One of my last posts was about hands & nails, now I feel like I should write a post about your feet & toe nails. As women we have a lot to maintain & balance, but some of those things should be our hands & feet. i.e. I once had a manager who had thick, calloused hands. He joked that shaking his hands were like shaking his feet.  This might’ve been OK in a man, but not attractive on a woman.

Callouses, long or yellow toenails, simply don’t look good. Here I’ll give you some tips on how to keep well maintained feet.

Tip: ALWAYS clip your toenails. Long toenails are never sexy. Some women get fake toenails (i’m not sure why), or like to grow them out for french manicures on their toes. If you share your bed with someone (like your boyfriend/husband) you can accidentally scratch him in your sleep with long toenails. Once they grow out, clip, clip, clip away.

And always moisturize your feet!  Use your favorite lotion of choice, & I like I said before, moisturize RIGHT before you go to sleep.  (This prevents you from stepping all over your lotion)  My moisturizer of choice has always been you guessed it: body butter.  Slap it on right before bed, & wake up with soft, delicate feet.  Victoria Beckham claims that her favorite moisturizer is baby oil.  (I’m guessing she puts it on, & then later wipes it off)

Even better, moisturize your feet, allow the lotion/cream to dry a bit, & then sleep with your socks on.

Above: a foot file that I have from Bathery, at Target, $3

And always have on hand: foot files.  The inexpensive place: they literally sell them everywhere from the dollar store, to Target/Walmart.  If you see the above photo, this is the exact foot file I use at home.  It has pumice, foot file on one side, and a courser callous remover & brush on the other.  It’s a great all 4 in 1.  And I love that when I’m done I can just hang it to dry.  (Don’t spend more than $5 on foot files/callous removers)

I have the book, “How to look Expensive” by Andrea Pomerantz, editor of Glamour magazine.  Here are tips directly from her book about feet:

-Exfoliate your feet in the shower.  Use a course foot file & then a fine one.  (She recommends them over pumice stones)

-“Give your feet a softening hot oil treatment.  Warm up olive oil for ten seconds in the microwave, then soak your feet for 10 min. (being sure to wipe them afterward so you don’t slip!”

-“To lighten up yellow stained toe nails, drop a denture cream tabled into a bowl of water and dip your feet into it for about 5 minutes..  And it works!  Afterward massage feet with moisturizer.”

And if you paint your toes, it’s the same idea as the hands: once it chips, take it all off.  It’s better to see beautiful feet (with no paint on them) vs. feet with chunks of paint on them.

And never walk around barefoot.  Always wear slippers/sandals inside the house.  And always wear flip flops at the beach.  If you live in a city, TRY not to wear sandals outdoors in the summertime.  I know it’s hard because I love sandals too.  “Your heels will turn black and crack” according to Andrea.

A good investment once in awhile: a mani/pedi.  It’s cheaper because you get both at the same time; there is a nail salon near my house who has mani/pedis for $12!!!  (Don’t spend more than $35 on a mani/pedi) I don’t like pedicure personally (I’m extremely ticklish) but the soaking of your feet in bubbles is relaxing.  They will paint all of your nails, moisturize, AND on top of that they will massage your feet.  (Which is AWESOME) A great foot massage is a wonderful, wonderful feeling.  If you don’t know of a good nail salon you can always search on lifebooker.com or yelp.com.  Always read up on their prices & other people’s reviews.

It must sound like a lot and my goal is not to overwhelm you.  The very basic principles of maintaining feet?  Trim your toe nails, file them in the shower, & moisturize.  That’s it!  And then all the rest are optional.

Foot files at Target: http://www.target.com/s?searchTerm=foot+file&category=0%7CAll%7Cmatchallpartial%7Call+categories&lnk=snav_sbox_foot+file