If these hot dog days of summer have caused you to have dry, flaky lips, now’s the perfect time to reclaim your perfect pout with a little TLC.

We wash our faces and brush our teeth, but we often tend to neglect our lips. Incorporate a few basic steps to care for your lips, too, into your beauty regimen and you’ll have smooth luscious lips in no time!

Flaky, dry lips are often the result of a lack of moisture. But in order for any form of added moisture to penetrate your lips, it’s imperative that you first exfoliate dead skin. Exfoliating your lips should be done once a week to maintain a soft, kissable surface. More is not better when it comes to exfoliating lips — more than a weekly scrub can actually lead to more dryness.

If you don’t want to spend money on a separate scrub just for your lips, it’s absolutely fine to use a face exfoliant, just find a scrub that has fine grains and be gentle; don’t scrub too vigorously.

Lips do not have sebaceous glands like the rest of our body; they do not produce natural body oil.  So it’s super important to add and seal in moisture after you exfoliate.

A lot of folks use the old standby, petroleum jelly, which is fine, but a natural oil based moisturizer is an even better option.  Shea, cocoa butter, or sweet almond oil based products not only feel great on your lips, they’re excellent at sealing in moisture.  Putting on a dab right before bed is great too!

Now that you’ve exfoliated and moisturized, be sure to protect lips when outdoors, by wearing a balm alone or under your lipstick, gloss, etc., with minimum SPF 15.

Last but certainly not least, don’t forget your daily H2O intake.  Dehydration is definitely one of the major causes of dry, chapped lips. Just one more reason to make sure you get those eight glasses of water a day!  Cheers —  to beautiful and healthy lips!