Nevermind my personal spendiness issues, I'm here to tell you about the Suntints. As many other reviewers have noted, these lip balms are extremely sticky (stickier and thicker than lipglasses, so that's really saying something) and contain almost no pigment. I mean barely anything. They do however provide three benefits which in my mind outshine all of that:
- An SPF of 20, with UVA protection. I have searched high and low and have only found a handful of lip products with adequate UVA protection and believe me it's important. If you worry about thinning of lips, vertical lines, freckles, overall pigment darkening (or God forbid, skin cancer on one of the most sun sensitive spots on the body) and you aren't applying and constantly reapplying UVB and UVA protective products on a constant basis, you are shortchanging yourself. Those pesky UVA rays cause the majority of the trouble and as we all know, prevention is always better than correction.
- A long lasting formulation: The ingredient breakdown will contain more details on the specific agents which create the semi-waterproof almost shellac-like texture of these balms. So not only does the product stay on the lips even after ingestion of some food/drink, but that means that your sunscreen isn't rubbing away either. In addition, it means that less moisture evaporates from the lip and for those of us with insane lip balm addictions, well we all know what that means.
- High wattage shine: I am a lover of pigment, so I prefer to put on traditional cream lipsticks and then top them with this for that "porn-pout" look, which some of us against all sanity continue to love. I find it also helps lock in lipstick color, so there's less reapplication of that too.
