Ready to give yourself a spa pedicure at home? Follow these steps and your feet will be feeling blissful in no time at all!
Difficulty:
Easy
Time Required:
30 minutes
What You Need:
• Polish remover and cotton pads
• Foot soak (optional)
• Nail clippers and file
• Nail/cuticle nipper
• Cuticle pusher
• Pumice stone and exfoliating scrub
• Moisturizer
• Nail polish
What to Do:
Remove Old Nail Polish: Choose an acetone-free nail polish remover (which is gentler) to get rid of all traces of your last pedicure.
Soak Your Feet: The perfect time for a pedicure is after a bath or shower, but you can soften your skin in five minutes in a pinch. You can use warm water on its own, but for the best results you might want to invest in a foot soak to add to the water, such as this Tea Tree Oil Foot Soak. The foot soak deodorizes and conditions feet. Be sure to pat your feet dry before the next step.
Remove Dead Skin: This is when the ladies at the corner nail salon take out one of those scary razor blades and the spa ladies rub expensive scrubs on your feet. We like to use both a foot scrubber (such as a pumice stone) and an exfoliating rub. Pay special attention to rough heels and rinse away sloughed-off skin when done.
Clip and Shape Nails: Long toenails are creepy, so get yours back to a respectable length with a pair of clippers and a file. There are a few different styles of toenail clippers on the market at varying price points, but there's no need to get fancy. I've had the same $3 toenail clipper for years.
Tackle Your Cuticles: By this, we mean for you to reach for one of those angled wooden tools, a cuticle remover, and push overgrown cuticles back into place.
Trim Excess Skin: Perhaps the most important step, you'll need a cuticle trimmer or nail "nipper" to help you remove dead, rough skin from all around your nails. Be careful – these tools are sharp!
Moisturize: Slather on a coat of rich moisturizer and give your feet a mini-massage. O'Keeffe's for Healthy Feet is a very popular foot cream that's very budget friendly. Wipe any lotion off your nails before applying polish.
Polish: Choose a fab nail color and apply two even coats to each nail. Finish your pedicure by applying a top coat like Seche Vite, which will keep your nail polish from chipping and also helps your nails dry super quickly.
Tips for a Great Spa Pedicure at Home
Use cotton pads – not cotton balls – for tidier polish removal, as the balls tend to shred on stubborn polish.
When filing, move from each edge to the center (don't zig-zag a nail file back and forth) and don't file the sides of your nails.
Use a Q-tip with nail polish remover to clean up any excess polish.