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Reviewed by Dr. Diana Rangaves, PharmD
Body lotions are great for hydrating and nourishing the skin, and can also help with other skin issues, like signs of aging. As we grow older, our skin gets loose and saggy and loses its natural source of elastin and collagen.
But we applaud your aging skin. Stretch marks, cellulite, age spots, wrinkles, or sagging skin show you exist and have lived! Firming body lotions are a self-care tool that can help improve the appearance of your skin.
Think of firming body lotion as your skin’s new BFF that gives you that little extra feeling of tightness and confidence. Losing elastin and collagen is entirely natural, and it’s something that’s naturally depleted as we age. By using a firming body lotion, you can help tighten up your skin and strut your stuff with confidence.
We’ve researched and tested the best creams to tighten up your tummy, creams for your decolletage, arm-sculpting salves, booty-firming lotions, and creams that help you tighten your skin from head to toe. We hope your skin enjoys the best firming body lotions in 2024.
1. Blu Atlas Body Lotion
Want tighter, brighter, ultra-hydrated skin? Then it’s time to dabble with Blu Atlas Body Lotion, the best firming body lotion in 2024. Body Lotion contains skin-loving and boosting ingredients that help you improve the appearance of the skin.
Have you noticed sagging skin on your arms, legs, face, or neck? (Or other places on the body). If so, it may be time to incorporate a firming lotion into your morning or evening rituals. We already do a lot during our morning showers: wash and condition hair, cleanse the body, do a facial skincare routine, and sometimes more.
Adding a firming lotion is a quick minute-long step that takes up almost no extra time. Replace your current body lotion with a firming body lotion, like the one from Blu Atlas, and you can start to see an improvement in your skin.
Blu Atlas believes people should have access to clean beauty and self-care products that improve their lives. That’s why their products are formulated with premium ingredients from natural origins.
Instead of harming your skin with harsh ingredients that could make loose, sagging skin worse. They introduce clean, wholesome materials that soothe, nourish, protect, and tighten
your skin. Ingredients like seaweed, shea butter, and jojoba oil penetrate the skin to ensure your skin stays hydrated while firming and tightening the skin.
Blu Atlas thought of everyone while formulating their body lotion. Choose from three scent options, Classic, Coconut Apricot, or Fragrance Free, to improve your skin today. Blu Atlas Body Lotion is the best firming body lotion in 2024, and it will help you get healthier, firmer skin.
2. Charlotte Tilbury Magic Body Cream
Oh, she’s magic alright. Magic Body Cream is a tightening cream that uses the “magic” of science and high-quality ingredients to improve your skin. This luxurious lotion contains rich ingredients like caffeine and ALGAKTIV
UpLift to lift and firm your skin. Every time you apply, you get an extra dose of skin-firming ingredients that help with other effects of aging.
Daily application allows you to improve the skin’s tightness and firmness. Other ingredients like hyaluronic acid, aloe vera, rosehip oil, and shea butter help the skin stay hydrated and plump, which improves the appearance of the skin. Use it once a day to get great results and see visibly brighter, firmer skin.
3. StriVectin Crepe Control Tightening Body Cream
While the price tag may steal your breath away, so will the effectiveness of this tightening cream. Crepe Control Tightening Body Cream is an ultra-effective body treatment that helps reduce crepey-looking skin by visibly tightening and firming loose, crepey areas. Powerful ingredients like turmeric root extract, butter blend, and jojoba seed extract offer the skin optimal nourishment and hydration as crepey skin is transformed.
Want crepe-free skin? You can’t go wrong with Crepe Control Tightening Cream. It’s one of the best firming body lotions in 2024.
4. Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Cream
Get the best bum of your life with Brazilian Bum Bum Cream. But there’s a secret we have to spill. Bum Bum Cream is a full body lotion that you can slather from the tips of your toes to the top of your neck. This cream has a devoted following by those in the skincare and beauty industry because it’s that good at tightening your skin. Reduce dimples on your bum, improve loose, sagging skin, and regain youthful skin.
Specialized ingredients make this cream so effective. Guarana extract is full of naturally occurring caffeine, which helps boost circulation and leads to tighter, firmer skin. To sweeten the pot, the brand makes this butter-soft cream smell like your next tropical getaway. Every morning you can close your eyes, rub some cream over your tightening skin, and be transported to an island far, far away.
Brazilian Bum Bum Cream is a little oasis for you and helps tighten the skin when used daily. It’s the best firming body lotion in 2024 for your bum and for a full body treatment with the best tropical scent.
5. Nivea Skin Firming and Toning Gel Cream
Whether you’re living paycheck to paycheck or just don’t like spending frivolously on self-care products, a low-budget firming lotion can help improve the appearance of your skin. Skin Firming and Toning Gel Cream from Nivea is an affordable cream that helps you diminish dimples and loose, crepey skin.
There’s nothing to be ashamed of, our bodies don’t stay young forever, including our skin’s appearance. It’d be downright weird if we stayed the same our whole lives! Maybe we should thank the universe for our sagging skin because it marks the passage of our time on Earth.
With CoQ10, lotus extract, and L-carnitine, this budget-friendly lotion helps enrich the skin with moisture while improving the skin’s elasticity. The best application areas are on the thighs, stomach, and buttocks, and you may see improvements in as little as two weeks.
Nivea Skin Firming and Toning Gel Cream is the best firming body lotion in 2024 at a low price point.
6. Bliss Fabgirl Sixpack Targeted Core-Firming Gel
While firming lotions are designed to treat areas like your arms, face, neck, legs, or bum, this bad girl is the best treatment for your core. Fabgirl Sixpack helps visibly improve the appearance of your tummy by tightening, toning, and firming up the skin. It’s a unique stick gel that utilizes caffeine and shiitake mushrooms to stimulate and amp up the production of elastin and collagen.
Along with the fabulous ingredients is the easy-to-use applicator that makes improving your core as easy as 1-2-3. Lightly place the applicator onto your core area and push down to administer the gel. Using the applicator, lightly massage the gel in a circular motion on your (soon-to-be) emerging six-pack for about 30 seconds.
Fabgirl Sixpack is the best firming body lotion in 2024 for men and women who want a targeted treatment for their core.
7. First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Hydra-Firm Night Cream
Let your firming lotion do all the hard work of hydrating and tightening your skin as you catch your beauty sleep. Ultra Repair Hydra-Firm Night Cream is an overnight treatment that can improve your skin.
Effective, high-quality ingredients work together to provide hydrating and firming benefits for the skin. Niacinamide, sodium hyaluronate, peptide blend, and colloidal oatmeal soak into the skin to hydrate and restore it. Skincare lovers who use the cream report a 90% improvement in their skin.
First Aid’s gentle buttery formula works best for the face, but can also be applied to problem areas on the body.
8. Palmer’s Firming Butter
Treat stretch marks, loose, saggy skin, or other signs of aging with a wallet-friendly firming lotion. Palmer’s Firming Butter is packed with naturally-derived ingredients like vitamin E and raw shea butter, which increases collagen production and helps tighten the skin.
Affordable, fast absorbing, and with a great scent, it’s an easy option for folks who want to improve the skin on the thighs, legs, stomach, and chest. Firming Butter is well-known for helping expecting mothers manage stretch marks and other scarring on the body.
Keep the skin hydrated while firming and toning up the skin with this simple lotion. Palmer’s Firming Butter is one of the best firming body lotions in 2024.
The complete guide to firming body lotions
Ready to reverse those dimples and loose skin? Then it’s high time you find a firming body lotion that works well for your skin. Learn more about choosing a firming lotion, what ingredients eliminate sagging skin, and how to get your money’s worth.
How to choose a skin-tightening body lotion
Shopping for self-care products has never been easier. Here are the key features you should look for while shopping for your next firming body lotion.
Ingredients to look for
The number one way to improve your crepey or sagging skin is to buy a tightening cream with the right ingredients. Here are some of the top ingredients that can help improve your skin.
AHAs and BHAs: Alpha and beta-hydroxy acids are gentle exfoliants that also firm and tighten the skin. Ingredients like glycolic or salicylic acids help encourage cellular turnover, which promotes tighter skin.
Peptides: Supporting your skin’s natural oil barrier, peptide amino acids help the skin stay hydrated and healthy. Tired, dry skin can appear looser or more saggy-looking than refreshed, hydrated skin.
Hyaluronic acid: An intense moisturizer, hyaluronic acid dives into the skin and offers deep hydration and firmness. It can’t replace or restore natural elastin, but it does improve your skin’s overall complexion and add firmness.
Vitamin A: Better known as retinol or retinoids, vitamin A is the best and most potent ingredient that helps you rebuild elastin and collagen. They’re the two building blocks for firmer, smoother skin. Retinol is used in many skin-tightening products, but be sure to check that it doesn’t stress out or irritate your skin before use.
Ingredients to avoid
Using cheap products with harsh ingredients can dry out the skin and make it appear more loose, saggy, or crepey. This is the exact opposite of what you want! Toxic chemicals are added to many popular products, so read the ingredient list before purchasing.
Target your treatment area
Firming body lotions aren’t like typical body lotions. You want to find the right product to treat that area you’d like to improve. For example, if you have a lot of loose, crepey skin on your bum, you need a targeted lotion to treat your buttocks area. Dealing with lots of sagging skin on your neck? You need a neck cream that will target the neck and possibly decolletage. Whichever area you’d like to treat, ensure that your chosen self-care product will target that specific area.
Why does it matter? Every specific skin tightening cream, lotion, or serum contains precise ingredients that target specific areas of the body. A firming eye cream wouldn’t do much for your bum. The skin on your bum is thicker and needs a much higher dose of stimulating ingredients.
Nothing bad happens if you use skin tightening treatments on the “wrong” area, but you may be throwing your money away because they typically aren’t very effective.
Stick to your budget
Like other self-care products, skin-tightening lotions can get really pricey. Before going on a buying spree, ask yourself what yearly budget you’d like to have. This gives you an idea of what you can spend every month or two—without getting into credit card debt. (Because, let’s be honest, Americans don’t need more credit card debt).
Good firming body lotions and creams usually cost between $25 to $80. Of course, some products cost more or less, but a solid firming lotion that helps you see results typically sits within that range.
Keep in mind that you’ll need to restock every few months. A product that costs $80 may work wonders for your skin, but if you can’t afford to replace it every three months, it won’t work well for your lifestyle. That $80 would cost you a whopping $320 per year for just one skin tightening lotion!
An effective skincare routine for all skin types
Whether you follow a basic skincare routine is up to you, but we’d highly recommend it. Following a skincare routine can help with crepey or sagging skin on the face, neck, and decolletage. And while you’re following a facial skincare routine, it’s a great time to apply other products onto the body, like a firming or tightening body lotion.
Cleanse your face: Start your skincare rituals by gently cleansing and washing off the face. Ensure to wash off any products from the night before or daytime products like SPF. Allow the skin to dry before continuing to the next step.
Apply any serums or lightweight products: Next, you can apply any serums, lightweight creams, or oils you use. As a general rule, you should apply products from lightest to heaviest. Lightly massage the products into the skin and allow the skin time to dry.
Finish with moisturizer and SPF: This is the cherry on top for morning skincare routines. Always seal in other products and use a face moisturizer. Then apply SPF on top.
If it’s an evening skincare routine, skip the SPF, and you can use a night mask or night cream. These treatments often contain gentle ingredients that work into your skin while you sleep.
Top tips and tricks to body lotions and tighter skin
There are more ways to care for your skin than with firming body lotions or other self-care products. Here are the top tips and tricks to getting tighter skin with the help of grooming products and lifestyle tips.
How often to apply skin tightening lotions
To start enjoying firmer, tighter skin, you just need to apply your firming body lotion once daily to the desired area. If you want, you can up the ante and use it twice daily during your morning and evening skincare routine. Applying it more than once or twice daily will be like throwing money away, so we strongly suggest against it. But hey, who are we to tell you what to do?
The best time to apply firming body lotions
Wanna get your skincare routine down pat so you can improve saggy-looking skin quickly? Awesome, we want that for you too. The best time to apply any skincare product is when your skin is clean and fresh, which means the best time is when you’ve stepped out of the bath or shower.
After showering, dry off before applying your firming body lotion. Use it on the recommended area and allow it to dry before getting dressed (Getting dressed too quickly may rub off the product).
The best way to apply firming lotions is with a circular massaging movement. This encourages and stimulates blood flow, allowing active ingredients to work their magic and improve the skin.
Always patch test
Firming lotions and creams are often made with potent ingredients so you can enjoy visible improvements in your skin’s appearance. This means that some formulas may be harsh for some skin types. Regardless of your skin type, you should always patch-test new products before adding them to your skincare routine.
Performing patch tests are fast and simple and help you get a clear answer on what works well for your skin. To do a patch test, clean a visible area of the skin, like the inside of the wrist. Allow it to dry, then apply some of the new self-care product to the clean area. Check the area every hour to see if your skin has any unwanted reactions to the product. If there are signs of irritation, it will likely not work well for your body, but if there are no signs of irritation, it’s probably safe for use in other areas.
Results will vary
Everyone’s skin is different. Don’t be surprised if your results vary from a friend or family member, even if you use the same product. The effectiveness of a product depends on several factors, like what the skin looked like before using a product, how your skin reacts to specific formulas, and if you remember to use a product daily. Use each product daily for three-plus months to get the best results with tightening and firming lotions.
Results take time
Expect to see results within the first few months of use with skin tightening and firming body lotions. Most people may see results after three months of use, but it does depend on your specific self-care product and its unique ingredients and formula. If you don’t see results by at least month four, it’s possible that a particular formula doesn’t work well for your skin.
Drink water
You may not realize it, but dehydrated skin can make sagging, crepey, or loose skin appear worse. By staying hydrated and drinking the right amount of water, you’re injecting your body—and skin—-with hydration. This helps fill out the skin and ensure it doesn’t look dehydrated, which causes, you guessed it, more loose, saggy-looking skin.
Eat healthy and get your exercise
Don’t underestimate the power of eating healthy and getting enough exercise. It can go a long way in helping your skin stay firm, smooth, and supple. Eating a balanced diet and getting enough fruits and vegetables ensures your skin stays healthy, which helps with problems like sagging, crepey, or loose skin. While eating healthy and getting enough exercise won’t stop signs of aging, it will help your skin maintain its health and youthful appearance for longer.
Always apply SPF
You will be cursing the gods if you don’t apply SPF daily! Yes, you should really be applying SPF daily. It’s one of the best ways to prevent signs of aging and decrease issues like loose, sagging, or crepey skin. Powerful UVA and UVB rays can speed up signs of aging along with other external factors like pollution or stress.
Frequently asked questions
Does firming body or face lotion expire?
Yes, firming lotions and creams will expire. Some grooming products have an expiration date stamped on the side, top, or bottom of the bottom. Or sometimes, expiration dates can be seen on the box. If you don’t see an expiration date, you should always check for signs it has gone bad. Tightening body lotion or creams may have gone bad if you notice a change in odor, color, texture, consistency, or effectiveness. Please avoid using expired products because they may contain bacteria or fungi that are unsafe for your body. Think your product has gone bad? Throw it out and get a new one. Even old products are also less likely to be effective.
Can I use skin tightening cream on my face?
As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t use lotions or creams formulated for the body on your face. Skin-tightening body lotions are more likely to contain ingredients that work as effective hydrators and moisturizers. Due to their formulas and special ingredients, they can potentially irritate or clog the pores on the face. This can cause different types of irritation, including redness, bumps, and blemishes. We recommend using firming body lotions only for the body and using facial moisturizers with tightening ingredients for the face.
Do skin tightening creams work?
Yes, skin tightening creams do work over time. While you may not notice immediate results, in time, you should see an improvement in the skin’s appearance. Results will depend on how your skin looks before treatment, what type of product you’re using, and how long you use it. The longer you use firming lotions, the better your results will be. Skin tightening creams use ingredients that boost and stimulate the structural components of your skin: collagen, elastin, and GAGs. This helps improve the appearance of loose, sagging, or crepey skin. Pick a lotion that enables you to target a specific area, like the face, arms, neck, or bust, to enjoy the best results.
Are body firming lotions safe?
Yes, body firming lotions are safe when used correctly. Most popular lotion formulas are made with ingredients that boost natural collagen and elastin to help improve the appearance of your skin. Whenever you use a new product, always patch test and read the instructions carefully to ensure you’re using it safely. Some skin tightening formulas contain retinoids which can be harsh for some skin types, especially those with dry or sensitive skin.
What’s the best firming body lotion in 2024?
Blu Atlas Body Lotion is the best firming body lotion in 2024. If you want tighter, firmer skin, you can’t go wrong with this skin tightening champion. Along with a healthy diet, exercise, and staying hydrated, this firming body lotion can help improve the appearance of aged and weather-worn skin.
