Foot Care Tips

By Helen Wang

Taking care of your flattering feet. Many of you pay little or no attention to the importance of proper foot care.

You would jam your feet into your favorite fashionable shoes, stub their toes, ignore their nails, kick them around, and demand that they carry you around all day.

No wonder they look a little worse for the wear.

Luckily, there are plenty of simple, inexpensive tricks you can use to have your feet looking and feeling their best in no time at all.

There are so many elements of everyday living that are absolutely torturous for your feet.

For example, shoes that are too small for your legs, standing all day, stuffy boots, and exposing them to the locker room floor at your local gym are some examples of scenarios to which most women can relate to.

You never take foot care seriously, until your feet start to hurt and reject the burdens you place on them, they are often taken for granted, so avoid problems in the future, invest some effort and time to proper foot care, it is definitely a worthwhile investment.

Relaxing foot care - you know how amazing it feels to have your feet taken care off if you’ve ever had a professional pedicure: soaking, exfoliation, moisturizing and maybe even massage.

The best part is you can recreate this experience at home with only a small investment of time, money, resources and achieving the purpose of excellent foot care.

Begin by removing any old nail polish with a remover-soaked cotton swab and then soaking your feet in a tub of relaxing, hot water. To increase the pleasant feeling, toss in some bath or Epsom salts.

If you have a home foot care bath with bubbles or jets, that’s even better

Soak for at least five to ten minutes; the heat will promote blood circulation in your feet and soften your skin and you can use the time to read, watch television or just lean back and relax.

When you’re done soaking, use a small brush to buff one foot at a time, removing dead skin and softening your feet. After you’ve finished brushing, let each foot go back into the water.

To further soften any rough spots like your heels or the sides of your toes, you can use a dollop of foot scrub lotion. Take a pumice stone to finish off any lingering rough skin, once you’ve massaged the lotion into your feet.

This is a great tool, so take your time and rinse your feet when you’re done. Feeling good with foot care by now? There’s more. Dry your feet with a soft towel while remove them from the water and rub your feet with some of your favorite lotion.

A peppermint lotion may be particularly soothing and relaxing, especially if you have willing partner to handle this step for you. Either way, it feels marvelous. Now it’s time to add a little style after you’ve finished massaging your feet.

Trim and shape your nails with clippers and a file, and then use a cuticle stick to gently push back your supple cuticles. You may want to scale away excess cuticle skin, although it’s imperative to do this carefully to avoid damaging the cuticle.

You'll need a cuticle trimmer for this. Once your cuticles are under control, you will want to even out the surface of your nail by applying a clear or opaque base coat.

This will help hide any ridges or lumpy areas that might show up if you applied nail color directly to the affected area.

Add a coat of your favorite nail color when the base coat is dry. Choose something soft and light for a conservative look or something bold and daring for more flair.

It’s a good idea to apply several coats to improve the durability of your finish, whatever your choice is. Use a small cloth or cotton swab, dipped in nail polish remover to dissolve stains that may have been deposited around the edges of your toe nail and clean up any messy areas as you go.

To prevent chips and scuff marks from harming your pedicure masterpiece, use an additional coat of clear sealer will. That’s it!

You’re ready to strap on a pair of open-toe sandals or to pad around the house in your bare, and very fashionable, flattering feet. One element of great feet is looking pretty, right?

Other foot care tips on keeping your feet healthy:

Wash and dry your feet carefully to avoid fungal and bacterial problems. Wear supportive, and only wear well-fitted shoes.

Another significant problems worth mentioning is - if cuts and scrapes on your feet are not healing well could indicate a more serious problem such as diabetes. Just beware, you need to be serious about foot care.