Feet Baths: Simple, Natural & Healing Ways to Pamper Your Feet during Summer Season

Your feet deserves love.  In cold season you pack them in socks and shoes and don't really let your feet to enjoy fresh air on the skin. In summer feet finally get it + a lot of dirt, dust and sweat. Wow, that's an incredible mixture... It's not very surprising that exactly during summer season many people fight with cracked heels, skin thickening and Athlete's foot, oh, and those painful blisters...

One basic rule that stays the same in all seasons: keep your feet clean. You are not allowed to forget to wash your feet before going to bed if you don't want to suffer from pain that doesn't let you enjoy summer. Let's keep it straight! Here are some natural treatments that will pamper, support and care for your feet in a pleasurable way:

Stinging nettle infusion

Put in a bowl fresh stinging nettle leaves -> pour hot water to cover them -> let the mixture sit covered for 10-15 minutes -> remove the cover and let it cool down a bit so you can put your feet in -> enjoy! You can also simmer nettle leaves in hot water on low heat for about 10 minutes and then add it to lukewarm water. You can take the herbs out, but I usually leave them inside and play with herbs in the water with my feet. 

Benefits:  Improves blood circulation, so will be useful for tired feet, treats corns, warts and nail

fungus.

A bit more about stinging nettle I've published previously here: Nettle: Vitamin Dose On Your Dinner Table, in a Cup of Tea & in Bathroom

Burdock leaves

The same what you would do with nettle (and other leaves): put fresh leaves in a bowl -> add hot water -> wait -> enjoy!

Benefits: Fights Athlete's foot, helps to treat psoriasis, eczema, bacterial and fungal infections, swelling and skin rashes

Pine needles

Crush fresh needles -> add hot water -> wait -> enjoy!

If you can't get fresh pine needles, pine tree essential oil will help.

Benefits: refreshing and deodorizing treatment, disinfectant and antioxidant, aromatic treatment for reducing stress as well. Used for healing psoriasis, poor skin, itchiness and other skin issues, reduces inflammation and pain.

Birch leaves

The same what you would do with nettle (and other leaves): put fresh leaves in a bowl -> add hot water -> wait -> enjoy! Leave these leaves in water!

Benefits: It has antibacterial properties, helps healing skin issues, ulcers, wounds and inflammations. The best birch leaves are gathered and used until summer solstice. You can also harvest and dry them in little whisks to use all the year round. 

Peppermint essential oil

Prepare warm water for soaking your feet -> add 3-5 drops of peppermint essential oil -> enjoy!

Benefits: truly refreshing, stimulating and cooling feet soak for tired feet. Helps to fight fever, energizes tired feet, will heal sore skin and inflammations, can soothe blisters, oh, and if you inhale the aroma, you might get headache relief!

Tea Tree essential oil

The same what you would do with peppermint or any other essential  oil: prepare warm water -> add 3-5 drops of essential oil!

Benefits: treats toe nail fungus, Athlete's foot, abrasions, blisters, bruises and dry skin, burns and bacterial infections.

Lavender essential oil

Prepare warm water for soaking your feet -> add 3-5 drops of lavender essential oil -> enjoy! You can also apply add a drop of neat lavender essential on blisters and wounds.

Benefits: relaxing and calming to the entire body, will relax muscles and calm down your mind, heal sore skin and blisters. It has antibacterial properties and aids healing scars, wounds and sunburns. This feet soaking ritual before bedtime can prevent insomnia and improve your sleep quality. 

Here are some other ingredients to add to your feet baths together with herbs and essential oils or pamper your feet after soaking or in other ways:

Vinegar
Add 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar to 2-3 cups of water and soak your feet for about 10-15 minutes. You can add vinegar to any of feet soak options mentioned before. 

Benefits: softens skin, so will be helpful if you are using pumice stone for heels, relaxing for tired feet after long walks. 

 

Lemon Juice

Add lemon juice to water and soak your feet in it or prepare a foot scrub with lemon juice. Everything about making your own body scrubs can be found here: Guide to Home-made Body Scrubs

Benefits: softens skin, helps to get rid of thick skin and dead skin cells, helps healing cracked heels.

Coconut oil

Massage your feet with coconut oil after soaking feet and put on clean cotton socks before going to bed. Wash it off on morning.

Benefits: skin moisturizer, helps healing dry skin and cracked heels.

These are my top recipes for summer season, although I often experiment with different herbs, fresh leaves and flowers. What are your favorite ways of pampering feet with natural treasures?

Herbal Tinctures II: Pine Needles and Valerian Root

Seeing that you've been interested in my previous post about making herbal tinctures, I thought I'll share with you the properties of two new tinctures that have been made on a shelf in my kitchen: pine needle and Valerian root.

About two weeks after pouring alcohol over pine needles the smell wasn't very pleasant - it was kinda like fish and my impatience scared me that it will stay like that, but a few weeks later it got a truly pleasant aroma. Patience. Nature always needs patience and that's what we should also remember when treating health issues with natural remedies - patience and persistence brings great results. 

About the previously prepared tinctures I can just say that I'm pretty much in love with them. Wormwood tincture (that tastes terrible ingested undiluted, but is pretty nice adding a few drops to a cup of herbal tea) has been a great help for stomach and helpful relieving menstrual pain, but lemongrass has helped our immunity - while everyone walks around with running noses and one by one around us catches cold (that season has arrived!), we seem to be unbreakable. I guess not just because of drinking different herbal teas every day, but also because lemongrass tincture regularly finds a place in our hot drinks. By the way, ingesting a few drops to 1 teaspoon of undiluted lemongrass tincture doesn't taste that bad at all. So, my "YES" to herbal tinctures stays strong.

Of course, I'm still a fan of herbal teas and other kinds of herbal infusions, but alcohol extracts a lot more of valuable compounds, than water or oil does. The fact that tinctures are made with alcohol, doesn't make you an alcoholic as normally they are used up to 3 teaspoons of tincture daily - not even a shot, so they aren't dangerous. If you want to know how to make tinctures, here is my first article covering the topic: Making and Using Herbal Tinctures: DIY // Wormwood, Lemongrass, Catnip and Common Yarrow You will find there also a few lines about dosage and daily intake.

Ok, so today we've got one nervous stimulant and one sedative - one for the beginning of a day and the other one for the end :)

Pine Needle tincture

+  Natural  nervous stimulant and tonic

(a few drops can make a great addition to a morning drink)

+ Anti-fungal and anti-infectious properties

+ Great help in cold season as it provides Vitamin C

+ Treats colds and congestions

+ Has potential to treat varicose veins

+Strengthens eye health and nerves in eyes

Valerian Root tincture

+ Natural sedative, central nervous system relaxant

+ Treats anxiety, nervousness and alleviates emotional stress

+ Insomnia treatment that improves sleep quality

+ Alleviates health issues that are caused by nervousness

+ Muscle relaxant, can be applied externally as well

+ Supports and improves heart health

+ Pain reliever

- Not advised for pregnant women, breastfeeding women and children

-Should be avoided by people with liver issues

- Should never be used with other medications

The dosage matters when it comes to very strong herbs, such as Valerian root, so if you are in doubt consult a doctor! 

Any advises, experiences and observations about using these tinctures?