Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Cannabis cosmetics facility sets up in Fife

A range of products produced by Cannafull
A range of products produced by Cannafull

A Fife start-up that manufactures cosmetics infused with cannabis extracts believes its products can compete with some of the world’s largest beauty brands.

Rick Messitt’s interest in cannabis started when he was growing up and his grandfather started smoking the drug to relieve pain.

After a career in tech, during which he co-founded Dundee digital agency Zudu, Mr Messitt’s first cannabis business he was involved with was Holistic Hemp Scotland, founded in 2016, which sourced legal cannabis products like CBD oils for other businesses.

While he was growing frustrated with issues over the quality and reliability of supply he met Craig McKay, a cosmetics veteran.

Together they set up Cannafull to produce a range of products such as balms and creams using non-intoxicating extracts from the plant.

Chief executive Mr Messitt said: “The quality of most cannabis cosmetics on the market just now is really poor.

“The most common approach is to take a bog standard cosmetic, squirt some cannabis oil in it and then put a leaf on the box.

“Our company is about efficacy and helping people.

“When cannabis is 5% of the cosmetic the other 95% needs to be good quality as well and that’s why most of our team come from the cosmetics industry.”

The Kirkcaldy firm sources its oil from Europe. The plant is grown in a farm in Lithuania, with extraction done at a facility in Poland.

Mr Messitt said although it is widely acknowledged cannabis can have beneficial medical and therapeutic uses, he had to be careful about claims he makes for his products.

“Regulators make it hard as there’s not enough data or research for us to make bold claims but we’ve seen some fantastic results,” he added.

“Cannabis is well known for its antioxidant qualities and the carrier oils we use it in like hemp seed oil is fantastic at restoring moisture.

“We are one of only a few people in the UK making, from the ground up, a quality cosmetic.

“I want our products to be a viable alternative to someone who currently uses L’Oreal.”

The company initially intends to produce “white label” cosmetics for other companies to rebrand and package under their own name.

However, Cannafull, which now has a team of four, also has plans to produce a range under its own name.

“Being only six months old we have a lot more ambitions – longer term we’d like to do a direct to consumer brand and we are working on that on the side,” Mr Messitt said.

“The trend for cannabis cosmetics is only going in one direction and the potential of the marketplace is huge and it’s all driven by consumer demand.

“Interestingly some players from the cosmetic world rather than the cannabis world have been approaching us and saying they’d like to introduce cannabis to their product ranges but they don’t know how to do it.

“They’ve got the capability to manufacture but don’t know how to develop the product so we also offer services to help with that.”

rmclaren@thecourier.co.uk