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Summer has well and truly arrived in Australia – time to start flashing our feet in sandals, flip flops and open-toed shoes. Are your feet summer-ready?
After a long, cold winter trapped inside sweaty Uggs or heavy boots, the thought of baring your footsies might have you breaking out in a cold sweat. It’s not unusual for feet to appear a little more “OMG” than “ooh la la” if they’ve been neglected for a while, but the good news is that getting summer-ready feet can be a quick and simple fix.
Just follow these five easy steps for summer-ready feet to be proud of:
1. Soak
There is nothing quite as relaxing as soaking your poor tired feet in a warm bath. Those babies put up with a lot, they deserve a little pampering! You don’t need an expensive foot spa to get results, an old bucket or even a large baking pan will do the trick. Mix some Epsom salts in with your warm water, or, if you’ve got one on hand, drop a bath bomb in there and watch your troubles fizzle away.
2. Exfoliate
After soaking, treat your feet to an exfoliating foot rub to remove the dead skin, and leave them feeling soft and silky. You can make your own simple foot scrub by mixing some coarse sugar or rock salt with olive or coconut oil – not only will it feel amazing; your feet will smell delicious too. For tootsies that need more attention than most, you could invest in a foot loofah, or even an electric foot exfoliator for a professional-grade job.
3. Moisturise
Sealing in the moisture from the first two steps is essential for baby-soft soles – any thick moisturiser will do, or you could even use coconut oil (sans salt), with the added bonus being that your feet will smell good enough to eat.
4. Treat any nail damage or fungi
Can you tell the difference between ordinary old nail damage and a fungal infection? Probably not, because even the experts struggle without doing proper testing. Treating both is one of the most important steps to getting beach-worthy feet. No one needs a chorus of ‘Ewww’ when you wear flip flops for the first time!
Fungal nail infection is a common disease that can increase with age. It is estimated that 20% of Australians over 60 years old suffer from the condition¹ often due to poorer circulation, but it can also be influenced by things such as shoes with poor ventilation, trauma and friction to the toenail, or certain soaps or detergents. Nail damage, which an estimated 20% of the female population suffer from² can be caused by internal and external factors such as excessive use of cosmetics or chemicals, trauma to the nail, or poor diet. Nail damage can also be a perfect breeding ground for fungi to invade the nail.
One of the latest nail treatment products to make waves is RestoraNail, a product that treats both damaged nails AND fungal nail infections. RestoraNail is a convenient, once-a-day application that doesn’t require any filing and the great news is that it covers and protects the nail without being absorbed into the body. In fact, all you do is apply, let dry and then forget – going about your normal everyday activities including showering and swimming.
5. Get colourful on special occasions
What’s the point in spending all that time on your feet if you’re not going to dress them up?! Nothing says summer like a splash of colour peeking out from an open-toed sandal, so choose your favourite colour and get painting! For special occasions, nail polish can be applied straight over RestoraNail, so you can be ready to paint the toes red in a matter of minutes! Just remember that nail polish does need to be removed before your next RestoraNail application.
References:
1. Thomas, J. et al (2010) Toenail onychomycosis: an important global disease burden. J Clin Pharm Ther, 35(5): 497-519.
2. Van de Kerkhof PC, Pasch MC, Scher RK, Kerscher M, Gieler U, Haneke E, et al. Brittle nail syndrome: a pathogenesis-based approach with a proposed grading system. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2005;53(4):644–51.