I was able to bring my nails back to life, though, with Duri’s Rejuvacote.

This is a great nail strengthening formula that you can use to mend your nails if they are split, peeling or cracked…not only that, but weirdly, my nails seem to break less in the first place since using it!

Image: Duri.com

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Essie is hands down, one of the finest lines of nail polish on the market. The price is very reasonable, and the fact that most professionals use Essie should speak highly of its quality. Essie’s Winter 07 collection is in salons now, and is a beautiful collection of silvers, plums and festive reds!

From now until December 16th, you can get 10% off your purchases (of $40 or more) at essie.com by using the discount code BLG8, so pick up some stocking stuffers, or some beautiful holiday colors for yourself!

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Dashing Diva is really wonderful nail polish – the colors are beautiful and the polish is great quality – and at $8 a pop, its very reasonably priced. The downside is that you can’t find the colors in the promotion online, they are only in their salons. Hopefully you are lucky enough to have a Dashing Diva salon somewhere near you! Sadly, I am not lucky like that.

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Alas, thats not my reality – what’s a girl to do when the summer is rapidly approaching and she has “winter feet?” Well, there are all sort of great products out there to moisturize, but nothing works better to get your feet in “summer shape” than a physical method of dry skin removal.

There are plenty of different paddles, scrapers and blades on the market that get the job done (and some get it done well), but they can take a toll on you by stabbing you – (if this has ever happened to you, you will understand), scraping your knuckles (ouch!), cutting you (!!) and just generally, if you have a big job to do like I usually do, it wears you out. Enter the Artemis Woman Heel Smoother:

This battery operated gadget is ergonomically designed to fit your hand and help you reach your heels without having to resort to contortioning (is that a word? lol). Two tips are included to start you off – one is a dome shaped tip that will do the bulk of the work, and the other one is smaller and pointed to get to any more detailed and/or sensitive areas you might need to get to. These tips are made of a very hard aluminum oxide crystal, and are porous, like a pumice stone, but much, much harder (read: longer lasting). This makes pretty short work of getting your feet ready for sandals or to go naked. My best piece of advice when using this, or any other callous remover, is to use it just after your shower or bath. Your dead skin is plumped up with water and just sitting there waiting to jump off your foot, all it needs is just a little coaxing. This does work on dry feet as well, and has enough power to get the job done, but it will be a longer job. The Artemis Woman Heel Smoother retails for $29.99, and includes a 1 oz jar of their Topaz Foot Butter – a rich foot cream perfect for after your smoothing treatment, or anytime. Check out the Artemis Woman web site for more information on the smoother, the topaz butter and all the other nifty gem therapy tools and products they carry. Plus they donate 2% of profits to women’s cancer causes. Great stuff.

Let me know if you’ve tried this – or if you have a great heel solution, let me know that too. Remember, we are Commenting for a Cure here at eBeautyDaily from now through tomorrow night – let me hear from you!

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I had a nice chat today with Fiona Costello, proprietress of the UK’s BeautySwapShop, a fairly new place where you can meet new friends, chit chat about your favorite beauty products and maybe even swap around a few goodies. In the short time they have been online they have been fortunate enough to get a good start with active members, so stop by and say hello if you are in the UK, and if not, keep your eyes open, I hear she is thinking about starting a U.S. based forum as well. Have you done a swap there? Let us know how it went!

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Samples are: • one (1) Chanel Mini Hydrabase in Lola Sample • one (1) Clarins Radiance-Plus Body Lotion Sample • one (1) Clarins Body Lift Sample • one (1) Michael Kors Eau de Parfum Spray Sample • one (1) Gloss Makeup Bag

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Although I am so sad to say that my good friend Kim has recently had to stop writing with us, I am very happy to say that my friend Teri has started at Pretty by Nature with a vengeance! A natural and organic vengeance, of course. You hopefully know Teri from her blog at Beautiful Makeup Search, where she talks about all kinds of great cosmetics and beauty products. She is reeling herself in here at Pretty by Nature to talk about organic skin care and cosmetics – which is a huge market. I hope that if you are into natural products – and I know a great many of you are – that you will make Pretty by Nature a regular read! Don’t forget to subscribe to her email alerts or her feed by clicking the subscribe button at the top right of her site (and you can find my email subscription form in my right (pink!) sidebar, if you were wondering). It is great to have you here with us Teri, I hope you will be here for a very long time to come!

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Enter Satin Clouds. These are thick cotton pads with no rough edges and enough bulk to them that they hold up under red polish removal and waterproof mascara and long lasting lipstick removal. Yeah, they are a bit more expensive than the cheapies, but all in all, they don’t cost much ($5 per package), you get lots more removal for the money, and make a tremendous difference in my attitude. I am so done with the others.

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Honey, I’m running out to the grocery for a bit…

That’s what I am going to say next time I am in Dallas, but will be heading to the Whole Foods grocery on Preston, which has opened up combined with ReFresh Spa (reach them at 214-363-9760). Wow! So, I drop off my grocery list downstairs, let them deal with that, and head upstairs for an afternoon of beauty. Whoop!

The 4,500-square-foot spa dominates the store’s turret-style mezzanine and features seven private treatment rooms kitted out with bamboo cabinetry, organic linens and an appropriately soothing cream-to-taupe palette. The manicure-pedicure area boasts hygienic pipeless footbaths and toluene- and formaldehyde-free Zoya polishes. Treatment products range from Dr. Hauschka (below) to fresh cranberries and kosher salt. [Source]

Great thing I like to note is the “hygenic pipeless footbaths” – you probably know by now that is most important to me (and should be to you as well). Grocery shopping anyone?

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This is not your best choice if you have really bad callouses, but is a great choice if your feet are not too bad, or if you get regular pedicures and just need some in between maintenance. This tool is double sided, with a medium-coarse file on one side and a much smoother, “finishing” file on the other side. The handle is exceptionally strong (one of my pet peeves with pedicure files) and ergonomically designed (another peeve). This file does not bend when you use it, at all. I am VERY picky about foot files after 20 years in the nail biz, and this one is pretty good.

One more nifty feature this has is a nail file in the handle. The bottom pulls off and there is a handy dandy file for your toenails.

It may be that you need a stronger file than this – I hate to say that you might have rough feet, but I do, and I usually prefer a little coarser file than this one. Esthetic Plus also has a variety of rasps available – I haven’t tried them, but with the quality of Esthetic Plus products I have tried, I would certainly recommend you try those as well. I would love to try this nickle-plated one here. You can find their wide selection of pedicure tools, as well as many other beauty goodies on their website, EstheticPlus.com.

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Some tips for getting rid of those callouses via physical methods (using a foot file):

1. Soak your feet for 15 minutes or so before you file – either in a foot bath, tub or shower.

2. Use SeaBreeze on your feet (I keep it in a small spray bottle) as a lubricant when using a foot file. I don’t know why this works, but it definitely results in a more thorough job.

3. Err on the side of less filing, more often. If you take off a lot of skin at once, the likelyhood of scar tissue forming increases, and you don’t want that. Keep a file in your shower, and do a little bit every time you shower.

Give your feet some love this winter, and they will carry you well this Spring!

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