I tried the Baby Foot peel and OMG

Have you ever tried an at-home foot peel?

The Baby Foot peel treatment has been all the rage for a few years now. I’ve heard a lot of buzz about it and wondered if it would work for my scaly, leathery heels.

Whenever I get a pedicure, I always feel bad when the technician has to use a cheese grater on the bottoms of my rough little feet. They end up taking off about a pound of dead, dry skin.

Z and I even tried the fish spa pedicure once – those fish really got to feast when I stuck my dry old feet in the tank! (In truth, I didn’t feel it was all that effective – but it was definitely fun to try once.)

All this time at home during the Coronavirus lockdown has us trying many strange things we never thought we’d try – and I do consider myself an amateur scientist. That’s why, when I read a headline on CNN claiming “The cult-favorite Baby Foot peel is disgusting — and it totally works,” I knew I had to try it.

I promptly ordered a Baby Foot spa bundle kit from Amazon. Since Z and I have been doing self-care Sundays anyway, this seemed like as good a time as any to give it a try. After all, I figured, we’re stuck at home and not going anywhere. If my feet peel off, at least I’ll be safe at home.

I had no idea what I was in for!

Day 1 of my Baby Foot foot peel was pleasant enough; we soaked my feet in a warm tub with the provided “skin softening” powder, then dried them and put on the included baggies full of some sort of chemical liquid. I read the instructions twice but purposely avoided reading the list of ingredients. Sometimes, less is more.

Z and I arranged the baggies of liquid on both my clean, dry feet and secured them in place with socks. Then, we sat and watched our favorite show for an hour while the Baby Foot treatment did its magic. I didn’t feel a thing. I was still fairly skeptical at this point.

I will say it’s probably possible to do all this alone, but it was hugely helpful to have a tween assistant on hand. I highly recommend doing this as a dynamic duo!

Days 2 through 3: nothing seemed to be happening. I was quite skeptical by now and honestly thought I had wasted my money. My feet were no different than they’ve always been.

Day 4: we started noticing my feet starting to peel. It wasn’t excessive yet – just a little bit. The instructions said we could do another foot soak but I didn’t feel like it, so we didn’t do anything that night.

Day 5: all hell broke loose. I was sitting on the couch after dinner when I crossed my leg in Z’s direction only to hear them scream “OMG Mom, look at your feet!!!”

I looked down and could not believe my eyes. Sheets of what looked like paper were peeling off the bottom and sides of my feet. I couldn’t feel a thing, so there was no way to know it was happening without taking a peek.

Z began to helpfully peel the paper-thin sheets of skin off my feet. Thankfully, that kid has one strong stomach. I must have lost several pounds’ worth of dead skin. I didn’t feel a thing – it didn’t tickle, itch or hurt. The skin just flaked off in massive, super-thin sheets. It was crazy!

We decided to do another foot soak that evening, as the instructions recommended. I soaked my feet in warm water and one of the included foot soak packets. Z even scrubbed my feet a bit with the included tube of foot scrub. I lost a ton of skin in the bathtub, and then even more while drying my feet. Massive amounts of dry skin continued to flake off.

I lotioned up my feet that night and slept in socks, hoping to moisturize the new skin and help the old skin to finish coming off.

Day 6: when I took my socks off in the morning, they were regrettably FULL of my dried foot skin. My feet are feeling very soft and baby-ish, but the dead skin just keeps flaking off. SO much foot skin! Like, who knew there could be this much foot skin to shed!?! I’m basically a snake at this point.

I took my usual morning shower and when I got out and dried my feet, I shed another entire sphynx cat’s worth of dead foot skin. The shreds of peeling foot skin will not stop coming off!

From the Baby Foot instructions, I understand that this skin shedding may continue to happen for up to another week. I can’t imagine it going on that long, but we’ll see. The CNN article headline was spot-on: this is both disgusting and amazing.

Bottom line, I have to highly recommend the Baby Foot peel treatment for people who are passionate about soft feet, curious about science and, importantly, not squeamish about peeling dead skin. Clearly, I realize by now that the Baby Foot treatment consists of an acid bath. The entire experience is morbidly delightful.

I went into this process a skeptic, but all this peeling foot skin has made a true Baby Foot believer of me. I have soft feet now; I have to assume I’ll have feet exactly like an infant by the time the peeling stops.

At this rate, I may end up with the actual, literal feet of an infant and possibly will need all new shoes in much smaller sizes.

So, dear reader, after reading my disgusting, amazing review, do you think you’ll try the Baby Foot peel treatment? If you do, please be sure to report back and let me know what you thought.

And if you have any glorious, gross or educational foot peel stories to share, drop me a comment below or over on Facebook. It’s for science, people.