Best foot forward...

Summer is nipping at our heels, but have you checked out the state of your own lately?

If the thought of open toe season has you in a spin, don’t panic.

Amber from Verdo Nails in Parnell, has put together a few tips to get your feet looking fabulous.

Start with a bucket of warm water and Epsom salts.  The salts help reduce swelling, odor and can help heal the skin and nails.

Soak for about 15 minutes, or longer if you need to relax.

When removing dead skin, there are loads of products on the market, but I personally recommend using pumice.

Your feet do need to be softer, so this does need to be done after you have soaked your feet or had a shower.

Always remember be gentle removing dry skin on your feet. You want to smooth, not remove.

Our calluses protect pressure points on our feet, if we remove these, it will hurt with every step we take.

In the salon once we have smoothed the soles of your feet, we like to give your feet and lower legs a good scrub.  This helps to pick up any dead skin that really can dull your skin.

A good at home scrub is to take a gritty sugar, like coffee sugar, and mix it in with a lotion.  The lotion helps moisturize your skin.

Making small circular motions work the product around your foot and up your leg.

Your feet should be feeling amazing, but we aren’t quite done as yet.

Put your hand up if you still have traces of last summer’s nail polish on your toes. It’s okay, don’t be shy, you’re not the only one.

Some great tips for keeping your toe nails healthy is to make sure you file them straight across.

  If you take the corners off you’re opening yourself up to ingrown toe nails.  Not very attractive, and very painful!

Once your nails are short, get a little nail brush and remove any ‘stuff’ from under your nails. This can be done back in your bucket of warm water.

Under your toe nails is a great place for bacteria and fungus to grow, so keeping them clean reduces any chances.

With your cuticles you want to be very gentle.  The cuticles on our toes can be very thick and tough so you really want to push them back straight after you’ve soaked them or have had a shower or a bath. 

Using a cuticle pusher or orange stick, gently push back them back.

If it does not want to budge just leave it till after your next shower.  Please, never cut (or let someone cut) your cuticles.

This will open you up to infections and it will make you bleed.  Also, cutting your cuticles promotes scar tissue and will in time make your cuticle thicker.

Next week, I’ll be sharing my tips and tricks on how to perfectly paint your toenails.