Beauty DIY
10 Steps To Perfectly Pretty Feet
It’s sandal season! Put your best foot forward and step into summer with our fragrant foot soak and pampering pedicure. Pretty feet, here we come.
How to do an at-home pedicure
- Remove any nail varnish, trim toenails straight across with clippers and gently round edges with a nail file.
- Use a foot file to buff feet, concentrating on any hard skin around the heels, on the balls of your feet and edges of your toes. Buffing when skin is dry rather than wet is much more effective at shifting dead skin cells.
- For a scented soak, fill a bowl with warm water and add in a handful of rose petals, slices of lemon, sprigs of fresh mint or rosemary and a few drops of tea tree oil to help combat any fungal infections. Sit down, submerge your feet in the water and relax for at least 10 minutes.
- Using a nail brush, give feet and toenails a quick soapy scrub to shift any dirt. Gently brush upwards towards your shins to slough away any dead skin around the ankles.
- Dry feet carefully, especially in between the toes.
- Apply a dot of rich hand or foot cream to the cuticles before using a wooden ‘orange’ stick to gently push them back. Trim tiny areas of hardened cuticle using cuticle nippers. Add a drop of oil such as almonds or grapeseed and massage into the corners of each nail.
- Next, apply a generous amount of your favourite hand or foot cream into each foot and massage in. We love the ultra-rich L’Occitane Shea Butter Foot Cream, enriched with anti-septic lavender oil and anti-inflammatory arnica extract. Using your knuckles, first work on the soles of the feet. Then take time to gently massage each toe in turn, before rubbing cream into the ankles and heels. Finish by moisturising the tops of the feet and lower legs.
Give feet an extra treat
- For very dry feet, follow the above steps at the end of the day, adding a few drops of plant oil to your body cream to enrich its emollient properties. Pop feet into a pair of loose fitting cotton socks and wear these overnight – you’ll wake up with super soft soles!
- If you wish to add colour, be sure to apply a protective base coat first to prevent staining the nail. Once the base coat is fully dry, apply two coats of your chosen colour. Finish with a final layer of high-shine top coat for long-lasting, fancy feet! We love the Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat for unparalleled chip resistance!