Had enough of the nasty stretch marks? Find out how to improve the elasticity of the skin. It's time for the best stretch mark removal cream.
For many people, stretch marks are just one of the inevitable things that comes with life. Though anyone can have stretch marks, they tend to affect women more than men.
Puberty, weight gain, and pregnancy are the chief reasons why women have these long, narrow streaks that start out as dark red or purple but fade to silvery, white lines over time.
While they aren’t painful, they can cause anxiety and emotional distress for some, and this is why people tend to go out of their way just to find the perfect stretch mark removal cream.
We’re here to help you do so. By reviewing five of the best stretch mark removal creams, we hope that it will assist you in your search to find one that fits your needs.
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Quick Overview: Our Top Picks for The Best Stretch Mark Removal Cream
OUR TOP #1 PICK - The Body Merry Vanilla Orange Stretch Marks and Scars Defense Cream uses natural butter and plant oils to increase your skin’s elasticity. It may help to visibly reduce the appearance of stretch marks, making it our top choice for the best stretch mark removal cream.
OUR TOP #2 PICK - Another great product to consider is the StriVectin SD Advanced Intensive Concentrate for Wrinkles and Stretch Marks, which contains collagex-CE complex. This proven collagen booster is not just for wrinkles; it also works great on stretch marks.
OUR TOP #3 PICK - For our third choice, we’ve selected the Beauty Facial Extreme Stretch Mark Repair Cream, which has a highly effective and unique formula that penetrates deep into the skin to visibly fade discoloration associated with stretch marks and scars.
OUR TOP #4 PICK - Coming in at fourth place is Nature’s Design Bye Bye Stretch Marks. It’s made with all-natural products such as cocoa butter, shea butter, jojoba oil, and pure plant oils, which help nourish the skin to reveal the healthy, even skin underneath the stretch mark.
OUR TOP #5 PICK - And last but not least, the CeraVe Intensive Stretch Marks Creams completes this list of the top five best stretch mark removal creams.
It’s loaded with skin-repairing and cell-communicating ingredients, along with a mix of antioxidants and emollients that make good on their promise to repair and restore the skin's barrier.
How to Choose the Best Stretch Mark Removal Cream
Stretch marks are one of the most common skin complaints among women, probably because they’re quite hard to get rid of.
And although anyone can develop them, women tend to be more prone to getting stretch marks since men usually have thicker and tougher skin.
Stretch marks are often the result of rapidly overstretched skin due to extreme weight gain or weight loss, growth spurts, and genetics.
Pregnant women especially develop this type of scarring when the skin surrounding their belly can’t bounce back after a period of intense growth.
After having a baby, many women are left with those unsightly stretch marks and the quest to find the perfect stretch mark removal cream begins.
To help you do so, we’ve listed down some tips on how to choose the best stretch mark removal cream.
1. Check the Ingredients
In choosing the best stretch mark removal cream, the ingredients may well be the most important thing to consider.
You should always take note of the ingredients the product contains and make sure they’re beneficial for removing stretch marks.
The best stretch mark removal creams should have excellent combinations of great ingredients like moisturizers and vitamins to help you get great results.
If you’re pregnant, it’s best to choose a product that contains mostly all-natural ingredients to avoid harsh chemicals that may be harmful to you and your baby.
And of course, make sure you’re not allergic to any of the ingredients before purchasing the stretch mark removal cream.
2. Go for a Well Established Brand
You can’t go wrong with a well-established brand.
When choosing the best stretch mark removal cream, the popularity of a name may say a lot about the quality of the product since a reputable manufacturer can’t afford to damage its reputation by selling cheap quality stuff.
So, as much as possible, try to purchase a stretch mark removal cream that’s been made by a well-established manufacturer.
3. Read the Customer Reviews
As vague as this may sound, it’s still better to buy those stretch mark creams that have received positive reviews from most of the users.
It is also a good idea to read the negative reviews to know what isn’t good about the product.
However, make sure the reviews are from reliable sources such as the manufacturer’s website since some people put fake reviews and testimonials up to encourage people to buy another product instead.
What Are the Benefits of Using a Stretch Mark Removal Cream?
Stretch marks are a form of scarring, but unlike many scars, stretch marks are caused by broken bands of elastin beneath the skin, which makes them tough to treat.
So it’s no surprise that skin creams can only take you so far in getting rid of those stretch marks.
But despite that, people still opt for stretch mark removal creams above all other treatment methods. And here’s why:
1. Affordable
Plastic surgery, laser surgery, or getting a tummy tuck may all be the fastest and most efficient methods of eliminating those stretch marks completely, but they all come with a hefty price tag, so they’re not an option for most people.
But with stretch mark removal creams, almost everyone can easily afford it.
2. Convenient
Another great thing about stretch mark removal creams is that they’re extremely convenient and easy to use.
You can use them anywhere, at any time, depending on the instructions given. It’s as easy as that.
3. Wide Array of Choices
With so many stretch mark removal creams on the market today, you’ll never run out of products to choose from.
And since not everyone has the same skin type, this is particularly useful. You also have the opportunity to find that stretch mark removal cream that suits you best.
Product Reviews: Our Top 5 Best Stretch Mark Removal Cream
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Our Rating
Our top pick for the best stretch mark removal cream is Body Merry Stretch Marks and Scars Defense Cream, which is made with natural ingredients that deeply hydrate and moisturize the skin.
And as we all know, stretch marks form when your skin is stretched beyond its normal capacity.
So by keeping your skin moisturized, it will be able to maintain its elasticity; hence, reducing the appearance of stretch marks.
A few of the ingredients that this cream contains are cocoa butter, shea butter, hemp seed oil, avocado oil, and grapeseed oil.
Both the cocoa and shea butter contain fatty acids, which improve the skin’s moisture, retention, and elasticity.
The hemp seed and avocado oil, on the other hand, are both rich in vitamins A and E, which encourage healthy growth of skin tissues.
And lastly, the grape seed oil has astringent properties which help in tightening and toning the skin.
All of these ingredients work together to hydrate, moisturize, and soften your skin to help reduce the appearance of those stretch marks.
We love how it softens skin, and it also has a sugary, dessert-like scent. This may be off-putting if you’re not a fan of highly scented products.
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The next product on our list of the best stretch mark removal creams provides your skin with the right amount of collagen to help reduce the appearance of stretch marks.
StriVectin SD Advanced Intensive Concentrate for Wrinkles and Stretch Marks is specially formulated with Collagex-CE Wrinkle Repair Complex and NIA-114, designed to penetrate deep into your skin to help boost (Type I and II) collagen production.
Our skin is made up of collagen and elastin proteins that can only stretch so far before they break.
Once your skin exceeds the limit that those proteins can stretch, they break and leave behind stretch marks.
This cream may reduce indentation brought upon by stretch marks. However, it may or may not work to lighten dark stretch marks.
It comes in a tube, and it’s easy to squeeze out a little too much product the first time you use it. It also left a slight film on our skin that was hard to wash off.
However, we did like the fact that this can also be used as an anti-wrinkle cream.
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Unlike other forms of scarring, stretch marks are caused by broken bands of collagen and elastin proteins beneath the skin, which make them quite difficult to treat.
But through exfoliation, the skin on the surface gets gradually shed off to reveal the damaged skin underneath, making it easier to treat.
Beauty Facial Extremes Stretch Mark Repair Cream does just that. Its unique blend of alpha hydroxy acids provides a gentle exfoliation.
We love that this cream comes with a pump, so we can control the amount that we use every time.
Though it’s not quite a cream and more like a lotion, it’s definitely thicker than other lotions we’ve tried.
Another great ingredient found in this cream is allantoin, which helps soften and protect the skin while actively soothing it.
It can also aid in the skin's healing process and stimulate the growth of healthy tissues.
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Nature’s Design Bye Bye Stretch Marks uses a mix of all-natural moisturizers such as cocoa butter, shea butter, and jojoba oil to reduce the appearance of those stretch marks.
And because of its natural ingredients, it was easier for us to use this cream since we knew that our skin wasn't getting slathered with chemicals.
Keeping your skin moisturized will also help maintain its elasticity and avoid broken bands of elastin that can result in stretch marks.
Cocoa butter contains vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C, E which heal and encourage new skin cell production. It also has moisturizing properties which help lock moisture into your skin.
Shea butter is another great moisturizer that can contribute to reducing the appearance of stretch marks.
It contains high levels of vitamins A and E which can help replace damaged collagen and elastin fibers that cause stretch marks to appear.
And lastly, the jojoba oil helps restores the elasticity of the skin with its deep penetrating fatty acids and nourishing vitamins, leaving skin feeling soft and smooth.
We love how thick and creamy this feels on our skin. But because it doesn’t use any chemical lighteners, it may take a few more weeks before we see any discernible change in our stretch marks.
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CeraVe's Intensive Stretch Marks Cream is loaded with lots of natural ingredients such as cocoa butter, shea butter, mango butter, and argan oil.
All of which are great moisturizers as we tested out this product and it helped in reducing the appearance of our stretch marks.
Both the cocoa and shea butter are great natural moisturizers.
They also stimulate collagen and elastin production to help repair the broken bands of overstretched skin that have resulted in stretch marks.
Mango butter is packed with vitamins A, C, and E which encourage healthy skin cell production promote collagen synthesis and boost collagen production, respectively.
It’s also a great moisturizer, leaving your skin feeling soft and smooth.
Argan oil can help prevent stretch marks by improving the elasticity of the skin. It’s also packed with vitamins A and E which can help rejuvenate the skin while moisturizing, making stretch marks less likely to form.
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The Bottom Line
The clear winner of the round up is none other than Body Merry’s Vanilla Orange Stretch Marks and Scars Defense Cream.
Because it’s made with all-natural ingredients, it’s a perfect stretch mark removal cream for almost anyone to use.
And unlike most stretch mark removal creams on this list, it does not contain a lot of chemicals that may potentially be harmful to pregnant women, which are the primary users of stretch mark removal creams.
The ideal stretch mark removal cream should be made with fewer chemicals and more natural ingredients so that people of all skin types can easily use it.
