In November 2020, at the height of the pandemic and completely stir-crazy, I booked a trip to Cancun, Mexico, because Mexico was open and it was cheap. I started at the Mahekal Beach Resort and Spa in Playa del Carmen, which I booked because of the hammocks. Each room came with two.
I was one of only a handful of guests at the resort, which meant I had most of the amenities almost entirely to myself. There was also a full-service spa at my disposal, so naturally, I booked a couple of treatments. One of them was a pedicure. It would be my last professional pedicure.
When I returned home the following week, I discovered that eight out of my ten toenails had a fungus. I’m not blaming the spa or the pedicure, because who knows where I picked it up. After checking out of Mahekal, I went to Holbox, Mexico, and spent two nights at another resort I’ll have to tell you about someday.
Wherever it came from, one thing is certain: I would spend the next five and a half years fighting it.
I saw a podiatrist. I got the pills, the creams, the serums, the foot soaks. I spent hours on Reddit, where someone suggested using bleach. Yes, bleach. I found a Harvard article that recommended soaking your feet in Listerine and using Lamisil, so I tried that too. And every time I thought I had gotten rid of the fungus, and relaxed my efforts, it came roaring back.
Then one day on Reddit, I came across a post where someone recommended ozonated hemp oil. So far, it’s the only thing that has actually worked and kept the fungus at bay.
The one thing that finally worked for me: Ozonated hemp oil.
My preferred brand is Pur O3, which also makes a toe and nail support oil. This was the first ozonated hemp oil I tried. I’ve since bought cheaper versions on Amazon that work just as well and smell just as bad. Be warned. It stinks!
These days, I do my own pedicures, and it shows. A woman stared at my feet so hard when I was in Aruba last December that I felt like a self-conscious, awkward 14-year-old.
I’ve now come to appreciate closed-toe sandals, and I am in love with the current fishnet and mesh shoe trend. They provide just the right amount of camouflage for exposed toes with questionable pedicures.
The OG, Alaia Black Fishnet Mules are my dream pair of this style, but the price, for me, is a nightmare. I found a dupe on Amazon that almost feels too good to be true. I bought it immediately, and now I’m waiting for the ponies to arrive with it. Shipping is literally 30 days! I’ll report back when they get here. We’ll see if this was a score or a $40 lesson learned, like that bag I bought from a questionable online vendor some years ago that never arrived.
When I saw the Nola Mule Slide by Sam Edelman earlier this summer, I bought them in black and gold. Sam Edelman has never done me wrong. Do you have a brand like that? The one you can order in a pinch without worrying about whether they will fit, be comfortable, or look good on your feet?
I also bought these, in white, from Nine West for my upcoming Aruba trip. Can we say, beach day slay? I can wear these on the sand without fear, because I only paid $35 for them (marked down from $85).
I’ve also recently unlocked a love for sneakers. When I arrived at the airport for our trip to Lisbon wearing a pair of orthopedic Vionic sneakers, my friend, Sharon, made sure our first stop in Lisbon was Colombo Mall. There I bought a pair of Adidas Sambas OG in the Cloud White colorway.
Adidas really “ate” with these, as the cool kids say. I’ve seen these shoes on feet all over the world.
More recently, I bought a pair of vintage Superstars (pictured above). I thought they’d go great with a billowy black linen dress I also recently purchased. It’s a really nice chunky shoe that looks great with a full skirted dress, but not on me, so back they went.
I replaced them with the Silver Metallic Samba OG . These I’ve been wanting ever since I spotted them on the feet of a very well-put-together woman in an elevator at an Atlanta hotel.
So, nearly six years after my last professional pedicure in Playa del Carmen, I still haven’t had another one. And I miss them so badly. But the anxiety I get when I walk into a salon and see those little basins. I’d rather walk around with bad, home done pedicures and get stared at like a creature from the deep.
And because I’m clearly still shopping for my upcoming Aruba trip: what shoes are you loving right now? Especially if they’re cute, comfortable and capable of hiding a bad pedicure without looking like that’s the goal.
Links encouraged.