Are chemical foot peels really worth it?

While I have an extensive skin care routine for my face, and tend to prioritize finding the best body washes and lotions I rarely pay attention to my feet. I never really saw the importance of buying products to keep my feet looking and feeling a certain way. On the random occasion where I felt an urge to care more deeply for the skin on my feet, I would head to my local nail salon for a quick pedicure.

That is, until I tried Baby Foot’s Original Exfoliation Foot Peel. (The brand sent samples for me and the NBC Select staff to try.) It’s an at-home chemical exfoliant that mirrors the results of getting your feet scrubbed and exfoliated at a salon.

Below, I’ll share more about the treatment, my experience trying it over the course of two weeks and what you need to know about foot peels.

SKIP AHEAD What is theBaby Foot Original Exfoliation Foot Peel? | How I tried the foot peel | My experience with the foot peel | Is it actually worth it? 

Baby Foot Original Exfoliation Foot Peel

Much like a skin care peel for your face, the Baby Foot exfoliation peel is a single-use treatment that combines chemical exfoliants, including alpha-hydroxy and beta-hydroxy acids, to remove dead skin and make your feet look (and feel) soft and smooth. 

The package comes with a bootie for each foot — each one has a gel-like formula on the inside of it that has salicylic acid, which triggers the skin on your feet to peel. 

While the entire peeling process takes up to 14 days, the actual treatment only requires an hour of your time. After slipping your feet into the bootie, you let them sit for an hour and then rinse your feet off with water. The entire peeling process takes about two-weeks from start to finish — your foot should begin peeling three to seven days from when you first apply, according to the brand. The booties, which are lavender scented, come in both mens (4-12) and womens sizes (4-13), respectively. 

Alongside four other staff members, I tried the Baby Foot peel and monitored its results during two weeks at the height of winter. All of my colleagues and I are in our mid-20s and have varying levels of skin concerns and foot care routines, which I outline in more detail below. 

During my trial period, my fellow testers and I kept our foot care routines uniform; we washed our feet with soap and water in the shower and then moisturized regularly with our body lotions during the 14-day period to minimize extraneous factors that could impact our results. We also tried the peel during some of the coldest weeks of the year. Both New York City (where four testers live) and Virginia (where I live) experienced low temperatures and even multiple inches of snow during this time. 

Two of my fellow testers —  NBC Select SEO associate reporter Ashley Morris, NBC Select updates editor Mili Godio — were new to the foot peel process. Like myself, they only partake in occasional pedicures and rarely care for their feet beyond that. In contrast, two of my other colleagues, NBC Select senior social media editor Rosalie Sparaco and NBC Select associate updates editor Zoe Malin, were familiar with foot peels and have done this particular one before. “My heels are permanently cracked, my skin frequently peels and feels rough, and I often get blisters and calluses,” says Malin, who likes to use a foot peel twice a year.

For context, the skin on my face and body is generally dry, sensitive and eczema-prone, though my feet are naturally soft with little to no rough or cracked areas. Besides scrubbing them in the shower and putting on my regular body cream daily, I do not do anything special to them aside from a few pedicures prior to a vacation.  

The first thing I noticed was that the peel comes packaged with minimal fuss or extraneous extra flyers and papers — inside there are two booties and six stickers, which I used to seal the boot loosely around my ankle. The back of the box has a set of instructions that told me exactly how to place the booties along with recommendations and an outline of what to expect on certain days throughout the process. My fellow testers and I found the instructions very easy to follow. 

Inside the plastic booties is a clear, lavender scented gel that I did not realize was there until I slid my feet in. Once I put my booties on, I was surprised by the cold, squishy and slimy feeling of the gel that coated my entire foot, though I quickly acclimated to it. Both Morris and Godio even had a tingly sensation within those first few minutes. In my experience, it felt like sensory overload — having never done this before, it felt like how I imagined stepping in a tub of hair gel or squished up jello would feel. 

Prior to trying the peel, I had planned on going about my day like normal — walking around the wooden and carpeted floors of my house, going up and down stairs and even making myself lunch. However, once my booties were on, I ended up sitting glued to my couch. I could not really walk once they were on and even needed help moving from my living room floor to my couch. (The stickers held the shoe together, but they are not the strongest in my experience; I felt as if any sudden or large movements would tear the bootie open.) 

Morris had a similar experience to me and even put big socks on over the booties to get some traction on the ground, but says she still felt like she could not go about her day normally. I would advise anyone doing this to find a comfortable spot to sit and plan on not moving for the full hour once you have them on. “It’s kind of nice to give myself a reason to sit and do nothing for an hour for the greater good of my feet,” says Sparaco. 

After sitting for the allotted one-hour period, I rinsed off my feet with lukewarm water and towel-dried them, awaiting the peel. The second and third days post-treatment, I had yet to see any peeling. I enjoyed the anticipation — the slow burn made me excited; at this point, my feet were still looking polished, with no visible areas of dry or rough patches. Toward the end of day three, the texture of my feet was starting to change. My skin felt a little rougher and drier, especially on my heels and the balls of my feet, which indicated to me that the exfoliation process was starting to work. 

Day four is when it all started happening for me. I began seeing baby flakes around the edges of my feet starting around the heel moving inward; it was all relatively minor at this point. At the recommendation of my aunt — who uses this peel once every two to three months — I decided to soak my feet in water at the end of the day to remove any of the flaking skin. (This is something the brand actually recommends on their website as well as a way to speed up this process).

I soaked for 10 minutes, and while doing so scratched every crevice of my foot to get any excess flakes off. By night’s end, I put on a pair of socks to sleep in because I didn’t want any of my shedding to get in and around my bed. On a scale of 1-10 in terms of peeling, with 10 being excessive, I was sitting comfortably at a 6. I had slight flakes, but nothing too uncomfortable.    

Day five is when my peeling was in full force. By now, the bottom of my foot, as well as in between my toes was covered in flake-like scales that were hanging on by a literal thread. The top of my feet had yet to peel, however. 

I felt like a reptile who was molting; my dead skin looked like little scales and was somewhat hard to remove on their own, so I continued the same soaking routine I followed the night before. Soaking was incredibly helpful for removing the excess peeling and is something I’d recommend to anyone who is also going through this. To avoid leaving a dead foot skin trail behind me, I wore socks morning, day and night — aside from my 10-minute soak.  

On day six, I was peeling more — rather than finding a ton of small flakes, I found a combination of little flakes and large strips of dead skin in the process of peeling. I continued to wear socks in my house because if I moved my foot, let alone walked around, all the larger strips would come off in random pieces, leaving scraps across my wooden floors. By the end of day six, I was left with a pile of built-up dead skin in my socks; if you plan to follow the socks route, I recommend frequently changing them to avoid this. 

While it seemed like my peeling was happening at an uncontrollable stage, this is when Godio only first started experiencing shedding  — particularly around her heels and along the balls of her feet. (Prior to the sixth day, she says she was getting worried about her treatment since she had not yet witnessed any textural changes.) “As gross as it sounds, it was actually quite satisfying to peel the skin off since it was super thick and coming off on its own, and the skin felt very soft underneath,” she says.

By the end of day seven, my feet were largely back to normal and the peeling stopped. For my colleagues, however, this is when the bulk of their peeling accelerated. 

From day seven to day 10, Morris saw dead skin come off in large strips in most places on her foot. She says she could feel the shedding skin on her feet while she walked — almost like she was walking on feathers. Godio says her peeling was getting pretty excessive and was noticing pieces of skin around her house and on her bed every day. She says she was constantly vacuuming and cleaning her furniture during this two week period. But around day 10, her peeling had started to slow down and her feet felt softer and smoother, though there was still some leftover peeling around the heel and sides of the foot.

By day 11, Morris says she thought her journey was over because the bottoms of her feet were no longer peeling, but she was wrong. “The tops of my feet began peeling, and although it’s not as much as on the bottom, it’s still significant enough that I still needed to wear socks everywhere I went around my apartment.” 

I continue to not have any residual peeling. From day eight through day 13, my feet felt incredibly smooth, something I never thought was possible after seeing how flakey and rough my feet were in the middle of the treatment. The appearance nor coloration of my feet did not drastically change the way you might expect from a chemical face peel; my before and after photos looked largely the same. 

By and large, the peeling process varied for all of us — mine took about a week, Godio’s took a little less than a full two weeks, though she had a delayed start, and Morris and Sparaco each finished in exactly two weeks. “Just when I thought I was done peeling, there would be more,” says Sparaco. 

Overall, this was an incredibly easy at-home treatment to do if you’re looking to improve the smoothness and softness of your feet; it worked as expected for all five of us, despite our different timelines. I was pleasantly surprised by the results — the skin on the bottom of my feet felt polished and uniform, with no spots or patches where it felt dry or rough. 

“I think it definitely did its job, especially when it comes to dryness around the heel and the sides of my feet,” says Godio. “However, it didn’t improve my bunions at all, only made the skin around them a little smoother.”

My newly rejuvenated skin lasted about two to three weeks after completing the treatment. My colleagues also noticed their skin kept up their fresh, soft feeling for a few weeks after the entire process finished. “Mine definitely don’t look as dry and dull for a few weeks,” says Malin. “Seeing how good they look and feel encourages me to wear slippers, socks and apply moisturizer to try to keep them that way.   

“I would absolutely do this again,” says Morris. “I think it’s an easy and effective occasional treatment, especially in preparation for summertime sandal season or a trip to a sunny destination.” Godio recommends giving yourself enough time for the entire treatment and not doing it while you plan to wear open-toed shoes. “Fortunately, it’s winter so I didn’t feel insecure out in public because I typically had closed-toed shoes on or wore socks if I took my shoes off at a friend’s house,” she says. “But if it were summer, I would definitely feel insecure to wearing anything with an open heel or open toe because the peeling was so much for me — you could definitely tell the skin was peeling if you looked close enough.” 

At NBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. We also take steps to ensure all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and without undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.

Bianca Alvarez is an associate reporter covering skin care, hair care and gift guides, including recent stories on body washes for sensitive skin and eye creams. For this story, Alvarez alongside other members of NBC Select tried the Baby Foot Original Exfoliation Foot Peel, which the brand sent us. She also interviewed two dermatologists about the effectiveness and safety concerns of foot peels. 

Catch up on Select’s in-depth coverage of personal finance, tech and tools, wellness and more, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok to stay up to date. 

Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com