We Put 6 Body Firming Products To The Test
Like diet pills that promise to help you “drop 10 pounds fast," body-firming products seem too good to be true. After all, what’s the point of busting your butt at the gym every day if a magical lotion can erase cellulite, firm up jiggly areas, and leave you looking lean and toned? With these questions in mind, we asked our editors to take six body-firming products for a two-week trial run. The results? Click ahead to see!
The product: BioElixia Body Shaper Firming Toning Body Lotion ($26)
Notable ingredients: Vitamin E, caffeine, salicylic acid, macadamia oil
Immediate effects: I'm not huge on lotion (meaning I actually really hate applying it). I just don't like the way it feels. But this body lotion absorbed quickly and didn't feel greasy—both wins in my book.
After two weeks: After my pleasant realization, I checked out the ingredients list was even more impressed with the product. It's free of parabens formaldehydes, sulphates, paraffins, and artificial colors and dyes. And it's packed with aloe vera, vitamin E, caffeine, and other smart skincare ingredients. Plus, two weeks later, my skin looks great.
The product: Environ Body Profile ($66)
Notable ingredients: Myriceline (a flavenol involved in the metabolic process of fat storage), vitamin E
Immediate effects: I have to be honest—I’m not crazy about how this product smells. It smells a bit like a strong sunless tanner, but it faded throughout the day. I do, however, love the consistency (it feels more like a gel than a thick lotion). I applied it after showering, before my body lotion, and immediately felt a pleasant cooling, tightening sensation.
After two weeks: After the first day, I started only using the product on my legs, which fixed the smell issue. Two weeks later, my skin feels super-soft and my legs feel smoother.
The product: Lierac Paris Body-Slim Destock Night Body-Contouring Intensive Concentrate ($59)
Notable ingredients: Active caffeine, scared lotus-white willow-biotechnological peptide, red fruit pulp extract
Immediate effects: It smelled lovely and had a very nice creamy texture—not greasy at all. It left my skin very smooth and moisturized.
After two weeks: I noticed visibly smoother skin after only a week of use. After about two weeks, the surface of my skin was noticeably tighter, although I can't say I saw any major improvements deeper than that. That said, I was fairly satisfied with the results.
The product: Orlane Aqua Svelte Slimming Scrub ($65)
Notable ingredients: Algae, sea salt
Immediate effects: I absolutely loved the scent, texture, and sensation. This product was a treat to use. The thing I hate about most exfoliators is how they tend to dissolve all too quickly, leaving you with just regular "soap" and not feeling like you’ve really exfoliated at all. This scrub was a legitimate scrub. It had a great, slough-y texture that maintained its coarseness and gravelly texture much longer than any other exfoliator I've ever used before. You could really feel it work; my skin tingled and felt super refreshed and scrubbed down. Afterwards, there was no irritation or painfulness at all. This sensation lingered after exiting the shower. The scent was really refreshing (slightly minty or gingery); you could feel it "detoxifying," so to speak. I'm not sure about any visible immediate effects, but my skin definitely felt more "alert" and a little less like "deadweight." Bonus points for making me feel way better when I had a cold during this experiment.
Two weeks later: Truth be told, I used a sunless tanner halfway through this experiment and was hesitant to slough it away before the 4th of July. So I think I'd need a few more uses to be able to report on more lasting changes from the product. I will say that my skin definitely feels smoother and upper thighs a little toner. If anything, I certainly look forward to my showers more, now.
The products: Bliss FatGirl Scrub ($38) and FatGirlSixPack ($38)
FatGirlScrub notable ingredients: Red algae, Himalayan pink salts, peppermint extract, grapefruit extract
FatGirlSixPack notable ingredients: Caffeine, amino acids, creatine, oat kernel extract
Immediate effects: The SixPack gel was a bit weird—it felt like I was giving myself an ultrasound. The good news is that, while a little goopy, the formula didn't smell and dried fairly quickly. The scrub actually smelled decent and made my skin feel a lot smoother right after a shower.
Two weeks later: Though my skin felt smoother after the scrub, I didn't really see any noticeable results from the gel after two weeks of use—but that could have been because my exercise game wasn't exactly on point (which it recommends you do in conjunction while using the product).
The products: Rodial Super Fit Arm Sculpt ($62)
Notable ingredients: Bilberry extract, sugar cane extract, lemon extract, orange extract, pomegranate fruit extract
Immediate effects: My arms immediately felt tighter with a warm, tingly sensation right after applying the lotion. This lasted for about two hours and then faded away.
Two weeks later: Overall, I haven’t noticed any huge long-term effects, but that could just be because of how long I’ve been using it. I would definitely recommend this product as a quick fix for instantly firmer skin.
Have you ever tried a body firming product? Tell us your experiences below!