Foot Care For Summertime

and the secret ingredient is in your local drug store

Hey, besties! With summer in full swing, I'll bet you've been showing off your toes a lot more than you have. I know I am! If you're anything like me, you're probably cringing at the calluses and dialing up the salon to book a pedicure. A little pampering never hurt nobody, but what if I told you that there's a way to keep those tootsies looking fresh on your own or in between appointments? What if I told you that you probably walk by the secret of affordable foot care every time you visit a drug store.

Got your attention? Good. Strap in and let's talk feet!

Exfoliation 

When I was surfing the net for solutions on inexpensive ways to keep your feet tidy, I came across a reddit thread by a gal who lives full time in Florida. She bought some apricot scrub-you know, that awful face stuff with all the controversy about making microcuts on your skin? The one that hurts to use on your face? It was on discount for under a dollar at her local Walgreens, so she snagged some and thought to herself: what if she used it somewhere other than her face? So she tried it in the shower on her feet and after just one scrub they were noticeably softer!

I had to try it myself. I zipped on right to the store and as fortune had it, apricot scrub was on discount at my store, too! So I grabbed it and this is now step 1 of my foot care routine. Do your shower and use the apricot scrub with a pumice stone to scrub your feet. You should notice a difference pretty much immediately, and if your tootsies are in good shape you can even stop here. I do this in between full grooming sessions very frequently and it works just fine. 

De-callusing 

This one I came up with on my own. I bought myself a pedicure for my fourth year anniversary of sobriety and was watching what my beautician was doing. She had a little bottle of gel she was putting on my feet after they soaked in the tubs. What is that? I wondered, and then I saw. Callus remover! This is the kind I buy: https://a.co/d/0ddPLab

There are a few ways you can do this. Method one involves those little foot mask booties you can get. Baby Foot is my top choice for foot care but it's expensive so I'll usually grab these ones specifically: https://a.co/d/7nBw4JH 

Put some of the callus remover on your calluses and let it sit on them as you wear the booties. 

Watch a couple episodes of Disappeared. Play some video games. Do whatever for 20 minutes…then grab a new pumice stone and go to the bathroom to take off the booties.

Your feet are going to be slimy, but when you start going to town with the pumice stone I promise you that dead skin is going to practically fall off! It's Baby Foot level effectiveness. Finish up with a foot scraper or electric pumice stone. Rinse. Moisterize. And you're ready for toe polish!

You don't have to do it that way, of course. You can also just  sit with the callus remover on for a bit and scrub it off. If I'm out of foot masks or don't have time I'll do that, too. The only thing that's important is applying the remover to wet feet and letting it sit. I've tried a few products in the past that sort of work if you instantly scrub your feet after applying it but for the most part you've got to let them sit to absorb into the calluses in order to work right. 

Damage Control 

You're probably walking around a lot in open toe shoes now that the weather is warmer. It pays to get shoes specifically that can handle light cleaning. You know how grimy they can get. Keeping them clean will help your feet stay clean. Sometimes you have to cut your losses with certain shoes and accept that your feet are going to be black after you wear them for awhile, but if that happens, use the apricot scrub to wash the dirt off.

These methods are far from perfect and if you prefer to go to a salon, by all means do so!