14 June,2011 06:57 AM IST | | Team Active
Active! tells you how to keep your feet clean with an at-home pedicure using simple, easy-to-get ingredients
Frequent trips to the local salon for a pedicure are not the only solution to keeping feet happy this season. Besides, you needn't be a slave to a salon's open-only hours with a few pedicure essentials and ingredients/ tools that can easily be found around the house.
You need
> > Small basin/ bucket > > Pumice stone
> > Towel > > Wooden cuticle pusher > > Nail file
> > Nail buffer (to exfoliate nails)
> > Nail scissors/ cutter > > Moisturiser
> > Foot scrub > > Nail separator or cotton
> > Nail polish remover (optional)
> > Cotton (for nail polish removal)
> > Nail polish (optional)
3 recipes for one-ingredient-only foot soaks
Add
> > 1 cup honey OR
> > 2 cups brewed (black) coffee OR
> > 1/2 cup Epsom salts to four litres of water
Step 1
Fill the basin/ bucket with warm water at a comfortable temperature for you to soak your feet in for 10 minutes. Plain water is fine or you can buy any of the foot soaks available in the market.
Step 2
After 10 minutes (for really tired feet, you might need to soak feet longer), it's exfoliation time! Several exfoliating body/ foot scrubs are available in the market, but you can make your own by adding a few spoonfuls of raw sugar or oatmeal to half a cup of your favourite moisturiser. Take a generous amount of body/ foot scrub and slather over feet, massaging the scrub firmly.
Step 3
Rinse off excess exfoliant from your feet. Dip the pumice stone into warm water andu00a0 gently rub the stone over areas of the feet that experience the most wear: heels, the balls and the big toes. Be careful not to rub the pumice stone too vigorously.
Step 4
Remove your feet from the water and lightly dry off with a towel. The skin should be very soft by now. Take a wooden cuticle stick and gently push back the cuticles on each toenail, removing any dead skin around the edges. This is a good time to trim the nails. Make sure that you don't cut the nails too close to the sides of the nails, which can encourage ingrown nails.
Step 5
Apply moisturiser to feet and rub it in well. Wipe down each nail with nail polish remover to get rid of any old nail polish. Using a nail separator to spread the toes, apply a nail strengthener or base coat. Follow with two thin coats of nail polish.
