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| Purederm Intensive Repair Foot Mask |
I kept my feet away from the hands of pedicurists and harsh massage therapists, and that kept my tootsies in the pink.
Calluses and dry skin were foot problems alien to me until I got pregnant with our second child last year. I ballooned to a 148-lb expectant mom, giving my feet the onerous task of bearing the kind of weight unknown to them before. I hardly recognized my own body everytime I looked in the mirror.
On my second trimester, I bent down one night to do some stretching when I felt this hideous thick skin on my heels. Days before that I was already beginning to feel there was something wrong with my feet, but a growing belly made a good excuse not to look at the parts of my body that made me feel unhappy. All my life I enjoyed the vanilla state of my feet, and I’m guessing it was my keeping them away from the hands of pedicurists and harsh massage therapists that kept them in the pink. The rare occasions that I went for foot spas were times when I was invited to do a review of ones that just opened for business, and those that had something new to offer to their clients. It was part of the perks given to me as a lifestyle editor for a local paper. Some people considered me very lucky, but little did they know that I squirmed at the thought of having my feet touched. I was very comfortable getting a good rub and scrub here and there, but my feet were always a delicate pair. I would request the therapists not to scrub my feet with rough cloth nor use pumice stone on them. The sight of feet getting scrubbed like a piece of wood sanded for a smooth finish gave me nightmares.
The sole slayer
I was born with thin soles but they never gave me problems even after years of sole abuse. I danced a lot and was very active as a young person; an uncelebrated champion in sipa (game of kick) and Chinese garter.
I was very resentful about my feet in its state of emergency, but the huge bags of chips that were part of my staple diet when I was pregnant hid in the cupboards and refused to be held liable for my weight gain that eventually led to the miserable condition of my tootsies.
I finally succumbed to a foot spa on my last trimester. I put my feet up for one hour’s worth of rubbing and scrubbing, looking like a penguin on a spa chair. The verdict: My feet felt smoother but the spa effect lasted only for a day. My gut feel told me the scrubbing had adverse effects on my feet because my soles became more dry and were painful.
Getting the cold feet from Purederm
My daughter is turning six months old in a few days and thankfully, my feet are happier now. Last weekend, I went to Watson’s to check out DIY foot spas and I found Purederm’s Avocado Intensive Repair Foot Mask. There were only four easy “How to Use” steps on the back and none of it said “scrub” so I paid for it (for an easy-on-the-pocket cost of PhP 69) and brought it home. On New Year’s eve, I opened my sock-type foot mask, wore them, then put on the vinyl socks over them, and clumsily enclosed them with the bands. My feet felt so pleasantly cold, like I stuck them in the fridge and left them there to cool down on a hot summer's day. Thirty minutes later (or what I thought was 30 minutes because I was playing with my son and his new Combat Sniper by Speed-Tech) I took them off, honestly preparing to get disappointed.
I was definitely not disheartened by the results. My feet were soft like they used to be years before I got pregnant. The texture of my skin also improved and the dry spots on my heals and toes disappeared like they were never there before.
Cole and I knew since the beginning of May that it was going to be a girl. We kept mum about it because we were cooking up a surprise for Karim. He thought that we were going to see the doctor together to find out the baby's gender right after he'd get back from his three-week trip to London. So everytime he'd call it was a challenge not to say anything about it and Cole would constantly tease me about ruining the surprise. We were alone in the house and picking on a very pregnant woman, I imagine, was very amusing. To complement that, I was such a wet blanket. 
