I hate to wear open toed shoes or sandals, and so over the summer and during hotter weather I do suffer the consequences with overheated feet. I was looking for something that would help freshen up my feet and came across this Peppermint Cooling Foot Spray. It is made by The Body Shop and is available exclusively from their high street stores, via home party sales orders, or online at www.thebodyshop.co.uk. It costs £5.00 and comes in a 100ml bottle.

Product description: "Cooling menthol and refreshing Community Trade peppermint oil instantly revives tired feet and gives lasting freshness. A summer essential.
+ Cooling
+ Refreshing
+ Helps to combat odour"

I originally bought this at the beginning of summer so that I could use it through the warmer months and get the benefit from it. I have recently dug it out of my cupboard again and have been using it over the past few days in the lovely mini-heatwave we've been experiencing here in the South-West.

The foot spray comes in a clear plastic bottle with a cap lid and a pump spray to dispense the product. The spray is a lovely bright blue colour which shows through the bottle clearly and allows you to easily see how much you have left. The blue colour does not show up on my skin and it appears to dry colourless without marking or staining fabrics.

It is fairly easy to use this spray; just spritz it on to bare feet. The only difficulty I sometimes have is now that my bottle is nearing the end, I have to hold it at a particular angle to be able to spray the stuff out onto the feet, which usually involves me sitting on the floor and sticking my feet up in the air so I can keep the bottle upright to use the pump spray. I ususally give 2 sprays over the sole of my foot, and sometimes give an additional spray over the top of my foot as well. I only use this when I feel I actually need it, so it hasn't been used every day, but even so it has lasted me well through the last few months and I have still got enough left in the bottle for another 6-8 weeks judging on my previous usage.

The Peppermint Cooling Foot Spray claims to offer 3 main benefits: cooling, refreshing, and combating odours. I will review these in reverse order to how they are listed here, as this goes in order of best effects to worst.

Firstly, combating odour. Hot feet means sweaty feet which means smelly feet. Pretty obvious, but this is something that I think everyone is keen to avoid or at least minimise. With my refusal to bare my feet even in scorching weather, I do end up with them sweating inside my shoes and at the end of the day there can be a definite whiff when I get home and take my shoes off. The Peppermint Cooling Spray has a lovely strong scent which really helps to cover up any foot odour. It smells strong and fresh like peppermint, but also has a sweet side to it as well which reminds me of syrup. This scent will last for a short while after application and does seem to reduce any bad smells.

Secondly, refreshing. The spray can feel a bit cold when first applied as the liquid is being sprayed directly onto warm skin. This does feel a bit funny at first but once you've got used to the feeling of the spray hitting your feet then this feels refreshing and provides a nice relief for hot feet, especially if I've been walking around a lot (which applies to me every day, I walk practically everywhere). Not quite as nice as giving my feet a nice soak in cool water, but great for a quick fix and I keep this in my shoes cupboard near the front door. This is particularly handy so that as soon as I've got home I can kick my shoes off and then spray this straight onto my feet before continuing on with other chores, as it usually takes up a few hours before I will settle down and have a relax in the evening before bedtime and I don't have time to sit and soak my feet as soon as I get home from work every day.

Thirdly, cooling. Now this was the worst part for me and my main problem is the after-effect that I have experienced when using the spray. Peppermint oil is a strong inrgedient, and even though I only use 2-3 sprays on each foot when I apply this spray it always makes my feet tingle. Sometimes the effect is minimal, but more often than not I will experience a very strong and uncomfortable feeling. Instead of having a cooling effect, it ends up so that my feet are tingling at first, then stinging, then burning. This does not occur straight away as the product is sprayed on, but will happen some short while afterwards and can then last anything up to 20 or 30 minutes before the feeling fully subsides. For this reason alone I would not purchase the spray again, although I am loathed to throw it away and just take my chances to see whether or not I will just get a tingle or a full on stinging result. When I do get the burning feeling it is always across the whole of the soles of my feet and can be quite intense. This is especially bad when I am still being active as walking around with this discomfort can cause my muscles to feel tight.

Overall, The Body Shop Peppermint Cooling Foot Spray is refreshing and works to combat odours, but I have found it unpleasant to use on many occasions because of the strong stinging / burning sensation I often experience and this makes me unable to give it a good recommendation.

The Body Shop are against animal testing - please keep your beauty cruelty free!