Baby Foot Exfoliating Foot Peel | $25 | Amazon
It’s almost winter. That inevitably means dry skin, specifically on our legs and feet. Plus, with Ms. Rona still on all our backs, you might be skeptical of getting a pedicure at a local hair salon. Don’t worry, I was too.
Backstory—my skin is always ashy in the winter. Especially my feet. I’m not ashamed to admit it because knowing the truth allows me to moisturize the hell out of my body, even in the summer. Without monthly pedicures, my feet are just as calloused as Fred Flintstone’s, which isn’t a good look. Months had gone by during the pandemic and my feet communicated to me that they were tripping, which led me to treat myself to some good ol’ fashioned self-care.
So, with a little research and recommendations from some of my beauty editor friends, I decided on Baby Foot. It’s a Japanese beauty product designed to slowly peel dead skin from your feet over the span of five to eight days. Sure, I’ve seen the videos of people’s experiences, but I honestly thought it wouldn’t be that dramatic, and right after, they would go back to being ashy as hell.
I ordered the package off Amazon, and while I don’t endorse billionaires like Jeff Bezos, the convenience of free, two-day shipping doesn’t elude me. When you first open the package you’ll get two plastic booties filled with serum—specifically a blend of fruit acid extracts that include camomile, lemon, and grapefruit. The goal is to let these ingredients naturally break through barriers of dry, dead skin and exfoliate, which will, in time, peel layers upon layers to reveal soft-ass feet!
But the process is long as hell. After “soaking” my feet in these plastic booties for about an hour, you’ll have to rinse them with soap and water and then put some socks on. I swear, if you don’t heed any other advice, listen to this—please, please, please find your favorite pair of socks and keep them on for the duration of the five to eight days. Over the week, my skin peeled like a snake, I’m talking layers. I almost felt like Ruby from Lovecraft Country whenever she transforms back into a Black woman, but with less blood and guts. Dead skin was everywhere—my rug, my wood floors, and because I’m not a weirdo and don’t sleep with socks, my bed! The cleanup of the skin was grosser than the actual process.
But eventually, my feet stopped peeling, and y’all, when I say I wanted to keep touching my heels and toes? They were that soft. And also easier to moisturize. My best beauty guess is because the layers of skin shed, the combination of lotion and oil I used was able to penetrate the skin barrier, leading to smooth and silky feet! So far, it’s been a couple of months since the whole transformative process, and my foot skin is still going strong on the moisturizing front.
All in all, I’d recommend Baby Foot to any girl, guy, or non-binary person who suffers from dry-ass skin. It’s good for folks with sensitive skin prone to irritation. So if you aren’t ready to take the leap out of lockdown to get your feet scrubbed at the nail salon, here’s a DIY alternative. Just please, for the sake of yourself and others, wear the damn socks!