Cellulite treatment at home
The ultimate guide to cellulite treatment at home: how to reduce cellulite with proper cellulite massage, a good cellulite cream and 100+ expert tips
Cellulite massages come in all shapes and sizes
Real cellulite massage at home
How to perform a proper cellulite massage at home
How to choose a real cellulite cream to boost your cellulite massage
Cellulite creams: focus on the active ingredients
100+ more things you can do about cellulite, besides massage and creams
Start reducing cellulite at home now
The ultimate guide to cellulite treatment at home: how to reduce cellulite with proper cellulite massage, a good cellulite cream and 100+ expert tips
How do you improve the health and appearance of your legs and whole body at home, without professional treatments or useless gadgets (none of which works)?
Here at LipoTherapeia we have a tried and tested, evidence-based, three-point cellulite removal plan:
Perform a 20-30 minute cellulite massage every second day (detailed instructions on how to do a proper anti-cellulite massage below)
Apply a good cellulite cream once a day (given that most cellulite creams are such in name only, we give you some tips on how to choose a REAL anti-cellulite cream)
Read our extensive guide comprising 100+ tips on what to do - and not do - to reduce cellulite, while at the same time improving your whole body health and appearance
That’s all you need to do to reduce cellulite at home without treatments:
Strong massage
Concentrated cream
Healthy lifestyle
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Cellulite massages come in all shapes and sizes
There are countless types of cellulite massages, some involving awkward cupping, silly “fascia blasting” tools that don’t even target cellulite, pathetic dry brushing, ridiculous “happy slapping”, missing the point “deep tissue massage”, sticky honey, vacuum suction, obnoxious heating/cooling/foul smelling oils, useless cellulite massager machines and vibrators, among others.
Most of them don’t work and don’t make any sense at all, and some are actually downright dangerous.
This article is about what kind of cellulite massage does make sense and works. It is very, very simple and requires little more than your fingers and a little oil - no expensive gadgets, fancy skin products or need to buy a ridiculous £50 for 30ml oil.
Combine with a good cellulite cream and healthy living (more on those later on this article) and you have a nice home cellulite reduction program. Not as effective as deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency, the gold standard in cellulite reduction, but perfect for home cellulite removal, at low cost.
And above all, cellulite massage is great for cellulite prevention and keeping the skin on your calves, thighs and buttocks healthy in general, due to improved blood circulation and lymphatic drainage.
Real cellulite massage at home
What do I mean by “real cellulite massage”?
I mean a strong massage that works specifically on the hypodermis and dermis, where cellulite “lives”. Neither too superficial, nor too deep - just focused on the hypodermis and dermis.
So how do we do that? There are three main massage “moves” and they all act on those layers (plus the subcutaneous fat, which will also improve in health and appearance).
Strong skin rolling. This is also called “palper-rouler”, but performed with hands. Hand palper-rouler is actually superior to mechanical palper-rouler performed with vacuum suction and mechanical rollers, as it does not stretch the skin and does not cause thread veins, which mechanical palper-rouler causes.
Strong skin kneading. Yes, exactly as you knead bread.
These are the two massage moves you can do by hand that will affect the hypodermis and cellulite, more than any other tissue.
In addition we need to stimulate some lymphatic drainage / venous return, which is simply achieved by:
Long, strong, upward strokes
Apply those moves in some logical way and with strong pressure for anything between 20-60 minutes on the lower legs, thighs, hips and buttocks and you have a home-made cellulite-specific massage.
Professionals normally perform 60 minutes of this massage several times a day, but even for them it is very tiring and probably not good for their fingers in long run, but it’s the best cellulite massage that can be given.
So for home use, something like 20-30 minutes every second day are more than enough (you need to leave one day between sessions to allow tissues to recover).
Obviously it is far easier to do the calves, the areas above the knees, the front of thighs, the sides of your thighs and hips (and the stomach, if you have any cellulite there), than your buttocks or back of thighs. But still you can do a few minutes of massage on those areas.
How to perform a proper cellulite massage at home
It’ simple
Always start an area with strong, long upward strokes for a few minutes
Then proceed to strong skin rolling and strong skin kneading for several minutes
And then always finish with strong, long upward strokes again for a few more minutes
Here are some useful points:
You can spend a few more minutes on the areas with more severe cellulite but don’t spend your full thirty minutes on one small area - you will just cause unnecessary irritation
Use some oil - not too little, not too much. Too much oil will not allow you to grab the skin and manipulate it. Too little oil will mean you start rubbing the skin surface rather than the hypodermis, which is pointless. You may use some cream, but make sure the cream does not dry too easily or flake after a minute, as this will just make the massage awkward and messy. Most creams are not suitable, while most oils are fine.
In deep tissue massage we use muscle kneading. In cellulite massage we use skin kneading. Grab the skin and knead it with the same technique, which is quite similar to making dough.
Skin rolling / manual palper-rouler (grab and roll) is similar to skin kneading, but as the name suggests involves rolling the skin with the fingers
Stroking is self-explanatory and refers to the usual “effleurage” (long strokes) technique in normal massage, but applied more firmly and with not much oil
Don’t do it too hard (you will injure the skin unnecessarily) and don’t do it too lightly (light cellulite massage is a waste if time)
If instead of plain oil you use a highly concentrated cellulite cream or oil, you will add another benefit to your massage. However, the problem with most of those products is that they simply do not contain enough actives to make any real difference. Plus, most creams can dry too easily, as mentioned above.
Try to avoid essential oils, as it is not a good idea to breathe them continuously for 30 minutes, day in, day out, for weeks on end. You will end up developing intolerances to them. If you really want to use an essential oil, use it in low dilutions and alternate with another one every couple of weeks.
If you follow these guidelines you will apply a pretty good cellulite massage on your skin, improving both its health and appearance.
How to choose a real cellulite cream to boost your cellulite massage
The problem with most commercial cellulite creams is that they contain:
The wrong active ingredients: Usually proprietary ingredients based on a couple of flimsy, non-peer reviewed studies, just for marketing or "exclusivity” purposes.
Very few active anti-cellulite ingredients: One of the most popular “cellulite creams” actually contains NO active ingredients! I know, it’s crazy, but it’s true.
Very low concentration of active ingredients: This is the rule for 95% of products on the market.
Low purity active ingredients: Low active molecule concentration of the ingredients. Again this is the rule in body skincare.
And why is that? Simply due to cost minimisation / profit maximisation.
It is easy to manufacture a high quality £50-for-50ml face cream, rich in active ingredients, and make a very good profit out of it. And likewise, the public is happy to pay £50/50ml every 2-3 months.
But legs and buttocks have 12x times the surface area of the face and would require 600ml of cream, i.e. £600 every 2-3 months, if the same profit margins were to be maintained.
So either content of active ingredients or profit margin has to give.
And given that it is marketing, not quality, that sells skincare products (this is a BIG truth), most companies opt to compromise on active ingredients and keep profit margins intact.
And they then fill the gap with marketing instead. Smart, right?
Cellulite creams: focus on the active ingredients
So how do I know what cream to choose?
Look for well researched active ingredients, such as caffeine, gotu kola extract, horse chestnut extract, green tea extract, pine bark extract, turmeric extract, coleus forskohlii extract, green coffee berry extract, butcher’s broom extract and cocoa flavanol extract, among others
Look for a combination of three or more of those active ingredients (not just some plain old caffeine)
Look for high concentrations of actives - of course no manufacturer will give you their formulation, but look for creams that focus on high concentration of actives (on the other hand, 10% caffeine and nothing else in a cream is both excessive and pointless)
Look for active molecules, rather than questionable extracts that may contain very little of the active molecule. For example a green tea extract in a cream may contain 0.1% EGCG, the active molecule in green tea, or 95% EGCG. Obviously a cream containing pure EGCG (90% purity or higher), will be much better than one containing a generic “green tea extract”.
Look for well researched ingredients, as opposed to amazing new “secret” ingredients, with zero peer-reviewed research on them
I know it is hard work to research and compare, but it can make the difference between buying something of high quality and wasting your money.
Will choosing such a cream get rid of all your cellulite? Contrary to tabloid hype, of course NOT.
No method can get rid of cellulite and not on its own, whether it is a massage, a cream, a treatment or an exercise.
But at least you will know you use the best possible cellulite cream, with a good concentration of focused active ingredients, that adds to your cellulite removal efforts.
100+ more things you can do about cellulite, besides massage and creams
Of course, the basis of any cellulite removal regime is “nutrition, exercise, lifestyle”, because it is the lack of exercise, bad eating habits and unhealthy lifestyles that cause cellulite in the first place.
Unless those change, cellulite will not be reduced effectively and/or it will come back in no time.
We have plenty of advice on what to do nutrition-wise, exercise-wise and lifestyle-wise on our detailed “How to get rid of cellulite” article.
That guide also contains an extensive section on what not to do, given the crazy number of misinformation and urban myths around, which will save you a lot of time and money.
Start reducing cellulite at home now
We hope this guide has been of help. Do your cellulite massage right away and then read our guide to start reducing your cellulite now - not next week / month / year.
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