2023-05-05 09:16:39
Renate van den Bos, dermatologist at the Erasmus MCtalks about the (nonsense) of UV lip balm, the fragility of your lips and how important it is to protect them from the sun.
Protect lips from the sun
The fact that many people forget to moisturize their lips when the sun is high in the sky worries dermatologist Van den Bos. According to her, your mouth needs extra protection: “Your lips are more vulnerable than the rest of your skin because they naturally have less protection. The horny layer, a layer of dead skin cells on the surface, which normally provides protection against the sun, is not or hardly present on the lips. This makes you burn faster and easier.” If you don’t protect your lips properly, you run an extra risk of skin cancer. This form of cancer, which is the result of prolonged exposure to the sun, is unfortunately often seen by the dermatologist.
Does UV lip balm work?
So protecting your lips well is essential. How do you do that exactly? There are UV lip balms that, depending on the factor, offer good protection against the sun. However, according to Van den Bos, the problem is that this balm never stays on for long. “All day long you eat, drink and talk, regularly (unconsciously) licking your lips. The protection of the lip balm is therefore quickly removed. The problem with UV lip balm is that you have to apply it countless times a day to really get the protection that the product promises. Lubricating your lips needs to be done much more often than the rest of your skin – and few people stick to this.” That is disastrous for the vulnerable area of your lips.
How do you protect your lips from the sun?
UV lip balm does work – provided you apply it very regularly and go for a factor of at least 30. In practice, however, re-lubrication often enough is almost impossible, says Van den Bos. To protect your lips, according to her, wear a hat that is wide enough to also touch your lips with shadow and regularly look for the full shade. “Men are luckier: they can grow a big mustache to protect their lips,” says the dermatologist with a laugh.
Whether you apply sunscreen from a tube or from a lip balm: it always has an expiration date:
#protect #lips #exposure #sun