High Heel Life: This Pain-Saving Hack is 100% Free

This story originally appeared on Allure. 

It's one hour into your office cocktail party and you're dying. OK, you're not dying, but as your feet throb viciously against the confines of the torture devices you mistook for shoes, it feels like you might be. Pain is the mother of hyperbole, after all. With hours yet to go, you start wondering if anyone would notice if you just took your shoes off and held them. Maybe you could say it's all the rage in Paris? French girls never actually wear shoes, you'll inform everyone; they just slip them on for street-style photos. Or you could just hobble off to the bathroom and use this brilliant pain-busting hack.

Stick your feet in the sink. No, you haven't cracked under the pressure: We said to stick your feet in the sink. More specifically, run your feet under cold water (so if there happens to be a bathtub, decorative fountain, or unattended ice bucket around, you do you), then go to town with moisturizer all over your feet.

The trick comes courtesy of Shoe Are You? author Meghan Cleary, who told Who What Wear that "I personally have gotten another four hours out of a pair doing this mid-event." It makes perfect sense. As we all know, cold is great for taking down swelling, and the lotion provides some extra lubrication for those spots where blisters may have formed. Sure, you might look a little crazy if anyone walks in on you perched in the sink, but really, isn't that a small price to pay for foot comfort?