I love a good DIY beauty gizmo, especially if it's one that promises to grate, grind, buff, or polish my feet into shape, so I was delira when the Emjoi Micro-Pedi landed in my letterbox for testing. It's a handheld motorised device with a rotating cylindrical head that is akin to a small whirring roll of sandpaper (and for that reason I strongly recommend storing it very separately to all your other other handheld motorised devices with rotating cylindrical heads.)
The Micro-Pedi comes with two interchangeable heads (pink is coarse grit, blue is extra coarse) and is simple to operate. Slap two AA batteries into the base, remove the protective plastic cover, switch it on, and move the head over areas of hard skin. Badabing, badaboom - job done.
It's not painful or especially ticklish and it's pressure sensitive, so will cut out if you press too hard on the skin to prevent over-zealous removal of healthy skin. It takes literally seconds to remove hard skin with this gadget (in fact, the instructions recommend using it for only two-to-three seconds per area of hard skin before assessing results) and leaves formerly crusty zones silky smooth to the touch.
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There are a couple of downsides, though. For starters, my inner eco worrier really doesn't like that it needs batteries, and there's nothing to catch the pulverised hard skin dust that it emits as it does its thing; I recommend using it over the bath or the loo to minimise mess. In addition, speedy and effective motorised calloused skin removal doesn't come cheap: this baby will set you back a fairly eye-watering €39.90 from Boots or Lifes2good.ie. In addition, you do need to replace the heads occasionally.
Still, that's only about twice the cost of two salon pedicures and the results are definitely comparable, making this a good buy for someone who doesn't like other people touching their feet or simply doesn't have the time or inclination for pedis.
And how does the Micro-Pedi compare to my previous favourite foot implement EVA, the Ped Egg? Honestly, it kicks my Ped Egg's little ass into touch. It's far quicker to use and as it uses a buffing rather than grating motion to do away with hard skin, it leaves feet feeling much smoother.
I'm almost looking forward to getting my feet out this summer. Almost.
