B-Tight is a skincare cream described as a “Lift & Firm Booty Mask.” It’s sold by a brand called Maelys Cosmetics, and is used to reduce the appearance of cellulite and improve skin quality on the glutes and thighs.

But can cream actually reduce cellulite? Does B-Tight contain any unhealthy ingredients? Why do we take issue with statements on the brand's website? And is B-Tight better or worse than popular skin creams like Tatcha Dewy Skin Cream?

In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in B-Tight to give our take on whether or not it's likely to reduce the appearance of cellulite, and whether or not it's healthy.

We'll also explain why we take issue with some of the health claims on the brand's website, feature a video suggesting it's possible to reduce cellulite naturally, and compare B-Tight to other popular skin creams to pick our winners (and losers).

Key takeaways:

• Many research-backed active ingredients
• Contains a handful of inactive ingredients we consider unhealthy
• We do not currently recommend B-Tight

Ingredient Analysis — The Good

The ingredients in B-Tight are shown below:

We’ll start with a review of ingredients we consider to be effective.

Sodium hyaluronate is one of the most well-studied cosmetic ingredients for reducing wrinkles and visible signs of aging.

This compound was described in a 2018 medical review as a “skin-rejuvenating biomedicine” because of its efficacy at increasing skin tightness and skin elasticity, and reducing wrinkle scars.

Caffeine is an excellent ingredient choice for a cellulite cream.

A medical study published in the Skin Pharmacology & Physiology journal reported that topical application of caffeine prevents excessive accumulation of fat in cells, and is therefore an effective active ingredient in anti-cellulite products.

Soluble collagen has research backing for reducing wrinkles and improving skin elasticity.

Glycerin is typically included in creams because of its hydrating effect.

As we documented in our Nioxin reviews article, many clinical trials have shown that glycerin optimizes skin barrier function and improves water retention in the skin.

Overall, we believe that B-Tight is likely to reduce the appearance of cellulite, and from an efficacy standpoint, this is an impressive formulation.

Ingredient Analysis — The Bad

All of the Maelys Cosmetics products we’ve reviewed on Illuminate Health have followed a similar trend: impressive formulations from an efficacy perspective, and unimpressive formulations from a health perspective.

That trend holds true with B-Tight.

Fragrance is an ingredient we recommend avoiding.

A 2016 medical review concluded that fragranced consumer products may pose “serious risks” to human health, after the study author reviewed some of the chemical compounds commonly used in fragrance.

Blue 1 Lake and Red 40 are artificial dyes, and as we discussed in our Maelys Cosmetics reviews article, artificial dyes may have toxic health effects to humans, and since they provide no benefit to skin, it seems logical to avoid them.

Benzyl salicylate is another fragrance ingredient that may be suboptimal from a health perspective.

A Japanese governmental body tested this ingredient extensively and published their results, categorizing it as a “hazard class 2” and finding it to cause developmental defects at a relatively low dose when ingested.

Overall, we do not currently recommend B-Tight due to the inclusion of fragrance ingredients and artificial dye.

 

Questionable Claims on Brand Website

Maelys Cosmetics claims that B-Tight is clinically proven to work, and specifically claims that their products go through “rigorous clinical trials”:

Typically when a brand makes claims of clinical efficacy, they’re referring to independent trials published in peer-reviewed medical journals, such as the ones we’ve cited throughout this article. This is the gold standard for product research.

This is not the process that Maelys Cosmetics products undergo.

Maelys Cosmetics has people test their products and fails to publish the full test results anywhere on the product page. This is not “rigorous clinical trials” by any reasonable stretch of the imagination, and we consider it to be unfair to consumers to use such terminology in their marketing.

We urge Maelys Cosmetics to stop making claims of clinical efficacy based clinical trials that don't appear to be published in any journals, and that the brand fails to even publish in full (or link to) on their product page.

We recommend that consumers entirely disregard claims of product efficacy based on brand-funded "trials" that aren't clearly published.

How to Reduce Cellulite Naturally

A board-certified dermatologist and YouTube creator named “Dr Dray” has a video on how to reduce cellulite naturally that has over 350,000 views:

B-Tight vs. Popular Body Creams

Here's how B-Tight compares to other popular body creams and oils in terms of potential effectiveness and healthiness, in our opinion:

B Foxy

Contains naturally-derived active ingredients like coconut oil, which is clinically shown to significantly improve skin hydration content.

This is another Maelys Cosmetics product, and contains one more inactive ingredient that we consider unhealthy, so B-Tight gets the edge in regard to healthiness.

Winner: B-Tight

Bio Oil

While the regular formulation contains ingredients we consider unhealthy, Bio Oil is clinically shown to be effective, and the "Natural" version is free from any unhealthy additives, as we documented in our Bio Oil review article.

Bio Oil (the Natural version) wins in regard to both efficacy and healthiness.

Winner: Bio Oil

Tatcha Dewy Skin Cream

One of the least healthy skin creams we've reviewed on Illuminate Health; this product contains seven ingredients we recommend avoiding, including fragrance, artificial dye and multiple synthetic preservatives.

Winner: B-Tight

Our Clean Body Cream Pick

MBG Postbiotic Body Lotion is our top body lotion pick.

Squalene (which is included) is clinically shown to hydrate the skin, and shea butter was described as having moisturizing effects in a medical review published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

This product is free of ingredients we consider to be unhealthy.

B-Tight Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Many research-backed active ingredients
• Should improve skin firmness
• Should reduce wrinkles
• Should reduce appearance of cellulite
• Brand attempts to resolve customer complaints
• Free shipping from brand's website

Cons:

• Contains fragrance
• Contains synthetic dyes
• Contains benzyl salicylate
• Some customers complain of a burning sensation
• Brand makes questionable clinical claims of efficacy

Conclusion

B-Tight has an effective formulation, but not one we consider optimal from a safety perspective. Thus, we cannot recommend the product overall.

Ingredients like sodium hyaluronate and glycerin make this product likely to reduce cellulite and improve skin quality. However the formulation also contains ingredients like fragrance and artificial dye that we recommend avoiding.

Maelys Cosmetics claims that B-Tight is “clinically proven” to work, but fails to publish or link to the full clinical study on their product page. We recommend that consumers entirely disregard claims of clinical efficacy from brands that fail to clearly provide the full study, and especially when the full study doesn't appear to be published in any peer-reviewed journals.

Some online customers of this product complain about it causing a burning sensation.

In this article, we featured a video from a board-certified dermatologist who discussed natural cellulite reduction methods.

We consider B-Tight to be a better option than B Foxy (another Maelys Cosmetics skin cream) and Tatcha Dewy Skin Cream, but a worse option than Bio Oil Natural.