually a cosmetic, not a food supplement, and cosmetics law is specific about what a product may be said to do to the skin. Brands that move from oils to balms usually carry the old wording across and get it wrong.
Updated 2 minute read
A different rulebook
Cosmetic claims are about the appearance and condition of the skin. Anything about what happens underneath it, in muscles or joints, moves the product towards a medicinal presentation, and that is a different regime with a different regulator.
This is why the wording that feels most natural for a balm is the wording that fails. The whole reason people buy a balm is the part you cannot say.
Do not write this
Our balm is made for sore muscles after training
Write this instead
Our balm is beeswax, shea butter and hemp extract, with menthol for the cooling feel. Here is the texture and how far a tin goes.
Why. A named body problem and an implied action on it. The recovery and soreness family is one of the most heavily covered groups in our rule set, and rephrasing it as made for does not move it out.
What a balm can honestly be about
- Texture and absorption. What it feels like going on, how greasy it is, how long it takes to sink in.
- The base. Beeswax, shea, cocoa butter: sourcing and why the formula uses one rather than another.
- Scent, including whether it has one.
- Coverage. How far a tin actually goes, which is a real purchase question nobody answers.
- The skin itself, in cosmetic terms: dryness, comfort, condition.
Topicals photograph better than anything else in the category
A tin, a texture swatch and a hand are the three shots, and they are all easy. Texture in particular is the format that performs: a close macro of the balm being scooped tells the buyer more than any caption.
Market differences
Cosmetic rules are more harmonised across the EU and the UK than food rules are, which makes topicals the easier product to sell across markets. The US adds its own layer, and the notices are in the United States guide.
The general claim line is in the health claims guide.
Questions
- Is a CBD balm a cosmetic or a supplement?
- In most cases a cosmetic, because it is applied to the skin rather than ingested. That changes which claims are possible and which authority is interested, so it is worth confirming for your specific formulation.
- Can I say a balm is cooling?
- Where the cooling comes from an ingredient like menthol, describing the sensation is a description of the product. Attaching it to a body problem is where it becomes a claim.
Keep reading
- CBD Instagram marketing: what a hemp brand can actually post
Paid reach is mostly closed to hemp brands, so the feed is the channel. What a CBD account can post, how a month is built, and what gets accounts restricted.
- Health claims on social media: describing a product without promising an outcome
What counts as a health claim in a CBD caption, why softeners like helps and supports do not help, and how to write about a product without naming an outcome.
- United States: CBD rules on social media
What a hemp brand may post in the US market: the FDA position on claims, FTC disclosure rules, the notices every post needs, and the wording that fails.
- How to build a CBD Instagram content plan for a month
A month of CBD content planned from the catalogue and real search demand instead of a brainstorm: structures, mix, cadence and the review that keeps it going.