It Works Body Wraps Review: Real?

This reviewer is affiliated with RealSelf. The views expressed here are their own and do not reflect the views of RealSelf, Inc.

As a Community Manager at RealSelf I've pretty much seen it all. We've all been curious about the home-treatment body wraps so as the CM of Body Wraps I was given the opportunity to test and review the It Works brand wraps. 

OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER: RealSelf asked me to try the wraps and write an honest review. RealSelf paid for the wraps.  The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own and not representative of RealSelf.

In all honestly I do not believe they will work one bit, but I'm happy to be proven wrong.

A little about me: 

I'm a 33 year old active mom who is physically fit and I eat pretty clean. I love to trail run all summer, then ski all winter. I'm normally 5'8 and about 136-140 lbs (it fluctuates in that range) and a size 4 or 6. This spring I found out I had a hip injury and have been benched from all my favorite activities until I can have surgery this fall (long waitlist for my doctor). So I haven't been running or doing all my normal balls to the wall training. I've also been doing a little self-pity eating. As a result my weight has gone up to about 142-146 lbs and I feel less muscley and more doughy. Size 6+ I refuse to go buy clothes right now. Not cool. My saddle bags and the thuttocks (where the thigh meets the buttocks and bulges in that unholy way) aren't looking too hot, so perfect timing for a body wrap review! Hashtag silver lining!

Costs and ordering:

I ordered online and did NOT sign up for the auto-enroll "loyal customer program". They advertise the wraps to be $59 but that is if you sign up for said program. In reality this was the cost breakdown: 1 set of The Ultimate Body Applicator body wraps (4 total treatments): $99 Fab Wraps (green bandage material to hold the body wraps in place): $7 Shipping and taxes: $12 Total: $118

They shipped pretty quickly via USPS and I've never received an email from them so I guess I don't have to worry about constant "buy more" emails. Because It Works is a direct sales company you have to pick an It Works Distributor to buy from so they get a commission. I am in a moms Facebook group and knew of a woman who was a Distributor so I used her name. I haven't heard a peep from her so either she isn't that active of a seller or I'm about to (hoping for the former).

Delivery! Their delivery boxes are cute, I'll give them that. Although I felt like a tool walking home from the Post Office with a box that screamed It Works on it. I've added two pictures of what was in the box.

Time to Wrap: 

As I mentioned I've chosen to test out my least favorite fatty area, which is my outer thigh/thuttocks. Since I have two legs (imagine!) that means I will get two total treatments, since each leg requires one wrap application and I have 4 total. The directions are really basic (choose area and clean, open wrap, apply wrap, wrap over with ace bandages/plastic wrap/fab wrap, leave on for 45 minutes minimum, remove and discard, rub remaining lotion into skin). Ummm okay. Then you can repeat in 72 hours.

First Treatment: 

The whole process is pretty straight forward. Once my upper thighs were covered and secured with the fab wrap I put some loose PJ pants on and am currently just sitting back and writing this first part of my review. The wraps smell minty and feel like icy hot. The fab wrap material is environmentally reprehensible and is a thin plastic foam that rips very easily, but it was simple to put on. I think you would probably need to buy one every time you buy a Ultimate Body Applicator kit. But if I were going to do this on a regular basis I'd just pony up and buy two ace wraps and reuse them.

I've had the wraps on for about half and hour and feel fine- no skin reactions or anything. The directions just say a minimum of 45 minutes so I'll just wear them until I go to bed. I'm sitting and drinking water. I drink a lot of water in general so this isn't out of the ordinary.

My pre-wrap thigh measurement (where the saddlebag fat pocket is the biggest) is 22 inches.  

Can't wait to see if anything happens, but like I said before I'm pretty skeptical of this whole industry.  I will take more pics of the application process with my next treatment, I was trying to get this done in the bathroom while my daughter was running around so I was a little rushed ;)

No change.  22 inches

I tried to wear them overnight because I read somewhere that you could do that, but they kept sliding down my legs a little and bugging me so I took them off in the middle of the night.  I had them on for about 5 hours.

I did have a dream that my legs went from 22 inches to 14 inches overnight and apparently that was a good thing (yikes- that would be so skinny that a Barbie doll would look heavy by comparison).  Maybe this is my subconscious telling me to stop worrying about "society's unrealistic expectations" of large thigh gaps and to embrace the saddle bags!  

I'm still drinking lots of water.  Ate really clean today, haven't pigged out on s'mores even though I have all the ingredients in my pantry and they are calling to me (have you ever tried a nutella s'more?  Yeah, you're welcome).

Still no change.  

Drinking lots of water, eating super clean as per usual.  I'm adding my belated before pics, too.  My phone and computer don't seem to be talking so of course one of the pictures won't cloud over to my computer so I'll add it when it does. Tomorrow I'll do the second treatment of the same area and take more pics.