Cracked Heel Hell! - Our Solution!

A close family friend of ours suffers from excruciatingly painful cracked heels. Sometimes they can get so bad that they bleed, and split open further. Unfortunately, this friend of ours spends a lot of time on there feet, so they are constantly putting pressure on their feet.A few years ago, they were seeing a pediatrist often to get the rough dead skin cut away, but unfortunately, with the cost of living going up, she decided to sacrifice herself, to continue to allow things for her family. Our resident skin treatment and soap queen “Seven”, also known as Pandora, decided to try to help, so she supplied our friend with our special lanoline treatment cream to help keep her feet hydrated.When our friend arrived in the morning, we took some photos before we did anything, and then applied our lanolin cream, that we use personally for dry skin, to keep our skin hydrated.

We applied the lanolin cream and then put socks on, to keep the moisture locked in. We made sure that she kept the lanolin cream on and socks on, throughout the day, until after dinner.

After dinner, our family friend went for a shower, and used a sugar foot scrub, to remove any dead skin on her heels. Our foot scrub contains an Illite clay, which is a totally natural clay that improves the tone and texture of skin and stimulates oxygenation. It always contains a type of Kaolin clay, used for dry skin, and is calming, and cooling. It also softens the skin and is ideal for sensitive and irritated skin.

We made sure she cleaned her feet thoroughly and used the foot scrub appropriately to remove any dead skin, and to hydrated the dry skin covering her heels.

While she was showering, Pandora whipped up her newest creation after doing some research throughout the day. She decided to make her own Milk and Honey treatment that she called “Milk and Honey Feet Treat”

We were recently given some fresh raw honey, straight from our Aunts beehives, so we took one cup of that and heated it on a double boiler. My dad helped Pandora with this. Remember, she is mentally Pandora years old and it isn’t safe for her to use this kind of heating equipment alone.We didn’t want to boil the honey, we just wanted to remove any crystals it had accumulated, as well as make it less sticky. By heating it, the honey became less thick and sticky.

Honey is considered a natural antiseptic that aids in healing. It is also a good humectant, which a substance that attracts water, similar to glycerin. It helps keep moisture in the skin and prevents drying out.We took it off the heat, but while it was still warm, we added two tablespoons of coconut milk.

Coconut milk, much like coconut oil is highly beneficial to dry skin. Coconut milk has high-fat content, which causes an amazing moisturising impact and functions as a barrier to lock in moisture and naturally moisturise.

While our dad continued to stir in the coconut milk, Pandora add three different ingredients.

She added 1ml of Lemon essential oil, 1ml of Lavender essential oil, and 2ml of Jojoba oil.

You could also add Vitamin E, but we decided we didn’t want to add too many different things in one go, and since the lanolin balm already contained Vitamin E, Pandora thought it best to leave it out.Lemon essential oil contains anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties. (Antimicrobials kill or slow the spread of microorganisms that could lead to infections)

Lavender is one of the best options for cracked heels. Not only is it a great moisturiser, it also has strong antiseptic properties. It can also help provide skin cells with regenerative properties.

Jojoba oil can be used in multiple things. It can be used from nails and feet, in your hair, hands and body. Jojoba oil regulates sebum production, because it is so similar to the sebum our bodies product naturally. Our bodies natural sebum is the oily substance that protects and hydrates our skins surfaces.

The use of jojoba oil in many cosmetics is primarily due to the fact that it is the closest thing to our bodies natural skin oils.

It softens dry hands and elbows, and also helps prevent cracked heels.It can also be helpful for dry scalp conditions, but we can discuss that another day.

Instead of wrapping our friends feet in glad wrap after applying this mixture, we decided it would be better as a foot soak, as her heels were so damaged, so much so that two nights prior, she felt one of the cracks split open further right before her shower, which caused a lot of pain – Thankfully she was climbing into bed and was done being on her feet for the day.

We soaked her feet in the mixture for twenty minutes – often using a silicone spatula to glide the mixture over the cracked parts higher up on her feet.

Afterwards, Pandora carefully massaged the mixture into her feet, ensuring to be very careful not to cause more trauma to the heels. She then rinsed off our friends feet with warm water, making sure to remove all the mixture so our friend wasn’t walking around with honey all over her feet. She was once again very careful and made sure the water was not too hot, as this could dry out our friends’ feet more. We made sure they were completely clean before patting them dry gently, making sure not to drag the towel across her feet, as this could damage the already traumatised skin.

We then took some photos again to compare the difference after a day of applying the lanolin balm and then having a gentle foot soak, before putting more lanolin cream on and covering her feet with socks again.

If you are going to use this recipe, we recommend doing this treatment at night, where your can soften your feet and then kick them up for the night, giving them time to rest before putting pressure on them.

Our family friend wanted to remain anonymous, as I’m sure you can understand, this is very embarrassing for her. She knows she needs to take better care of her feet, but I’m sure many of us can understand that our own health is often put on the back burner for those we love.

Just Breathe Body and Bubbles is all about taking care of yourself, even when you are struggling to do some basic self-care. Taking care of such damaged heels is by no mean a simple task. Unfortunately, it isn’t a five-minute task. One day of treatment isn’t going to heel her overnight. (See what we did there) This will have to be ongoing and she has to take time for herself if she wishes to see real progress, which isn’t easy.

Although wanting to remain anonymous, here is what she had to say about this treatment for the day.

I had the honour of being a tester for a honey and milk foot bath. I have suffered with horrible cracked heels for a long time and was willing to give anything a go. The foot bath strangely felt like a soft slime. It looked like it was meant to be sticky, but wasn’t at the same time, like while your foot was in the soak, it felt like it would be sticky when you tried to take your foot out, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t a bad feeling, just different than what I would expect. It didn’t hurt or sting, and it felt calming on my sore feet. My spa treatment specialist was Pandora. She was very gentle and made me feel very comfortable, where normally I don’t like people touching my feet at all, as I’ve had negative experiences at pediatrists and salons in the past. After soaking and rinsing my feet gently, she applied some lanolin cream that she had made, and I put socks on. My heels straight after the soak felt softer and well hydrated, and surprisingly, I could already see the results.

We recommend this treatment every two – four weeks, but continue to apply some kind of heel balm every day, best to use when you can put on socks to lock in the cream and moisture.

We are working on setting up a recipe page on our blog, so these kinds of recipes can be used by you, in the comfort of your own home.

Unfortunately, you won’t have the gentle hands and spoiling treatment from the lovely Pandora, but she is happy to share her gentle formula for your feet, as well as give you options on different oils you can use.We are hoping to release our foot scrub as well as our lanolin balm for sale soon at https://justbreathebodyandbubbles.square.site/

We are also looking into making a heel balm specifically for cracked heels, but that is a project that is a few months away from being perfected.Thank you for reading and we would love to hear any feed back you have on this recipe if you decide to try it out!I will attach a link to this post once the recipe has been typed out and posted!

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