Ahead of sandal season, it might be time to give your feet some TLC. So, with a professional pedi still out of our reach in lockdown level 3, here are some DIY tips to get your feet looking ready for summer, says editor Trudi Brewer.
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Buff dry skin
No amount of foot cream will cut it if there's hard, dry skin lingering around your heels and toes. Start by using a foot buffer to remove hard skin and calluses. Then you can file or buff those stubborn areas like on the pad of the foot and the ridge of skin that tends to build up under your little toes.
Freeman Foamy Foot Butter, $10.
This newbie from Freeman offers the perfect salon pedicure at home, removing all that dry skin on a square block-style buffer while nourishing thanks to the blend of coconut oil and shea butter - it's super clever.
Other DIY pedicure tools: Scholl Velvet Smooth Electronic Foot Pedi, $55. Tweezerman Spa Callus Smoother, $67. Manicare Pedipro Soft Roc Foot Exfoliator, $18. Manicare Rotary Toe Nail Clippers, $11.
Use a rich cream
Using your body moisturiser to hydrate dry feet and cracked heels just won’t cut it either. The skin on your feet is 12 times thicker than the rest of your body. So you have a super-hydrating formula. After buffing your feet, slather on a rich cream and then wear a pair of cotton socks for the day or to bed to make sure the cream soaks in.
This Works Perfect Heels Rescue Balm, $41.
This moisturising foot balm not only soothes dry skin with cotton thistle extract and lemon oil. It heals cracked skin with vitamin B5 & vitamin E.
Other foot creams: Soap & Glory Heel Genius Foot Cream, $12. Burt’s Bees Foot Coconut Crème, $25. Clarins Foot Beauty Treatment Cream, $56. Kiehls Callus Cream, $46.
Tan your feet
For nervous tanners, go with a gradual glow giver. It contains a less tanning agent to give your skin a super-natural sun-kissed look. Always use a mitt to apply your self-tan, start at your thighs, and by the time you get to the ankles and feet, the remnants of a tan already on the mitt is enough to give your feet a believable bronze. To tan around your toenails, use a make-up brush. This will dispense just the right amount of product on the skin for an even, tan.
St. Tropez Watermelon Gradual Tanner, $40.
This self-tan contains ‘moisture lock technology’, infused with hyaluronic, watermelon extract, coconut, and brazil nut oil, which hydrates the skin. While the amazing tropical scent, a blend of melon, kiwi, and red berry fruits, and natural active sugar beet (that gives the skin colour) is 100 per cent natural.
For instant colour go for these tinted tanners: St. Tropez Gradual Tan Tinted Body Lotion, $40. Bondi Sands Liquid Gold Self-Tanning Dry Oil, $20. Vita Liberata Body Blur Instant HD Skin Finish - Café Crème, $59. Elle Effect The Tint, $50.
The Polish
From vibrant, flaming orange-reds to muted mulberry and those timeless classics like beige and cream and peach. If you want to take your pedi to the next level, then these lacquers will help you do just that.
Dior Vernis True Colour, Ultra-Shiny, Long-Wear, in Dune, $49.
Dior’s new summer dune collection offers a gel-like finish, thanks to a techno-polymer that coats each nail with a film as smooth and shiny as glass. There are three shades, Hasard, rose-like red, while Mirage is the full-on orange that our toes have been dying for. Finally, the hero shade in the collection is Dune, a pretty apricot-bronze.
OPI Hollywood Nail Lacquer, Emmy, Have You Seen Oscar, $20. Kester Black Nail Polish in, $26. Smith & Cult Nail Lacquer in Exit The Void, $35. Nails Inc Gel Effect in Lexington Gardens, $28.
The sandal edit
Kathryn Wilson Zsa Zsa sandal, $269.
Style director Louise Hilsz says when shopping for a sandal this season, invest in a metallic finish. “Not only are they versatile, it’s all about showing off a subtle tan, and nothing does that as well as a shimmery shoe.”
Chie Maihara Balta Sandal, $660, from Scarpa. Chaos & Harmony Gold Heel, $289. Kathryn Wilson Eloise Sandal, $319. Mi Piaci Minaro heel, $280.
A designer scent laced with vanilla.