SPF for Lips Done Right – MDSolarSciences Hydrating Sheer Lip Balm (swatches & review)
First things first, did you know that the skin on your lips is only 3-5 cell layers thick compared to 16 layers on most of your face? That makes your lips a lot more fragile, and prone to damage and changes in humidity: typically in very dry environments, the lips will start cracking first before the signs appear anywhere else. The lip area is also particularly susceptible to sun damage, and unfortunately, a lot of us don’t consider proper lip protection when we’re out and about in the sun.
I get it, though.
For the longest time, the most common way to protect your lips was extending your facial sunscreen to cover the lip area as well. Unfortunately, for those of us who use physical sunblocks, it also meant turning our lips a shade or two lighter – the unavoidable consequence of Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide just doing their job as intended. For those who use organic – otherwise known as chemical – sunscreens instead, there was another issue: a lot of the time they have the nastiest bitter aftertaste that likes to migrate into your mouth even if you aren’t a habitual lip licker.
So, what do we do?
Like I always say, the best sunscreen is the one you will wear. If you don’t mind the aftertaste, extending your chemical sunblock to your lips is perfectly fine. Same with the physical ones, as long as you don’t care about the potential white cast, it’s all good. But if, like me, you are a bit picky with products for the lip area, tinted lip balms with SPF will be your new best friend.
I’ve been using MDSolarSciences sunscreens for several years, they have incredible cosmetically elegant formulations that feel more like skincare than suncare. And a few months back I had the privilege of trying their Hydrating Sheer Lip Balms, powered by the same sunscreen agents I already love and encased in a cosmetically elegant lip balm formula.
Despite the name, these lip balms are anything but sheer. The colors are vibrant and beautiful, and show up really well on the lips. They wear like a lip balm rather than a lipstick, with that weightless balmy feel vs waxy lipstick feel. I always say these feel like “nothing” on the lips, and I mean it – nothing! With lipstick, you can kind of feel it wear out slowly, but with these balms, I have to check myself in the mirror to know if I need to reapply. So I guess this can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.
After application, these balms tend to stay put. They don’t feather into the lip lines, don’t transfer into my mouth, or slide into the corners of the lips, unless I force them to with deliberate lip movements. Also, SPF 30 is perfectly adequate for most days, unless you plan to spend an entire afternoon out in the desert or something.
The shades featured here are part of the Hydrating Sheer Lip Balm Trio set: Spice (berry), Blush (pink), and Ruby (red.) You get a little discount if you buy the set or you can get individual shades that you like. My personal favorites are Spice and Blush, but Ruby is definitely giving dressy vibes!
You can purchase MDSolarSciences Hydrating Sheer Lip Balm on the brand’s website, at Dermstore, Target, and on Amazon.
Do you use lip sunscreen? What’s your favorite summer lip product?
