If you’re a beauty junkie like me, you own more than a handful of lip glosses. It’s on your dresser, in your purse, at the office and maybe even inside your glove compartment. Wherever you are, lip gloss is within arm’s reach. So you can imagine my shock at headlines that linked one of my favorite beauty products to skin cancer.
The theory is that the glassy shine (that makes your pucker so pretty) acts like a magnifying glass and focuses more of the sun’s UV rays on your lips. “These lip glosses can make more of the light rays penetrate directly through the skin instead of getting reflected off of the skin’s surface,” says Christine Brown, a dermatologist at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
There are no studies that have been released that actually confirm the skin caner-lip gloss link, but with an estimated 3,500 new cases of skin cancer of the lips diagnosed each year, I’m not taking my chances. But don’t go rushing off and throw away all your lip glosses. You can reduce the risk by protecting your lips with products that contain sunscreen. Just layer a lip balm with high-level SPF under your lip gloss and you’re good to go. Also, there are plenty of glosses out there already infused with SPF. Check out some of my favorites below:
Nivea A Kiss of Protection Lip Care SPF 30
Tarte Slide Tin Lip Balm SPF 15 (The SPF is a little low but it smells and tastes so great that it’s a treat to reapply often.)
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