U.K. to U.A.E.: How Oto Wellbeing Took CBD Cosmetics Into the Middle East
LONDON — The use of CBD in cosmetic products has become normalized in the last few years due to the boom it has enjoyed, but the globalization of CBD outside of the U.S. and Europe is still met with raised eyebrows.
In the Middle East, it’s still illegal.
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“The United Arab Emirates is amazingly strict and it was a real challenge for all of our products. They all went through their own licensing process in order to be available in the U.A.E.,” said Gemma Colao, cofounder and creative director of Oto Wellbeing.
Her brand is one of the first to legally sell CBD cosmetics in the region; they’re exclusively stocked at the Mandarin Oriental, Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi’s spa. The products include a day cream, serum, eye cream, night face mask, hand balm and a seven-day ampoule glow treatment.
Every product was tested for quality and quantity of ingredients, purity and traceability. The testing took 12 months to complete.
The multinational luxury hotel group was Colao’s first partner, where the signature treatments use a clear quartz crystal; green aventurine crystal; frankincense, and a sculpting bamboo massage.
“We started to talk to the Mandarin Oriental about how we could extend our offering and move outside of London — it was their idea to go to the U.A.E.,” said Colao.
“They’re [the Middle Eastern customer] really embracing this holistic approach to therapy and beauty — it’s a little bit more inside and out. It isn’t just a beauty treatment anymore, or they just want a nice experience — they actually want a transformational journey,” she added.
The reception to the treatments has been successful, so much so that OTO Wellbeing has launched at the Conrad and Five Palm Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai.
Colao doesn’t want to launch everywhere too quickly yet and wants to keep that level of exclusivity as the brand is already bubbling up.
She launched Oto Wellbeing in 2018 after working in fashion for nearly two decades as a designer on brands such as Donna Karan, Esprit, Stuart Peters and Sears Holding, where she was design director in its San Francisco Bay Area offices and it’s how she discovered CBD after consecutive struggles with stress and anxiety as a result of working in the fashion industry.
“A colleague recommended I try CBD and honestly, it was a major game changer for me and I really just couldn’t believe the difference. I started to notice that I was sleeping better, my stress rashes all went and then I discovered that it had all these unbelievable skin care benefits that cured my hormonal acne,” Colao recalls.
After quitting her job in design and moving back to the U.K. with her husband, James Henry Bagley, cofounder of Oto Wellbeing and the brand’s chief executive officer since 2020, she came up with her own brand as a result of not being able to find a substitute to the CBD offering she found in the U.S.
“None of the brands were doing it justice, everyone was doing it [to follow a trend]. No one was putting enough CBD in for it to actually be beneficial,” said Colao.
The brand’s name takes inspiration from the Japanese language; Oto translates “specifically to the space between sound and silence.”
Oto Wellbeing received a small and undisclosed investment from a private investor when it launched with help from Nicky Kinnaird, founder and president of British cosmetic retailer Space NK.
