Do cellulite creams work? Facts vs marketing hype.

Do anti-cellulite creams work? Most don’t, very few do, find out Why.

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• When cellulite creams do work and when they don’t

• Do cellulite creams work? Not if the cream has little to zero active ingredients.

• Expertise: From shampoos to cellulite creams

• Quality: Expensive actives in high concentrations

• Quantity is also important

• Sell them a cheap cream and then make up the difference with slick marketing

• It is marketing that sells cellulite creams, NOT active ingredients

• Do cellulite creams work? Not if the user doesn’t “work”.

• Do cellulite creams work? Yes, if..

• How can a cellulite cream work? How is it possible?

• The benefit of applying natural active ingredients topically

• For some aspects of cellulite, a cellulite cream is better than a cellulite treatment

• Yes, well-designed cellulite creams do get absorbed

• A highly concentrated cellulite cream with multiple high-purity actives

• Yes, a quality cellulite cream can work and is important for cellulite removal

• Check our professional consultancy for a masterclass in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

When cellulite creams do work and when they don’t

It is a known fact, proven millions of times by millions of women: most cellulite creams don’t work, regardless of the expensive, slick and manipulative marketing.

Why is that?

There are two reasons for that:

• Either the cream doesn’t “work”

• Or the user of the cream doesn’t “work”

Do cellulite creams work? Not if the cream has little to zero active ingredients.

The main reason that cellulite creams themselves don’t work, is because 99% of them are either not concentrated enough or they contain just one or two ingredients, usually cheap and/or irrelevant.

For a cellulite cream to be worthy of its name it has to contain MULTIPLE, HIGHLY CONCENTRATED actives, ideally proven by MULTIPLE university studies (not one study in a questionable private lab) to affect MOST or all contributing factors to cellulite:

• Superficial fat accumulation

• Fibrosis

• Connective tissue laxity

• Impaired microcirculation

• Collagen glycation

• Free radical damage

• Inflammation

Expertise: From shampoos to cellulite creams

Firstly, for a cellulite cream to be worthy of its name, it has to be designed by someone with expertise and specialisation. However, most creams are designed by the same people who design anything from acne creams to shampoos to household cleaning products.

Quality: Expensive actives in high concentrations

Secondly, for a cellulite cream to be worthy of its name, it has to contain multiple expensive actives, in high concentrations.

This is especially necessary for body products, given the increased thickness of body skin in relation to the face skin, where most of the cosmetic industry focuses on. As a result, body creams require at least double the concentration of actives that a face cream contains.

Quantity is also important

Add to the equation the fact that a cellulite cream will have to be used on a surface area 12x times that of the face (cellulite creams are typically used on the front and back of thighs and buttocks and that is 12x times the surface area of the face.

Then you suddenly realise that the £100-for-three-months upmarket cream that you sell for the face becomes a £2,400-for-three-months upmarket cream to sell for the body (cellulite). Of course nobody would buy such a cream.

Even the equivalent of a £50 moderately priced face cream would cost £600 for three months of use as a moderately priced, quality cellulite cream. Still, few people would buy it.

Sell them a cheap cream and then make up the difference with slick marketing

So what do cosmetic companies do?

Simple. They:

• Cut their expensive active ingredient costs by 24x times, i.e. they just include something very little in the “cellulite” cream, just enough for label decoration and fluffy/shallow marketing claims

• Or they include one or two cheap ingredients (e.g. plain cheap caffeine or retinol) in the formulation

• Then they sell you an unjustifiably expensive £125-for-two-weeks “cellulite cream”

• And make up the difference with fluffy/shallow marketing

• At the lower end of the market there are the £10 creams, with equally wild marketing claims but more or less the same composition. Only the marketing changes. It’s all the same.

It is marketing that sells cellulite creams, NOT active ingredients

Sounds cynical, but that is the real reality, on the ground, as opposed to the shameless PR hype the consumer consumes daily in glossy mags, glossy blogs and glossy instagram posts.

It is shallow marketing that sells skincare, not quality. Period.

Case in point, one of the best selling cellulite creams in the world contains 0 (Z-E-R-O) anti-cellulite active ingredients - yet it boasts “clinical studies” which show that it “really works”. Sure, with the same ingredients as a plain body moisturiser…

And these questionable clinical studies are is in addition to all the thousands of positive reviews (which today can be bought from chinese “review farms” by the thousands).

Oh well…

Do cellulite creams work? Not if the user doesn’t “work”.

On the other hand, there are quite a few reasons why a cellulite cream will not work: simply because the user doesn’t “work”:

• First of all, daily use. Most people apply a cellulite cream a couple of times a week - as opposed to once or twice a day - and still expect it to work. Well, it is never going to work like that.

• Secondly, long-term use. Most people will apply a cellulite cream for one or two weeks - even just one or two days - and expect an “amazing body transformation”. Marketers are responsible here, promoting products as miraculous and people willingly believe the hype. If cellulite took years to develop, it would make sense to give a product or a treatment a few weeks, at least, for it to start “working”. And then actually use it for several months, for best results.

• Thirdly, diet, exercise and overall healthy lifestyle. No cellulite cream or treatment has any chance to work if the person using it does not reverse the lifestyle habits that led to cellulite formation in the first place. And many people keep eating, drinking, smoking/vaping, consuming toxins, sitting on the sofa etc and expect the cream to perform miracles.

• Which brings us to the fourth point, the “get rid of cellulite forever” idea, for which marketers are again guilty. No cream, or indeed treatment or surgery or anything else in this world, can COMPLETELY eliminate cellulite FOREVER. NONE. It’s all about reducing, sometimes modestly, sometimes significantly. Sometimes short-term, sometimes long-term. But not forever.

In summary, we are talking about cellulite reduction or improvement, with either a cream or a treatment. Not permanent elimination, miracles and “amazing transformations”, which all belong to the realm of fantasy.

Do cellulite creams work? Yes, if..

So, do you want a cellulite cream that works?

• First choose one with MULTIPLE, HIGH-PURITY actives in HIGH CONCENTRATIONS that are extensively RESEARCHED to work on different aspects of cellulite: fat accumulation, fibrosis, connective tissue laxity, impaired microcirculation, collagen glycation, free radical damage and inflammation

• Secondly have some REALISTIC, down to earth expectations

• And then make sure you use it EVERY DAY (once or twice a day), for 6-12 WEEKS, while at the same time following a HEALTHY nutrition, exercise and lifestyle regime, comprising daily physical activity, reduced alcohol intake, smoking avoidance, replacing the contraceptive pill with non-hormonal contraception etc

Miracles may not happen and results will vary from person to person, as with anything. But you will give your skin the best possible care and will provide it with the best possible raw materials for best results.

But let’s look into the “how can a cellulite cream work” question in more detail.

How can a cellulite cream work? How is it possible?

Cellulite is defined as “oedematous fibrosclerotic pannicullopathy”, which in plain English means:

• “Inflammation of the hypodermal tissue, accompanied by fibrosis and water retention”.

• Studies have shown that cellulite is also characterised by skin looseness, glycation and oxidative damage.

• And of course, the main feature of cellulite is hypodermal fat accumulation.

All of these aspects can be improved by natural active molecules, either:

• Obtained in the diet (typically fruit, herbs, spices, vegetables, oily fish and protein-rich foods)

• Obtained by nutritional supplements

• Or supplied topically by a quality anti-cellulite cream which contains such actives

The benefit of applying natural active ingredients topically

The benefit of local application is that you can use high concentrations of such actives where they are actually needed.

In this way you avoid overpowering the whole body with excessive amounts of ingredients such as anxiety-inducing caffeine, when they are only needed in a small area of skin.

In nature there are dozens of natural active ingredients that are useful in cellulite creams.

A combination of such natural actives can help with each and every one of the seven aspects of cellulite. For example, according to multiple research papers:

• Asiatic acid, asiaticoside, madecassic acid, madecassoside from gotu kola can help with water retention, skin firming, glycation, inflammation, fat accumulation, free radical damage and fibrosis, i.e. all aspects of cellulite, all by itself

• Caffeine and forskolin work on fat accumulation, water retention and fibrosis

• The green tea extract EGCG and the turmeric extract curcumin can help with fibrosis, free radical damage

• And it goes on like this with many natural actives: hesperidin, esculin, escin, rutin, pine bark extract, cocoa extract, hydroxyproline, chlorogenic acid and many more

For some aspects of cellulite, a cellulite cream is better than a cellulite treatment

Specifically for FIBROSIS, GLYCATION, INFLAMMATION and FREE RADICAL DAMAGE, even the best, most powerful cellulite treatments (i.e. deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency or high-power ultrasound cavitation) cannot do that much.

So creams can play a very important role.

A good anti-cellulite cream, highly concentrated with multiple actives that act on all those four factors can provide valuable help, which is impossible to get from treatments.

Furthermore, a good anti-cellulite cream, highly concentrated with multiple actives that are well researched for their LIPOLYTIC, CIRCULATION BOOSTING and SKIN FIRMING action (i.e. their action on the three factors of cellulite that cellulite treatments do affect) can synergistically assist any treatment, in addition to working well on its own too.

Yes, well-designed cellulite creams do get absorbed

And, yes, a good cellulite cream does get absorbed, if properly formulated.

Creams do get absorbed and in fact there are strict guidelines set by EU and UK (the strictest cosmetic regulations in the world) regarding the maximum amounts that can be absorbed into the body by a cream.

The notion that creams do not get absorbed is based:

• On either ineffective absorption systems in many cheap / poorly formulated commercial creams

• Or in the usual ignorance about skincare exhibited by many beauty “experts” in the media - including many aesthetic doctors

A highly concentrated cellulite cream with multiple high-purity actives

You may have noticed that I repeated the phrase "a good anti-cellulite cream, highly concentrated with multiple actives" several times above. This is because, as mentioned above, for cost-cutting / profit maximisation reasons, most cellulite creams simply are not concentrated enough and do not contain actives against all seven facets of cellulite.

By definition, a proper cellulite cream cannot be cheap, due to the high amounts of multiple, expensive active ingredients needed for it to be effective (up to £2,500/kg for some actives).

In the same way, a good cellulite treatment cannot be cheap due to the very expensive equipment needed to effectively fight cellulite (up to £120,000 for such machines).

Cheap treatments performed with low-spec machines do not help much with cellulite. Likewise, cheap creams with just a little bit of diluted something in them do not help either.

On the other hand, a very expensive cellulite cream will discourage sustained use over the several weeks and months necessary for good results.

So a happy medium is required where high-quality, high-purity, high-concentration natural actives are offered at a modest price, for good results to be achieved by continuous, sustained use.

The vast majority of cosmetic companies, large and small, do not have this business model: they prefer cheap, diluted ingredients for huge profit margins.

And, as mentioned above, they make up for the shortfall with silly, shallow, misleading marketing.

Fortunately, there are a handful of exceptions…

Yes, a quality cellulite cream can work and is important for cellulite removal

In summary, a cellulite cream is an indispensable part of a holistic anti-cellulite regime, as it can complement and even replace treatments, but only if:

• it is comprehensive and highly concentrated

• it is used regularly and long enough

• it is accompanied by a healthy anti-cellulite lifestyle

Three months of continuous use is ideal for best results, which, by the way, is also the same time it takes to finish a proper course of 6-12 cellulite treatments.

Check our professional consultancy for a masterclass in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

Do you want to deeply understand radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening? Attend a half-day, 1-day or 2-day or 3-day professional consultancy / one-to-one training and confidently offer your clients the safest, strongest and most effective treatment possible. Service available via Zoom or at our central London practice.