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| For your feet to be their softest, they need proper care. This means m ore care, since feet tend to be the most neglected, abused part of the human body. Think of all the places they take you without asking anything in return! Isn’t it time you reward them with the care that they deserve? First and foremost, those feet must be clean. Rubbing anything on dirty feet is like making mud pies. So pick a nice quiet evening, about an hour to an hour and a half before bedtime, and proceed with a good foot soak; 20 minutes minimum is mandatory. For incredible results that leave your feet feeling like silk, you need to soak them in water that feels like silk. That is easily accomplished with this foot soak:
A Foot Soak to die for:
Fill your foot spa with comfortably warm water. Add 1/2 Cup Epsom Salts & 1/4 Cup Borax (yes, Borax!) You may add a few drops of your favorite essential oil, such as sandalwood, chamomile, lavendar, or peppermint. For a truly exotic soak, float some fresh cut flower heads in the water!
So like what's up with the Borax? Isn't that for laundry?
Well, yes . . . BUT its ingredient (Sodium Tetraborate) is a 100% natural mineral that is found in evaporated lake beds in the Tibetan area of China, as well as Samoa and the American Southwest. Many women are surprised to learn that this mineral is a prime ingredient in many makeups and lotions! That is because cosmetic makers have long known of its softening properties when mixed with water. It truly makes your spa water feel like silk! As an added bonus, the natural cleansing ability of Borax will reach into the depths of your pores and leave your feet not only soft, but totally clean as well! The Epsom Salts simply enhance the soak. You REALLY need a well-built spa, and Fasham Beauty offers the best ones, with the 61355 (pictured here) being my personal fave. This model is the "workhorse" choice of many fine salons, and Fasham Beauty sells it at a phenominally LOW price!! The water should be as hot as you can comfortably take it. If you grimace  when your tootsies hit the drink, it’s too hot. After the soak, look for any areas of skin on your toes, and the balls of your feet that have turned white from the water. Don’t forget those heels too! That white skin is callous. Briskly scrub those calluses (not to the bone, though) with a pumice stone. Don’t try to totally remove the entire hardened area, just get rid of the white skin. If your feet have especially hard and rough areas, there is absolutely no harm in doing this pedicure once every 3-5 nights until they have become as soft as you want them. After that, once every couple of weeks will leave your feet fresh and touchably soft! Dip each foot back in the bath to rinse, and then exfoliate your feet with a home-made mixture of this recipe: (It's best to make this in advance and have it ready so you don't have to interrupt your pedicure)
Exotic Foot Scrub
In a small bowl, combine the following:
3/4 Cup Sugar 
1 Tablespoon Heavy Cream
1 Tablespoon Real Butter, the lightly salted kind 
1 Tablespoon Sea Salt
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
Mash together with a fork, continuing to mix until uniform and all chunks of butter are no longer visible. Store in an airtight container in your refrigerator. To use, scoop out a tablespoon or so and place into a small container. It will have reached room temp by the time you get this far in your pedicure.
Using your finger, scoop out a dollop of the foot scrub mixture and use it to scrub your right foot ALL OVER for no less than three-minutes. Place your right foot back into the water bath and do the same thing to your left foot with the remaini ng half of the sugar mix. After you rinse your feet from the bath, loosely pat each foot dry. Have you ever had a facial? If the answer is yes, then you will undoubtedly remember the most relaxing, cooling, refreshing part was the mask. Don't you think your feet would enjoy the same treatment? You better believe they would! One of, if not the best mask on the market is Queen Helene's Mint Julep Masque. This totally awesome mask is available in larger drugstores (this is the one exception to my "stay-away-from-drugstore-goo" rule). Another nice choice is Sally Hansen's Beyond Perfect European Pedicure Foot Mask. Both work best if you apply them with a 1" wide paintbrush, as it keeps your hands clean. Try to avoid painting the mask around your nails. I generally do not apply it to the tops of the toes, as its kind of a pain to clean it out from underneath the nails. Once you have painted your feet, kick back and relax with your feet up for as long as you want. Trust me, this feels so nice that you will SO not want to hurry! When you are ready, place both feet back into the bath, and with a wet washcloth, remove all of the masque. Now you will m assage each foot with either Olive oil, or Baby oil if you prefer. Take your time here! Enjoy the relaxation of it! A friend or spouse comes in handy here! After the massage, briefly rinse your feet in the water bath and gently blot them dry with a towel. Once done, it’s time for the frosting on the cake. Doing one foot at a time, take a bit of 100% Shea butter and massage it in. The BEST Shea on the market is that which is totally unrefined. This is as pure and natural as it gets. There is an online store called NASABB that sells it. They are wonderful people to work with, and they ship FAST! They even sell in bulk! Buy from them and your feet will thank you! Bath & Body Works, a store found in most malls, also carries 100% Shea butter in a product called Too-Shea, but you must realize that it is HIGHLY REFINED! Also, they stock a cream that contains Shea butter called Shea It Isn’t So foot cream, but I like NASABB's 100% unrefined Shea myself. Shea butter is like way cool stuff to work with. If you use too much, it’s quite greasy; not enough, and you, well . . . you just know it isn’t enough. For the first time, go ahead and give each foot a good slathering with a chunk of butter the size of one of those large marbles. You won’t hurt a thing, and the butter will melt quickly from the warmth of your skin. Massage using both hands. Be sure to get in between your toes, and also massage it into your nails and cuticles. Better yet, have a friend or spouse do it for you. Nothing is better than your bare feet with someone else’s hands on them! Don’t worry  about getting it all rubbed in, that simply just won’t happen; and be sure to do your whole foot, not just the soles. Now wrap the first foot in a single layer of plastic food wrap. Don’t stretch it so it’s squeezing your foot, just cover it and secure the wrap in place with a sock. Do the same with the other foot. Now then, girl, it’s been a long hard day. You are very tired, and your feet are tingling. Go to bed and slumber off to dreamland.
Good Morning, Sunshine!
Yawn! Stretch! Ahhhhhhhh! What you normally do before you go to bed, you are going to do now: Take your socks off. Throw away the plastic wrap and using both hands , massage those, stunningly soft feet. Never in your wildest dreams did you ever imagine your feet being that soft! And where did all that greasiness go that was on your skin from the Shea butter? It most certainly did not get soaked up by your socks, since you had plastic wrap on your feet. Girlfriend, all that clean, natural moisture went right where you wanted it: Into your feet! Sure, a little remains, but not nearly what was there last night! You see, the hot soak opened your pores. The exfoliating cleaned your pores, and the Shea butter soaked into your skin through your pores. The plastic wrap served a dual purpose. Most importantly, it caused your feet to sweat. Now this is not the icky, stinky kind of sweat, but rather the naturally cleansing and softening kind (think of it  as natural salt water). This caused your pores to stay open, allowing the 100% shea butter (or Shea-containing lotion) to penetrate deeply. Once absorbed, the layer of pure, natural, softening sweat trapped between your feet and the plastic wrap basically sealed in the Shea moisture. Now that the plastic is off, the air will quickly evaporate the excess water. The other thing the plastic did was to protect your carpets and sheets from grease stains. Now get dressed, put on your awesome toe rings and slide your new feet into your trusty pair of Old Navy flip-flops or Dr. Scholl's. Your feet will feel fabulous, and your whole body will be energized for the entire day!BONUS TIP!
For a special "booster" in between your regular pedicures, you will want to try this really sweet treat for feet: Take 1 Tablespoon of sugar and add ½ teaspoon heavy cream and mix well to form a paste. This is the same cream that you would buy for your coffee. The fats present in real dairy cream work wonderfully to soften feet! Scrub your feet all over, rinse, and pat dry. This should be done when your feet are towel-dry, after a shower or bath. It's a very intense exfoliation and keeps those feet silky smooth! If you want, you can stir ¼ teaspoon of vanilla into the paste! It smells awesome! Don't like vanilla? Try a drop or two of any essential oil that you find appealing! Peppermint oil is ALWAYS nice to feet! | |
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