Dry Cracked Feet? Could Sudocrem Be The Answer?

I’m not gonna lie, I suffer from dry cracked feet on the regular so I’m forever trying new gadgets and creams to try and solve the problem. Most of the time the different remedies work but I get bored and lazy and once the desired results are achieved, I neglect my feet all over again and end up right back where I started.

I live in a cold climate so it’s not as though my feet are on display on a regular basis so you can understand why they’re not up there as a top priority especially considering that nobody ever sees them. However come the summer months I always regret that neglect and spend countless hours, days, weeks trying to undo all that damage that my abandoned feet have endured.

That is until the winter comes around again of course, at which point they go back to the solitary confinement of my thick fluffy socks not to see the light of day again for yet another year where the neglect starts all over again.

Am I The Only One Who’s Never Heard Of This?

Now I don’t know how many of you have already heard about this, in fact, I do wonder if I’m the only one out there that missed this memo but apparently Sudocrem is extremely effective at curing dry cracked feet. Yes, this cheap good old fashioned antiseptic baby rash cream is said to be a savior for rescuing feet in dire need of some TLC.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the years looking up different ways to combat this problem and for some strange reason, I’ve never come across this solution before despite the fact that it seems to be mentioned quite a lot across the net. I was actually pretty dubious about this one because I just couldn’t fathom how “butt cream” of all things as my kids like to call it, could possibly be an effective solution for this issue so of course, I had to try it.

Why I Questioned It

I decided that I would give this method a try but in all honesty, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I don’t know why but I’d never thought of Sudocrem as a moisturising product, in fact, quite the opposite. I always thought it may be a little drying especially with its alcohol content but then again the saying as soft as a baby bottom didn’t just come from nowhere and I have three babies to prove it and it never caused any of them any skin dryness.

As well as the fact that Sudocrem contains benzyl alcohol which is known to be drying, I’ve also often used it to effectively treat spots not only because it contains zinc oxide but also because it dries them right out faster than you can shake a tic tac and I think this may have something to do with my Sudocrem drying belief. Even the word antiseptic makes me think drying but Sudocrem does also contain several other ingredients that provide a moisturising and softening effect.

What Else Does It Contain

Sudocrem contains lanolin which has a seriously deep moisturising effect on the skin and any breastfeeding mothers out there will be painfully familiar with how effective this stuff really is. In fact, lanolin alone is actually a very effective treatment for dry cracked feet although it is a little bit more expensive when bought on its own as the main ingredient.

Sudocrem also contains beeswax which is great for not only hydrating the skin but also for softening and soothing the skin too. Zinc oxide is also included as one of the main ingredients and one of its many skin benefits is its ability to keep moisture locked into dry skin.

Once the moisturising ingredients have absorbed into the skin, the zinc oxide provides a barrier over the top to keep that moisture locked in. Zinc oxide is also a popular treatment for dry skin conditions such as eczema and Sudocrem itself has eczema written on the tub as a condition it’s suitable for treating so maybe my drying belief isn’t fully accurate.

Let’s Try This Out

So it was time to test out how effective Sudocrem would be but I wanted to see what it could do on its own so I applied it to all the driest areas of my feet without doing any kind of filing first. The balls of my feet were pretty worse for wear so I applied a seriously larger amount to those areas and then put on a thick pair of socks and went to bed hoping for a miraculous change by the morning.

By the next morning, I did notice an instant difference in how my feet felt as I walked around the house on the hard tiled floor. The hard uncomfortable balls of my feet didn’t feel anywhere near as hard as they had been before so I was pretty excited to check under those socks to see what kind of changes had occurred.

The Feeling Didn’t Match The Look

As much as my feet felt softer, they didn’t look that much better which was kind of odd considering how different they felt. The heels did look a little better although some dryness still remained but the balls of the feet which were the worst didn’t really improve at all at least not visually.

What I will say though is that despite the lack of visual improvement, they were much softer and smoother to the touch even the ball area. I would show you a picture but I’m pretty sure you probably don’t want to see that (I know I wouldn’t) so I figured maybe this wasn’t a quick fix overnight cure and a few more applications would be necessary.

After A Week Of Use

It took a good week to see a substantial visual improvement to the ball area although the rest of the feet did improve after a couple of days of using this. As mentioned, I didn’t use any other kind of treatment on my feet such as a foot file during this time because I wanted to see how much Sudocrem could do all on its own without any other effort and in all fairness, it did work to some extent.

So to give credit where credit is due, it did perform pretty well on the areas that were not as severe and it certainly passed the test in the softening and smoothing department. However, I think for really hard areas, Sudocrem alone will help but it’s not a miracle worker on its own at least not in the time frame in which I tested it so a foot file is a must first for really stubborn areas.

All In All, It Does Kind Of Work

I will also say that when used after a foot file, it is very effective so it does work but compared to my current favourite which is Lanolin nipple cream (yes, that Lansinoh stuff) the Sudocrem isn’t quite as effective because the lanolin works really well all on its own even without a foot file. But if your dry feet aren’t that severe then Sudocrem may well come in handy, it does have several uses after all so why not use it for one more thing.

What do you think? Have you tried using Sudocrem on dry cracked feet? How well did it work for you?