Tips to Get Your Feet Summer Ready

Are You Ready for Sandals?

For most of us, summer time means shorts, sundresses, cute tank tops, and sandals. It’s time to give your feet a little air after a long season of heavy winter boots. But if you’re anything like most of us, your toes need a bit of grooming before you’re ready to show them off. If you’re wondering how you can get cute feet for sandal season, you’re in the right place.

How to Banish Winter Feet and Get Sandal Season Ready

There are three main elements to prepping your feet for the summer: getting rid of dry, cracked, or scaly skin that is dehydrated after a winter of being hidden away; doing away with calluses or blisters from your shoes (after all, they’ll be visible in those sandals); and keeping your toes looking cute with pedicures or nail polish at home.

Within each of those things is a world of tips and DIY tricks to try. Here are some of our favorite ways to get feet ready for warmer weather.

How do I soften up my feet?

If you’ve had your feet tucked away in thick socks and heavy shoes, especially in heated buildings, chances are the skin is very dehydrated. So, the first thing you’ll notice about your winter feet is that they are dry, cracked, and scaly in appearance. The skin may feel hard and inflexible, especially around the heel. Luckily, there are many ways to soften feet and get rid of that cracked skin.

• Start by soaking your feet to get them softened up. This will help with whatever method you’ll use to soften up your feet, and also helps to remove some of the dead skin cells making your feet look dry and cracked. You should always soak for at least 10 minutes with lukewarm water. You can add things like essential oils, oatmeal, or Epsom salt for added moisture, but just plain water also works.
• Exfoliation is key. All that hard, dry skin is a buildup of dead skin cells, and they need to be sloughed off. You can do this in many ways. You can try a foot cream with exfoliating chemicals, or a cream with some sort of physical abrasive, like micro-beads or Epsom salt. Simply rubbing a mixture of Epsom salt and water on your feet also works. Or you can try a physical tool like a pumice stone.
• In order to exfoliate properly, rub the exfoliating tool or cream on the skin with enough force to visibly see dead skin coming off, or to see rough patches becoming smoother. Then rinse off the cream, or rinse away the buildup of skin you’ve removed. It’s best to do this at least once per week to keep the feet smooth and soft.

Related: How to Exfoliate Your Skin

More Tips to Soften Feet

You need to moisturize. This is a very important step, and you should do this daily. A soak and moisturizing should be a daily routine as you prepare for summer, with a good exfoliating thrown in once per week.

To moisturize your feet, you should be using a pretty thick product. A cream designed specifically for feet or something like petroleum jelly are the best options. If you aren’t going out right after, a great way to get the full benefit of moisturizing your feet is to apply a generous layer of the moisturizer, and then to immediately put on a pair of cotton socks. This will keep the moisturizer in place while your skin absorbs it, getting deep moisture.

There are some other home remedies for moisturizing your feet if you prefer not to use creams or petroleum jelly products. For example, honey is a great moisturizer to use pre-soak, and a cotton ball soaked in olive oil can be massaged into the skin for deep moisture as well. These types of DIY remedies are great for weekly pampering sessions. For a daily moisture DIY solution, coconut oil is a great option. Just put it on like you would a lotion after bathing or soaking your feet.

Getting Rid of a Callus

The routine above will help you soften up dry, neglected feet after the winter. But what if you have a real callus on your foot that needs more than just some moisture to get rid of it? Many winter boots can pinch or rub in a way that creates calluses on the toes, on the sides of the feet, and on the heels. One way to handle this is to switch from weekly exfoliating to daily exfoliating, and to use a callus file rather than a pumice stone. This actually files away at hard buildup of dead skin a little each day, until you’ve worked your way down to the new skin.

You can also add some ingredients to your nightly moisturizing routine. For example, use a vitamin E oil on the callus to help soften it over time. Some DIY remedies include putting a lemon slice or an onion slice against the callus, and then putting a sock on to hold it in place overnight. This has been said to help soften calluses as well.

Get a Pedicure

Now that you’ve got your daily foot care routine down for making your skin softer and getting rid of those problem areas, it’s time to think about making your feet look cute in those new sandals. One of the first things you may be thinking about when the warmer weather hits is getting a pedicure.

The word pedicure just means “cosmetic treatment of the toenails and feet”, so this is mostly about how your feet feel. While there are plenty of pedicures that include grooming techniques and skin care, such as a nice soak and removing calluses, the primary goal of a pedicure is to make your toes look great.

This will involve things like trimming the toenails, taking care of stains or fungus on the toenails, and applying polish. You can do all this at home, or you can splurge and have a pedicure done for you at a salon. Either option is relaxing and pampering, and many people don’t prefer salons because the health and sanitation risks can be a little higher than other services. The fact is that foot bacteria, like athlete’s foot, aren’t easy to sanitize away. It’s not uncommon for people with toenail fungus to go to salons for pedicures, hoping to get rid of the problem – which is then transferred to other clients later in some cases.

If you do go to get a pedicure, it’s better to go a bit earlier in the day, and to choose a salon that uses the types of disinfectants they use in hospitals. Also, don’t get a salon pedicure if you have any open sores on your legs or feet. If you want to avoid the issue altogether, it may be best to give yourself an at-home pedicure.

DIY Pedicures – Tips

The first tip for a DIY pedicure is to have all your tools and items laid out and ready to go before you start. The best time to do a pedicure is right after you do your regular soak, exfoliate, and moisturize routine. This makes your toes nice and soft so that you can work with them. Start with that soak, then file or exfoliate away any dead skin. Check between your toes and under them, as well as on the sides of your feet just below the toes. These areas often get neglected as you focus on the bigger heel.

Then moisturize, again paying close attention to the toes and between them. Now it’s time to take care of the toenails. Use clippers to trim them straight across, and then use an emery board to make the corners a bit rounder and softer, so they don’t cut into the skin. If the cuticles around your toenails are very dry, try adding a drop of oil and massaging it in for about two minutes to let it absorb in as much as possible.

You can use a cuticle pusher to push the cuticles back so that they can be trimmed, if you like. When trimming your cuticles, only cut the part that is white, and avoid pulling on the cuticle too much. This strip of dead skin does actually service a purpose of protecting your nail bed.

Now it’s time to consider how the toenails themselves look.

Stained Toenails and Toenail Fungus

Your toenails can be stained due to many things. It could be that your toenails have been wearing dark nail polish for too long. It could be that you have athlete’s foot or some other fungus. The best course of action is to first address the possibility that it is bacteria. Use an anti-bacterial cream to get rid of any issues. Then soak your toenails (just the nails, not the whole foot) in lemon juice and baking soda for about 15 minutes each day. This won’t be an overnight cure, but eventually, it will get rid of dark polish stains. If you don’t prefer soaking, you can also make a paste out of lemon juice, baking soda, and olive oil, and apply it to the toenails. Let it sit for 15 minutes before washing off.

Another secret to giving your stained nails a break is to let them breathe between nail polishes. Try using a clear protective polish for some added shine if you like the way nails look when painted, or use a very light color that won’t stain so much. And if you aren’t seeing any luck with these tips, consider going to your doctor to have your toes checked for other types of bacteria that could need a prescription solution.

Related: What are the White Spots on My Nails?

Applying Nail Polish

Now we get to the final, and most fun part of foot care for the summer. Whether you are giving yourself a DIY pedicure, or you are just switching up your look between pedicures, learning how to apply nail polish correctly will help your feet be a great canvas for your favorite sandals.

First, choose your color. Classic summer colors include things like coral, orange, and red. But don’t forget how summery a mermaid teal or Caribbean aqua can look. Go for a sunny yellow or a lime green if you want something a little different, or keep it classic and chic with a nearly-clear wash of light pink.

Next, apply a base coat. You don’t want to stain your toenails, and any color can do that. You can get a yellow stain even after using a blue toenail polish. Base coats protect the nail from this problem. Next, use two coats of your chosen color to get the best, most even coat. Let the first coat dry before applying the second. Clean up any mistakes during this time. Finally, top it off with a clear top coat, which keeps the color from chipping and adds a nice glossy finish.

Related: How to Strengthen Brittle Nails

Grab Your Sandals for Summer

It’s important to make choices that will protect them now that you’ve gotten your feet ready for summer. When you grab your favorite summer sandals, pay attention to whether they rub your toes or heels the wrong way, which could leave calluses or blisters. If a certain pair of sandals makes your feet sweaty, consider replacing them, as that can cause athlete’s foot.

However, despite all that, it’s still important to wear shoes in the summer. It’s tempting to hit the beach or the pool party barefoot, but the soles of our feet are actually fairly delicate and can burn easily. The sand and concrete that has been sitting under the sun all day is warmer than you think, and even if you can handle the heat, it’s drying out your skin and undoing all your hard work.

Use these tips to get your feet ready for summer, and then keep them feeling soft and hydrated year-round with a foot care routine.