If there’s one thing that dermatologists seem to emphasize the most, it’s diligent sunscreen use — especially if one of your main concerns is preventing skin cancer and premature aging. This also extends to the lips, which can get damaged just like any other area of the skin and even develop cancers, according to Calgary-based double-board-certified dermatologist Dr. Danny Guo.
Despite this knowledge, Guo said that, in general, people are less concerned with sunscreen application on the lips than on the face or body, which he thinks is due to a combination of less social media emphasis and less SPF-containing lip products available. Though I can’t offer a solution for the former, I certainly have one for the latter: Sun Bum’s SPF 30 lip sunscreen.
Before reaching out to Guo, I had come across a TikTok creator who claims to be an esthetician and dedicates much of her content to “uncovering” how well SPF products really protect by applying and monitoring them with a UV light. It was through her that I discovered the Sun Bum SPF 30 lip sunscreen, which I purchased for myself — and it looks and feels vastly different from any SPF-containing lip formulas I’ve used in the past.
If you are also familiar with sunscreen balms, then you most likely know what I mean when I say this: those thick or chalky balms that taste horrendous if they happen to get into your mouth. The Sun Bum formula, on the other hand, feels strikingly high-end and looks like a beautiful gloss with a lasting sheen and a cushiony, hydrating texture on the lips. It has the perfect amount of stick, so you know it lasts, and the tints, especially the shade Heat Wave, are shockingly pretty. Beyond that, there’s barely a bitter taste, and the scent smells lightly of coconut — all told, it’s a lip formula that I would willingly opt for regardless of whether it had sun protection or not.
