Now that summer has finally announced its arrival, more and more of us will be ditching shoes for sandals and flip flops. After a hard winter my feet invariably resemble snake skin rather than human skin, with my poor toes and heels looking, quite frankly, disgusting.

Every spring I dig out the foot cream in an attempt to make them look at least passable, but this year I had a tube of Soap & Glory's Heel Genius, which I had got just before Christmas in a gift set. The tube had languished in a cupboard for a few months but several weeks ago I realised that if I were going to be able to wear sandals without causing offence, I'd best get to work on my feet.

I have very sensitive feet and have a phobia about anyone touching my feet - so much so that I've only ever had one pedicure and can confidently say I don't plan on ever having another one - so the fact the tube proclaims Heel Genius is "better than a pedicure" appealed to me, even although deep down I felt pretty certain this was the usual hyperbole Soap & Glory use on their packaging.

~~The Product & Claims~~

Heel Genius comes in a signature pink Soap & Glory tube which contains 125 ml of cream. Yes, I know the picture above is of a turquoise tube but that's out of date! It costs £5.50 at full price but Soap & Glory products are regularly part of 3 for 2 offers in Boots so it can be had for less.

The cream itself is pale blue in colour and very thick. It has a very sweet, fruity fragrance which figures as the ingredients include bilberry and orange and lemon fruit acid smoothers. The fragrance does strike me as more berry than citrus and certainly my nose didn't detect other ingredients such as menthol and macadamia oil.

As well as claiming Heel Genius is better than a pedicure, the tube also claims it is a "miraculous moisturising mix" and amusingly the tube also states "at Soap & Glory we believe that you should never have to be afraid of your own feet". I found this funny because by the time I started to use this I was actually appalled by what winter had done to my feet!

~~My Experience~~

Soap & Glory suggest you use this cream every night, and I must be honest here and say I haven't used it every single night but every couple of nights or so. The reason for this is I honestly haven't felt the need to use it every 24 hours and I have also considered the cost - this isn't the cheapest foot cream out there so why use it more than necessary?

To use you need to ensure your feet are clean before applying. The tube suggests you massage a generous layer onto your feet but once again I take the word "generous" with a pinch of salt and suspect the quantity I use is considerably less than the manufacturers would claim is necessary.

It can be messy to apply the cream and I tend to do it in the bathroom, starting with a layer over my toes first and then smearing a layer over my heel, ensuring the sole gets covered too. Although the cream is thick it does thin down a little out of the tube and feels greasy too. Once the cream is applied you need to put on socks on your feet and then leave them on overnight for the cream to sink into your skin.

It's worth noting that the tube suggests you wear cotton socks. When I first used the cream I wore a pair of black cotton socks but the moisturising effect was limited somewhat by the amount of fluff that stuck to my toes once the socks had been removed. I have since switched to a pair of grey socks I got in a flight amenity kit which work a treat.

I have found Heel Genius to be a fairly effective product, although I have to say it's been far more effective at seeing off the dry skin on and between my toes than at softening the very hard skin around my heels and at the back of the soles of my feet.

On these areas I have had to use a pumice to scrape the worst of the dead skin away whereas around my toes I have found the dry skin has been banished within a matter of a few applications.

I do like the fact you wear this on your feet overnight - certainly in comparison to other foot creams which can take an age to soak in - leaving me dangling feet in the air for what seems like an interminable amount of time to pass - it's a joy to use and doesn't really inconvenience me as it's working while I sleep.

~~Conclusion~~

Generally I have been fairly impressed with Heel Genius but it's not a product without pitfalls. The biggest downside I believe is the price - you can get equally as good, if not better, foot cream for less but then again you won't be getting a nicely fragranced cream in a girly pink tube either.

I've been using Heel Genius for a couple of months now and have come to the end of my tube, so it's lasted fairly well but that's with me being parsimonious in application and not putting cream on my feet every night either. I suspect if you were to apply it as liberally as Soap & Glory suggest and as often you'd be lucky to get a week's use out of one tube - which makes the £5.50 price tag seem particularly hefty.

The fragrance is undoubtedly nice but in a product such as this you only actually notice it when applying the cream - once you have put some socks on you no longer notice and it's obviously gone by morning. The fragrance also means Heel Genius is only going to appeal to women even though I am sure men have similar problems with hard skin on their feet!

The cream itself is also definitely more effective on toes as opposed to heels or the soles of feet. As such I would question Soap & Glory's claim that using it is "better than a pedicure". It may well be so far as my sensory issues go but it might be more honest for Soap & Glory to suggest better results could be had if used in conjunction with a pumice stone.

So long as you don't pay too much heed to the instructions on the tube, ignoring the suggestion this should be applied both liberally and daily then Heel Genius is a decent enough buy but if the skin on your feet is particularly dry don't expect this alone to be able to soften them and remove all traces of dry skin.