Being able to do an at-home manicure is one thing, but doing a pedicure is a completely different situation. Especially if you don’t have professional salon tools at-home, in particular a pedicure chair. But you’d be surprised at how much you can achieve with just the tools you already have at-home. A simple plastic tub can do the trick.

Even though not the easiest task, there is something rewarding about doing your own pedicure. You’re keeping in touch with yourself and your own self-care needs by taking care of your appearance while also making sure that you’re internally grounded. An at-home pedicure is the ideal way to take your mind off things and to dedicate a moment for yourself.

Amy Lin, founder of sundays, decided to share her steps to achieve an easy at-home pedicure. Follow the 7 steps below to achieve yours! Remember this is just a guide for your already established routine. Do your pedicure in a way that feels most suitable to your own self-care needs! 🙂

What you’ll need for Amy’s at-home pedicure: foot tub, mineral sea salt soak, eucalyptus essential oil (optional), foot file/nail file, body scrub, wooden stick (the wooden stick has two sides: the pointed end could be used to clean nail polish outside your nails; the flat end is for cleaning nails and pushing back cuticles and gel polish), body lotion, cuticle serum, toe separator or a stronger paper napkin, top coat, base coat, nail polish of your choice, a quick dry oil and a nail buff. Fyi: our new manicure kit includes most of these tools already (see Sundays manicure kit here)!

Step 1: Remove your nail polish (if you have any on). It might be harder to remove once your feet get wet. 

Step 2: If you have a foot tub at home , fill it up with lukewarm water (any temperature that suits you), then add a Mineral Sea salt soak to soften the feet and cuticles, soaking for about 5 to 10 mins. You can also add a eucalyptus essential oil to your foot bath to help with minor itching or discomfort of the feet. While you wait, you can turn on some music or some guided meditation to make your self-care even more enjoyable. You can also light some candles (see sundays nontoxic candles here)  for a complete salon experience. Our nontoxic candles exclude all the harmful chemicals and toxins that typical household candles contain.

Step 3: Dry your feet with a towel, then use a foot file mixed with body scrub to remove any dead skin (you may use a nail file). But make sure that you don’t over file your callus on your feet, because it might make your skin rougher.

Step 4: Shape and buff your nails, add your cuticle serum then lightly push back your cuticles using a wooden stick. After you push back your cuticles, you can use the same  wooden stick to clean underneath corners of  your nails for hygiene purposes, ( since  a wooden stick has two sides, you can use a different side: one for cuticles, one side to clean underneath the nails) . After applying the cuticle serum (you can find our cuticle serum here) , you may also remove any dead skin around the cuticles using the wooden stick. It’s best to use a wooden stick as it is more gentle than mental ones. 

Step 5: Moisturize your feet with a body lotion to keep them smooth (we recommend using alba botanica),especially the back of the feet.

Pro tip: You can add our cuticle serum CS.02 hydration to your lotion. Mixing the cuticle serum helps to protect your nails and to keep them moisturized.

Step 6 : Remove any excess oil on the nail bed with a towel or paper tissue. This will prepare your nails for polish application and make your pedicure last longer. Then use a toe separator or a paper napkin to separate your toes. Don’t forget to add a base coat before the nail polish application and top coat after the nail polish application. Base and top coat are super important because they keep your nails healthy and your polish last longer. And finally, the fun part: apply your polish!

Pro tip: Guys can use a shiny buff to give their nails a natural shine. 

Step 7:  Lastly, apply a quick dry oil  to help your nails dry faster and to avoid getting your pedicure smudged. I don’t know about you, but for me getting my pedicure smudged is super frustrating. Adding our quick dry oil cuts the drying time in half and lets you throw on your house slippers or shoes after about 7 minutes of drying as opposed to the typical 15!

Wait for a few minutes, then throw on your house slippers and you’re good to go! We hope that you enjoyed following Amy’s steps to an easy at-home pedicure and that we made it somewhat easier for you to do this in the future. We often tend to neglect our feet when taking care of our body, especially at times like these. We have gotten used to having our pedicures done professionally so having to do them ourselves is a big transition. We hope that we made that transition a little easier for you.

If you have any questions regarding our at-home pedicure tips, or any self-care/nail care questions in general, please reach out to us at info@dearsundays.com. Oh and don’t forget to share your pedicures with us on insta (@sundays_studio) and (@Sant.M.co)!