Preparing your feet for summer

Hands up who has been neglecting their feet over the Winter? Well, I certainly have - and I'm willing to bet that after months and months of being stuffed into warm and snuggly footwear, your tootsies are hardly summer-ready either. If they are anything like mine, they are likely to scare anyone who looks at them... even I tremble when I look at my own feet! Yesterday I gave in, and decided that if I want to wear gorgeous sandals like this:

Marc Jacobs - £375.00

I need gorgeous feet to match. I decided to have a little pamper session without spending a fortune :)

First of all I gave my feet a good wash - I love the feeling of freshly cleaned feet! No special product here, any old shower gel/soap/foot wash will do, you just need to wash away all the mingingness that comes with feet :) Then I got a bowl suitably sized for my big hooves, which unfortunately was an old washing up bowl. It was pink though! I filled it about halfway with some lovely warm water (as hot as you can handle is best with feet, I think) and soaked my feet using a homemade mixture.

My foot soak recipe is simple - just chuck in 1/4 of a cup of sea salt and a few drops of peppermint oil. It's not important to have exact quantities, but as a guide that's what I used. I soaked my feet for a good 10 minutes, just to soften up all the skin, and the salt really soothed any aches I had from my morning jog. You can put marbles in the bottom too, and roll your feet back and forth over them for a little massage. I didn't - purely because I didn't have any!

Next I scrubbed feet, using another DIY recipe. Of course you can use a pumice stone, a Ped-Egg or a foot file, but I'm really into mixing up my own beauty products lately, plus this is supposed to be on a budget remember! Anyway, my scrubby recipe is:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar - you can use any type of sugar or even salt, but I like to use brown sugar as the grains are bigger, making a more abrasive scrub.
• 1/4 cup almond oil - you can also use olive oil if that's what you have to hand.
  
• A few drops of some essential oils - you can use whichever is your favourite, but I particularly like peppermint or tea tree oil for feet. I used peppermint oil again.

I mixed mine by eye so that I could get the consistency I like, but the recipe above is one I found online if you want to follow that as a guide. As you can see below, mine is still quite grainy because I prefer harsher scrubs, particularly for super rough areas like feet, and I applied it with my exfoliation gloves to get that extra exfoliation. Just call me a scrubber!

Any oil will do really, but I love using almond oil on my feet. I bought a little 50ml bottle for about £1.50, and it's fantastic for softening any rough skin. The skin on my feet couldn't get any rougher, so it's the perfect treatment in my eyes. If you want your foot scrub to be a little gentler, use more oil. You need to work quickly with this though - if you leave it to sit for too long the sugar will start to dissolve, so it's no good preparing this mixture in advance.

Once the scrub was washed off and my feet were dried thoroughly, I trimmed my toenails and generously slathered my feet in a foot lotion. Of course I used the Flexitol Heel Balm that I reviewed yesterday. It pongs a bit, so make sure you wash your hands after using it! I also rubbed Lush's Lemony Flutter cuticle butter all around my toes and popped on a pair of socks. Meet Maisy and Daisy :)

I only tend to use foot lotions when I haven't got anything planned that involves wearing shoes, so I spent my afternoon playing Rockband with Mr Lollipop. After a few hours, I took off my socks and revealed gorgeously soft feet. If your feet still feel a little greasy, just plunge them into some clean water and dry them off.

Then, the best bit, you can paint your nails in whatever pretty colour you choose. I used Collection 2000's Siren - a gorgeously vibrant, hot pink with fuschia/purple sheen. I won this in Briony's giveaway and I love it. Et viola! I'll spare you the pictures of my feet but I've got perfectly pampered tootsies ready to show off in some pretty summer sandals. Now the difficulty is deciding on a pair...

xoxo