This Step Will Make Your Feet Feel Baby Smooth (And Keep Them That Way)

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1.

Soak your feet or hands before. 

Again, you can follow these steps for feet or hand callouses—but that’s it. Before you start, dip your designated area in warm water. “You will see better results if you soak your feet before using a pumice stone,” medical aesthetician and founder of JTAV Clinical Skincare Joie Tavernise tells mbg. 

“Your skin should be moist and soft to the touch, but not wrinkly from long exposure to water,” she clarifies. Be sure to make your foot bath a medium to warm temperature, as burning hot water will only irritate the skin. 

About five minutes will do, board-certified dermatologist and founder of Visha Skincare, Purvisha Patel, M.D. notes. After your foot soak is finished, you’ll go in with the pumice stone on clean, damp skin (read: skip the towel dry). 

Now it’s time to use your stone. Rub the stone in circular motions over the area; a medium pressure is more than enough to remove the dead skin. If you’re working on your hands, Tavernise recommends using very light pressure, as this area is more sensitive than the feet. 

When you're exfoliating, you might even see dead skin visibly accumulate on the stone (gross but strangely satisfying). Because this can get messy, it’s best to complete this step over a bath or while you’re in the shower (just don’t fall when balancing on one leg). 

Be sure to stop when you've reached a desired smoothness (about two to three minutes does the trick, board-certified dermatologist and founder of MMSkincare Ellen Marmur, M.D. says), or when the dead skin stops clinging to the pumice stone's pores.

If you’re working on callouses, proceed with caution and don’t eliminate them completely “Callouses exist to protect our feet in areas of high friction, so use moderation when attempting to file them down,” board-certified dermatologist Rebecca Marcus, M.D., FAAD tells mbg.

Some people may be able to use a pumice stone every other day, while plenty of others can only tolerate it once a week or once every other week—it all depends on how sensitive your skin is. Start with weekly use and see how you feel—if your skin is sore, dial it back. If your skin continues to dry out or you build callouses quickly, use it every few days, and so on. 

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After all that exfoliating, you'll want to add moisture back into the skin. After towel-drying your skin, apply a thick cream to seal in any micro-cracks. "Since the manual exfoliation of the stone can cause microabrasions on the skin, it's important to apply moisturizer to help repair the small cracks in the skin from the pumice exfoliation," explains Patel. 

Look for a body lotion or foot cream with barrier-loving ingredients, like some of these: 

Pro tip:

Don't want to get a foot cream? No problem, your go-to hand cream can easily play double-duty.

Pro tip

Here's a do: Apply your lotion or cream to damp skin for even better absorption. Then, cover your feet in clean socks—think of it like “slugging” but for the feet. This way, the cloth of your sock will hold the moisture in rather than letting it evaporate off the skin. 

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“You want to make sure to keep the pumice stone clean because the built-up skin cells can act as a fomite and harbor bacteria that can be passed back to your skin or other areas on the body during its next use,” board-certified dermatologist Nava Greenfield, M.D. explains. 

To do so, pop your pumice stone in a bowl of warm water and antibacterial soap, Greenfield says. You can add a bristle brush to your cleaning routine if you find your pumice stone has larger holes that catch more dead skin. 

“Another alternative would be to soak the stone in a dilute bleach or vinegar solution to kill bacteria,” Marcus notes. She recommends doing this soak once every few weeks if you regularly use your pumice stone. If it’s an occasional tool you pull out, then just be sure to clean it after every use. 

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