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Your feet take a lot of strain, so they deserve to be well cared for – and you deserve to have beautiful, well-maintained feet. Whether its from standing on your feet all day at work, or wearing fashionable, but painful, high-heeled shoes, you need to treat your feet well. The only problem is that having regular pedicures in a salon can get very expensive. The simple solution is this – give yourself a home pedicure. It’s a relaxing process, and with a little bit of practice, and the right tools, you’ll be doing the job so well that no-one will know you haven’t been to the salon.

Getting started

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Make sure that before you begin your home pedicure you’ve got the products you need in one place – there’s nothing more frustrating than realising that you don’t have something that you need or that you need to find it in a difficult place while you’re halfway through the pedicure process and your nails are soaking or freshly painted. You’ll need to have an emery board and nail trimmer (yes, an emery board for your feet), a cuticle remover, nail polish in the colour you’ve chosen, and a towel or some paper towels to keep the area in which you’re working clean and tidy. You’ll also want to have nail polish remover and some cotton wool close at hand to make sure your nails are perfectly clean and to correct any mistakes you make. Now that you’ve got your work area ready, you need to do the same for your nails – clean any old nail polish off of them, and wash them well, soaking them in warm water with Epsom salts to get a really pampered, refreshed feeling. Adding half a cup of milk to the water will also help – it’ll allow the dead skin to come off more easily. Use a pumice stone or an exfoliating foot scrub to get rid of this dead skin, leaving your feet softer and smoother after the home pedicure.

Trimming and filing

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Use nail clippers to trim your toenails, then use an emery board to get them to just the shape that you think looks best. You might be one of those people who’s always just cut their toenails while taking hours to shape the nails on your hands, but don’t think that people don’t notice your feet, and that they don’t need love and care too! What you need to make sure of during this process is that your nails are short and healthy. You’ll want to put nourishing cream on your feet, but do this after you’ve painted the toenails so that you don’t cause your nail polish not to stick.

Painting

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If you don’t wear nail polish often, its application can feel like a very delicate process. If you’ve had more experience with it, you’ll know that this part of your home pedicure, like filing with the emery board, is all about confidence – using broad, confident strokes from the base of your toenail to its tip will ensure that the nail is coated evenly and has the glossy finish you’re aiming for. It’s helpful to make sure there isn’t too much polish on the brush – it shouldn’t be dripping. Wait for your nails to dry – it should take about ten minutes – before you apply a second coat of polish in the same colour, or a clear protective coat.