Winter toes (and the rest of the foot) are plagued by dry indoor atmospheres, plus we wear SOCKS to keep warm. The socks draw moisture from our skin year round, but when the humidity is lower because of furnaces and fireplaces, our feet don’t have that moisture to spare.

Additionally, we shower in seconds and dry in the same time measurement so we can get warm clothes on. We have trouble finding a few seconds to exfoliate and apply lotion to our feet. Our heels especially suffer from dry skin build-up. I’m not a doctor or scientist to understand why this dry skin build-up is ‘driven’ to dry even more, become crusty and then SPLIT down to the layers that have feeling and blood! PAIN and sores and potential infection follow us around all day until we do something.

Cleansing Foot Polisher with Olive Oil

• 1 cup fine sea salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup melted Melt & Pour Craft Soap from Wal-Mart or local craft supply.
• Makes  a thick paste (when it sest up) that can be put in a wide mouth jar to dip out with your fingers.

The salt will have a healing effect on your feet, battling microbes and bacteria. It may sting in deep cracks if you’ve already gotten that far. Using this mix without water will help avoid that sting.

If they were MY feet and cracked, I would substitute Epsom salt for the sea salt. I’ve found that Epsom salt doesn’t have as much stinging bite on tender skin. The olive oil will smooth and begin drawing moisture to the surface of your skin right away. The melt and pour soap is a carrier for the oil and salt, making the creamy paste formulation that helps exfoliate and carry away the dry skin cells that have built up.

The no-brainer way: The most SIMPLE thing to do for foot comfort is use a foot file after the bath or shower to get rid of excess dry skin cells around your heels, SLATHER lotion on your feet and quickly cover them with clean, cotton socks. I love my ‘woolies’, but they seem to be real offenders for drying out feet.

If you are addicted to morning speed showers with no time or intention to play tootsie, find a shallow pan (like a plastic dishwashing tub from the local store) and use it to treat yourself to a warm foot bath.

You can put some spices from your kitchen: rosemary or basil work well, into a teaball and put that in the bath. After a wonderful little soak, use your foot file or pumice stone. Then, do the heavy lotion application and the socks. Wear them at least till bedtime.

These tips are great to sooth painful winter feet, but they can also be useful when maintaining pretty sandal feet in the summer.

MORE than FEET: I found a ‘whipped’ petroleum jelly product which made a cream that looks like it would be just great to smooth on feet or all over. I also really like the gel baby lotion for smoothing over dry skin (this works great for EVERY WHERE). In winter, that gel baby lotion is so nice when you just turn the shower water off. A couple drops can go a long way toward smoothing all over your skin before you reach for the towel Let the towel spread it further and yet absorb the extra.

{ 0 comments }