As the weather gets warmer and our wardrobe changes, so does our footwear. After months of socks, tights and boots, the idea of sandals and flip flops is welcome. However, you may be thinking your feet aren't quite ready for the big reveal. One obvious solution to prepare them is with a pedicure, however in the same way that a facial should be supplemented with good skincare at home, your feet deserve regular attention as well.
Exfoliation is a great place to begin to stimulate and refresh the skin. Whether you include feet in your dry brushing routine or scrub them with your favourite body polish, you will literally be sloughing winter off and giving your feet a fresh start. Don’t have a body polish at home? Make you own foot scrub by combining equal parts sugar and oil. I recommend soaking your feet for 5 to 10 minutes, perhaps with a few drops of essential oil for the at-home spa experience, then massaging the exfoliator onto the feet, covering top, bottom, between toes and of course, the heels. After rinsing, your feet should feel softer.
Fresh skin brings the perfect opportunity to apply moisturiser. Slathering your foot in cream will bolster what the exfoliation has done and seal in softness. You can use your regular body cream or oil for this. Because my feet are always in need of both exfoliation and moisturisation, I appreciate a double duty approach and favour using a cream with a bit of acid. I’ve recently fallen in love with this fruit acid foot cream from Soaper Duper.
Best time to apply foot cream? At night, when your feet aren’t working to transport you throughout your day and they have a chance to rest and absorb the moisture you’re providing. To ramp up the absorption, tuck your feet in socks overnight.
Personally, I love to sleep with socks on, but get way too warm when I do this. However, when I put freshly creamed feet under the sheets, I feel like I deposit as much cream onto the material as my feet. My recent innovation has been to apply cream and socks when I finish my pre-bed routine just before I read. When I’m done with my book for the evening, I peel off my socks and turn out the lights. My feet have had time to absorb the cream so that I’m not sliding within my sheets and I don't wake up in the night due to overheating. In the morning, just before I shower, I use a foot file to bolster the work of the acid by removing any dead skin and callouses.
What are your favourite ways to treat your feet?