Summer beauty how-to: the DIY pedicure
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- Stylist Team
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As Percy & Reed's resident nail artist, David Barton is the go-to man for all the latest catwalk nail trends. He gave Stylist the following tips for a perfect DIY pedicure to get your feet summer ready:
1. Remove excess skin
Whilst feet are still dry use Revlon’s Pedi Expert (£6.99, superdrug.com), with a gentle hand, to remove excess dry skin.
2. Soak your feet
Soak feet in a bowl of bath-warm water with a few drops of essential oil. Tea Tree oil is perfect for feet as it has antibacterial and deodorising properties and leaves feet clean-smelling.
3. Exfoliate like a pro
Whilst damp, buff feet with a finely-grained foot file to smooth out roughness. Then exfoliate with a granulated scrub.
4. Apply moisturiser
Wash all product off the feet and lower legs and thoroughly dry before applying a rich moisturising cream like Clarins Foot Beauty Treatment Cream (£19, boots.com)
5. Time to file
Using an orange-stick push back cuticles and then file toenails straight across. Ensure all excess oil and cream is removed by wiping over the nails with a remover-soaked cotton pad.
6. Coating x 4
For a long-lasting pedicure you should apply a base coat, two coats of colour and then seal with a protective top coat.
Product tip: Cool skin tones should try bright pink colours such as Maybelline’s Varnish in Bubblegum (£2.09, onlinecosmeticshop.co.uk). Warm skin tones look great against coral shades such as Maybelline’s Varnish in Salsa Sun (£4.09, boots.com).