Shiny Lip Gloss Connected To Cancer

Check your purse or backpack. How many different lip glosses are you carrying in there? One, two, six? If you think that those shinny lip glosses make your lips look gorgeous, you are right. But there may be a darker side to this.

Some dermatologists have reported that shiny lip glosses can actually increase your risk of developing skin cancer. Wearing any lip or skin product without SPF doesn’t shield your from the damage of UV rays. But it seems that the slick, shiny nature of the gloss could be making it even worse.

Dr. Christine Brown, a dermatologist at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas says, “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. You can remedy this by wearing a lip gloss with SPF.

The worst case scenario according to some dermatologists it that the resulting sun damage can lead to potentially fatal forms of skin cancer. Ninety percent of an estimated 3,500 new cases of skin cancer of the lips are squamous cell carcinoma.

According to skincancer.org most SCCs are not serious if identified early and treated promptly. However, if left untreated, they are harder to treat and can cause disfigurement and in very few cases, it can spread to other organs and become deadly.

So, next time you reach for your lip gloss, pause and read the label for SPF (Sun Protection Factor).