4 Effective Home Remedies for Sore, Cracked and Stinky Feet

Cracked heels and blackened feet can happen to anyone. Normally, the shoes that you wear, particularly during the hot and dry summer months will cause your feet to dry out and could cause them to crack. There are a few products on the market to help heal dry feet but there are very effective home remedies that you can try as well.

One method uses shaving cream to help heal dryness. For this method you need to:

• Slather your feet with a generous amount of shaving cream.
• Mix together equal parts of Listerine and warm water.
• While you still have shaving cream on your feet, wrap a towel that is soaked in the Listerine mixture around your feet and allow it to sit for about half an hour.
• Using the same towel, rub the shaving cream off your feet. This will remove calloused and dry skin as well as the blackened or discolored skin that feet typically get when they are dry.
• Apply lotion to your feet for extra moisturizing.

Another very effective method uses vegetable oil. You just have to rub vegetable oil on your cracked heels. You can use any type of oil so if you prefer coconut or olive oil, these work just as well. You may want to scrub with a pumice stone prior to using the oil and then just apply liberally all over your feet. If you do this at night, you can put on a pair of clean white socks and leave them on while sleeping. When you wake up, your feet will be much smoother. You can do this method several times each week if your feet are really dry.

Vaseline is another great remedy for cracked and blackened feet. Just apply it liberally all over your feet, put on a clean white pair of socks and go to sleep. If you are doing this during the day, just leave the white socks on until your feet soak it all in.


A warm salt water bath is great for treating cracked heels as well. Just add some Epsom salts to warm water and soak for about 15 minutes. Afterwards, dry your feet very well and apply lotion. The warm salt water bath is great when used along with petroleum jelly. After you finish soaking, dry your feet and add the Vaseline and a clean pair of socks.