Our feet deserve to be treated royally – especially in the summer when they aren’t protected with full shoes and when we take walks more often. Check our foot products ideas that you can make on your own and use in your home SPA.
Many people consider making DIY cosmetics at home to be time-consuming. They would rather reach for the ready-made foot creams or exfoliating socks than expose the tired feet to the real-life home SPA. In this article we will do our best to prove you that home foot care neither is time- nor labor-consuming. Also, we will show you that homemade cosmetics aren’t hard to prepare.
Homemade foot products
They soften the skin and make it smoother, they bring relief to feet after a hard and long day – homemade foot care products are equally effective as its store-bought alternatives. They can be and even should be incorporated into a daily foot care routine, particularly because such products are 100% natural and satisfy all needs of our feet. Creating them doesn’t occupy much time and making creams, mask or scrubs at home costs less than buying one in a store. Although low price seems to be the one of the major determinants of us reaching for homemade foot products, it’s worth realizing that there are more benefits than just money saving. Natural fragrances, lack of artificial aromas and colorants as well as the ingredients that we have a complete control over during the production process – these are other reasons why application of homemade foot care products wins with commercial products. However, in order not to select the ingredients following a hit-and-miss technique, we’re going to present you a couple of recipes for foot care products of proven effectiveness. Once you learn the basics, you will be able to compose your own cosmetics for feet.
DIY: Recipes for foot creams
Nourishing foot cream
Scoop out a generous portion of shea butter (6 full tablespoons should be enough). Combine it with olive oil (5 tablespoons) and coconut oil (5 tablespoons). To make the blending easier, you can warm the constituents first using either steaming or a microwave. If you want to make your foot cream smell wonderful, add a few drops of essential oil. Keep mixing all the ingredients until you obtain an even mass and later cool it down in a fridge. Apply to the feet every evening before going to sleep.
Moisturizing foot cream
If you want to increase moisture levels in foot skin, try combining four ingredients. Use shea butter as the base ingredient (again, 6 full tablespoons). Mix it with coconut oil (3 tablespoons) and a ointment enriched with vitamin E (1 tablespoon). You can also add a teaspoon of hyaluronic acid to boost the moisturizing effect of the cream. Combine the ingredients and apply the cream to the feet at bedtime. Don’t forget to put on cotton socks. Keep your homemade moisturizing foot cream in the fridge to help it preserve its properties longer and cool your feet down at every use.
DIY: Recipes for foot masks
Regenerating/moisturizing foot mask
Take 100 g of cottage cheese, 2 tablespoons of natural yogurt, 2 fresh bananas (mash them with a fork) and 2 tablespoons of natural honey. Combine all the ingredients thoroughly until you obtain an even and smooth mass. If your foot skin features some darker pigmentation spots, you may enrich your foot mask with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice – it will help you brighten skin up and make it look even. Apply the mask and secure with foil and cotton socks. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes and rinse. Follow with a foot cream. Reapply the mask at least once a week.
Foot mask to heal cracked heels
Boil 2 big unpeeled potatoes. Mash them, cool them down and combine with milk (2 tablespoons should do), an egg yolk and boiled flaxseed (2 tablespoons). Apply the mixture to the feet and let it sit for 20-30 minutes. After that wash the feet and slather them with vaseline that will prevent moisture and nutrient loss. Another important task that vaseline handles is making skin soft and smooth, which is essential when it comes to taking care of dry and cracked heels. Note: This foot mask can be enriched with a few drops of vitamin E.
DIY: Recipes for foot scrubs
Sea salt foot scrub
If the epidermis feels rough, prepare a coarse sea salt foot scrub. Prepare a half cup of sea salt, add cream (2 tablespoons) and any essential oil to gift the scrub with pleasant smell. The cream will soothe irritations, but if you don’t have it or if you don’t want to use any animal-origin ingredients, you can replace it with some olive oil. Wash the feet and rub your salt sea foot scrub. Keep massaging for a few minutes. Focus on the areas where the skin seems to be thicker and dryer. Once you finish, you can follow with one of the above-mentioned homemade foot creams.
Cinnamon foot scrub
You can also try out some sugar. Combine a small amount of brown sugar (2 tablespoons) with a tablespoon of natural oil and a teaspoon of cinnamon that will warm your skin up and stimulate it to launch its self-healing processes. Apart from freeing you from dead skin cells, such cinnamon foot scrub will also kill bacteria (it is antiseptic). If you want the scrub to freshen your skin up and replenish it with nutrients, add a spoon of olive oil, a few mint leaves and a pinch of lemon zest. Apply the scrub to the feet and keep massaging for a few minutes to rinse and finish with a foot cream.
* Each of the recipes for homemade foot product can be modified at will by adding some ingredients that will enrich the formulas and gift them with extra properties to satisfy your current feet needs.
