Products, marketers and influencers are always telling men and women how important skincare is, but they almost always refer to faces and bodies. They’re leaving out a crucial place that can actually improve your life: your feet. With the best foot peel, you don’t have to deal with that tree bark you call skin on the bottom of your feet any longer.
Foot peels aren’t exactly like peels for your face, but they’re similar enough and tweaked to be easy to use on feet. You can still expect some combination of acids, such as lactic, glycolic and salicylic, just with a little pair of booties so you can chill and start peel without getting gunk all over your stuff.
The main difference is the timeline: With most foot peels, you can expect peeling to occur days after you apply the treatment, sometimes as soon as a couple but sometimes closer to a week.
You may be inclined to push the process along by trying to force the skin yourself, but just trust the process and it’ll start to fall away on its own after a few days at which point you should be able to easily peel the dead skin off.
If you do want to ensure the process goes quickly and as expected, you can leave the peel on your feet for the upper end of soaking recommendations, typically around 90 minutes. For max absorption, you can pull socks over the booties and you can also soak your feet in warm water to start to further loosen up the soon-to-be peeling dead skin. (Some foot peels actually make this step a part of the instructions.)
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But if you legit just leave the best foot peel on for the recommended time, rinse and wait a few days, you won’t even believe how much dead skin starts to fall off with minimal manual peeling, leaving you with feet as soft as we imagine clouds to be.
So if you’ve been dealing with cracked foot skin and calluses, check out some of the best foot peels below. You’ll only know what you’ve been living with once you use the foot peel and see the results for yourself.
1. Baby Foot Original Foot Peel Exfoliator
BEST OVERALL
The Baby Foot Original Foot Peel Exfoliator calls itself the original because, well, it really is one of the first widely available foot peels for the masses. And Baby Foot’s still in business because this foot peel absolutely works to restore cracked and calloused feet.
Just stick your feet into the included booties, which have the peel inside them already, close them with the included tape, kick back and relax while Baby Foot’s fruit acids go to work to break dead skin away from your foot. Sure, the lavender scent might be considered “feminine,” but we love the smell of lavender and given how well this foot peel works, we don’t think it should be a dealbreaker.
2. Patchology PoshPeel Pedi Cure Intensive Foot Peel Treatment
RUNNER-UP
For a more intense foot peel treatment, we recommend the Patchology PoshPeel Pedi Cure Intensive Foot Peel Treatment. It’s not as ready to use out of the box as the Baby Foot peel, but users, dudes included, said it works great without irritating feet.
For this foot peel, Patchology recommends soaking your feet in warm water for 10 minutes before application. After soaking, you have to add the treatment to the booties yourself and then it’s just a matter of sticking your feet in and setting a timer. The progressive treatment, driven by glycolic, salicylic, lactic and citric acids, will start peeling after a few days and continue to peel for a few more days after that until the dead skin is gone and you have the soft feet of your dreams.
3. Baby Foot Original Foot Peel Exfoliator for Men
HONORABLE MENTION
With the Baby Foot Original Foot Peel Exfoliator for Men, you officially have no excuses for foot peels being “feminine” in any way.
We were hesitant to recommend this at all because it’s identical to the overall best foot peel from Baby Foot in every way but fragrance (and there’s really no difference between men’s and women’s feet), but with this branding, you don’t have to worry about foot peels not being a thing men do. The proof is right here and in the reviews, with guys saying they were glad they went for it.
Just be sure to actually follow the instructions. If you do, you’ll see the results and this will quickly become the best foot peel for you.
4. Sunatoria Exfoliating Foot Peel Mask
BUDGET FOOT PEEL
Hesitancy is natural when trying a product you’ve never used before. That’s why we always include a budget-friendly pick like the Sunatoria Exfoliating Foot Peel Mask. For just under $9, you get two pairs of foot peels with the same acids as the top picks, such as lactic, salicylic and citric acid. So if you’re worried about spending too much on a foot peel, Sunatoria’s will be the best foot peel for you.
5. Purederm Foot Peeling Mask
BEST VALUE
When it comes to skincare, Korean manufacturers know what they’re doing. That’s why you might consider the Purederm Foot Peeling Mask. Not only does it work well, but it also offers a great bargain here with six pairs for around $10, or $1.67 per pair.
But they’re not perfect. Users said the booties were hard to tear properly and they’re somewhat small and may not be ideal for longer or wider feet. But if you can get over that hurdle and follow the instructions, the skin will be practically falling off your feet in three to seven days.
6. Treatonic Foot Peel Mask
HIGHLY RATED
While trusting the people can lead one astray, people are pretty reliable when it comes to which products work and which don’t. So when we see a foot peel with hundreds of five-star reviews and very few low-star reviews, we take notice. In this case, the people love the Treatonic Foot Peel Mask, with multiple reviewers saying it was the best foot peel they ever used. Not to mention, this foot peel offers pretty good value too, with four pairs of booties, so if they work well for you on the first go, you’ll have three more peels to go. That’s enough peeling to keep your feet soft for months.
7. Dermora Foot Peel Mask
AMAZON’S CHOICE
On the other side of the people’s choice spectrum is Amazon’s Choice. Though Amazon gets it wrong for more obscure products, for “foot peel,” it made a great choice with the Dermora Foot Peel Mask.
Users said it worked, though both they and Dermora urged patience, as you may continue to peel for up to two weeks. However, a couple of users did report rashy skin or minimal peeling after using this, so if you have any concerns at all about sensitive feet skin, go for a different one. But the vast majority said the Dermora foot peel worked like a charm and was easy enough to use.
8. Dr. Scholl’s Ultra Hydrating Foot Mask
BEST FOOT MASK
If you’re not ready to experience the gross peeling of the best foot peel, you might consider a foot mask, like Dr. Scholl’s Ultra Hydrating Foot Mask. Unlike a foot peel, which is trying to get rid of dead skin, a foot mask is more concerned with rejuvenating it. So instead of relying on acids, Dr. Scholl’s foot mask uses hyaluronic acid, shea butter and essential oils to treat rough skin with moisturization, like most skincare products.
The process is the same for a foot mask as it is for a foot peel, with very slight differences. For Dr. Scholl’s, that means leaving the booties on for only 30 minutes and either massaging excess product into your feet or wiping it away with a towel.
9. Maryton Foot Pumice Stone
BEST FOOT PEEL ALTERNATIVE
Either as a replacement for or in addition to the best foot peel, you might consider picking up a pumice stone for your crackly feet, like the Maryton Foot Pumice Stone. You get four pumice stones with different levels of coarseness on each side of the stone. All you have to do is take the pumice stone and rub it all over the rough parts of your feet, wet or dry. Like sandpaper on rough wood, the pumice stone will simply rub the rough skin away, leaving your feet smoother than when you started.
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