Home Pedicure, Freshen Your Feet For Spring!

It looks like Spring has FINALLY arrived, about time!

So it is officially the beginning of flip flop season, which also means it is the beginning of endless pedicures season too.  Now it's not that I am adverse to spending money (ask my Husband) but I hate spending money on something I can do myself, Hence my previous Shellac at Home and How to Highlight your Own Hair posts.  So here is what I do to turn my nasty hard feet into something more acceptable.

I have horrible feet, my toes are all bent from ballet when I was younger and then wearing shoes a size too small in my teen years (I'm 5'8" so I have big feet and find it hard to find pretty shoes in my size.) To add to my foot woes, I also have psoriasis, I have manged to reduce it to almost nothing on my body but my toenails have fought back.  Luckily once I have painted my toes you can't tell but it does mean I can't go varnish free.

Here is the beauty arsenal that is required to bring my feet into normal territory.
So here are the products and I have detailed them in order of use so you can also see how my pedicure progresses
Cien Nail Polish Remover- available from Lidl around £1.20 and comes with this amazing dispenser top, like you get in salons- total bargain.  I use this to remove nail varnish (obviously!)

Scholl Cuticle Cream (not in picture, I forgot) rub this in after removing nail varnish.
Orange Sticks - to push back the cuticle that was softened in the previous step.
Nail Clippers - again they need no introduction, but I must say I pay little heed to the advice to cut straight across the nail, this must be for people who like holes in their tights.
Nail File, to take off the rough edges of just clipped nails.
The Edge Nail File - I use this to remove ridges from my toenails, I am not sure if this is caused by the psoriasis or I would have it anyway...  This is great though, it cost me a couple of pounds on ebay and makes your nail flat so you can get a nice even shine on your polish once applied.
Scholl Express Pedi - Like an angle grinder for your feet, This is so easy to use and makes light work of any hard patches of skin you have developed.  I use this every other week and my feet stay soft, even my foot hating Husband had to agree they felt better and so stole it for his own use :(
E45 Nourish and Restore - Grown up version of the perennial favourite E45.  This is lightly scented and designed to reduce signs of ageing. It works well and doesn't leave my feet greasy.  I put as much of this on as my feet can absorb.
Toe Separators - does exactly that, stops nail varnish getting smudged, important with bendy toes.
Nails Inc Albert Bridge Base Coat - I use this to stop my nails getting stained and also to help the nail varnish go on smoothly without ridges.
Hello Kitty Nail Polish - I couldn't find a suitably spring shade in my collection so I stole ones from my daughters (I am a mean Mummy and rarely let her wear nail varnish, she is only 6!)  This is actually I very on trend colour, a nice corally pink that is a little bit sheer.
Nails Inc Hyde Park Top Coat- To give a final shine and protect the colour.

Well here are the before and after photos, I hope you are not eating while viewing...

Before - winter colour that is 2 weeks old - lets pretend this photo doesn't exist

After - please excuse bendy toes

During - arrgghh, you can see the psoriasis on my big toe nails -at least the photo is "accidentally" slightly out of focus

Well hopefully that will be of some help to someone, at least other people with bad feet might feel better about them.

xx

Disclosure - I got the Scholl Express Pedi and the E45 Nourish and Restore as trial products, everything else was bought with my husbands hard earned cash, or in the case of the Hello Kitty nail varnish as a Christmas gift.