I tend to have really dry feet. Although my heels are not cracked, they have really thick calluses. I looked at foot masks in the store and the price was enough to convince me to try and make a foot mask at home. I found several options online and decided I’d try two of them – one on each foot, so I halved the following ingredients listed:
Banana & Honey Mask
You will need the following ingredients:
✓ ½ ripe banana
✓ 1 tsp honey
✓ Cling wrap or a plastic bag cut vertically
Mash the banana and honey together (it’s okay if the mixture isn’t perfectly smooth).
Rinse your feet with warm water and apply the mixture on your feet and wrap them in the cling wrap/plastic bag halves for at least 15 minutes. Rinse your feet thoroughly with warm water and moisturize them.
Cucumber & Lemon Mask
You will need the following ingredients:
✓ 1 small cucumber
✓ 1 large (or 2 small) lemon, juiced
✓ 4 tsp olive oil*
✓ Cling wrap or a plastic bag cut vertically
Dice the cucumber into big chunks and place in a blender along with the lemon juice and olive oil. Blend the ingredients until fairly smooth.
Rinse your feet with warm water and apply the mask and wrap them in the cling wrap/plastic bag halves. Leave for at least 15 minutes. Rinse your feet thoroughly with warm water then moisturize them.
*Although most of the recipes I saw suggested using olive oil for foot masks, I also saw different ones including almond, cocoa butter, coconut, sesame, and vegetable.
Final Verdict
Left foot = Banana & Honey Mask; Right foot = Cucumber & Lemon Mask
After leaving the masks on for about 30 minutes, I rinsed my feet and felt them. I moisturized them with Shea butter.
The banana one initially made my feet smoother when I first started rinsed my feet, but after I finished rinsing, they felt pretty similar. The banana mask made the edge of my heel feel smoother, but I noticed the calluses were a lot less prominent on the foot that had the cucumber mask.
I felt my feet again 45 minutes later and they still did feel nice and smooth (they still felt cold though). Although I was not expecting miracles from either mask, they actually did pretty well. I was the most impressed with the cucumber mask because of the smoother calluses. Perhaps it was because there was more of the cucumber mask and as it was thinner, it was able to sink in further. Regardless, I think I would need to be consistent to continue to see lasting results.
Suggestions
- Warm the mask up in the microwave for a few seconds. I took my cucumber straight from the fridge, which I forgot to consider. This is especially important if you’re like me and tend to have cold feet. It was a long 30 minutes. Even the banana mask felt cold despite both the ingredients being room temperature.
- If you’re using plastic bags, you might need to tape up your feet if you’re using the cucumber and lemon mask because it’s quite runny. Even if you use cling wrap, you might want to tie plastic bags around your feet or place them in Ziplock bags to avoid a mess. The banana mask had a good consistency that glued the plastic to my foot well.
- Your feet will be a little slippery if you use the banana mask so be careful as you walk around after initially rinsing your feet.
- Next time I’ll try incorporating shea butter into the banana and honey mask since it’s really good for dry skin.
