Exfoliating Foot Peel Showdown: Baby Foot vs. Purederm

If you’re a sick freak like me, you probably enjoy peeling things like sunburns, split ends, or dead skin. I can’t help it, it’s cathartic for some reason. So when summer rolls around and everyone’s dry, scaly, calloused feet are on display, I work to make mine look pretty by using a foot peel.

What’s a foot peel? 

It’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s a product you use to make the dead skin on your feet peel off. Most of the products come in the form of plastic “gloves for your feet” that contain a liquid in them. You wear them for a certain amount of time — usually between 30 and 90 minutes — and then wash your feet off. Within a few days to a week, you’ll slowly notice all the dead skin peeling away and flaking off your feet.

I’ve tried everything from foot exfoliating scrubs or intense lotions, but nothing really works to get the dead skin gone like these foot peels. And I don’t even have feet that are all that gnarly to begin with.

Baby Foot vs. Purederm

The two brands of foot peels that I saw talked about the most online in beauty forums and blogs were Baby Foot and Purederm. Naturally, I tried both so I could compare them. And if you want to try something cheaper or with a different scent, there tons of options on Amazon. But I’ve found that these two really work, so I’m going to stick to using them.

The Baby Foot Deep Exfoliation For Feet Peel first caught my attention while reading a Refinery 29 article. The author was hilarious (which is a rarity these days at Refinery 29) and ultimately made me purchase the product to try for myself. Kelsey Miller, thanks for helping a girl out! Anyway, the peel smells like lavender (and chemicals — but we’ll focus just on the lavender), and includes stickers to make the “foot gloves” fit perfect to my small feet. I put them on, watched some TV, and then washed my feet. About 2 days later, I noticed that all the dead skin started peeling/flaking off of my feet. It wasn’t so much that it was falling out everywhere as I walked around, but more of a “starter peel” that I then had to manually peel off myself. Which was fun.

My tips when using this product is to make sure you soak your feet in hot water for a half hour before using the product and then each night afterwords to speed up the peeling. After your feet are done peeling (this lasts for a handful of days depending on how bad your feet are), I’d suggest moisturizing them with a rich foot cream (or good ol Aquaphor) to keep them looking nice.

After having great results with the Baby Foot version, I decided to try the Purederm Exfoliating Foot Mask, which was a bit more affordable. Much like the previous mask/peel, the product came in a liquid form contained in two plastic foot gloves. This version didn’t have anything to secure the gloves tightly on my feet, which was a bit annoying. The product worked fine, causing my dead skin to peel after just a few days of soaking.

So which one is the winner?

Although I loved using both and they both gave me results, I think the Baby Foot’s formula was stronger and produced more peeling. If you’re interested in trying out one of these foot masks or peels, I highly suggest reading the reviews and looking at user photos on Amazon. Yes, you’ll see gross photos of peeling feet, but that’s what you want. It shows that the product works!