The Spa:

The Treatment: The Foot Facial

The Details: As intensive — and pricey — as it gets. This medical-grade pampering (courtesy of famed foot guru Suzanne Levine, MD) starts with skin-softening urea (40%) rather than a soak, and segues to a thermal exfoliating scrub that warms on contact. “The crushed bamboo has a circular grit that’s non-irritating but tough on dead skin,” says nurse Nell Banganay. A 20% glycolic acid peel and a rotary filing machine safely obliterate challenging calluses. Glycolic moisturizer plus foot reflexology cap it off; and while nails don’t leave with polish, a bleaching solution eliminates yellowing. (starting at $225/45 minutes; institutebeaute.com)

Michael Kors has really hit the jackpot with some of the selections from his Fall 2010 line.  Many of the pumps feature a high cut, which is a distinctive, beautiful look that conveys a classic elegance.   More importantly from a podiatric standpoint, a high-cut shoe is a great choice for a wider foot, especially a wider forefoot.  A high-cut shoe also gives more allowance for bunions and hammertoes – giving you more of that all-important “wiggle room.”  And although some of the narrow toes in this collection aren’t as utilitarian as rounded or square toes, I still found them to be roomy enough to allow for corns.

Check out Kors’ stunning Cutout Pump, with its straps that both hug and reveal the foot – could there be anything sexier?  But it’s your feet that will thank you as much as your inner fashionista – because the high cut of this shoe will let you waltz without wincing.

Cutout Pump

Also take a look at the Lug-Sole Pump, which is available in either black or a beautiful brown-and-black mélange pattern.  This knockout design features eye-grabbing details like a lugged rubber sole that not only equips you for navigations through the urban jungle, but combined with the padded leather insole creates an entire foot-cushioning platform that eases the strain on your over-stressed metatarsals.

Lug-Sole Pump

Another must-see is the Over-the-Knee boot, which is so stylish and comfortable you may find yourself formulating entire wardrobes around it.  The low wedge heel provides superior comfort and stability while still providing enough attitude to match your fiercest city style.

Over-the-Knee Boot

I’m so pleased to see Kors’ current collection considering not only what looks good, but what feels good – allowing even finicky feet to flaunt top-notch fashion.

The kitten heel is the brilliant solution that teeters between a flat and a high heel.  It offers a variety of advantages – it makes the leg look longer and thinner than a ballet flat, but puts less pressure on the ball of the foot than a stiletto.  Wearing kitten heels decreases the risk of pain, numbness, or neuroma in the foot.  There is less risk of Achilles tendonitis, and less risk of injury as well – you’re not nearly as likely to take a spill in a pair of kitten heels.  Your feet will be happier in kittens!

The great thing about the compromise of the kitten heel is that it lets you hike from Prince Street to Park Ave on a nice day, no cab required – but still lets your hips twitch in that Burberry pencil skirt and elevates not only your height, but your attitude too.  Or, for tall women who want a heel that doesn’t make them tower over their peers, the kitten heel is a perfect choice.  It’s also a secret weapon for those of us with wide, immigrant feet that spill out of flat shoes – in a kitten heel I can stay close to the ground, but keep the downward angle that helps my foot achieve a slimmer, tailored look.

The kitten heel, which is characterized by a one- to two-inch heel that’s slightly inset from the back of the shoe, was once the domain of Audrey Hepburn.  You can never go wrong referring to the regal beauty’s classic style, and the kitten heel pairs well with the newly reworked ‘50s and ‘60s silhouettes that are making a comeback this year.

Kitten heels are also being worn with thin, patterned ankle socks and feminine touches, such as bows and ribbons, to accentuate their girlish nature.  Of course kitten heels also feature on ankle boots and can be successfully matched with extra buttons and slim trousers for those favoring the Victorian look.

You can even wear kitten heels with jeans – tapered of course – and a ruffled top that keeps the outline sweet.  Or make it modern by working them into a look that features pinstripes, plaids, or other textured patterns.

Keep it comfy, keep it cute, keep it kitten!

We’ve all heard the story of Cinderella, the classic folk tale a/k/a The Little Glass Slipper involving a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances at the mercy of her evil stepmother and stepsisters whose life is transformed because she can fit her foot into a tiny glass slipper.  The tale has so many variations that span all cultures.  In French folklore it’s called Cendrillon, ou La petite Pantoufle de VerreIn and in a 19th century German version of this rags-to-riches story, the evil step sisters get the brilliant idea of tricking the prince by chopping off parts of their feet to get the slipper to fit.   If it had worked Cinderella might have still been doing housework as one of the wicked women ran off with her prince.

At one point or another, most of us have had Cinderella fantasies…I personally feel like a hybrid of Cinderella and the Woman Who Lived in a Shoe who had so many children she didn’t know what to do.    In my case though, it’s not the kids that are taking over my life – it’s the shoes;  I have so many that I’ve sometimes contemplated moving to a bigger home to accommodate them…they seem to have taken on a life of their own.  It’s fitting that my collection was featured on French television; even though my forebears were hardly well-off, the term “well-heeled” originated in France.   Legend has it that several centuries ago, the queen wanted to look taller and slimmer and more glamorous so she commissioned a local cobbler to create shoes with higher heels.   This became a fashion trend that only the very rich could afford – so “well-heeled” became a synonym for being rich.

Most women would agree that nothing makes them feel sexier than stilettos.  This makes perfect sense of course; the term “Vamp”- which is the front covering of a shoe – is derived from the French term “avant-pied” which means “before the foot” and has become a synonym for “Hot Mama.”   And of course, I completely relate to the slogan “If the shoe fits buy it – in every color.”   I love it as much as “Life is Short – Buy the Shoes” …and I think that’s what inspired me to get into the work I do.  I never wanted my foot size or any problems I might have below the ankle to come between me and the perfect shoe.  And my mission of course is to spread the joy…”Shoes for Everyone!” as Carrie Bradshaw proclaimed in SATC2.

It’s fitting that Tony Hsieh who is creating quite a buzz with his “Delivering Happiness” movement is the genius who started a little company called Zappos, which was later bought by Amazon reportedly for billions.   Because what gives a woman more happiness than new shoes delivered to her doorstep?  A rhetorical question to be sure…but I think it’s true…just ask Cinderella…

At the risk of sounding like a typical boomer and talking about how I walked ten miles to school each day in the snow (up hill) – the shoe landscape as it is today is different than it was “in my day.”

Today some publications call me “Podiatrist to the Stars” and articles talk about my “Park Avenue Practice.”   But that’s not where I started; I grew up in Brooklyn and my French immigrant parents found it hard to make ends meet.    The idea of having new shoes – let alone expensive new shoes – was a completely foreign concept to me.   When I started earning my own money – my first big purchase was new shoes – I Miller to be exact – from Bergdorf Goodman. I still remember those shoes and the feeling I had when I purchased them.  They were patent leather Mary Janes with toes that were both round and square at the same time and I felt beautiful the minute I put them on my feet.  But of course, many shoes have made me feel this way which is why they take up so much space in my home and my office.  But that’s for another blog.

To pay further homage to I Miller back then – in the 60s – he was to me and many women what Manolo Blahnick is to Carrie Bradshaw and the girls of Sex and the City today.  Before establishing the I. Miller Shoe Company, Israel Miller started his career as a designer and maker of shoes for the theatrical profession in New York.   He took over and remodeled a large building in Times Square with an inscription reading “The Show Folks Shoe Shop Dedicated to Beauty in Footwear.” The company both designed and manufactured women’s shoes and became a leading importer of shoes with a national chain of more than 200 retail stores, popular throughout the 1920s-1960s.

This week women across the country are gearing up to see Sex and the City 2 – a movie about four friends, their love for each other, their trials and tribulations, their devotion to fashion and – of course shoes.  Along with Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte – Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo have played major supporting roles.  And rightfully so.  From Cinderella to Carrie Bradshaw – the shoe is the thing.  I know I’ll be watching in anticipation and hoping I don’t need to rent additional space to accommodate my growing collection.

(Next week: shoes to pack for vacation)

You used to feel proud of yourself for just getting out of the house. You smiled and nodded at the other walkers, pleased with yourself to be in such energetic company. You felt proud when you passed a slowpoke and competitive when you saw someone faster. You set goals for yourself. By the next month, you were walking a mile in fifteen minutes instead of twenty minutes.

Now you’re walking as fast as you can, and you can’t think of any new goals to set. Your daily exercise has become just another chore.

The first thing you need to do is remind yourself why you started walking in the first place. Chances are that you were overweight, out of breath, or suffering from a multitude of middle-aged health problems (from high blood pressure to constipation) that your doctor told you could be helped by exercise. You’ve probably started to take the health benefits of walking for granted, which increases the temptation to stop.

You need to play some psychological games with yourself to retrieve your motivation.

One way to renew your interest is to change the geography of your walks. I know this isn’t always easy, especially if you live in a cold climate and must walk indoors (usually in a gym or shopping mall) in winter. In temperate months, though, look for pleasant open spaces–some of them may only be a short drive from your home–that you haven’t tried before.

If you’re worried about safety, call a local walkers’ or runners’ organization and find out where and when the real fitness fanatics train. You may find that dozen of exercisers gather every morning in a secluded local park, and you can tag along for the scenery.

One man I know discovered that his local high school track team trained every spring morning along a river walk that he’d considered too isolated for safety. The students enjoyed his company (though they couldn’t believe it when he turned down their proffered doughnuts at the end of his walk), and the gentle competition helped him step up his walking pace.

If you’re in good health, you may also want to plan more challenging walks in real countryside. Check with your doctor if you’re planning a walk that includes hills. Training for a walk in more rugged country can make your daily routine more challenging.

Another way to keep yourself on your feet is to promise yourself a small reward at the end of every week of walking. I call this the “bribe yourself” fitness plan. Buy yourself that new hardcover mystery novel instead of waiting patiently for it to come out in paperback. End your walk with a movie you’ve been dying to see. (This only works if you’re a late-afternoon walker.) Purchase and prepare the foods you most love for breakfast and set everything out so that it will be waiting for you when you get home from your early-morning walk.

Many people (I’m not one of them) also enjoy listening to music or podcasts when they walk. I try to empty my mind and just enjoy the scenery in Central Park, because sometimes my best ideas surface when I’m concentrating on nothing but putting one foot in front of the other.

A final note: There may be people in your life who are discouraging you from walking, or at least encouraging you to “skip it just this once.” This may be the time to seek reinforcement from like-minded exercisers who share your fitness goals. It’s just as hard to reestablish the habit of walking as it is to start walking in the first place. Maybe even harder, because a return to the sedentary lifestyle has something of the depressing psychological impact of a drug or alcohol relapse.

Why are your feet always so cold?

Your feet get cold because your warm blood isn’t circulating properly through the veins and arteries into your legs and out to your toes. Normally, the skin temperature down there should range between 75 and 90 degrees F. If it drops below 65 degrees, you’ve got a problem with your vascular, or circulatory, system. Your arteries, the smaller-sized blood vessels called arterioles, and your veins aren’t letting enough blood through.

Your nervous system plays a significant part in determining how much blood gets through. If you are disturbed about something or under a great deal of stress, nerves can constrict the little arterioles in your feet and lessen their ability to carry blood, giving you cold feet. At the other emotional extreme is the person (“hot under the collar”) whose nervous system sends excess blood through when the pressure is on. This is called vasodilation of the blood vessels, and it can make you hot all over.

How can cigarettes make your feet cold?

Believe it or not, smoking tobacco is a major cause of cold feet. You probably already know that you put your heart and your lungs at risk when you smoke, but you may never have blamed cigarettes for your cold feet. The nicotine makes your blood vessels tighten up, or constrict, and since it works on your entire nervous system, it affects these arterioles in your feet as well as in other areas. When they handed the cigarette and cup of hot coffee to recovering victims in those old movies, they weren’t doing them any favors. Amphetamines, diet pills Dexatrim, and some other medications work the same way. Take a look at what you are taking in on a regular basis if you want to get clues to your coldness.

How bad can the blood flow really be?

After inhaling one cigarette, the blood flow to your feet may be reduced by as much as 50 percent! When does it pick up again? Sometimes not for an hour after that single cigarette. So you can imagine what happens if you’re smoking two or three packs a day. The more you smoke, the colder you get. What’s diabolical about this is that you probably pick up another cigarette to try to warm yourself up.

What are some of the circulatory disorders keeping your feet cold?

Raynaud’s Disease: This is a relatively common disorder I see in women between ages twenty and forty whose hands and feet get very cold and even numb on occasion. Toes and fingertips suffer the most. If you have this problem,  you already know that the attacks come and go without warning, and winter is the worst time of year. Rest assured. Raynaud’s Disease is not a serious circulatory disease. It’s simply an uncomfortable condition that seems to be triggered by cold weather and a bad habit like smoking. Go to a doctor’s office for a professional opinion because your symptoms can mirror those of something more serious with the same first name. Raynaud’s Syndrome is another matter and something to worry about.

Raynaud’s Syndrome: This is a disorder which arises from the inability of your arteries to dilate and send blood where it is supposed to go. The attacks are episodic and seem to be brought on by cold temperatures, much like that of Raynaud’s Disease. It is linked to various underlying systemic diseases, such as collagen diseases, lead or nicotine toxicity, or neurovascular trauma.
The key to treatment for Raynaud’s Syndrome is to avoid the cold. In severe cases, in which the numbing gets out of hand, a physician may suggest a sympathecomy, a surgical procedure in which some sympathetic nerves to the foot or hand are cut.

Buerger’s Disease: Also known as thromboangiitis obliterans, this syndrome shows up in adult men who haven’t passed their fortieth birthday. What happens is that small arteries and arterioles in the legs and feet constriict and refuse to let the proper amount of blood pass through. The difference with Buerger’s disease is that actual tissue will be destroyed in the long run, turning ulcerous and eventually becoming gangrenous.

The fundamental treatment for Buerger’s disease is to stay away from cigarette smoke. Don’t smoke yourself, and don’t inhale smoke from others. Sometimes medication to make your blood vessels open up or dilate is prescribed, but this isn’t always very successful.

Will exercise help your cold toes?

Yes. Exercise can definitely improve your circulation and warm your feet up. Get out there and start walking.

Is there any other basic advice for avoiding cold feet?

Never wear constricting undergarments like stockings that are too tight or underpants which cut painfully into the top of your legs. Girdles don’t help your problem at all. Try not to cross your legs when you are sitting down.

For more information on cold feet and other foot ailments, check out Dr. Levine’s book Your Feet Don’t Have to Hurt, available for purchase from Amazon and bookstores everywhere.

Don’t think you have the time for a home pedicure? Well, you do! It’s as good an excuse as any for some sacred private time (not to mention it will save you some cash).

You already know how to do a basic pedicure, now use my expert tips to take your home pedicures to the next level!

1. If you’re going to use polish, don’t do it just before bed. Even if the polish doesn’t smudge, sheets somehow dull the gloss if you don’t wait at least 45 minutes before climbing into bed.
2. Soak your feet in lukewarm water and white vinegar for several minutes. Then dry them thoroughly, especially between the toes. Wet nails are more likely to tear when you cut them.
3. Cut your toenails straight across. Use a clipper with a straight edge rather than curved scissors, and never cut nails with tiny cuticle scissors. The scissors will dull quickly and your nails will be ragged. Leave the nails closer to the tips of your toes than to the nail bed; if you cut them too short, they are more likely to grow into the skin.
4. If you have heavy calluses, try this home remedy. Mix into a paste 1 cup of kosher salt, 8 tablespoons of mineral oil, 1/2 cup of Epsom salts, and 1 tablespoon of baking soda. Apply the paste to all of the most callused spots on your foot, put the entire foot into a plastic bag, and wrap a warm towel around everything. Sit still for ten minutes, then unwrap your foot, and use a pumice stone on it.
5. Apply a touch of mineral oil or baby oil to your feet before you begin polishing. The oil will sink in while your polish is drying.
6. Push your cuticles back gently, but don’t try to cut them.
7. If you have any inflammation in the cuticle area at the sides of your toenails, apply the polish in a slightly narrower swathe than the bed of the nail. (Bonus: this also creates the optical illusion of narrower, more elegant-looking toes.)
8. Use a base coat before applying color. Your pedicure will last longer.
9. Always clean your own instruments with soap and water when you’re through using them. Many people overlook this important hygienic step.
10. Enjoy the way your feet look! This whole routine takes a little over an hour–20 minutes to apply and 45 minutes to dry. Take the time to savor your efforts when you’re done!

Questions? Leave them in the comments and I’ll be sure to check back and answer them!

As you all know, I’m all about mixing fashion and comfort, and the Carolyne is no exception. The shoe is made of extremely soft calfskin, so in addition to being of extremely high quality, the material is expandable and is porous, allowing your feet to breathe. The shoe has a low heel, and at two inches, is wearable for six to eight hours at a time. The most exciting part for me is that the shoe is cut low along the sides, so it fits wider feet!

The Kidskin Low-Heel Halter is available at Bergdorf Goodman for $575.00. The site warns that the shoe runs a little small, so be careful to buy one size up.

For those who are not able to splurge so much on this pair, Bandolino has a wonderful alternative called Inspired. It’s a comfortable sling back with a three inch heel, and is on sale for only $29.99. Is that a steal or what?!