TOPAZ HORIZON

The reason I'm not a beauty blogger is because I'm too vain to show before-and-after photos. I mean, really. I can't. I want you to think I'm gorgeous all the time!

Of course, the truth is I have lots of beauty concerns, one of which has plagued me for a decade: dry feet. It's so bad that my friend Ro gave me a huge bottle of intensive care lotion one birthday because she got bothered by my cracked heels and toes. Nope, lotion never helped. Foot spas never helped. Nothing ever helped. Until I found Foot Appeal.

I got Foot Appeal from one of my monthly boxes of BDJBox. It's a sample service and I've discovered lots of beauty goodies from them. Some boxes are okay, some boxes are amazing. Then there are some boxes that you think have so-so products only to find out later that it has real treasures in it. Like Foot Appeal!
I seriously just tossed aside the packet. "Oh, another foot mask. Ho-hum." Then one day, as I was organizing my beauty products, I looked at it and tried it out and I was the one blown out of the water! Best discovery of the year! Sleeper hit! Foot Appeal forever!

My review is after the jump but please do NOT click if you are eating, have foot phobia, or are just generally squeamish. Like I said, I don't like putting before-and-after pics but this you gotta see. Well, only if you have the stomach for it. You have been warned!


This is my heel. Cracked. Dry. Peeling. On some days, even bleeding. My toes are the same with the fun bonus of calluses! If people judged one's beauty based on their feet, I'd have no fighting chance. So it's a good thing people judge based on one's face!!!

Anyway, my feet got worse when I became pregnant. The therapist at the foot spa said it's all the added weight plus the fact that pregnancy can be very dehydrating. Like I said, the foot spas didn't help. Not even the most miraculous lotions (I used La Mer!). So when Foot Appeal promised that with "just one use to reveal baby-like, soft naturally pinkish foot," I laughed. But I tried it anyway.

A packet of Foot Appeal has just one pair of plastic socks. Inside swirled the potion of acids: salicylic acid, lactic acid, paeonia suufriticosa root extract, tilia cordata flower extract, arnica montana flower extract, althea focinale root extract, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, hedera helix extract, cucumis sativus fruit extract, nasturtium officinale extract, citrus medica limonium extract, arctium majus root extract all mixed with purified water and alcohol.

It stinks! Well, it smells like perfumed acetone but it still smells scary. That's why I read the ingredients list. I wanted to be sure this thing won't melt my feet away—skin, muscle and all the way to the bone! Since all the listed ingredients looked natural, I proceeded.

All you have to do is slip your feet into the plastic socks, tape the edges closed, wear real socks on top so that you don't slip and fall, soak your feet for 60-90 minutes, take everything off then wash your feet thoroughly. That's it.

First day, Thursday: Day of soaking. I already felt my skin was smoother.
Second day, Friday: My feet looked bad. Like it was covered in paraffin. Like it was covered in plastic.
Third day, Saturday: My feet felt weird. It still looked like it was covered in plastic because the skin was hardening, separating. But this day was gross because I felt it, too. Like I was walking around in dry wax.
Fourth day, Sunday: My skin started bubbling. This was so exciting! My skin had begun to peel!

By Sunday night, my feet were peeling like crazy. This was my heel on Monday morning: