Fashion and beauty
Best feet forward; fashion notebooks for women, men and children
For every woman with an ingrowing toenail there are 100 more with skin so dry around the edges of their feet that it has turned white and flaky, often developing into deep, sore cracks. My postbag tells me this is your biggest foot complaint, and there is surely a link between its prevalence and our love of open flats and flip-flops as summer footwear.
While diabetics often have dry feet caused by associated peripheral arterial disease, which reduces blood fow to the extremities, the dustiness and heat of urban streets will aggravate anyone’s thirsty skin. Your frst line of defence is a pumice or foot fle, a tough-love exfoliator and a jar of good thick salve, for these are the antidotes to crumbling feet. But feet also deserve the attention of a pedicurist – if only at the beginning and end of summer – or, if you sufer from corns and calluses, a podiatrist.
Many sufer from pufy feet and ankles when it is hot, and a good pedicurist can relieve this with a special massage called efeurage (‘skimming’ in French), which, through gentle, rhythmical stroking, encourages lymph and blood back up the legs. The Bliss Spa pedicure menu, which tackles every foot problem imaginable, includes a 60-minute Cold Feet Pedicure (£70, blissworld.co.uk) that uses heat and cold therapies to defate swollen feet. There is also a Hot Foot Pedicure (£65), in which feet are soaked in a eucalyptus bath, rubbed with sea salt and warmed with orange oil. It is sublime.
Painted toenails are, of course, the icing on the cake of a thorough pedicure. When applied properly, with top and base coats, varnish should stay shiny and true – making feet a joy to behold – for at least six weeks. If it doesn’t, don’t go back.
Your frst line of defence is a pumice, an exfoliator and a jar of thick salve