I love to walk in the summer, especially in a new town, or when I have friends in town, which makes Calgary seem all shiny and new again. Haley came to visit me this summer, and oh, how we walked. On one particular Sunday we traipsed all throughout Inglewood, sifting through all the fantastic little shops down there. I got a beautiful silver & pearl necklace, and Haley found a great jade and silver ring. And when we got home, we had sore, tired, hot feet. That’s where this great foot mask comes in!
We had quite a bit of fun with these—we mixed them up and applied them on the porch, sipping iced tea as our goopy feet dried out. As the mixture dried it softened our feet (thanks to the lemon juice and citric acid in the mask) and cooled them. We also got lots of giggles out of all the slime, especially as it dried.
Once we washed it off we gave our feet a good scrub with a stiff brush to remove any extra skin that had softened up. Then, a thick coating of unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) and a pair of socks, and we were set. And, to top the whole luxurious experience off, the cooling, tingly feeling lasted for hours!
Tingly Peppermint Foot Mask
5 tbsp of your favourite clay
1 tbsp peppermint extract (optional, just use 20 drops peppermint EO if you omit)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp seaweed
2 tsp citric acid
15 drops menthol essential oil (or ½ tsp menthol crystals)
10 drops peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada)2 tbsp lemon juice
Warm water, as neededMix together all the dry ingredients and the essential oils. Add the lemon juice, and enough warm water to make a thick paste.
Smear all over your feet and let dry (I like to do this outside). Once mostly dry and cracking, rinse off. Scrub your feet with a stiff brush, moisturize, and put on some socks. Enjoy your cool, soft, refreshed feet!
How much does this batch make?
This makes 8 tbsp, or half a cup, of the dry mix.
Also, How long is the shelf time?
Before you mix in the water, this mix will last pretty much indefinitely (especially if you blend the essential oils into the dry ingredients using a coffee grinder).
Just stumbled across your blog, I am in love!! Perfect timing too because I wanted to do all homemade xmas presents this year. For this tutorial what kind of clay did you use?
You should go to her website that she has on the blog for all her ingredients and search the clays. I found one that i will be using and its red clay, perfect property’s and color for the Christmas holiday.
Great tip, Dana! Which red one did you get?
http://www.newdirectionsaromatics.ca/french-clay-pink-p-632.html
I lied it was the pink that I felt would be great for this. My family has really dry cracked feet (especially during winter) and I think this clay would be perfect.
Oooh, lovely! Great choice 😀 And it’ll be great for lipsticks and blush as well 😉
Awesome, thanks Catherine! Soap is a suuuper awesome homemade gift, if you’re feeling like getting into that 😉 Otherwise, I’ve got a list of some DIY Christmas gift ideas here. And, for this recipe, I used French Green Clay—my favourite clay! You could use almost any clay though, really.
Can I ask why you included Citric Acid in this? As a preservative or other benefits? Cheers.
It makes the mask slightly acidic, which helps gently chemically exfoliate your feet 🙂
That is very clever. 🙂 Thanks Marie. 🙂
Any substitute for sea weed?
No, but you can just leave it out 🙂