Sugar granules polish your feet, making your skin softer. Sugar is a great exfoliater, removing dead skin cells comfortably. To scrub, simply massage the sugar on your feet.
Massage is a proven way to relieve stress. Massaging calms muscles, relieving tension both of the body and mind. Using a sugar scrub on your feet will benefit more than just your dry feet.
It only takes a few minutes to get a foot spa treatment, and you will not be disappointed with the results. Getting rid of the hard, dry skin on your feet will feel like a wonderful accomplishment. Another advantage is that it is relaxing as well.
Homemade soap making is a wonderful option for creating a sugar scrub. Soap making gives you the chance to find your favorite type of ingredients, and mix them together. In this case, soap making with the intent of making a sugar scrub means choosing your favorite type of sugar, such as granulated sugar or cane sugar, and combining it with soap that you’ve already previously made.
Start by polishing your feet with the sugar. Simply massage your feet with the sugar, adding a little water as needed. After massaging your feet for several minutes, wash the sugar off.
Once you finish and dry your feet remember to moisturize them using a product with intense moisture. Use a body butter or cream and massage it onto your feet. Anytime you exfoliate, it’s important to follow with a good moisture rich lotion to keep your skin healthy and smooth.
Keep Healthy Feet with Anti-Aging Tips
Feet are the body’s balancing act. Their tiny bones are delicately articulated to flex, splay arch and grip in order to keep you upwardly mobile. If your feet are compromised, so is your posture. Foot problems can stress other joints and throw the entire body off-balance. A headache, for example, may have origins in the way you walk. Reflexologists believe that the foot contains pressure points relating to the entire body. Their welfare then, is crucial to your comfort.
Choosing the Right Shoes
Style and good sense aren’t always compatible in footwear for women. However, it’s worth hunting for a creative compromise. According to the American Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 75 per cent of foot problems are caused by constantly wearing high heels which force toes forward, over-arching the foot and imposing the body weight on the heels and balls of the feet. This unequal weight distribution means that the feet can’t fully shock-absorb the impact of movement. Tension reverberates up the spine as you walk and may cause back pain and headaches.
A burning sensation on the balls of the feet is caused by the feet sliding into the narrowest part of the shoe as you walk – pitched forward by very high heels – and is an early warning sign of hard skin build—up. Corns and calluses ultimately form to protect the bones and joints from this type of shock.
Reverting to “flatties” may not be the answer. Habitually wearing high heels shortens the tendons in the back of the leg, so suddenly dropping down several centimetres can be agony if you are used to wearing high heels, switching to shoes with a low heel of around 2 1/2 – 5 cm (1 – 2 inches) is often more comfortable than totally flat shoes, as the slightly raised heel is less likely to jar the foot and is more able to take the pressure off the lower back. Alternating high and low-heeled shoes is the most practical answer to keeping muscles and tendons flexible. When you’re running, walking or exercising, always wear trainers with good, shock-absorbing soles.
Remember, that keeping healthy feet pretty is an important part of anti-aging. Tips to keep feet pretty and healthy follow:
Keeping Feet Flexible
Good anti-aging tips for your feet are to keep your feet exercises – chiropodists recommend walking barefoot around the house or, more pleasurably, on the beach. Gripping damp sand exercises the toes and acts as a natural dead skin exfoliator. Exercise sandals are fashionable, but if you buy a pair, make sure they fit. Your heels should be cupped by a support ridge on the in-sole and grip bars should encourage the four smaller toes to curl while leaving the big toe flat. Bars or ridges that go right across the in sole compromise the big toe and throw the foot off-balance.
In summer, prevent hard skin on heels from drying and cracking by moisturizing regularly. During winter “closed” shoes trap perspiration, keeping feet soft and hydrated. But, they also need regular airing. Don’t wear the same pair of shoes two days running – try to alternate as much as possible.
The Importance of Hygiene
The most common and insidious foot problem is athletes foot – a fungal infection that attacks five million sufferers yearly in Britain alone. Although you don’t have to be an athlete to catch it, gyms and swimming pools are high-risk zones because warmth and moisture provide the ideal environment for fungal spores to thrive.
Symptoms usually first appear between the fourth and fifth toes where the skin becomes itchy, sore and inflamed. Cracking and weeping may occur if early symptoms aren’t treated. If left, infection spreads over the entire foot and can transfer to the hands around the fingernails.
Some strains of athletes foot are resistant to over-the-counter creams, so it’s best to treat it medically with broad- spectrum anti-fungal preparations containing ingredients such as terbinafine and griseofulvin. If infection keeps recurring, you may have to consider changing your footwear. Fungal spores feed off keratin and can live on shed nail and skin fibres trapped in shoes and socks for up to two years! Be aware of these issues to maintain healthy feet.
Efficient hygiene measures can prevent you from catching it in the first place and you can have healthy feet at all times. Bathe and check your feet daily and dry them thoroughly especially between the toes, and use an anti-fungal powder. Wear flip-flops in communal showers, pool-sides and changing rooms. Don’t share towels or borrow trainers or shoes. Always wear your own tights or socks: never borrow the shops when
you’re trying on new shoes.
Foot First Aid – For Healthy Feet
Foot bath for sore feet:
Add 1 drop of peppermint and 4 drops of lavender oil to a bowl of warm water. Soak feet for 10 minutes to ease swelling and burning.
To treat blisters:
Sprinkle a few drops of lavender oil on a cold compress or plaster and place over blisters and tender spots. Leave for at least 10 minutes.
To relieve fungal itching:
Massage tea tree oil between the toes or around cracked heels.
To treat cracked heels:
Seal deep cracks with Friar’s Balsam, then moisturize three or tour times daily to prevent further splitting and bleeding.
To “kill” corns:
Relieve pressure and treat impacted dry skin with a proprietary disc plaster impregnated with salicylic acid. Avoid pastes and solutions that can migrate to surrounding healthy skin and cause irritation.