Podiatrist Recommends Essential Foot Care Items from Chemist Warehouse

Dr. Kate Edwards, a podiatrist with 17 years of experience, has identified six essential foot care products she consistently purchases from Chemist Warehouse. Her recommendations aim to address common foot concerns for everyday individuals, office workers, and athletes alike.

For achieving smoother skin, Dr. Edwards suggests the Manicare PediPRO Callus File, priced at $13.99. She notes its effective rough abrasion for filing away skin while being easy to clean. "So it has a really strong rough abrasion which helps you file the skin away, but also it's easy to clean," she stated in a video.

The podiatrist also recommends Comfy Feet Gel Insoles for $4.99, highlighting their benefit for all-day comfort, particularly when worn with dress shoes, boots, or RM Williams footwear. "These little gel insoles are really fantastic for work shoes, so leather work shoes, RM Williams, really hard-soled shoes," she explained. "They're excellent to reduce friction and pain."

To combat blisters, Dr. Edwards advocates for Compeed Blister Plasters, available for $9.99 for a pack of five or approximately $1.99 each. These plasters are reported to offer instant pain relief within 10 seconds. "They're fantastic," she said. "It's fantastic for repairing damaged tissue. They have an ingredient called hydrocoroid (for healing blisters). They're like a second skin, you put them on, you leave them on until they fall off."

The Synxpedi Ingrown Toenail File, priced at $15.49, is another key recommendation for relieving pressure associated with ingrown toenails. "This ingrown toenail file has a little file on it so if you have any spikes, you're not going to really damage yourself by cutting yourself, but you can smooth away and file that edge away," she advised, adding a caution for infected areas: "If you are infected, be really careful though because you will get more infections. So keep them clean, spray them with alcohol when you're about to use them."

In cases of skin infection, Dr. Edwards recommends Betadine Antiseptic Ointment Cream ($14.99). "My favourite type of antiseptic that I use is Betadine ointment," she stated. "It's sticky and it holds against the wound and it doesn't slip around like the liquid does, and that works perfectly under the dressing."

Finally, she always keeps Isocol Multipurpose Spray ($5.99) on hand for disinfecting foot care tools. "Other aspects for keeping those instruments clean if you've got any foot callousing, callous paddle and that little file for ingrown toenails - if you use this rubbing alcohol, use this," she said. "I use it at home all the time to keep the instruments that I use really clean."