This might seem obvious but, if you go barefoot all day, can you have smooth/soft feet?

[PeterPan]

So I got my first pedicure (yes, at 43), and the poor girl (and the girl beside her) were like OH HONEY...  And they had a whole litany of things to do (pumice in the shower, scrub with epsom salts, lotion and socks before bed, etc.), but I'm wondering if a lot of it is just my barefoot and pregnant without the pregnant part lifestyle, kwim? My dh has babysoft feet, and he wears work boots all day. Me, I'm permanently crusty without a week on the beach, and I'm barefoot, gloriously free.

So tell me the truth. What would I have to do to have rather soft/smooth/crag free feet? Is it possible when going barefoot all day? 

 

[Jentrovert]

In general, I can maintain decent feet if I do a pumice stone in the shower every day and slather on shea butter cream under socks at night. It's harder in the summertime though, and if I slack off my heels start to crack.

[maize]

I don't want smooth, soft feet. I want hardy, calloused feet that don't have to be encased in shoes all day because they function just fine without 🙂

[PeterPan]

10 minutes ago, Seasider too said:

It can be a form of athlete’s foot.

Let me google that and see. I had cracks at one point that were clearly connected to my health. Now they're just really dry and calloused I think. 

26 minutes ago, Jentrovert said:

shea butter cream

Ooo, that's what they said to do! I'll get right on that. I was just in the store and forgot. They said any kind of oil would help soften it.

11 minutes ago, maize said:

I don't want smooth, soft feet. I want hardy, calloused feet that don't have to be encased in shoes all day because they function just fine without 🙂

LOL Well that's what I've got, lol. But I thought there might be some compromise, lol. Like I don't need baby feet like my man, but not dragon feet either, lol. And you know, considering I already pumice them daily and after the steam room, anything I do would probably just get them to the middle. The odds of me stopping going barefoot are about nill. I've worn shoes constantly when my plantar fascitis was a mess, but once that calmed down I went right back to barefoot. Apparently I'm incorrigible, lol.

8 minutes ago, Seasider too said:

 

Well sure, growing up walking around on clamshell driveways and parking lots made my feet calloused, but that doesn’t equal dry and cracked. You can have one without the other. 

I think that's it. They're DRY, not just tough. And yeah, I walked on tough stuff too, still do, lol. 

Like think about you're hands. They're probably thick in some areas (mine are), but they're still soft and supple, not dragony. 

[Carrie12345]

Assuming there are no other issues, it mostly comes down to getting rid of dead skin and moisturizing fresh skin.

I tend to be barefoot in the summer and wear socks around the house in the winter. My feet are always pretty decent EXCEPT when I get lazy about exfoliating and moisturizing, regardless of the season.

(The rest of me really needs some sort of non-stop salt scrub and lotion lather machine for the winter. Someone needs to get on that!)

[Jentrovert]

2 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

 

Ooo, that's what they said to do! I'll get right on that. I was just in the store and forgot. They said any kind of oil would help soften it.

 

Any oil will help, but for me nothing works like a cream with shea butter. 

[Chris in VA]

My heels got painful cracks and super thick callouses.  I just started wearing socks but was in sandals about 8 months of the year. I soaked mine for an hour and then used what can only be described as a grater for feet. I have heard removing callouses only leads to them being built up again, but I couldn't stand the cracking. 

I removed most of it then slathered on Kerasin and a good thick lotion and put on socks. Takes maintenance for sure. 

[alisoncooks]

I never wear shoes at home. My feet are prone to getting cracks (deep, painful, itchy cracks) and feel dry. I have to stay on top of it or all my hard work is lost. I do a combo of things: this pumice https://www.amazon.com/Onyx-Professional-Siliglass-Remover-Exfoliates/dp/B005HGWIIE/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&ref_=ppx_yo_mob_b_track_package_o0_img a few days a week...or this soap https://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/p/soap-loofah-pumice-foot-scrub/ other days.  I do lotion and socks before bed (CeraVe in the pump or Gold Bond Healing). 

Right now my feet are looking pretty darn good (not perfect but not crusty). But if I slack off, it goes right back to what it was before. 

[PeterPan]

12 minutes ago, Jentrovert said:

 

Any oil will help, but for me nothing works like a cream with shea butter. 

Yup, I'm pulling it up on amazon right now. And I found this blog post https://www.diynatural.com/soothe-dry-cracked-feet-naturally/ that suggested mixing the shea with coconut oil. Any opinions on that? 

9 minutes ago, Chris in VA said:

I have heard removing callouses only leads to them being built up again,

Oh really? Oh dear. I don't know, seems like if you remove them and don't change whatever caused them, they'll definitely come back, lol.

9 minutes ago, Chris in VA said:

I removed most of it then slathered on Kerasin and a good thick lotion and put on socks. Takes maintenance for sure. 

It sounds like most people have been using some kind of moisturizer/lotion at night, and I wasn't picking up the clue phone. In my defense, regular creams I've tried make my skin worse and lead to cracks from the chemicals. But I think I can do a straight organic shea or coconut oil plus shea, no problem. 

Now I'm looking up foot soaks. I had a recipe we had made with epsom salts and whatnot that dd and I liked. We had little packets we got for a spa party for dd that seemed to work better.

[TechWife]

11 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

I never wear shoes at home. My feet are prone to getting cracks (deep, painful, itchy cracks) and feel dry. I have to stay on top of it or all my hard work is lost. I do a combo of things: this pumice https://www.amazon.com/Onyx-Professional-Siliglass-Remover-Exfoliates/dp/B005HGWIIE/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&ref_=ppx_yo_mob_b_track_package_o0_img a few days a week...or this soap https://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/p/soap-loofah-pumice-foot-scrub/ other days.  I do lotion and socks before bed (CeraVe in the pump or Gold Bond Healing). 

Right now my feet are looking pretty darn good (not perfect but not crusty). But if I slack off, it goes right back to what it was before. 

Deep, painful, itchy cracks sounds like athlete's foot to me. Have you tried using Lotrimin or Tinactin?

[PeterPan]

12 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

I never wear shoes at home. My feet are prone to getting cracks (deep, painful, itchy cracks) and feel dry. I have to stay on top of it or all my hard work is lost. I do a combo of things: this pumice https://www.amazon.com/Onyx-Professional-Siliglass-Remover-Exfoliates/dp/B005HGWIIE/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&ref_=ppx_yo_mob_b_track_package_o0_img a few days a week...or this soap https://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/p/soap-loofah-pumice-foot-scrub/ other days.  I do lotion and socks before bed (CeraVe in the pump or Gold Bond Healing). 

Right now my feet are looking pretty darn good (not perfect but not crusty). But if I slack off, it goes right back to what it was before. 

Oh those look good! A pumice soap, never would have thought of it. And yeah, my regular pumice stone isn't nearly strong enough, sigh. 

[gardenmom5]

apple cider vinegar makes a great foot soak - then you can pumice.

I slather moisturizer on my feet while I'm sitting down and let it soak it (preferably a few times a day), and as I climb into bed.  I have some nivea I bought in germany, or gold bond ultimate foot healing creme

it also has to do with how much water you drink, how hydrated you are.

[PeterPan]

8 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

apple cider vinegar makes a great foot soak

 

1 minute ago, Seasider too said:

fresh pineapple

Interesting! 

So now I'm working on finding a deeper dishpan. I think mine were shallow and sloshing a big with my size 10 feet, lol.

[KungFuPanda]

I NEVER wear shoes if I can help it. I’m even in the dance studio dancing barefoot about 8 hours a week. I will put on ballet slippers towards the end of the week when my feet start to get sore. I’m definitely calloused and want to be, but I’ve never had cracking.  I have dry skin in general, so I’m thinking cragginess and cracking must be caused by another variable. 

[mmasc]

I don’t like barefoot, but I wear flip flops absolutely any chance I get, and that includes in the house all day long. I watched a Dr Dray (dermatologist. Love her stuff!) YouTube video on foot care and she recommended kerasal. I bought it and it really works well, if I use it. 🙄I just smear it on and put socks on at bedtime when my heels are looking dry. 

https://smile.amazon.com/Kerasal-Intensive-Repair-Exfoliating-Moisturizer/dp/B000GCNC2U/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?keywords=kerasol+intensive+foot+repair&qid=1577897582&sprefix=kerasol&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzR0JVQlhCUVQyWUhOJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMTU3Mzc5MlhTT0xDT1pYUERJRSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMTYxNjMzMVdVUlY3TlIyWjlJRCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX3Bob25lX3NlYXJjaF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by mmasc
Typos

[mmasc]

As an aside, can anyone tell me how to make the link just one word? Like when I write ‘kerasal’ it would be blue so you can click on it, instead of the huge link posted below like in my post? TIA!

[Arcadia]

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

 

Ooo, that's what they said to do! I'll get right on that. I was just in the store and forgot. They said any kind of oil would help soften it.

Vaseline and socks for bedtime is a good stop gap if you have Vaseline at home already. Hair oil can be used for feet too.

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

Oh really? Oh dear. I don't know, seems like if you remove them and don't change whatever caused them, they'll definitely come back, lol.

My callus are below my toes area and they are due to my comfy shoes being too drying. So I had to moisturize that area.

[gardenmom5]

12 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

 

Interesting! 

So now I'm working on finding a deeper dishpan. I think mine were shallow and sloshing a big with my size 10 feet, lol.

I also use a tea tree oil Epsom salt foot soak.  (it was what worked for dh's toe nail fungus. He also has a really deep crack on one foot (he suffered circulation damage to his foot when he was hit by a car while riding his bike.)  and dudling's rash on his feet.)

I've always used a Rubbermaid bucket.  long deep, but really not wide enough for two feet.   (may have purchased them at home depot, or a fred meyer.)

but there's also this tub.  which I've thought about . . . (or this one, which may be larger, and collapses.)

 

 

[wintermom]

I believe that the humidity in the air on a daily basis can play a huge role. If you get cold winters, the humidity can drop and skin cracks more easily. 

More important the skin condition for bare feet, though, is how walking and standing on hard surfaces can effect the joints within your foot, and other lower body joints. I never walk or stand without good support footwear anymore. Welcome "old lady" shoes! 😂  I'll get horrible cramps in my toes if I've been wearing poor footwear.  Not a fun way to wake up at night. 🥶

[gardenmom5]

16 minutes ago, mmasc said:

I don’t like barefoot, but I wear flip flops absolutely any chance I get, and that includes in the house all day long. I watched a Dr Dray (dermatologist. Love her stuff!) YouTube video on foot care and she recommended kerasal. I bought it and it really works well, if I use it. 🙄I just smear it on and put socks on at bedtime when my heels are looking dry. 

Write your word - link, whatever you want.  (I inserted your link as an example.)

up in the tool bar, there is a paperclip symbol (5th from the left).  click on it.  then paste your "link" into the bar where it says URL.

[gardenmom5]

1 minute ago, wintermom said:

I believe that the humidity in the air on a daily basis can play a huge role. If you get cold winters, the humidity can drop and skin cracks more easily. 

More important the skin condition for bare feet, though, is how walking and standing on hard surfaces can effect the joints within your foot, and other lower body joints. I never walk or stand without good support footwear anymore. Welcome "old lady" shoes! 😂  I'll get horrible cramps in my toes if I've been wearing poor footwear.  Not a fun way to wake up at night. 🥶

hmmm.   there are flip flops with good foot support. maybe I should get some for around the house.

[wintermom]

1 minute ago, gardenmom5 said:

hmmm.   there are flip flops with good foot support. maybe I should get some for around the house.

Sure, there are some excellent ones available, and there are crappy ones.  My dh wears crocs with socks inside the house all year round.  I just have a pair of indoor runners.

[PrincessMommy]

1 hour ago, Seasider too said:

 

Well sure, growing up walking around on clamshell driveways and parking lots made my feet calloused, but that doesn’t equal dry and cracked. You can have one without the other. 

exactly. I love being barefoot, but in the winter I get big cracks that hurt on my feet, especially on my heels.   Same with my hands.   I try to take care of them, but I often forget. 

I also have a paraffin wax thing that I use on my hands.   I should get better about using it on my feet. It does make a difference when I use it every night in the winter.

 

[gardenmom5]

11 minutes ago, wintermom said:

Sure, there are some excellent ones available, and there are crappy ones.  My dh wears crocs with socks inside the house all year round.  I just have a pair of indoor runners.

there are a lot of crappy ones.  I've purchased ones with really good support for my sons.

[gardenmom5]

1 minute ago, seekinghim45 said:

Sort of a spin-off I guess, but I'm in my fifties and have never had a pedicure.  My feet are rough...but I don't care I guess.  Is there a good reason to spend money or time on this?  Don't do manicures either, but I pick my nails horribly.  

I had a pedicure once - with a gift certificate.

do a good soak, then you can exfoliate and moisturize.  I've bought some tools - and can do it myself.  I don't do polish.  I rub the same moisturizer into my cuticles.

[PeterPan]

25 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

Vaseline and socks for bedtime is a good stop gap if you have Vaseline at home already.

Yeah, anything petroleum makes my feet crack. So all the crack creams make me crack *more* LOL I can get away with a small amount of neosporin (also in a petrolatum base) once in a while, but to use something in larger quantity or regularly, nope. Hands, feet, anyway. Guaranteed cracks, reactions. So that's why I'm going through these shea and coconut oil options, because I can get something straight, no petroleum, that should work. I got lost in kind of a rabbit trail wondering if vitamin E would help. Sometimes I'll eat wheat germ daily for a week or two to get my levels up and my skin heals better. But taking vitamin E in isolation has some negative studies for safety, right?

[PeterPan]

28 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

My callus are below my toes area and they are due to my comfy shoes being too drying. So I had to moisturize that area.

Yup, that's my plan. I was thinking how SIMPLE I could make this, and at the most simple just moisturizing would be moving up, lol.

[gardenmom5]

1 minute ago, parent said:

I do wear clarks cushy flip flops when I'm on my feet but have not been wearing them lately.  That helps with foot pain but  i do not think it helps dryness.  I am in a dry climate.

the supportive flip flops was more about reducing foot pain from going barefoot with zero support all the time.  and I'm fairly picky.  I do like abeos (the walking company) - you can get them with metatarsal support as well as good arch support.

I've had a lot of foot pain lately - but I've been wearing a pair of worn out danskos. .  . . . I need to replace them.

[PeterPan]

26 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

I also use a tea tree oil Epsom salt foot soak.  (it was what worked for dh's toe nail fungus. He also has a really deep crack on one foot (he suffered circulation damage to his foot when he was hit by a car while riding his bike.)  and dudling's rash on his feet.)

I've always used a Rubbermaid bucket.  long deep, but really not wide enough for two feet.   (may have purchased them at home depot, or a fred meyer.)

but there's also this tub.  which I've thought about . . . (or this one, which may be larger, and collapses.)

 

 

See those are what I was looking at, with their $10-15 price tags, and I was realizing from the dimensions they might not be any better than a $3 rubbermaid, haha. I need to go measure what I have. When we did our spa party, we bought a scad of dishpans. But they may have been dollar tree and shallow. 

So on the foot soak, I got a little lost in wondering what MSM does (says it's for swelling) and whether it is generally safe, how it would affect me, etc. But you're right, several of the soaks are that combo of epsom salts, msm, and oils.

26 minutes ago, wintermom said:

I believe that the humidity in the air on a daily basis can play a huge role. If you get cold winters, the humidity can drop and skin cracks more easily. 

Oh that really makes sense!

27 minutes ago, wintermom said:

More important the skin condition for bare feet, though, is how walking and standing on hard surfaces can effect the joints within your foot, and other lower body joints. I never walk or stand without good support footwear anymore. Welcome "old lady" shoes! 😂  I'll get horrible cramps in my toes if I've been wearing poor footwear.  Not a fun way to wake up at night. 🥶

Yeah, I had a stage of that. http://www.meghancallawayfitness.com/my-blog/strengthen-your-feet-and-lower-leg-with-these-5-exercises-part-2/  This article made me question my assumptions. I'm not doing anything with it yet, but it's interesting to ponder.

The other thing I was open to was wondering if gaining some weight (with my thyroid med changes, ugh) was part of it. Or if taking up running (shhh) with a couch to 5k was part of it. Like bang bang. 

Really, I think they're just dry and calloused, nothing more insidious. And I'd like a bit *less* callous and more moisture.

[PeterPan]

28 minutes ago, gardenmom5 said:

hmmm.   there are flip flops with good foot support. maybe I should get some for around the house.

Well see that's why I was asking. I might be able to compromise and wear Teva flipflops around, hmm. I've tried minnetonkas, and I sort of wear them for a while and stop. Actually I liked them fine but they stretched out and weren't right. And really, I could use a little more support. 

I'm getting the flip flops for the cruise anyway, so I could play with them, see what I think. They also make those slipon things, I forget the name. I bought my mother a pair here based on board recs but not myself. 

I just think something on my feet sometimes is something I could compromise on if it would help, lol.

[PeterPan]

2 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

they cut back your cuticles. 

Yeah I wasn't quite sure what they were doing. What does that mean? They *pushed* back my toe cuticles and used a cream. Then when they went around, a lot of what they said was dead skin sloughed off. Then they had little clippers and clipped just a little here or there, that I assumed were maybe jagged points. But what do you mean cutting back your cuticles? You mean they're dissolving them to get a perfectly smooth look?? Something else?

This place was on the more natural side btw. Everything was all natural/healthy ingredients, etc. They may have been more conservative, I don't know.

[PeterPan]

5 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

cracked heels because they can lead to infections.

That's actually the reason I started pumicing regularly, because I was getting concerned. I was having deep cracks that would bleed and hurt, and I didn't want to risk anything with going to the gym, showering and using the steam room there, etc. At this stage I'm more on the pro-active side. But this natural place, just for a pedicure, was $65 with tip and tax. I actually think it would be neat to have them do my nails, just to see how tidy they could make them. I always trim my own, but they really made my toes look tidier than I ever have. 

I want to see if they'll do the service without paint, lol. Or maybe like paint my toes before the cruise but only tidy and not paint my hands. I don't know, would they look good for two weeks with paint? I'm gonna snorkel, do water slides, and generally be wild, lol. (As wild as a non-drinking woman gets, lol.)

[PeterPan]

2 minutes ago, parent said:

I do not see the dryness change with or without the flip flops.

Hmm, so you're teasing apart dryness and callouses. Do you think wearing flip flops or something helps the callouses? Or is it pretty much about the hydration/dryness?

[PeterPan]

13 minutes ago, seekinghim45 said:

 But why would you WANT to?  Never really worried about my feet.  Is that bad?

Don't you think you already know the answer to that for yourself? I mean, I spent 43 years with interoception problems, never realizing what my body was feeling or what I would like. Now I'm doing stuff just for the whimsicalness of it, because I MIGHT want to or because I MIGHT like it. 

So if you aren't getting a sense that you would like it, that's you. For me, I'm on a whole journey here of realizing what I like, and I'm trying things out.

[BeachGal]

Use Baby Foot peels. Life. Changing. (Okay, maybe not. LOL) It’s a gel encased in plastic booties that exfoliates the top layer of crusty skin and then, behold! Beautiful baby feet reveal themselves to the world. Almost like being born again. I just did one the other day and my feet are in the peeling stage. Heading to Florida and Mexico so can’t have crusty feet. You can by them on Amazon.

Deep cracks can be a vitamin B deficiency, IIRC. B3 maybe? Can’t recall.

[PeterPan]

4 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

There are two different issues; dry feet and calluses. The only way to get rid of callouses is to remove them by filing or having them removed at the podiatrist's office. There are some good Youtube videos made by podiatrists showing the process. Warning - watching podiatry videos can be kind of addictive and morbidly fascinating. 

I once tried a peeling foot mask but it did not remove the calluses so the dry heels came back. 

I live in a very dry climate and never wear shoes in the house so my heels get very dry. I never had much luck with pumice stones so I use something like this on my heels. Rotating Callus Remover I've found that I need to use it several times a week. I use a foot balm and then put on gel socks which I wear to bed. I really like the gel heel socks because I get too hot with regular socks. The gel socks claim to be moisturizing but I don't think they are enough without a foot balm. 

Ok, you're kinda rocking my world here! You're right, one of the things that holds me back (and yes, I'm pathetic) is the tightness of the socks. I need to work on that next. I have some boring white socks that I thought I'd donate to the cause, but they're so tight I feel like I'm moisturizing the socks, not my feet, lol. I wear a size 10 btw. 

Some of the calluses are on my toes, for whatever reason. Maybe it's the way I work out? So I'll look at the different kinds. Maybe sometimes the heel only would work. I didn't know there was such a thing, lol. I probably need some cheap, larger socks that I can use for this. At time I've used my dh's old socks, shhh... 

[PeterPan]

3 minutes ago, BeachGal said:

Use Baby Foot peels. Life. Changing. (Okay, maybe not. LOL) It’s a gel encased in plastic booties that exfoliates the top layer of crusty skin and then, behold! Beautiful baby feet reveal themselves to the world. Almost like being born again. I just did one the other day and my feet are in the peeling stage. Heading to Florida and Mexico so can’t have crusty feet. You can by them on Amazon.

Deep cracks can be a vitamin B deficiency, IIRC. B3 maybe? Can’t recall.

I'll look it up! 

Yeah, my Bs probably were a mess. Maybe that's why I'm doing better? I haven't had any of those deep bleeding cracks in about a year, and that's about when we ran genetics and changed how we were doing everything. Turns out I have an MTHFR defect (and some other things). Got the right forms and my Bs are happier. 

[PeterPan]

6 minutes ago, BeachGal said:

Use Baby Foot peels. Life. Changing.

Whoa. That's something I wouldn't have had the balls to do on my own, lol. Looking at the pics on amazon. I will think about that. Kinda blowing my mind. So you leave it on a while and then a week later you shed like a snake?

[PeterPan]

5 minutes ago, parent said:

  Flip flops... doesnt seem like it helps me but maybe i'll experiment, start wearing again and post results.😆

Sounds like very important research! 

[PrincessMommy]

15 minutes ago, BeachGal said:

Use Baby Foot peels. Life. Changing. (Okay, maybe not. LOL) It’s a gel encased in plastic booties that exfoliates the top layer of crusty skin and then, behold! Beautiful baby feet reveal themselves to the world. Almost like being born again. I just did one the other day and my feet are in the peeling stage. Heading to Florida and Mexico so can’t have crusty feet. You can by them on Amazon.

Deep cracks can be a vitamin B deficiency, IIRC. B3 maybe? Can’t recall.

I did one of those.  My feet laughed at it and barely peeled.

I found Dr. Dray's recommendations to be the most helpful but I have to do it every.single.night.  I'm just not that disciplined.  

[BeachGal]

12 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

I'll look it up! 

Yeah, my Bs probably were a mess. Maybe that's why I'm doing better? I haven't had any of those deep bleeding cracks in about a year, and that's about when we ran genetics and changed how we were doing everything. Turns out I have an MTHFR defect (and some other things). Got the right forms and my Bs are happier. 

 

I’m trying something called True Niagen. Check it out. It’s supposed to be good. A lot of MDs and researchers take it.

Also, Chris Masterjohn, whose expertise is nutrition science, is coming out with a book. He also has a website and social media sites. He deep dives into nutrition and there might be something that you find helpful. Weirdly, my heel cracks went away with fasting. I don’t know why. I still need to use Baby Foot but only every 2-3 months. I don’t pumice, though.

ETA Billabong flip flops are my favorite. The ones with a formed footbed. They usually have Billa and Bong printed on the straps. Super comfy!

Edited January 1, 2020 by BeachGal

[BeachGal]

16 minutes ago, PrincessMommy said:

I did one of those.  My feet laughed at it and barely peeled.

I found Dr. Dray's recommendations to be the most helpful but I have to do it every.single.night.  I'm just not that disciplined.  

 

Oh no! Did you pre-soak and leave on for 2 hours? I recently used a cheaper version that has salicylic acid in it, IIRC. It’s very liquidy but works well.

There is probably a benefit to having tougher foot skin. 🙂

Edited January 1, 2020 by BeachGal

[gardenmom5]

31 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

snip

I want to see if they'll do the service without paint, lol. Or maybe like paint my toes before the cruise but only tidy and not paint my hands. I don't know, would they look good for two weeks with paint? I'm gonna snorkel, do water slides, and generally be wild, lol. (As wild as a non-drinking woman gets, lol.)

I detest polish - it makes my nails soft and crack, and easily takes three months to grow it back out.  I told them no polish, and they were fine with that.  didn't charge any less.

25 minutes ago, BeachGal said:

Use Baby Foot peels. Life. Changing. (Okay, maybe not. LOL) It’s a gel encased in plastic booties that exfoliates the top layer of crusty skin and then, behold! Beautiful baby feet reveal themselves to the world. Almost like being born again. I just did one the other day and my feet are in the peeling stage. Heading to Florida and Mexico so can’t have crusty feet. You can by them on Amazon.

Deep cracks can be a vitamin B deficiency, IIRC. B3 maybe? Can’t recall.

interesting.  I know circulation has been part of it for dh - as it is just one foot, the one a miniscule piece of bone was broken when he was hit by a car.

[PeterPan]

7 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

Your toes? You'll be fine for 2 weeks. I like to get my fingernails done every two weeks and my toes done every month. I get gel manicures for my fingernails. (yes, I know that's bad but it's the only manicure that lasts more than a few days) I get regular polish on my toes and they look good for about a month. 

Thank you! My mother had given me these really long estimates, saying my toes would last 6 weeks and whatnot, and it just doesn't seem like that. Your numbers seem more realistic. And that probably explains why I've seen my mother with chipped polish. That so would not be acceptable to me. No polish, or nice polish, but not chipped and in between. She wears it so faint (a pale pink) that it hardly shows. Just me, that would bug me. But it makes sense why the gel works for you.

8 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

In defense of manicures, what I like is that my nails look good all of the time with no maintenance required from me. Before I got regular manicures I needed to trim my fingernails every week. My nails are pretty strong so always grew a little longer but eventually one nail would break and I'd need to cut back everything else. Also, my nails grow kind of weird shapes - hard to explain.

Oh no need to defend, lol! You do you, whatever you want. I'm going on a 2 week cruise, and I don't get everything, lol. And yeah, I usually let my nails go from short/tidy to LONG. I only started keeping them short more often when ds needed so much hands-on speech therapy, sigh. So they don't really get a lot of attention from me, because I let them go a long while between trims, not trying to keep them a consistent length or range. And they grow out smoothly and evenly. Genetics I guess, lol.

 

[PeterPan]

12 minutes ago, PrincessMommy said:

I did one of those.  My feet laughed at it and barely peeled.

I found Dr. Dray's recommendations to be the most helpful but I have to do it every.single.night.  I'm just not that disciplined.  

Yeah, that's why I'm looking for some kind of practical, middle of the road option, lol. Slight lifestyle change plus slight lifestyle addition. ONE cream or added activity. Definitely not four, lol. And yes, my feet would laugh too, lol. I did like her apricot scrub idea though.

[PeterPan]

15 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

One more thing about regular manicures, I started liking choosing different colors as a means of self expression. It's fun. I used to be really conservative with my nail color. I have olive skin and usually choose deep red-ish colors. But in the last few years, I started choosing different colors and I like it.

That seems really good! I married into a pretty conservative family, so the fuschia on my toes is as wild as I've been in 30 years. Well other than ending up in a hot tub with someone from the mafia... 

[BeachGal]

19 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Whoa. That's something I wouldn't have had the balls to do on my own, lol. Looking at the pics on amazon. I will think about that. Kinda blowing my mind. So you leave it on a while and then a week later you shed like a snake?

 

Yep! Well, at least I do. It’s messy because you shed for days but once peeling commences you can soak your feet and gently rub off the old skin.

Tips:

Either soak your feet or put the booties on right after a long shower or bath.

Keep booties on for 2 hours, not 1. But if this is your first, maybe an hour in case you’re allergic.

[gardenmom5]

19 minutes ago, BeachGal said:

 

I’m trying something called True Niagen. Check it out. It’s supposed to be good. A lot of MDs and researchers take it.

 

that's a brand name of nicotinamide ribose.  I've had that rec'd by dudelings ND (don't recall the specific brand she rec'd), and I've done some reading on it.   

eta: I went and looked it up.  she rec'd  NiaCell by Thorne.  (jarrow is also a dependable brand)

Edited January 1, 2020 by gardenmom5

[gardenmom5]

3 minutes ago, Seasider too said:

 

I would think you’d have more luck with D (healing properties), quality EFAs (ex fish oil), and coconut oil (reported to be a natural antibacterial).

so is tea tree oil.  it's also antifungal.

[PeterPan]

19 minutes ago, BeachGal said:

Billabong flip flops are my favorite. The ones with a formed footbed. They usually have Billa and Bong printed on the straps. Super comfy!

I will check them out!

14 minutes ago, seekinghim45 said:

No, not really.  This is one of the many things that I don't think about until someone brings it up on this board.  It is educational for me.  No one I know actually does manicures and pedicures...well at least anyone who talks to me about it.  I see it on tv sometimes on the occasionally time I watch it.     Anyway, it was a genuine question.  I'll go back to my hole.  Didn't meant to upset or derail the thread.  Just honestly curious.

Well in my circles, people don't talk about them because $$$ (they were gifts, can't afford them otherwise) or because we aren't really make-up, done up kind of people. But in all seriousness, interoception is the thing to read about. https://www.kelly-mahler.com/what-is-interoception/  It's the thing that took me from wondering how all these people knew to do this stuff to knowing for MYSELF what *I* wanted or how *I* felt about it.