Sometimes, cannabis discovers you.
A few years before founding Kana, Janice Buu was working as a developmental disorder therapist when she noticed a change in one of her patients, a young girl with autism.
“Every session I would see improvement – there was more eye contact, more sign language, more ability to focus,” Buu tells Eaze. The difference: The girl’s mother had started administering CBD oil.
Research on cannabinoid therapies for developmental disorders is still extremely preliminary, but the connection inspired Buu to start researching cannabis as a wellness tool. And when her father had a heart attack in Asia, she smuggled him some CBD oil to help his bypass surgery recovery.
“My dad was 73 or 74, and while the men around him were complaining about pain and getting more morphine, he was fine,” Buu says. “The nurses asked him ‘What’s up, how are you OK?’ He said he was actually able to walk within a week.”
It was all enough to convince Buu to dive deeper. Inspired by her cultural interest in topical skincare, she came to found Kana Skincare, whose popular CBD-infused sleeping masks, face oil and botanical essence can now be shipped nationwide via Eaze Wellness.
Click the image below to shop Kana’s LIT Face Oil:
“After it helped my father heal, I started wondering of all the amazing benefits it could potentially provide for beauty and skin. Due to my cultural background – we put anything and everything on our faces if it makes us healthier and prettier – I started researching more into CBD and beauty formulations in Korea, the many manufacturers I approached would say ‘If I make it here, I go to jail!’ So I was rejected left and right.”
Buu couldn’t bring her idea for CBD-infused skincare topicals to the best formulators in the world. But there was an easy fix for that.
Buu is now working with multiple formulators who travel and live in the U.S., where they also ply their craft for some of the world’s toniest brands, including renowned hotel spa collections. “They know all these effective plant-based recipes that other formulators are still just discovering … I took custom organic skincare formulation programs from London just for Kana so now we combine knowledge and create recipes together.”
After 18 months of research and development, she launched with the lavender sleep mask, still their best seller. The nightly-use product, which like all Kana products features full-spectrum, U.S. hemp-derived CBD, goes on light and aromatic, and gives results on the first night, Buu says.
“That makes me sound like a salesman, but it does show overnight results,” says Buu, who says the mask is especially good for sensitive skin, particularly if you have redness or discoloration upon waking.
“Like under your nose or around your lips,” she says, “it’s very fast-acting on that dry skin itchy skin … not only is it anti-inflammatory, but it’s also very very hydrating.”
Click the image below to shop the Purple Rice Hemp Sleeping Mask from Kana:
Yes We Kana!
The word Kana, according to Buu, “an Asian/Japanese/Korean woman’s name. I didn’t know it at the time when I named it, but it stands for ‘powerful female.'”
So it only stands to reason that Kana supports Michelle Obama’s Global Girls Alliance, which provides education resources for young women and girls around the world. From now until Dec. 21, Kana is donating $1 to the Alliance for every product sold.
“When she launched it, I was like, this couldn’t be more perfect for Kana,” Buu says. “That’s what Kana is … it’s about discovering who you are, not what you are. It’s about discovering your own potential.”