HICKORY — For many of us the onset of winter means dry, cracked, irritated skin commonly associated with nature’s harshest elements. Luckily, a family-owned and operated skin care business based in Hickory has come to the rescue with a new foot peel exfoliating mask. Soft Touch is the business behind this new at-home do it yourself dry foot remedy. The company, which specializes in dry skin therapies, first made waves several years back with the release of its original Foot Peel Mask. The product quickly became a social media sensation with millions of online video views, more than 8,000 Amazon reviews, and even received an Amazon Choice Award. Now their latest product, a Soothing Tea Tree foot peel, is quickly catching up.
Tim and Lynsey Frey founded Soft Touch in 2014 after moving to the area from Northern Michigan in 2007. Lynsey says they needed an escape from the bitter Michigan winters and to be closer to her family. With a 2019 population of around 41,000, Hickory, located just northwest of the Charlotte area, is perhaps best known for its rich heritage in furniture manufacturing. However, the Freys have brought different acclaim to their adopted town, and say it has been a fantastic place to call home while launching their successful skin care company. “Hickory is a small town but has the feel of a city in that it has the essential city requirements that suited us,” Lynsey says.
“Social media loves our product because it’s just plain crazy to watch dead skin just peel off in layers over a short time. It’s amazing to see people’s reactions to it!” — Soft Touch owner Lynsey Frey
Soft Touch is small, with under 10 employees but the Freys say they are working on expanding the brand with time. Their products are available on Amazon and on their own Softtouchfootcare.com website. The new dry cracked treatment with tea tree oil is already trending on Amazon and customer reviews are overwhelmingly positive, including:
“Very easy to use and they work great! I also loved the smell of these, very refreshing!”
“Got this for my husband who has some kind of crazy un-killable foot fungus leftover from his Navy days. He soaked for 45 minutes and started peeling less than a week later and his feet look/feel so much better!! Really helped.”
“This is an amazing foot peel mask! Avoiding chemicals and harmful ingredients is important to me, so it’s great to find a product that I feel safe using and that really works! The instructions are easy to follow and the booties are comfortable to wear. My feet were quite dry and rough after a summer of wearing sandals, so I was really looking forward to having soft feet again. It took about 6 days to begin peeling and about 3 weeks for the peeling to completely stop. My feet were soft and the dryness was gone! I’m really impressed by the results and can’t wait to do the foot peel again. Thank you for a great product!”
Lynsey Frey became a licensed esthetician in 2008. Over the course of her career she says she discovered that a combination of pure botanical acids and other wholesome ingredients could rid feet of rough heels and stubborn calluses without the need for harsh chemicals or other harmful ingredients. “I had a love of exfoliation and seeing fresh youthful results with skincare treatments. The feet have always been a difficult area for me personally to soften with foot scrubs and foot files. The best solution for this problem I came to learn was a mild natural enzyme solution to breakdown the skin cells, allowing the skin to slough off naturally with no work at all.” Although Soft Touch caters mainly to women aged 25-45 men also use their products because as Lynsey says, “who doesn’t want soft feet?”
While Lynsey is the beauty expert behind the invention, she credits her husband Tim with being the business brains behind the operation. “Tim had a business education and background…. he took this idea and put his heart and soul into it. He learned the tricks and techniques of online retail and e-commerce. He has a hard-core work ethic and is completely involved in all details of this product to make sure it appeals to everyone. He consults me with skin care questions because of my background and he does all of the online, social media, Amazon advertising, marketing research and development. He is awesome at it!”
The new easy-to-use foot peeling mask is suitable for men and women and can accommodate feet up to men’s size 11. Each set includes two pairs of booties designed to treat dead skin, calluses and cracked heels to reveal soft, rejuvenated feet without the need for painful scrubbing.
The Freys recommend the following tips in order to ensure maximum benefits from their new scrub:
- Wear the mask for a full 60 minutes.
- Put socks on over the booties.
- After treatment, soak feet in warm water daily for 10 minutes.
- Allow one to two weeks for feet to begin peeling.
The Freys say people are obsessed with the foot peel process and they are thrilled with what their one product has brought to people. “We currently have over 13 million views from one YouTuber that tried our product. Overall, our videos online have had many millions of views. Social media loves our product because it’s just plain crazy to watch dead skin just peel off in layers over a short time. “It’s amazing to see people’s reactions to it!”