So last Friday it was hot as all hell here, and the boyfriend and I decided it was only right that we made our first trip of the year to the beach. We packed a little cooler full of fruit, bagels and iced coffee and headed out. I also packed a little beach bag for myself and very unfortunately forgot to bring a lip balm with SPF, like a total bonehead.

What I did bring was a normal, SPF-less, shiny lip balm which essentially deep fried my lips in the early afternoon sun.

I think we’ve all been down this road before. It’s an easy thing to forget about, but good god it hurts like a mother effer.

I knew before even leaving the beach that I had goofed. I could feel them burning already on the car ride home. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it) I have dealt with this before and I knew what to do, so as soon as I got in the apartment I started trying to fix what I had done.

Step 1: The first step is to sooth and moisturize. I take the most soothing lip product I can get my hands on and I slather that puppy all up on my lips.

I swear by the Palmers Coco Butter Sticks both for this purpose and just in general. I keep them all over my house. They can be a little hard to come by, so when I see them in a store I buy like three.

It is the ONLY thing I want to put on my lips when they are sunburned. It’s so gentle and smooth and just ugh, soothes them right down. It also contains vitamin E which I find to be good for healing skin issues.

Step 2: Overnight moisture. This part is essential. Before bed I lay down a good thick coat of the Palmers Stick and then I go over that with a really thick balm. It doesn’t matter what the thick balm is, as long as it’s something that will stay put on your lips for a long time.

The problem I usually run into is that really moisturizing balms tend to be thinner, so when you put them on before bed they kinda disappear into the night. Layering a thicker, albeit less moisturizing balm over the top seals in the moisture for longer so you don’t wake up with dry, crackled lips wondering where it all went wrong.

Normally if I was just dealing with some routine dryness I would use Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream, but I feel like thats a little too harsh for this situation.

The balm I used this time was the Nivea Lip Butter, which I am honestly not all that fond of. It smells amazing but it always makes my lips look white and waxy and that’s just not acceptable. But for these overnight purposes it actually came in pretty handy so I may just start leaving it on my nightstand.

Step 3: The last thing you need to do is exfoliate the lips, but ONLY after they have stopped burning/hurting and they have started to get a little peely and crackly. I would say wait at least 48 hours.

I don’t recommend a physical exfoliant, like a scrub. I think it’s much better to use something gentle like an enzyme exfoliant such as the BeFine Lip Exfoliator. This stuff works miracles on flakey lips, and it’s super gentle. It feels like it’s doing nothing and then you rub it off and you’re just left with soft lips. It’s kind of amazing.

Even better, you only need a tiny bit of it to get the job done. I have had that deluxe sample tube in the picture above for MONTHS and it is still more than half full. I love this stuff.

After that, just make sure you keep them really moisturized, and you should be good to go. An even better option would be to not burn them in the first place, obviously. But the up side is this experience has inspired me to work on a post about what beauty necessities to keep in your beach bag, so keep your eyes peeled for that in the next few weeks.

Someone decided to pop in and say hello while I was taking my product shots and it made me smile…

So I figured I would share it with you all. Look at that freakin’ face, such a cutie!