Your feet will be baby-soft in no time.
Your feet carry your entire body around all day, every day, which can take a huge toll on them. Whether you’re walking around in cramped shoes, sandals that expose your skin, or (ouch!) barefoot, one of the results is skin dryness and even cracking and calluses, especially in the heel area where dead skin cells tend to build up.
Since the skin on the feet is thicker than that on other areas of the body, you’ll need a specialized foot cream to soften and heal cracked heels and very dry, hard patches. Foot creams generally are made with heavier, richer textures than face creams or body lotions, making them perfect for tackling rougher-than-normal skin.
How to find the best foot cream
To soften feet and soothe cracked heels and callouses overnight, follow these shopping and application tips:
- Look for exfoliating ingredients like glycolic and salicylic acids. These help slough away tough dry patches, explains Institute Beauty Lab senior chemist Sabina Wizemann.
- Seek out proven hydrators and humectants like ceramides or hyaluronic acid to soften skin, and occlusives like shea butter, squalene or petrolatum to seal in moisture.
- Apply at night. To silken rough feet quickly, slather on a thick layer of foot cream at night before bed, then slip on a pair of socks to seal in the moisture overnight and smooth skin as you sleep.
These are the best foot creams and foot care products to soften very dry skin, cracked heels and calluses, according to GH Beauty Lab experts and reviewers:
1
Best Overall Foot Cream
Burt’s Bees Coconut Foot Creme
This heavy-duty Burt’s Bees foot salve, a GH beauty editor favorite for over a decade, is based on a plethora of nourishing botanical oils including olive, coconut, oat, and soybean for deep nourishment. It immediately softens tough skin and dry patches when massaged into skin or worn with socks. Even better? The balm smells like warm, sweet coconut — an escape for worn-out feet (and senses).
2
Best Value Foot Cream
AmLactin Foot Repair Foot Cream Therapy
AmLactin’s fragrance-free cream is laced with lactic acid, an alpha hydroxy acid exfoliant often used in anti-aging skincare products that works to increase cell turnover, sloughing off dead skin to leave it soft, smooth, and younger-looking. “This stuff is amazing! It will make even the worst feet super soft in just a few days,” a reviewer raved. “I put it on … and wake up with feet that feel softer than they do after a pedicure.”
3
Best Foot Cream for Calluses
O’Keeffe’s Healthy Feet Foot Cream
Small pot, big benefits: This O’Keeffe’s formula, packed with skin-replenishing fatty acids and conditioning paraffin, is the top-rated foot cream on Amazon for tackling calluses. It’s racked up over 33,000 reviews, including dramatic photos of users’ heels before and after treatment with the cream. “My feet have been cracked non-stop for probably the last 10 years— I’ve tried literally everything and was incredibly embarrassed by them,” one reviewer reported. “After 4+ weeks my feet have never been better…there are zero cracks.”
4
Best Foot Cream for Diabetics
Dr Teal’s Shea Enriched Foot Cream
This affordable Dr Teal’s foot cream is loaded with high-quality hydrating ingredients like skin-repairing fatty acids and softening shea butter. And it really works: “My husband uses this cream for his diabetic feet,” a reviewer said. “I buy two at a time — it works on his dry, cracked, and painful skin.”
5
Best Foot Cream for Cracked Heels
Glytone Ultra Softening Heel and Elbow Cream
Tackle stubborn cracked heels (and elbows, too!) with this targeted Glytone cream, which contains high levels of skin-sloughing glycolic acid. “The only thing that will truly make a difference on dry cracked heels,” a Dermstore reviewer said. (Note that the potent formula is made to be rinsed off, per packaging instructions.)
6
Best Relaxing Foot Cream
Aveda Foot Relief Foot Cream
Take a load off fatigued feet thanks to Aveda’s cream, which refreshes with cooling menthol and mint, plus a laundry list of other natural plant oils and extracts (castor, jojoba, rosemary, lavender, sunflower, tea tree, apple, green tea, willow bark, orange, and more!). It’s top-rated at Nordstrom with almost 1,000 reviews for a reason: “I can’t say how much I love this foot cream!” one reviewer enthused. “It literally feels like my feet can breathe after using it! You really can tell a difference in just one use. My feet feel spa fresh.”
7
Best Foot Cream with Urea
Eucerin Advanced Repair Foot Cream
From a GH Beauty Lab gold-standard brand for body skin moisturization, this Eucerin formula made with smoothing urea and lactic acid earned high marks on Walmart for its almost-instant results in softening dry feet. “We have tried every cream, even some prescription creams, and Eucerin Intensive Repair Foot Cream out-lasted them all,” one reviewer noted. “It made my feet feel silky smooth in just one day! It did away with the rough, cracked calluses and dry, flaky skin.”
8
Best Foot Cream for Dry Skin
Weleda Skin Food Original Ultra-Rich Cream
Weleda’s cult classic cream truly works from your head to your toes: Wizemann uses the botanical oil and beeswax-based formula on both her feet and her face. “This saves my skin from feeling dry and itchy and works wonders on my feet and elbows, but I have known to apply it anywhere my skin feels dry — my face included,” she says. “It smells incredible: energizing yet relaxing at the same time.”
9
Best Foot Cream for Thick, Dead Skin
CeraVe Renewing SA Foot Cream
Made with the dead skin-sloughing ingredient salicylic acid often found in facial skincare products, this fragrance-free CeraVe foot cream is also top-rated with consumers. It’s infused with the brand’s signature ceramides, lipids that naturally occur in skin, making it a great choice for smoothing roughness. “I have notoriously rough feet…and it has drastically changed my feet,” a reviewer marveled. “They are so much softer.”
10
Best Exfoliating Foot Cream
Arm & Hammer Heels & Feet Moisturizer Plus Gentle Exfoliator
A novel moisturizer plus exfoliator hybrid, Arm & Hammer’s formula gets rid of rough, flaky foot skin with glycolic acid to help turn over dead skin cells and a hands-free massaging brush applicator to further smooth. “The little soft scrubbing nubs help get the cream into any cracks around your heel and feels great,” one Amazon reviewer said.
11
Best Soothing Foot Cream for Tired Feet
Ahava Dead Sea Water Mineral Foot Cream
Made with calming aloe, cooling menthol, antibacterial tea tree oil, and exfoliating salicylic acid, Ahava’s foot cream, a best-seller, is like a spa treatment for your feet. Two reviewers called it the best foot cream they’ve ever used. “We have hard water, hence very dry and cracked feet,” one raved. It “smooths the skin so they feel like a baby’s.”
12
Best Scented Foot Cream
Footnanny Tea Tree Foot Cream
A line of skincare products created just to treat feet, Footnanny’s collection offers foot creams in an array of scents, from florals like jasmine and rose to calming aromas like lavender and tea tree. The formula is made with skin nourishers like cocoa and shea butters and vitamin E, and the tea tree oil in this variant also has antibacterial properties.
13
Best Foot Mask
Aveeno Repairing Cica Foot Mask
Like a sheet mask for your feet, Aveeno’s disposable single-use paper booties are infused with moisturizers like glycerin, oat oil, and shea butter, making them a great way to revive the look and feel of your feet in between or in place of a pedicure. They’ve earned more than 300 5-star reviews on Ulta: “I used this foot mask and after my feet were softer and more moisturized than they have ever been in my entire life!” a reviewer marveled. “I’ve gotten spa pedicures that haven’t had my feet feeling this good.”
14
Best Overnight Foot Cream
Aquaphor Healing Ointment Moisturizing Skin Protectant
Seal star Aquaphor really is the ultimate skincare multitasker: The salve, rich in glycerin, petrolatum, and provitamin B5 , even works to soften and heal the skin on the feet. The ointment is thick, so try applying it before bed, then slip on socks so it can smooth rough heels while you sleep. GH Beauty Lab data evaluation confirmed 91% of consumer testers agreed that it repaired extremely dry, cracked skin.