If you give a mommy a minute, she might try the Listerine foot bath.

If you are anything like me, you have 8,000 boards on Pinterest and about 72,830 pins, but you only actually try like 12 of them. A long time ago, I was on Pinterest and saw the classic Listerine foot bath thing. My first thought was, "Who in the heck thinks these things up? Oh, I'll just pour some nasty smelling mouth wash on my feet and see what happens!"  However, since I kept seeing this pinned over and over again with claims that the "dead skin practically just falls off," (I didn't know whether to be impressed or grossed out) I thought I'd give it a whirl.

 

 I grabbed an old container and washed it out.

I held my nose as I poured in the vinegar, Listerine, hot water mixture.

 I imagine that this is what Hell smells like.

I plopped my dry and scaly feet in the tub (great mental picture, huh?) I set a timer, and then I waited.

 

Here are my results.  Please keep in mind that the before picture is completely embarrassing for me to put on the internet for people to see.  I have eczema and some really cracked, dry feet.  Soooooo not attractive.  Pride - out the window now.

 

 

 

Those are some pretty impressive results!  I will add that I did use a little stone thing to help aid in making my feet a little smoother.  However, I didn't use nearly as much elbow grease as I have used in the past.  I spent about 2 minutes using the stone after the foot bath and that was really it.  I washed my feet with some soap and water, and put on some socks.  I took the "after" picture about 2 hours after starting the foot bath.

 

Would I do this again?  Probably.  Would I do this if I were pregnant or repulsed by strong smells?  Heck no.  The smell would've made me vomit if I were pregnant.  The vinegar/Listerine combination is not an appealing smell, but the bath definitely made my feet feel nice for hours.  My feet felt cool, soft, and so clean.  The Listerine/vinegar smell did not stay with my feet either.  I felt like I had had a very long and relaxing pedicure after the foot bath, when I really only soaked my feet in this little mixture for 10 minutes.  This definitely saved me lots of time since there was no trip to the nail salon, I only had to soak for 10 minutes, and I did all of this while my kids were taking a nap. It saved me lots of money because I already had the ingredients in my house and I didn't have to pay $30 for a pedicure. 

Again...  Sorry for the disgusting "before" picture. I just have to keep it real and show you the true transformation.

 

I hope you give it a try and have some soft and smooth feet!

 

How to make this stuff:

 

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups hot water

2.  1 cup Listerine

3.  1 cup vinegar

 

Directions:

1.  Mix ingredients

2.  Soak feet for 10 minutes

3. Lightly use a stone or some other tool to aid in removing dead skin

4.  Clean feet with soap and clean water

 

If you give a mommy a minute, she might show you how to combine several beauty steps into ONE.

Wash your face, moisturize, sunscreen, don't get it too oily, don't get it too dry, prime it, put on foundation, put on powder, yada yada yada.  All of the steps are just too much for this mom to handle for a daily makeup routine.  Like about a million other women I know, I looked to Pinterest to try to find the perfect combination of ingredients to mix in order to reduce my routine into 1-2 simple steps.  I found this awesome link which gave me some good ideas, but I decided to tweak it to my personal needs so that I could come up with the perfect yet adjustable and affordable primer/cream I could quickly and easily create.

I wish I knew what to call this stuff.  For my day to day routine, I use this as my foundation and I don't wear powder.  I skip both of those steps completely and just use this stuff as my base and then HAC from there.  It would make a great primer though too if you wanted to layer foundation and powder over top. 

Here's what I love about this stuff...

1.  It's easy to make.

2.  I have all of the ingredients in my house already.

3.  It saves me time by keeping me from having to do foundation and powder.

4.  It can double as a tinted sunscreen.

5.  It's tinted so that it gives me some coverage, but not so much that my natural tone can't shine through.

6. It's customizable depending on if my skin is oily, dry, or a combination of both.

7.  It feels amazing when I put it on.  Seriously.

So here we go.

You will need these basic ingredients:

1.  Facial moisturizer - use ANY kind you want.  If you have dry skin, use one that is very moisturizing.  If you are concerned about aging skin, use one to reduce fine lines and wrinkles.  If you have acne prone skin, use one with salicylic acid.

2.  Foundation - again, use ANY kind you want.  Light coverage, medium coverage, something from Wal-Mart, something from God, creamy, pure liquid - whatever you'd like.

3.   Aloe vera gel - like the kind you get from the grocery store when you have a sunburn

4.  Vitamin E capsules - these are optional, but I like to use 1 or 2 because vitamin E is just so good for your skin and has such great healing powers (I've been watching too much Once Upon a Time.)

5.  Loose makeup powder - I happen to use some left over mineral powder that I had from a long time ago.  This is also optional, but I like to include a few shakes of the powder into my cream.

 

 

In terms of the ratios, that totally depends on your type of skin.  It's summer, and during this time of year, my skin is a little bit of a combination skin type.  Since it's summer, I also went with the moisturizer that already had SPF 15.

 

For oily skin:

1 vitamin E capsule

2 spoonfuls of aloe

1 spoonful of moisturizer

1-2 spoonfuls of foundation (depending on how much coverage you want)

a dusting of your powder.

 

For dry skin:

1- 2 vitamin E capsules

1 spoonful of aloe

2 spoonfuls of moisturizer

1-2 spoonfuls of foundation

a dusting of powder

 

For combination skin:

1-2 vitamin E capsules

1 spoonful of aloe

1 spoonful of moisturizer

1 spoonful of foundation

a dusting of powder

 

 

 (Arbonne Mineral Powder, Maybelline FIT makeup, equate aloe vera gel, Dove Facial Moisturizer with SPF 15, and 2 vitamin E capsules)

 



 



Here are the steps:

 

End Result:

 

 

In the above photos, I have on NO makeup with the exception of the cream I made in the "after" photo and both photos are completely unedited.  I use this cream as my foundation for daily use, but it works great as a primer as well if you are going for a more made up look.  The photo on the left shows more redness in my skin and the photo on the right makes me look a little healthier, glowier (is that a word?), and just a little more refreshed.  I hope you try it and love it and that it saves you time in your beauty routine!  It only take a small amount of this stuff and it lasts a long time.  Save time, pretty ladies!