Pucker Up! 5 Tips For Smooth, Soft Lips For Summer

Still have chapped or dry lips left over from the winter? There are many natural ways for how to exfoliate lips and make them soft and kissable in time for romantic summer nights.

Not only are soft lips the gateway to food pleasure, they are a tactile and sensory organ which has many nerve endings. These nerve endings send sensations along our nerve pathways that directly affect our desire.

Our lips also attract the opposite sex. The size, plumpness and health of lips affected how sexually attracted a man feels to a woman. The healthier and fuller a woman's lips are, the higher the woman rates on the desirability scale.

So, the secret to learning how to be more attractive seems to lie with having soft lips. And in order to attract a mate, just follow these five simple steps.

1. Do a weekly exfoliation.

The skin on the lips is very thin and lacks the same oil glands as the rest of your skin. By exfoliating the dead skin off of them, you expose the healthy fresh skin below them. Mix fruit with simple table sugar to create a double-strength scrub, because certain fruit acids (alpha-hydroxy acids) are also natural exfoliants.

For a fun summer treat, take a frozen grape, cut it in half, put a pinch of table sugar on it, and rub it over the lips. The dual action of the exfoliation and the alpha-hydroxy acids help keep lips smooth longer.

2. Externally moisturize.

Once you exfoliate the dead skin, the next step is to moisturize. One of my favorite combinations to naturally moisturize the lips is honey and papaya. Papaya is high in antioxidants and natural moisturizers; honey is a humectant, which means it draws moisture to where it's applied. Make a paste with the honey and papaya, and put it in ice cube trays to freeze.

When you're ready to moisturize your lips, take out a cube and rub it over your lips. As an added bonus, papaya actually plumps the lips so it makes them fuller and sexier.

3. Internally moisturize.

The purpose of internal moisture is to have nourished lips from the inside out. If you want healthy lips, you should drink 10-12 glasses of water a day, and add healthy oils to your diet, like fish or borage oil. These will improve overall moisture.

Remember, if you are a smoker, don't smoke for 30 minutes before the big goodnight kiss, in order to have optimal kissing moisture.

4. Apply natural lips balms.

Lip balms with petroleum products, such as mineral oil and petroleum jelly, are actually drying to the lips. Apply a natural lip balm after you moisturize to seal in the moisture.

Look for lip balms that have almond, rosehip, or jojoba oils in them for the best effects. If you get a lip balm with peppermint essential oil, it has the added effect of increasing circulation to the lips, which increases plumpness and gives them a healthy glow.

5. Show off your pearly whites.

To easily whiten your teeth, all you need is a strawberry and some baking soda. Cut the strawberry in half, and use the green top as a handle. Sprinkle baking soda on the cut side of the fruit, and wipe it over your teeth for 10 minutes.

The interaction between the fruit acid and the baking soda produces a natural whitening action. Using this method, you can make your teeth a shade whiter in less than 20 minutes. This process will only draw more attention to your luscious lips.

Dawn Gates is a Master herbalist, aromatherapist, and registered nurse that has been treating people with herbs and aromatherapy since 1994.