“During the last two decades I have been deeply involved in both cellulite cream formulation and cellulite treatments, so I can see the merits, challenges and benefits of both. The fact is that a good cellulite treatment and a good cellulite cream, however rare they may be, can both work and can actually complement each other, for maximum results. On this article I am analysing the differences in effectiveness, access and cost.”
Cellulite treatments vs cellulite creams: fast action vs value for money
Cellulite treatment or cream? What is best? | In summary
How do cellulite treatments compare to cellulite creams?
What is more efficient, a cellulite cream or a cellulite treatment?
A good cellulite treatment will act faster but is more expensive
A good cellulite cream will act slower but is more economical
Instant vs long-term results
What cellulite treatments and creams can / cannot do
Severity of cellulite: creams vs treatments
Improvement of cellulite, not elimination
Instant miracles do not exist
Treatments vs creams vs treatments and creams
Creams + treatments vs diet + exercise
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Cellulite treatment or cream? What is best? | In summary
Cellulite can be addressed through both treatments and creams, each offering distinct advantages and limitations. Treatments generally act faster and produce more noticeable results, but they are expensive, with costs in London ranging from £1,000–£3,000 per body area for a course of 6–12 sessions. Effective options include high-intensity radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, and, to a lesser degree, strong cellulite-specific massage. Results may appear within three to six weeks, though outcomes depend on severity, body response, and lifestyle.
Creams, by contrast, are far more economical, typically costing £300–£600 for three months of twice-daily application, yet they act more slowly, often requiring six to twelve weeks for comparable results. Their effectiveness depends on the quality, concentration, and range of active ingredients, such as liposomal caffeine, gotu kola triterpenes, forskolin, horse chestnut extract, and curcumin. Many creams on the market, however, lack sufficient active components and therefore fail to work.
Both treatments and creams can improve circulation, lymphatic drainage, inflammation, lipolysis, and fibrosis. Treatments perform better for skin tightening and adipolysis, while creams help with glycation and free radical damage. Neither option eliminates cellulite completely, and severe cases may need prolonged use.
Combining both methods yields the best balance between speed, cost, and effectiveness, but diet and exercise remain essential foundations.
How do cellulite treatments compare to cellulite creams?
This is a common question we hear at the clinic.
Every spring and summer millions of women undergo cellulite treatments and use cellulite creams in order to smoothen up their thighs in time for the beach.
Cellulite treatments are faster acting and are overall more effective but they are also more expensive
Cellulite creams are much more economical than treatments, so also make more sense, at least economically
However, creams are thought by most women to be ineffective and many women believe that creams are not even absorbed. Or they believe that their benefits are due to massaging the cream on the legs.
We addressed these two myths in detail in previous articles. But in summary I have to say that:
Having cleared that up, on this article we will be looking in detail at the pros and cons of cellulite treatments vs cellulite creams.
What is more efficient, a cellulite cream or a cellulite treatment?
First of all it is important to note that, due to the multi-faceted nature of cellulite, most cellulite creams do not work. This is because most such creams contain just one or two actives and at low concentration, instead of multiple actives to work on multiple aspects of cellulite.
Likewise, most cellulite treatments are not very effective due to low equipment specification, poor therapist training/knowledge or both
Therefore there is a high chance that most cellulite treatments or creams you are going to try are not effective. However, a small number of treatments and creams are effective.
For the few effective treatments or creams that do work, the differences are as follows.
[On this article we will repeatedly make reference to “a GOOD cellulite treatment” and “a GOOD cellulite cream”, to differentiate from the cheap, run-of -the-mill, so-called “cellulite creams” or the many gimmicky “cellulite treatments”.
A good cellulite treatment will act faster but is more expensive
A good cellulite treatment will provide more impressive results and work faster than a good cellulite cream, but it also tends to be less economical.
The best possible treatments for cellulite are:
High intensity, deep tissue radiofrequency
High intensity ultrasound cavitation
And, to a lesser extent, strong, cellulite-specific massage
Almost everything else simply does not “work”, meaning that it does not:
safely…
…provide good results…
…within a reasonable number of sessions…
…for most people
A strong, cellulite-specific treatment, such as the ones mentioned, can provide good, long-term results in 6-12 sessions, in most cases.
Of course, results will vary depending on severity, on how each individual body responds to treatment and on the lifestyle followed while on the course of treatments.
A typical course of 6x sessions of a good cellulite treatment will cost in London anything between £1,000-£3,000, PER BODY AREA. Price is not the best indicator of quality, but these are the average London prices for the few good treatments that exist.
With treatments received twice a week, good, long-term results can be seen as early as in 3-6 weeks.
So we can say that treatments are more efficient if you are short of time but they are not efficient cost-wise.
Furthermore, regardless of cost, treatments are absolutely more effective per se.
A good cellulite cream will act slower but is more economical
A good cellulite cream takes more time to produce results but it much more economical.
Cellulite cream effectiveness depends on the type of active ingredients used, their concentration in the product and the total number of actives used.
Examples of effective anti-cellulite active ingredients include:
Liposomal caffeine
Gotu kola triterpenes
Forskolin
Horse chestnut extracts
And curcumin, among many others
A cream that contains as many as possible of those active ingredients, in high concentrations, will offer maximum results.
Creams with highly diluted active ingredients and/or with only one or two active ingredients, as is the case with most cellulite creams on the market (or even with no active ingredients at all, as is the case with a top-selling “anti-cellulite cream”), will simply not work.
Again, effectiveness also depends on how the body responds, on lifestyle and on severity of cellulite.
A good cellulite cream will cost about £50-£100 per two week intensive application, PER BODY AREA. As creams work more slowly, typically three months of daily application will be needed for results roughly comparable to those of treatments, i.e. the total cost will be about £300-£600.
Again, high prices do not automatically mean quality or effectiveness, with very cheap options usually being a total waste of money and very expensive options quite often being a rip-off.
With the cream applied twice a day, good, long-term results will be seen in about 6-12 weeks.
So we can say that creams are more efficient in terms of cost but they are not efficient if you are in a hurry.
Regardless of speed of results, creams are more economical.
Instant vs long-term results
Of course, some immediate, short-term results may be seen in as little as a few hours, with either treatments or creams, and the first long-term results may appear in as little as 2 weeks in both cases.
This is usually due to temporary water retention reduction with either treatments or creams or due to temporary skin tightening with RF treatments.
But for long-lasting, good results the numbers of sessions or weeks of cream application, as mentioned above, are typically recommended.
What cellulite treatments and creams can / cannot do
A good cellulite treatment helps a lot with skin tightening and adipolysis (fat cell number reduction), two areas in which creams work less efficiently
Both good treatments and creams can work well on blood circulation/lymphatic drainage, inflammation, lipolysis and fibrosis
A good cellulite cream can also help with glycation and free radical damage, for which treatments do nothing
Severity of cellulite: creams vs treatments
Mild cases may need less treatments (even as few as 3 sessions for a nice top-up), while severe cases may need more treatments (even as many as 24 sessions)
The same applies to creams: mild cases may require just one month's use of cream (for a nice top-up), while the very severe cases may need up to 6 months' use, for good results
Improvement of cellulite, not elimination
It is important to note here that, contrary to misinformation in the press, the web and especially on instagram/tiktok, cellulite cannot be completely eliminated with ANY method of ANY kind (even surgery).
So we should always talk about improvement according to severity of cellulite - not complete cellulite removal.
Instant miracles do not exist
And we should definitely not talk about instant results in a couple of treatments or with two-week cream application and definitely not about miraculous “body transformations”, as those ridiculous types claim on instagram and tiktok.
Such transformational miracles only exist in the fantasy world and in the fake “before and after” instagram pictures of unscrupulous practitioners and companies.
(Gosh, there are soooo many BS-ers on instagram and tiktok…)
Treatments vs creams vs treatments and creams
So in summary it can be said that:
A quality cellulite cream offers more value for money but acts more slowly
A quality cellulite treatment is more expensive but acts much faster
Furthermore, creams and treatments may each help in different, complementary ways
Therefore, the combination of both will offer the fastest and more impressive results and will provide a good balance between value for money, speed of results and effectiveness
Creams + treatments vs diet + exercise
This dilemma should not even be a consideration, as diet and exercise are essential for both cellulite creams and cellulite treatments to work:
Diet and exercise comprise the base on which we further build upon, with a good cellulite treatment a good cellulite cream or both
Diet and exercise are essential for maximum results and for getting the best value for money out of treatments and creams
That calls for:
A diet rich in vegetables, berry fruits, oily fish and enough protein. And a lifestyle free of sugar, alcohol, smoking and excessive carb/fat intake.
High physical activity levels, including daily fast walking. Plus vigorous exercise, such as running, swimming, cycling, rowing, elliptical training, HIIT etc
There is no point spending £300 for creams and/or £3,000 for treatments, only to undermine the whole process with poor diet, alcohol, smoking and inactivity.
Have a treatment in London with the cellulite 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.
Now you can get instant access to our expertise and save yourself literally thousands of pounds, dollars or euros of expensive mistakes and thousands of hours of study, research and practical application by attending one of our half-day, 1-day, 2-day or 3-day professional consultancy / training courses.
Deeply understand and get properly trained in the science of radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, LED phototherapy, cellulite and skin tightening and confidently offer your clients the safest, strongest and most effective treatment possible.
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