The ultimate guide to summer-ready feet and legs

Goodbye, seasonal affective disorder, black tights, and heavy-duty moisturisers. HOLLY O’NEILL says it’s time to overhaul your beauty routine just as skirt season starts. 

Legs looking a little mottled and patchy from being exposed to the cold for too long? Seasonal changes or extreme weather can disrupt your skin’s ability to retain moisture, and skin that was once smooth and clarified, or at least had a consistent tone, might now need some resuscitation. If tan is not your thing, loads of hydration will resurrect your skin’s summer smoothness. Introduce a hydrating moisturiser to your daily routine for shiny, even-toned skin, like This Works Skin Deep Dry Leg Oil, €49 – a blend of high-grade essential oils and plant oils for lasting comfort and glowing legs you’ll want to bare year-round. There’s no point moisturising dead skin cells, so step away from harsh scrubs and introduce some skin-resurfacing alpha hydroxy acid to gently exfoliate dry skin. Alpha-H liquid gold Luxe Resurfacing Body Cloths,€30 will stimulate the skin to naturally exfoliate and even out the skin tone.

Alpha-H Liquid Gold Luxe Resurfacing body cloths, 30, at cloud10beauty.com

Sandal season

If you’re the kind to ignore toenails from one season to the next, try a Gelish PolyGel pedicure – an acrylic and gel combination that will last on toes longer than it takesyou to get home and unpack, or at least until holes start appearing in socks. Available in salons nationwide, gelish.ie.

Ask The Expert: what not to do with your toenails

Foot notes

Apply SVR Xérial 50 Extrême Foot Cream, €13, daily to hard skin, corns and calluses and see them reduced in a week, or deeply moisturise feet with Seoulista Rosy Toes Instant Pedicure feet masks, €8.99, infused with an antioxidant- and vitamin-rich serum for a new-skin effect.

SVR Xérial 50 Extrême Foot Cream, €13

Before block-booking your pedicures this season, take some time to ensure your feet are in good shape. Alan Ward, podiatrist and physiotherapist at Dublin City Foot Clinic says keeping toenails healthy is simple. “There are three big risks to healthy nails – poor blood supply, often seen in smokers or diabetics, fungal infections and psoriasis, which will often cause pitted, poor quality, ‘crumbly’ nails. Regular saltwater bathing and an aqueous cream on skin – but not between toes – should be sufficient.”

Peat for the feet

For hard-working, hard-skinned feet, there’s a suitably Celtic solution du jour – peat sourced from the bogs of County Laois, found in the Peat for the Feet treatment at the Cliff House Hotel and Cliff at Lyons. Submerge heels in a foot soak followed by a salt and rosemary exfoliation, involving rich peat mud to restore vital trace elements. Laura Clarke, award-winning spa therapist at The Well in the Garden at the Cliff at Lyons, says Irish peat “helps boost the natural immune system and has anti-inflammatory properties, which are great for skin conditions like dermatitis, psoriasis, and acne. Peat is also anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, which helps prevent foot and nail infections…” €75, cliffatlyons.ie; cliffhousehotel.ie.

This article originally appeared in the May issue of IMAGE. For more beauty features, check out IMAGE Magazine, on shelves nationwide.