This Makeup Gets You High When You Wear It, So I Tried It, Duh

As a daily cannabis user, I couldn't wait to consume cannabis directly through my morning makeup routine.

Hi everyone, my name is Lara, and I consume a lot of cannabis. I live with the chronic, painful conditions endometriosis and adenomyosis and use cannabis as my primary source of pain relief. I ingest CBD, THC, and CBN on a daily basis and I've recently begun experimenting with CBG as well. I eat edibles, drop tincture under my tongue, use balms and lotions, sit in a hot bath with cannabis bath salts, smoke joints, use bongs, and bring THC vape cartridges with me pretty much everywhere I go. Needless to say, I've consumed cannabis in a lot of different ways. But I have never gotten high from putting makeup on my face. Until now!

Instagram: @laraeparker

One of the cannabis brands I use and enjoy — Kush Queen — came out with a CBD makeup primer (Foto Blur, $40) under their Kingdm Cosmetics line in 2019 and I really liked it. It felt amazing on my skin and I'm honestly a complete and total sucker when it comes to anything with cannabis in it. But, while CBD is great and I'm a big fan, the CBD primer alone wasn't enough for me to actually notice a difference in my day-to-day.

Instagram: @kushqueenco

So when Kush Queen introduced a THC primer earlier this year, I ran my ass to get in line to get a bottle. The idea of being able to apply my medicine directly onto my face as part of my morning routine was a dream come true.

Instagram: @kushqueenco

A quick refresher: CBD (which is abbreviated from cannabidiol, fun fact!) is one of 100+ naturally occurring compounds in the hemp plant. CBG, CBN, and THC are some others. THC — a compound found in hemp that gets you high, which is what most people think of when they think of cannabis — is the star of the show today. Unlike other cannabis products (which are derived from plants with high concentrations of THC), CBD is made from high-CBD, low-THC hemp. In other words, CBD can provide medical benefits without making you stoned out of your gourd. So the first primer, while it felt good and smooth and was pretty, didn't actually give me any "high" effect since it was only CBD. But this new primer? Well, baby, it's got 200mg THC and 50mg CBD, which means that it can actually get you high.

OK, so this makeup primer that you put on your face can, like, get you high? But how? Well, reader, I'm so glad you asked.

Lara Parker / BuzzFeed

The THC Foto Blur Primer delivers a transdermal nano dose of 200mg of THC to help activate the 50mg of CBD and allow users to feel the high effect directly through this primer. The THC Foto Blur uses a patent-pending nanotechnology, which is a process that creates molecules as small as 25nm in size — approximately 2,000 times smaller than pores — allowing the products to fully absorb so that the THC and CBD can work deep into the skin and into the bloodstream. The formulation gives the primer a silky, serum-like texture that is still spreadable and feels lightweight, while it is also supposed to work on blurring pores and creating a smooth, perfected canvas for makeup application.

Here's a couple of photos of the actual primer on my palm. It's an off-white color with a light scent that wasn't very strong.

Lara Parker / BuzzFeed

According to Olivia Alexander, founder of Kush Queen, the effects of the THC Foto Blur makeup primer should be a similar feeling you would get from smoking flower or using a vape. Ideally, you would feel the high effects for one to three hours, depending on your tolerance.

As I mentioned previously, I'm a daily user, so I already know that my tolerance was a bit higher than the average person. Knowing this, I chose to apply the Foto Blur THC Primer first thing in the morning when I had little in my stomach and would be more likely to feel the effects of the THC based on how I know my body reacts with THC at this point.

For reference, here's a photo of my face with nothing but a sheer moisturizer on it prior to applying the THC Foto Blur.

Lara Parker / BuzzFeed

It's not supposed to drastically change the look of your skin by any means, but I wanted to give you the full picture!

And here's my skin about five minutes after applying a little more than a quarter-sized amount all over my skin!

Lara Parker / BuzzFeed

As I mentioned, it's not supposed to change the appearance of your skin much outside of blurring your pores, which I didn't notice much of, to be honest. My first impression of the THC Foto Blur primer is that the actual substance felt very silky and smooth on my skin. It didn't feel heavy or greasy and the scent wasn't overpowering. The texture? I give it a solid 10/10.

As for the high effect? It was very subtle. I rely on cannabis for pain relief and to help me have an appetite, and on this particular day, I was having some intense pain. The primer on my face wasn't enough to give me a full-on high feeling like I would with a joint or vape, but I could definitely feel something. I noticed the familiar, lighter, tingling sensation that I experience when I have THC in my system. But it certainly wasn't enough of an effect to give me an appetite or decrease my pain levels drastically. Obviously, it's a primer and I used a small amount, since I didn't put it all over my entire body, so I wasn't expecting much. But the fact that I was able to feel anything at all was pretty cool. For someone with a lower tolerance? Hell, they might even sit back on their couch and enjoy a TV show with a nice little high buzz. As for me? I liked it, but it's not something that I feel I would make a point to use every day.

Kingdm's THC Foto Blur primer is also vegan friendly, paraben-, sulfate- and fragrance-free, and never tested on animals. It retails for $40 and can be found at select California compliant dispensaries.