Your Pedicure Beauty Bar with Bastien Gonzalez

Dreaming of pedicures, foot massages, and Saturday afternoons at the spa? Watching your nail polish chip away as each new day passes? Lingering in front of the closed doors of your favorite salon during your daily walk? Bring the magic touch of BWB’s favorite foot specialist to your home with Bastien Gonzalez’s expert advice — as well as products from Révérence de Bastien!

Bastien Gonzalez is an internationally acclaimed specialist for foot treatments and pedicures with a special touch for personalized foot care. Bastien counts Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Deniro, and Naomi Campbell among his lucky and esteemed clients — and now you can indulge in the celebrity treatment, too. He has helped clients from New York to London to Paris, and now he is helping people across the globe. Read below to unlock Bastien’s exclusive BWB guide for perfect pedicures and smooth soles!

How can we remove our nail polish like an expert?

I like to use strong acetone because it is faster and cleaner. At the end of the pedicure, we use some oil as a mask to give the nail back some flexibility.

How do we keep our circulation flowing to our feet without walking or moving around as much?

Keep your feet up to make sure the blood slides down to the heart. Not everybody can keep their legs up all day, so it is also good to try some simple exercises. For example, slowly going down to the top of your toes or slowly massaging from the toes to the knee. It is especially important to concentrate behind the ankle and behind the knee to relax the joints. In addition, it may also help to keep a pillow below your mattress at night. The return of circulation is more passive than artery circulation, so it is an accumulation of little details that will make all the difference.

What is your daily ritual to nourish the feet at home?

Massage lotion into the feet every night before bed for up to two minutes. Don’t put on socks after so that the cream stays on the skin. Also, make sure that you have a good cream. Greasy creams are not the best; try a water-based cream instead. The skin on the feet is seven times thicker than the skin on your face, so foot cream is specific! Don’t just finish a tube of moisturizer lying around– it probably won’t work!

Why is it important to keep up with your own pedicure self-care?

I like to compare caring for your feet to brushing your teeth regularly. In other words, doing so will prevent problems from arising. You brush your teeth twice a day – the same goes for feet! Every night, enjoy a foot massage to keep the toes and feet mobile. Additionally, you will maintain the elasticity of the skin by pinching and rolling, especially where there are points of conflict. Re-pump the fatty cushion under the point of contact of the foot with the floor (the top of the toe under the front heel, under the back heel, and the top of each toe). If you do this for twenty seconds every night before bed, you will have baby feet for the rest of your life! Prevention is always the best way to stay healthy.

Color polish or buff?

At home, especially now, you should focus on maintaining nail health and making the nail shine in a natural way. If your nails are very dry because of too much polish, give them a chance to restore to good health. Use plenty of oil as a masque to make the nails stronger, especially if you are using Reverence de Bastien Onguent. This pink and sugary product is very good for the nail (arnica apricot oil and zinc) and helps stimulate repair within a few days.

If you are going with a color, never keep it for more than three days or the pigment will color the inside of the nail.

Around the house: Socks or slippers?

Socks, or even barefoot! Let your feet breathe and feel some good sensations. Slippers may hurt or slap the back heel, and this micro-aggression will compact the fatty cushion over time and create calluses.

What tools can we easily buy these days to maintain healthy and pretty feet at home?

A good foot cream is enough, and sometime less is more! Rich cream every night is enough to maintain great skin with a good 8-minute massage for both feet each night.

A home pedicure begins with a 10-minute foot bath so that the abrasion of calluses are as soft as possible. Then, use a good, soft scrub to remove abrasions while protecting the skin under the calluses. If you want to use a foot file, you must do it softly (no penetration on the skin) and in a circular movement. Dr. Scholl created a great battery-powered wet and dry file that you can use in the bath. If the pressure is too strong, this file will stop turning so that it is not too aggressive on the skin. The major problem with abrasions is that people are too hard on them. As a result, they often burn the skin or break the elasticity.

If you prefer to use a peeling cream, do it on dry skin and use it as a mask. Do it at night and let the mask work overnight underneath a pair of socks with gel protection inside. This will help to ensure better results. If you built calluses over a few months, do not try to clean it in one minute! Instead, you should do three or four sessions over one week.

For the nails, it is better to work on them dry. Shape them into squares and file the corners to round the angles. Never trim the sides too deeply. If the nails are very dry, you can file the top gently with a buffing file, but don’t overuse! You don’t want to reduce too much of the nail. For better results, use some oil on your nails as a mask for 20 minutes or the overnight. This will help restore flexibility and strength!