Product Review: is Heel-tastic a Cure for Dry, Cracked Feet?

If you have chronically dry, cracked, and painful feet, you've probably tried a variety of products to moisturize and heal them. I've tried lots of lotions and vaseline-like products on my feet. I have particularly liked Cetaphil and Vermont's Original Bag Balm and I wrote about them in A Guide to Treating and Curing Dry Feet.

The big drawback to sticky, gooey, concoctions like Bag Balm is that they are messy. You pretty much apply bag balm or vaseline before bedtime, pull on some thick socks, and climb into bed. Your feet are sticky, your hands are sticky, and it can be very inconvenient.

Earth to Skin's Heel-tastic tackles the mess and inconvenience of vaseline-like products by providing a vaseline-like foot care product in a convenient roll-on form. This allows you to avoid reaching into a goopy can and getting your fingers messy. With Heel-tastic, you simply unscrew the top and put the product on your feet like you were rolling on a deodorant. It's simply not as messy as bag balm.

Even with Heel-Tastic, you won't want to walk around barefoot. The packaging warns that you need to wear socks in order to avoid the risk of slipping and falling. Going barefoot in Heel-Tastic, you'd also leave a trail of stickiness on your floors and attract all kinds of dirt to your feet. However, you could probably wear socks and shoes after applying Heel-Tastic without messing up your shoes. Unless you have fancy designer sheets to protect, you probably could sleep with Heel-Tastic on and without socks. The product is simply not as thick and goopy as Vermont's Original Bag Balm.

Telebrands markets Heel-Tastic as an Intensive Heel Therapy product and it seems to deliver. Heel-Tastic has the foot protectant Dimethicone (1%) as its active ingredient. The active ingredient is backed up by a variety of inactive ingredients including Coconut fruit oil, Soybean wax, Beeswax, Carnauba wax, and a proprietary blend of other natural oils. Distributed by Telebrands, Heel-Tastic comes in a 2-ounce plastic bottle that works much like a roll-on deodorant container. A container of product can last for awhile because you don't have to goop gobs and gobs of the product on your feet. Heel-Tastic is available at drugstores like Walgreens for about $9.99.

Convenience and ingredients aside, how does Heel-tastic work? If you use Heel-tastic regularly, it does do a good job of moisturizing your skin and heeling dry and cracked feet. I noticed an improvement in my dry feet after one evening of use and subsequent uses seemed to help moisturize and condition the skin. For very acute dry skin, I still think that Vermont's Original Bag Balm is more effective. However, due to the convenient roll-on packaging, Heel-Tastic is far easier to incorporate into a nightly foot-care regime. Overall, I'd recommend Heel-Tastic as a helpful footcare product.