About The Barefoot Review

We write about feet. Specifically, the ordinary problems that most people put up with for years without ever asking anyone about them.

The site started because of a gap that is easy to spot once you notice it. Search for almost anything to do with toenails, heel pain or dry, cracked skin and you get two kinds of result. Either a page written by someone whose real interest is selling you a bottle of something, or a page so wrapped in caveats that you finish it knowing less than when you started.

Feet are not a glamorous subject. They are also the part of the body people are most reluctant to show anyone, which is exactly why bad information travels so far and why so many people quietly manage a problem for a decade rather than mention it.

How we work

We keep things plain. If a mechanism can be explained in two sentences we use two sentences. Where the honest answer is that nobody really knows, we say that instead of padding it out.

We try to be specific about time. A great deal of frustration with foot and nail problems comes from expecting a result in a fortnight that was never going to arrive before three months, and giving up on something at week two that was working.

We do not publish before and after photographs of readers, and we do not print health claims we cannot point at a source for.

Who writes it

Claire Bennett
Editor. Former trade magazine editor, writes most of the health explainers.
Paula Grant
Footwear and fit. Twelve years in shoe retail before she started writing about it.
Ruth Callahan
Ageing and mobility. Covers what changes and what to do about it.
Denise Rowan
Contributor. Writes first-person pieces about living with long-term foot conditions.

How this is paid for

Two ways, and we would rather be blunt about both.

Some pages on this site are advertorials. They are paid placements, they are labelled at the top of the page, and we may earn a commission if you buy something after reading one. That commission never changes the price you pay.

Everything not carrying that label is written independently. Advertisers do not see articles before publication and do not get to influence them.

Not medical advice. Nobody here is a doctor. Everything on this site is general information. If something is affecting you, see a GP or a podiatrist, and see one sooner rather than later if you have diabetes, poor circulation or a weakened immune system.

Corrections

If we have got something wrong, tell us and we will fix it and say that we have. Contact details are here.