“Guarana, a South American plant rich in caffeine, is commonly included in energy drinks and supplements. While its caffeine content is higher than that of coffee beans, its effects on cellulite are negligible when consumed orally. Ingesting less than 400mg of caffeine daily does not influence cellulite, though high doses—such as 1,000mg per day—may worsen it through adrenal exhaustion and dehydration. Although caffeine can help reduce cellulite when applied topically due to its fat-breaking properties, guarana extracts used in creams typically contain insufficient caffeine to be effective. High concentrations of guarana required for noticeable results are impractical in skincare due to their colour, texture, and odour. Most anti-cellulite creams with guarana mislead consumers with ineffective caffeine doses. Overall, guarana offers no real benefit for cellulite, whether ingested or used in topical formulations.”
Guarana, cellulite and your skin
Guarana vs caffeine / How much caffeine in guarana?
Guarana and caffeine at low doses are irrelevant to cellulite and at high doses detrimental
Guarana in cellulite creams: a marketing gimmick
Guarana: no help for cellulite, either in a cream or as a tea / supplement
Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts
The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening
Guarana vs caffeine / How much caffeine in guarana?
Guarana (Paullinia cupana) is a South American plant whose seeds, the size of coffee beans, contain caffeine. The concentration of caffeine in guarana seeds is about 4x that of coffee beans (1, 2) and about 2.5% more than guarana powder (coffee beans contain about 2% caffeine by weight). Drinks made with guarana seeds are popular in Brazil.
Many commercial “energy drinks” contain guarana. However, these drinks, in terms of caffeine, are no different to drinks containing caffeine from coffee beans or even tea and green tea.
For most of the population, caffeine ingestion up to 300-400mg per day, i.e. caffeine from 3-4 cups of coffee (or similar amount from energy drinks / guarana supplements), is not a problem for general health or cellulite.
For people sensitive to caffeine, however, too much guarana, coffee or high caffeine tea, such as matcha tea, is not recommended.
Guarana and caffeine at low doses are irrelevant to cellulite and at high doses detrimental
This oral ingestion of caffeine (<400mg/day) neither causes nor reduces cellulite, when taken orally.
Larger amounts of caffeine, from guarana, coffee, green tea, black tea or energy drinks (e.g. 1,000mg/day, equivalent to 10 cups of coffee a day), are unhealthy and can indeed play a role in cellulite development, due to adrenal exhaustion and dehydration (with consequent water retention when caffeine intake is discontinued).
Guarana in cellulite creams: a marketing gimmick
Caffeine is indeed helpful in reducing cellulite when used topically, due to its lipolytic action, via PDE 3/4 inhibition (this effect is irrelevant when caffeine taken orally).
Therefore guarana extract, one would assume, would be useful as an active ingredient in anti-cellulite creams.
However, guarana extracts in cosmetics contain anything between 1-20% caffeine. As a 20% guarana extract is brown and has a heavy odour, it cannot be incorporated into a cream in high enough amounts to make a difference with cellulite.
For this reason, most so called anti-cellulite / “bum-bum” creams, indeed contain a 20% guarana extract but at less than 1% concentration. Now, 1% of 2% is 0.2%, and this is the caffeine content in the final cream. Such a low concentration is absolutely pointless for either cellulite or topical fat reduction.
At least 3-5% of non liposomal caffeine or 2-3% of liposomal caffeine is needed for good results, ideally in combination with other anti-cellulite actives, such as forskolin. Using anything less in a cream is, in plain terms, deceiving the consumer.
There is no cellulite cream on the market with 15% guarana in it, which would provide a minimum of 3% caffeine. And there is a good reason for this as that would be a thick, dark brown sticky mess which would be impossible to absorb and unsuitable for skin application.
It just makes much more sense to use 2-3% liposomal caffeine in a cellulite, which is white and absorbs like a dream.
Guarana: no help for cellulite, either in a cream or as a tea / supplement
So, no, guarana won’t help with cellulite reduction in any either oral or topical form.
It will make cellulite worse at guarana oral intakes equivalent to <400mg of caffeine per day.
Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts
At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than two decades and 20,000+ sessions.
This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.
As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.
(Of course, we keep looking for new technologies every day and if/when a better technology materialises we will be the first to provide it. However, we will never follow the latest ineffective gimmick, just because it’s good marketing to offer the latest hyped up - yet ineffective and/or unsafe treatment.)
Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced RF and cavitation treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.
And for even better, faster results, we now combine our RF/ultrasound treatments with high-power red/infrared light LED treatment.
Our radiofrequency/ultrasound/LED treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.
(No unsafe and ineffective RF microneedling or HIFU and no safe but ineffective acoustic wave therapy, superficial RF (bipolar/tripolar/multipolar etc), low power RF/cavitation, electrical muscle stimulation, lymphatic massage, cupping, dry brushing and no ridiculous bum bum creams.)
Our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service, with a smile.
We will be pleased to see you, assess your cellulite, skin laxity or fibrosis, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.
The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening
Why train with The Cellulite School™?
We all know that training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening is as basic as it gets. It is typically a 4-6 hour training, involving only basic instruction from the manufacturer on how operators can use the machine; lots of myths, erroneous information and misconceptions; and some basic health and safety on how to use the machine.
There is no proper, real training in the science or cellulite, skin tightening, radiofrequency, ultrasound and all related technologies is non-existent - worldwide.
Do you want to deeply understand radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, LED phototherapy, cellulite and skin tightening?
Get proper training based on 25-year theory and practical application of cellulite reduction and valuable insights from 24,000+ sessions and 4,200+ clients.
Attend a half-day, 1-day, 2-day or 3-day one-to-one masterclass and confidently offer your clients the safest, strongest and most effective treatment possible.
Get properly trained in the science of cellulite, skin tightening, radiofrequency, ultrasound, phototherapy and all related technologies, at LipoTherapeia.
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