Foot Spa Recipes for at Home

Our feet carry us around every day and they deserve a vacation. The perfect vacation for them will be a soothing foot soak, an invigorating exfoliation and a relaxing massage. Do these terrific spa techniques on yourself or invite some friends over for a relaxing foot spa evening- you can even paint each other toenails!

Start your foot spa with a soak. If you have a foot tub you can use this is the perfect time to give it a job, otherwise a small tub or bucket that feet will fit into will work just fine. Add the ingredients for whichever soak recipe you choose into enough warm tap water to cover up to the ankles. Soak your feet for five to ten minutes, then pat dry with a towel.

For a refreshing soak for aching and tired feet try something minty. Add four mint tea bags or about three drops of essential peppermint oil into your water. Even just the scent of this soak will perk you right up!

A soothing soak that will also help to reduce any swelling is a lavender and salt soak. Just mix a quarter cup of Epsom salts in your water with about five drops of lavender essential oil. Epsom salts and lavender are both very healing and this soak can also help with itchy bug bites heal cuts on the feet.

Exfoliating the feet is easy, you just mix up the ingredients and scrub your feet good with them, in a circular motion, then rinse them off with warm water and pat them dry. The best exfoliating scrub for feet is the sugar scrub. It will help slough off dry and dead skin and even rub away callouses. For the sugar scrub you will need to mix a half cup of granulated sugar with one teaspoon of olive oil (for deep hydration) and fresh squeezed lemon juice (from just a half a lemon), which is a very cleansing antiseptic.

For the massage you will want to use a few drops of lotion or massage oil. It just takes a few drops, too much will make your hands much to slick for a good massage. Massage the base of the foot first, arch and heel. Massage between the toes and each toe itself, individually. You can even flex the toes and move the foot up and down and back and forth to loosen the muscles. This is so relaxing you may even fall asleep- but try to do both feet, first!

Resource: The Body Book by Anne Akers Johnson, 2001