Does lip gloss actually increase your risk of skin cancer?

You know that lip gloss that's in the bottom of your purse? The one that makes your lips kissably soft (and smells like sugar cookies)? Well, turns out that your favorite lip gloss actually might play a big part in skin cancer. Yikes!

Here's the deal. A few skincare experts out there are concerned that lip gloss, since it's shiny, actually attracts the sun's rays, rather than repels them. 

And, since lip gloss's primary ingredient is oil (that's the ingredient that makes it glossy), everytime you add another coat you're basically telling the sun "Hey! Fresh meat, right here!"

Apparently, most glosses don't contain any sun protection AT ALL, and  even if they do contain a little SPF, when you mix that lip gloss with your saliva the protection is pretty much a wash.

What's a girl to do? The best defense is to apply a lip balm with a good SPF protection first, as a base, then find a lip gloss that does contain some kind of sun protection goodness. More studies need to be done before the connection between lip gloss and skin cancer is absolutely confirmed, but it's better to be safe than sorry, right?

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