Do Kim K’s skims make sense for cellulite?

• Kim Kardashian's shapewear for cellulite: is it a good idea?

• KK Skims: extra “bonding” on the thighs to “snatch” the cellulite

• Does Kim Kardashian have cellulite? From denial to embracing to doing something about it

• Quantity versus quality

• Ozempic / Wegovy / Mounjaro and the new beauty ideals

• Kim K’s cellulite with her new slim physique

• Kim’s American-style “Let’s do it” attitude

• Making money out of the Brazilian Butt Lift craze too

• Cellulite: ignore, treat or hide, it’s all fine

• Kim’s “Skims” range aims to hide her cellulite with extreme compression. But is constant extreme compression a good idea?

• Good for the winter, not so sure about the summer

• Circulation & lymphatic drainage

• Squishing the fat - a double edged sword

• No movement means no firmness

• Occasional use is great

• Kim Kardashian’s cellulite: genetic or lifestyle?

• You cannot completely, 100%, “get rid of” cellulite - especially advanced cellulite. But you can make it much better.

• Cellulite treatment for Kim Kardashian

• Cellulite Treatment depth, intensity and frequency and total number of sessions

• (Kim Kardashian’s worth)

• Longer course of treatments

• Instant results don’t exist - regardless of how rich you are

• 100+tips for Kim Kardashian’s cellulite

• Book an expert cellulite / skin tightening treatment in London, at LipoTherapeia®

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

Kim Kardashian's shapewear for cellulite: is it a good idea?

After years of denial Kim Kardashian came to accept her cellulite and, with her Skims range, to both cover it and, in typical Kardashian fashion, make money out of it.

But is extreme compression a good idea? And what can Kim do to actually improve the health of her legs and the appearance of her cellulite?

Here we give the skinny on Skims, Kim K’s cellulite and actually improving skin health on the thighs and reducing cellulite - not just hiding it.

[Article first written in 2019 and updated in September 2023]

KK Skims shapewear: extra “bonding” on the thighs to “snatch” the cellulite

This week Kim Kardashian has introduced her latest shapewear, with solid, reinforced “bonding” for the bum and tummy area and also some extra bonding around the thighs to hide her cellulite.

Kim said about the bonding on the stomach area: "This is like, major hold in your tummy"; and about her shapewear compressing the cellulite on her thighs: “So I feel like it definitely snatches here. I am big on cellulite on the thigh, so I wanted to make sure there was extra bonding on the side of the thigh.”, as the Sun reported.

Does Kim Kardashian have cellulite? From denial to embracing it to doing something about it.

Kim Kardashian has previously denied the existence of cellulite in her bum and thighs, hidden by carefully Photoshopped images, which accentuated her shape while minimising the bumps.

However, after paparazzi photos of her holidays in Mexico revealed the reality, Kim came to embrace her cellulite and adopt a more truthful and positive attitude towards it.

Two years later and just before the launch of her range, Kim complained that she “is insecure about the 'cellulite on my thighs' showing through her clothes, so she created extra 'bonding' in her Skims”, according to the Daily Mail.

Quantity versus quality

In our imbalanced “Western civilisation”, quantity is more important than quality. Having a huge butt (the bigger, the better), is the fashion these days, largely due to Kim K’s influence.

But you cannot have a big butt without huge levels of cellulite - this is a biological impossibility. The same factors that overfill the subcutaneous adipose tissue of your buttocks with fat to create a huge butt (female hormones, lots of food, inactivity) also overfill the hypodermal adipose tissue (cellulite) in the same area.

You can’t have a huge butt and make hundreds of millions out of it without lots of cellulite too.

Ozempic / Wegovy / Mounjaro and the new beauty ideals

At the moment of updating this article (September 2023), the big butt look is still largely popular.

However, with the advent of Ozempic, many celebrities are now suddenly slim, due to suddenly “becoming disciplined with food” (😂) and shedding 20, 30, 40 pounds in a just few months (Wegovy and Mounjaro, similar medications will be widely available soon).

I don’t know if Kim K lost her weight that way, but she is leading the way towards the new paradigm of slimness. Out go big butts, in come slimline physiques driven by anti-diabetic medication.

In the next few years these celebrities will influence people to be slim and toned and pronounced curves will gradually go out of fashion.

Already Skims focus a lot more on sexiness and bondage and less on hiding fat, which Skims owner has largely eliminated.

Kim K’s cellulite with her new slim physique

In the last two years Kim K has lost a lot of weight, with pictures everywhere in the press showing off her new, much slimmer physique.

As weight loss helps with cellulite reduction but not much, Kim K should still have quite pronounced cellulite - plus skin laxity, due to the excess skin from the previously held extra weight.

As all pictures currently distributed in the press are retouched and no fresh paparazzi pictures have surfaced, at the moment everything looks polished and perfect.

But don’t be fooled. Cellulite, especially severe cellulite, cannot be fully eliminated completely, even with surgery (especially NOT with surgery). Sure, with the right treatments and products cellulite can be reduced quite a lot, but not eliminated.

This is not to say that cellulite is good or bad, just that hiding it with body make up / lighting / photoshop is not the same as actually eliminating it. And to say that apparent “miracle transformations” quite often seen in celebrities are not actual miracles - they are sleights of hand.

Kim’s American-style “Let’s do it” attitude

However, Kim Kardashian is an example of someone taking a pesky problem and doing something about it. In typical American fashion, she is making money out of her cellulite.

Why not? This is great. She solved (well, kinda) a problem for herself, making money out of it and helping millions of women in the process. What’s not to like about this attitude?

Given that people in the West are becoming more and more overweight, including Kim up until recently, sometimes covering the problem is something of value, until one has the time and energy to solve the problem at its root (or to start having those weight loss / diabetes injections).

Making money out of the Brazilian Butt Lift craze too

In fact, Kim is not just making money out of her cellulite. Kim Kardashian is largely credited for having made big bottoms fashionable again and she was the main driving force behind the rise of Brazilian butt lift procedures. Women do not want small bums anymore, they want to make their bum as big as possible, as round as possible and as lifted as possible, like Kim’s - although the craze is now slowly fading.

So those women did not need to go under the knife for a dangerous BBL operation, they could just buy Kim’s super-reinforced version of Spanx, for which she says: 'There is a sheerness on the butt to lift it all, and there is a silicone strap. The Contour Bonded collection offers the highest level of support for super strength smoothing and lifting.“

And there you have it: a virtual Brazilian Butt Lift and cellulite removal all in one (albeit only under the clothes), without treatments and surgery, yours for less than $100, including shipping.

Sounds perfect. But is it?

Cellulite: ignore, treat or hide, it’s all fine

Cellulite doesn’t kill and one can live a happy, fulfilled life with it or without it.

However, it is indeed an inflammatory aesthetic skin condition and in addition to its skin health implications some women do not like its look, so for them it is worth doing something about it: either treat it or hide it.

Kim’s “Skims” shapewear range aims to hide her cellulite with extreme compression. But is constant extreme compression a good idea?

For occasional use, I don’t see why not.

It immediately “Photoshops” your tummy, bottom and legs when you go out, hiding not just cellulite but also any other bulging or sagging fat on the butt, hips, side of thighs (saddlebags) and waist (muffin tops).

Good for the winter, not so sure about the summer

It is especially practical in the winter but really impractical and uncomfortable in the heat of the summer. Probably this is a reason why Kim chose to release her new line, in October, when winter is approaching in the Northern Hemisphere. It is ideal for the US and European markets - a summer launch would be very impractical.

Circulation & lymphatic drainage

Continuous use of non-graduated compression garments on the thighs is not a good idea for long-term use, even in the winter-only, as they impede venous return and lymphatic drainage of the lower legs. This means less detoxification and more water retention on the lower aspects of the thighs and calves.

Furthermore, the severe compression on those compression garments will also impede to some extent arterial flow, which means less nourishment and oxygenation for the tissues in the area, including the skin.

Less circulation simply means more cellulite in the long-term, which sounds quite ironical in this case.

Cellulite shapewear: squishing the fat is a double edged sword for cellulite

Now, compressing the fat usually leads to what is called fat apoptosis, i.e. fat cell death and subsequently reduction of fat cells, which can only be a good thing for cellulite and fat accumulation.

However, compression and lack of oxygen (hypoxia) may also lead to inflamed - but still alive - fat cells and fibrotic adipose tissue, which is basically the definition of cellulite.

The jury is still out on this one and what would compression cause on different individuals.

No movement means no firmness

And lastly, there is the issue of skin firmness/tightness.

Your skin stays firm because it reacts to external mechanical stimuli, i.e. vibration from walking and moving around. This in turn stimulates to production of collagen and elastin by fibroblasts (collagen cells) and also favours their population:

• more movement = more collagen cells and more collagen/elastin synthesis

• less movement = less collagen cells and less collagen/elastin synthesis

If you “freeze” skin motion with compression garments, you have less collagen production and with time looser, saggier, weaker skin.

Occasional use is great

As I mentioned above, occasional use will be fine. It will not really cause any of the above side effects and, as we see from Kim’s pictures and video, it makes hips and thighs look great under clothes.

However, constant use should be avoided.

Kim Kardashian’s cellulite: genetic or lifestyle?

As we have seen from the Mexico pics, Kim has A LOT of cellulite.

There is definitely a clear genetic component to that, as such pronounced cellulite at such a young age does not just happen automatically in most women. However, there is definitely a lifestyle effect too, which was probably exacerbated by Kim’s effort to acquire a literally huge bottom.

Such pronounced cellulite needs both genetics and lifestyle to develop.

You cannot completely, 100%, “get rid of” cellulite - especially advanced cellulite. But you can make it much better.

Kim K has had various cellulite treatments over the last two decades, evidently to no apparent effect.

The fact is that if cellulite shows through clothes, I would not expect any treatment to have 100% effectiveness on her. Severe cellulite can not be eliminated, despite what Instagram smooth operators claim.

However, with all her money and resources and all her focus on body image I would expect her to have much less.

So what gives?

First we have to consider how healthily Kim eats and how much or little she exercises, of which we cannot know the actual truth.

And then it’s about cellulite treatments.

Cellulite treatment for Kim Kardashian

The problem with KK is her size. Having such a large skin surface around her butt and thighs to be treated, means that she needs longer, deeper-acting, higher power treatments.

Now that she lost a lot of weight she must suffer from a lot of skin looseness, which may be hidden in the Photoshopped imaged but it’s still there in real life.

I don’t know what treatment she is having, but I have a fear that it is just not long, not deep, not strong and not repeated enough.

Cellulite Treatment depth, intensity and frequency and total number of sessions

The only treatment worth talking about for both cellulite and skin tightening is deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency.

For Kim Kardashian’s size (height 5ft 2in, weight 116 lbs, with heavy distribution around her bum and thighs) I would use high power RF (>250 Watts) treatment for 60-80’ (double treatment due to the large surface area and severe cellulite) focused on the deep skin tissues (hypodermis), just for the buttocks, outer thighs and back of thighs.

For the front and inner thighs I would use another 60’ treatment, on another day of the week. In her case I would advise concomitant intensive use of some highly concentrated cellulite creams, for maximum results.

At an average price of about £300-400 per 60’-80’ session (as a part of a course of treatments) it is not cheap. However, it is an extended, intensive treatment on a large treatment area, and I am sure Kim can easily afford the absolute best.

(Kim Kardashian’s worth)

Skims made $2 million in the first few minutes of the site going live and Kim was apparently worth about $1.7 billion at the time this article was last updated.

Longer course of treatments

The other issue with KK is the severity of her cellulite, which means that she needs to be patient with time and have more treatments than the average case.

I’m sure that she is also a perfectionist, in which case, more sessions would also make sense.

For most women I recommend 6-12 sessions, and rarely more, taking into account the needs and financial ability of the average client.

However, for an individual like Kim Kardashian, who needs more treatments AND can afford them AND is perfectionist about her body, I would definitely recommend 24 sessions per area, spaced apart every 3-15 days.

The last time I suggested 24 sessions was to a young woman with excessive skin looseness and cellulite after losing 50 pounds of weight, and it was really worth it.

Instant results with a couple of “miracle” sessions don’t exist - regardless of how rich you are

The problem with some celebrities with severe cellulite is that they are sold the usual BS at celebrity aesthetic clinics that 2-3 short yet super-expensive, super-paindful, dangerous treatments can instantly and forever solve their problem.

This attitude is great for the hyped-up clinics themselves, who can make a pile of money in 2-3 half-hour sessions, but not very good for the naive celebs (in Hollywood they charge up to $20k for an one hour RF session 😂).

And this expensive instant miracle attitude is not very good either for the gullible people who follow the celebs and flock to the BS clinics…

Again, Kim can easily afford such a long course comprising extended duration treatments, it’s just that maybe no one was ever honest to her.

100+tips for Kim Kardashian’s cellulite

Of course, as we mentioned above, Kim Kardashian doesn’t necessarily need to do anything about her cellulite.

She is wildly successful, confident and can always hide her cellulite with her Skims shapewear, so she may just not care to make all the effort, which is absolutely fine.

But, according to what she says, she cares, in which case she just has to do the right things:

• Healthy, clean-but-not-obsessed eating (helped by a weekly anti-diabetic/weight loss injection?)

• High intensity exercise, such as interval running and more cardio (she does mainly resistance training, which is great for the shape of her butt, but not very helpful for cellulite)

• And vegetable juices / berry fruit smoothies, among other things

In fact Kim can find more than 100+ tips on our epic guide to cellulite removal and skin tightening.

Plus, and most importantly for such progressed cellulite, she will need a strong cellulite treatment, provided the right way and for a prolonged number of sessions.

Of course it won’t be a miracle. Unlike many smooth operators who upload fake before and afters on Instagram, we don’t claim miracles in a couple of sessions.

But it will be the most advanced treatment she can possibly have and it can make an impressive difference, at something like 0.0002% of her annual income. Not a bad deal.

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, 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.