After several months trodding and tearing up your feet in sandals, I think we can all agree that our feet need a little bit of extra TLC. From running around in gritty sand to 5-mile-long hikes in the wilderness, our feet take a lot of abuse in the summer — more abuse than a single pedicure can fix. And with the end of the summer weeks away, there’s no time to waste in a salon. For that reason, we have some of the best foot masks on deck to make our self-care sesh a lot more convenient, but equally effective. They’re easy to throw in your carry-on, so you can even take them on vacation with you.

Like hand masks, foot mittens aren’t exactly necessary. You can always slather your skin in Vaseline or some other heavy ointment when flaking and ash become an issue. It’s also way more affordable than investing in a special treatment. But that’s just it: they’re not special. And as far as we’re concerned, you deserve special things…like a nourishing foot mask that forces you to put your feet up and stay hydrated from head-to-toe, literally.

There are peels that take days to kick in, but ultimately shed skin beyond belief. You’ll feel like a snake. The foot peels are so effective that you’re going to want to wear socks for a few days—trust us, it’ll mean less mess and be less gross that way. If you want something a little less intense, there’s heavy-duty lotions that work best with overnight use. Ahead are options for both.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Aliver and Target are STYLECASTER sponsors, however, all products in this article were independently selected by our editors. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

Courtesy of ALIVER.

Lavender Foot Mask

Our feet might be one of the most under-appreciated parts of our bodies. Give your feet their own self-care moment with this lavender foot mask set. You leave the mask on for 50-90 minutes and then wait 5-7 for the magic peeling to happen. You’ll be able to slide across the floor Risky Business-style with your newly smooth feet.

Buy: Foot Peel Mask 3 Pack $9.99

Amazon.

TikTok-Famous Foot Peel

This Amazon top-seller has long held cult-favorite status for its ability to literally strip the foot of every and any flake. The magic sauce is a mix of 17 botanicals—all naturally-derived—that work over a period of days to shed the skin.

Buy: Baby Foot – Original Foot Peel Exfoliator $25

Tony Moly.

K-Beauty Pick

Like the Baby Foot Peel, this K-beauty, liquid-based mask uses vegetable ingredients to remove keratin, flakes and dryness after 7 days of use.

Patchology.

Chemical Peel Option

Proof that chemical acids aren’t just for the face, this next-level foot mask includes a mix of AHAs and BHAs that work together to exfoliate both top and deep layers of the skin.

Karuna.

2-in-1 Foot Mask

A face mask and serum, but for your feet. This option also includes an AHA blend for gentle exfoliation—aka getting rid of flakes—and floral extracts for smoothing.

Buy: Karuna Exfoliating+ Foot Mask $38

Courtesy of Sephora.

Budget-Friendly Foot Mask

Affordable and effective? We can’t think of a better combo. The coconut in this footie will soothe dryness and nourish your skin.

LUSH Cosmetics.

Clay Foot Mask

If like us, you’re obsessed with the purifying properties of kaolin clay, this all-natural, part-pumice foot mask is definitely for you. It also contains a gang of other nourishing food-grade ingredients, including papaya, lemon juice and tomato.

Kocostar.

 Botanical-Packed Mask

Besides the super-sized mix of 33 botanical extracts that’ll go to work on your poor, tired feet, the mint scent makes for an ideal pick-me-up too.

Buy: Kocostar Foot Therapy $10

Sol de Janiero.

Coolest Foot Mask

Complete with a smoothing board for minimizing stubborn calluses, this cream is infused with coconut oil, acai and cupuaçu butter, a water-soluble Brazilian super fruit, that makes application non-slippery.

ThisWorks.

Soothing Rescue Balm

In addition to lemon and lavender for light exfoliation and treating irritation, the cotton thistle—another deeply-penetrating moisturizer—also disguises odor.

Buy: thisworks perfect heels rescue balm $26

Sally Hansen.

Super Moisturizing Mask

Want relief for your dry feet? Reach for this single-use mask. Infused with nut butters and Vitamin E, this mask will chase away dry skin.

This story was originally published in 2019.

The Real Housewives of New York’s Black Lace Trim Pajamas in The Hamptons

Real Housewives of New York Season 13 Episode 16 Fashion

On tonight’s episode of RHONY the ladies are twinning quintupling in a pair of super cute black lace trim pajamas during a fun Galentine’s weekend at Ramona’s house in The Hamptons. And we’re just hoping that everyone remembered to collect their tops, because the full look is totally a match made in heaven.

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to Shop Their Flora Nikrooz Pajamas on Sale

Photo #2: @RamonaSinger

Originally posted at: The Real Housewives of New York’s Black Lace Trim Pajamas

Good physical health is most often tied to a sense of good mental and emotional wellness. However, when challenging situations and circumstances happen in life, we are provided with a crossroads which can affect both mental and physical wellbeing. 

One leg leads to a path of purposeful and adaptive thought processes, ultimately producing peaceful resolution and continuance. Whereas the other path can often compound problems, invoke hard feelings, inflict emotional pain, prolong grief, and even create long-term consequences for actions or inactions. Ask yourself, which path do you typically choose? 

The Crossroads

Human nature compels us to seek a ready means of easing mental/emotional stress while countering pain with pleasure. Unfortunately, it is all too often that the most readily available coping mechanisms are of the unhealthy variety.

At one point in my own life, I gravitated toward food (especially sweets) to cope with problems. As a result, my weight topped out at a whopping 354 pounds! Ultimately, I was trading one set of problems for another.

I am most certainly not credentialed as a mental health practitioner. However, in 20-plus years as a wellness professional and certified life coach, I have had numerous opportunities to share in, witness, and coach clients through many of their challenges and tragedies. 

This experience combined with formal education, and what I have learned first-hand in my own life is what inspires the informed perspective that I have to share with you today. I hope that you will take away useful ideas that will help you to positively cope with life’s stormy seas.

Tips for Choosing the Better Path 

Remind Yourself That If You’re Going Through Hell – Do Not Stop! 

Though bad situations are difficult, life still moves forward, and you need to prepare for the next chapter. To allow yourself to become bogged down in current circumstances can prolong stress and leave you unprepared to manage what the next day brings.

Seek Support from Others in Similar Situations

Whether it be in a grief support group, widow’s/widower’s club, singles groups, weight loss forum, etc. Relatability goes a long way in finding constructive pathways to resolution. Few situations are often unique. The experience of others who have traveled the same path can prove incredibly useful in providing ideas to navigate hardship.

Establish Positive Coping Mechanisms

Food, alcohol, illicit drugs, pornography, and even isolation are all examples of common destructive coping mechanisms. Rather, choosing things that are creative, recreational, healthy, and contributory (like volunteerism) provide much healthier means of positive reinforcement. Choosing this approach also limits the likelihood of exchanging one problem for another or creating compounding consequences.

Open the Flood Gates of Communication!

Whether it be talking to a friend, family member, counselor, or even just writing your thoughts/feelings in a journal. The act of openly communicating what you are dealing with can be incredibly liberating.

It is best to write emotionally charged thoughts/feelings in a journal first. This provides you an opportunity to express those feelings and place them in suspended media while deciding whether or not sharing with others would be beneficial.

Prepare Your Mind and Body for the Day Ahead

Beginning each day with just a half-hour of meditation and deep breathing exercises produces a significant difference in how both your mind and your body handle and cope with stressful situations. This practice has also been shown to counter the adverse effects of elevated cortisol (stress hormones) on mood and metabolism.

Regardless of your age or life experience, nobody is immune to life’s challenges. However, when provided with your next crossroads – I hope you feel inspired and empowered to choose the path to a healthy sense of peace.

What was the most recent crossroads that you experienced? How did you decide which way to go? Looking back, do you think you made the right decision?

As I look back on my 65 years, to say that my life did not turn out the way I expected would be an understatement. I wonder how many of us would be honest enough to say the same.

Idealism

I approached both marriage and motherhood with incredible idealism. I was sure I would have the greatest marriage and my kids would rise up and call me blessed (Proverbs 31:28). Now, all these decades later, I am grateful that they at least speak to me – on occasion.

I believed my marriage would last ’til death do us part. Our children would bless us with grandchildren and they would all come home for Sunday dinners.

The way it turned out? I can’t say I ever imagined the realistic side of life. I do have one grandchild, but he is being raised by his father and the grandmother on his paternal side.

Because I never thought I would have kids (secondary infertility), I cherished the idea of motherhood and even called it my “divine appointment.” I have mostly adopted kids who I mostly homeschooled.

Homeschooling Reflections

Being a Christian homeschooling mom is a lot of pressure. We strive for perfect marriages and perfect children, but life doesn’t always cooperate.

Homeschooling moms compare themselves and measure their worth by how well their family is managed. The goal is to turn out perfect little human beings. Even though I was a very active member of that community, writing books and speaking at homeschool conventions, when my family started to experience issues and problems, that same community shunned me.

Responding to Pressure

Aspiring to have a perfect family life and a perfect marriage puts you under a lot of pressure.

My first clue that the pressure was killing me was when I landed in a 3-week inpatient program for depression. At that time, my then husband had been diagnosed with cancer and was quite ill. Some of the issues of my children were beginning to surface. The future did not look bright. In fact, it looked dreadful.

Self-sabotage?

My therapy process caused me to examine my patterns of sabotage. No marriage is perfect and no children are perfect. We are all imperfect people. Unfortunately, it takes time to realize this.

Sometimes dedication to children and family can lead to an unhealthy dependence on them. When they struggled, I died a little inside. My flaw was my inability to let go to allow them to try and fail, to fly high and crash hard. My attempts to fix people and make them happy were misguided… and sad.

Identity

Another factor leading to my disillusionment had to do with defining my identity. My identity as a mom was so tied up in the drama of family life that I lost myself.

While juggling the issues of many children with many issues, the marriage died a little with each crisis we faced. Could we have done it differently? Some couples survive great tragedy. Others fold into their own bitterness and disappointment.

Family therapy could have probably helped had we chosen it early on, but we didn’t. We still have disagreements about how to handle things with the now grown children.

The kids grew up and on. The marriage failed. Shared struggle failed to knit us together. The statistics for marriage survival for couples facing the issues we faced are grim. Only the strongest can survive the major challenges we faced, and we turned out average.

What Will I Remember?

I will cherish the good times, the laughter of children, the loyalty of a good spouse. I will cherish the growth in wisdom and patience that blessed my challenges.

I will forever remain grateful for the many miracles of my life – the arrival of children, the many fun experiences we had together, the growth we all experienced because of the crucible of family life.

Through the tears and the pain, the doubts and the uncertainty – it was worth it and I wouldn’t change a thing.

I’m marriage and motherhood survivor. I’m still standing and I’m OK.

Has your life turned out the way you thought it would? Have your experiences prepared you for this time in your life? Are you able to look back and see blessings? Let’s swap stories!

My mother never made it to 60, sadly passing away just two weeks after her 59th birthday. At 21, however, I viewed her as an old lady.

God bless her, but she didn’t dye her hair, although she occasionally had a blue rinse, didn’t wear makeup, had bunions so wore sensible shoes and wore crimplene dresses usually bought at C&A, but only when she needed them.

Jump forward 44 years. As I approach my 70th birthday, times for us seniors have certainly changed.

Our Throw-Away Culture

Mum lived through the austere years when makeup was scarce and nylons non-existent, we have lived with more excess than our parents could ever have dreamed of.

Makeup is no longer a luxury, tights are available in every colour, size and pattern under the sun, and clothes are throw-away, disposable items.

A memory just popped up while I was writing this. My mother told me how they used to draw the ‘seam’ of fully fashioned nylons onto the backs of their legs with gravy powder to give the impression they were wearing stockings!

How different it is for us now.

My 27-year-old daughter and I borrow each other’s clothes. This is something I would never have done with my mum.

I buy clothes most months, and I know I have more than I can ever wear for the rest of my life. And shoes? Well shoes are one of my passions in life. I currently have more than 200 pairs, and I know that is really excessive so please don’t criticise me – I know!!!

Mum had about five pairs of shoes and a couple of handbags – one for summer and one for winter.

Leisure Has Changed

The point I wanted to make is not about the excesses of modern life, but about the kind of lives we lead. Mum went to a keep-fit class and bingo, and after my dad died, that was her life. She never learned to drive, so apart from when we went out together, she never really went anywhere else.

My father served his country as a member of the armed forces, so we moved around a lot during my childhood. That meant Mum never had the opportunity for a career, since we followed Dad wherever he was posted, but she was always home when I got in from school, so we could chat about our day.

I learned to drive at 17 and had an interesting and varied career. I think that has made a huge difference to us, bringing mobile and financial independence. I’m not just talking about purchases though. Now we have the freedom to make choices our parents never did.

Changes in education and in the workplace have given women more opportunities, and I think that makes a huge difference to women of today – though it’s fair to say that there is still much to be done on the subject of equal pay.

Homes and Housework

My parents – and theirs before them – never owned their own homes, since rented accommodation was provided for Forces families. As I sit in my own comfortable home, I thank them for my small inheritance which set us on the road to home-ownership.

We certainly have more leisure time than they did. Washdays lasted a couple of days – from doing the washing in a small twin tub, getting it dry and then doing the ironing… it took forever.

Even before then, I remember Grandma washing by hand in a tin tub and wringing them out with a mangle!

Food was always home-cooked from scratch and watched over all day – meat and potato pie, stew and dumplings and roast dinners took forever to cook. There were no slow cookers, microwaves or pressure cookers, acti-fries or blenders in those days.

And cleaning never stopped! My mother dusted and vacuumed every day and washing up was done in the sink after every meal – no dishwashers for them.

We did have a very small fridge, but food shopping was done most days to ensure freshness, rather than doing a weekly shop. Fortunately, our ‘supermarket’ was the local NAAFI shop so we didn’t have to walk far with our purchases.

Times were much simpler then, and I’m thankful I had such a happy, carefree childhood. Playing in the fields around our married quarters (airfields were always in the country), riding my bike and going to ballet classes were much healthier than sitting in front of a television or iPad playing digital games.

I had lots of friends and plenty of fresh air. I walked a mile to school which kept me healthy and not overweight.

Holidays – when we could afford them – were a week by the sea, paddling in the water, building sandcastles and eating ice cream. And I know some of those simple pleasures remain.

I remember asking my daughter – then aged about nine – which she enjoyed most: our annual family holiday in Greece or our week in a cottage near Whitby with my best friend and her daughter. Guess which she preferred?

So which times are/were the best? Computers and the internet have changed both our working and leisure lives. We have a pandemic now, but there were other threats back then as well. Labour-saving devices have cut down on manual housework, but do we have a better life than our parents?

What hasn’t changed, however, is families. We love our children and grandchildren, and however much time we had then or now, this has to remain a priority. What do you think?

Is life better now than being in the 50s and 60s? What do you miss about times gone by? If you could change one thing about modern life, what would it be? Let’s share some happy memories!