I don’t have very cute feet. I get calluses easily and quickly, my heels are often cracked, and my big toes point inwards (or “take a hard left”, as Anel lovingly teases). Over the last few years, I’ve realized that I can fix one of those problems at home.
About a week into COVID in 2020, I realized that I was due for a pedicure so I took off my nail polish and tried to do it myself. It was an epic failure. My nails looked gross from not having given them a break from polish in literally years, my feet were callused like crazy (I’m now convinced pedicures make calluses worse in the long run), and my filing skills were less than perfect.
I was determined to fix them so I did a foot peel and decided to start taking better care of my feet. I started doing this daily foot care routine almost 3 years ago and my feet are now baby soft and smooth. The routine has since been updated so I’m re-sharing this post today!
Daily Foot Care Routine
I go through this routine most nights before bed.
Step 1: Use the Bare August glass foot file before a shower. It sounds weird but it’s important to do this on dry feet. You can do this every night if your feet are super dry/cracked or just as needed. At first I did it every night but now more like 2x/week.
Step 2: Wash your feet thoroughly in the shower or bath. I also exfoliate them once a week with the Necessaire body exfoliator that I also use on my body but any gentle exfoliator will do.
Step 3: Dry feet with a towel.
Step 4: Apply cuticle oil to your toenails and cuticles, rub it in with your hands. If you don’t have any, you can use coconut oil or olive oil. I’ve been loyal to this random find of a product since 2020. I use it on my hands too.
Step 5: Apply foot cream before bed then cover with socks. If you want to do all of this in the morning, just leave the socks on for 10-20 minutes while it dries and you get ready for your day. I use Barefoot Scientist hydration cream.
Bonus step: I try to remember to use my Yoga Toes every night but end up realistically doing it 1-2x/week. They help to ease foot pain and I hope that they’ll prevent my toes from bending inward even more!
Weekly Foot Soak
Once a month, I try to remember do to a homemade foot soak but realistically happens randomly when I remember. The Epsom salt softens dry skin and calluses and the acidity from the lemon helps remove the dead skin.
Foot soak ingredients
– 1 lemon (juice and peels)
– 1 cup, vinegar (white or apple cider)
– 3 cups, Epsom salt
Foot soak directions
– Add vinegar, juice from the lemon, and salt to a tub of warm water (or a foot bath if you’re really fancy)
– Use the insides of the lemon peels to clean your feet
– Soak your feet for 15-20 minutes
– Complete steps 2-6 above!
Yearly Peel
– Once a year between Christmas and New Years, I do this foot peel which is totally gross but totally amazing. You apply it for an hour or two then 10 days later your feet start to peel… but like a lot.
Great information! I will definitely give this a try. You always give the best, most researched tips. Thank you for sharing with us.
I have also found that my feet/heels don’t dry out as much if I avoid wearing flip-flops as often. I think the rubbery material they are made of draws moister out of my feet.
Yes! I had to go to a podiatrist last year for foot pain. One of my questions was that my heels have been so dry and cracked since moving to Florida. She said it’s flip flops and also even being barefoot so much in the house. Another aspect of it is age. Skin is dryer and doesn’t regenerate as quickly as it did in my 20s. Didn’t love hearing that but it is true.
Flip flops make my feet hurt too which is why I moved to rubber Birkenstocks to replace them last year. It made a world of difference! Interesting about the dryness though. I hadn’t heard that before but makes sense.
Sorry if you already posted about this but do you have any tips on taking your own photos? The ones from your last blog post about alcohol look amazing! How do you do it yourself?
I wish I had a good answer for this! My photographer Julia Dags (juliadags.com) takes almost all of my photos. We just started doing social distance shoots last week but before that she would Facetime me to help me set up the camera for each shot then do the editing! Should I have her put together a post?
Oh, please ask her! I’d love to read that!
This is the first year I’ve noticed my heels have been so dry and cracked so I was very interested in your post! I switched to Cote Shop nail polish a couple of years ago. It’s less toxic than other brands and I notice I don’t get as much discoloring or drying out of my nails. It’s more expensive than a drugstore brand, but so much better. I regularly last at least a week without chips on my hands and that’s with being a stay at home mom that does dishes 3x a day!
I think I need to move to natural nail polish too. I just feel like it chips so much easier. But it sounds like this brand works well. Going to check it out thanks so much.
If you put a few of these recommended products together, this would make a great quarantine gift for a friend, too!
Love this idea!
I didn’t know foot peels existed! Thanks for the tips.
Great post. Flips flops are so hard on the feet. I too go for a foot peel once or twice a year