SPF Lip Balm Is Often Wrong, But Winnie Harlow’s Is Perfect

My makeup and skin-care routine starts in one place: With lip balm. I've tried every single one in every formula, texture, and existence. My standards for good balms are high — as high as my standard is for sunscreen, and I really love sunscreen.

Anyone passionate about both lip balm and SPF knows that most lip balms that have SPF aren't… well, they're haute garbage. So, when I heard that supermodel Winnie Harlow’s new skin-care line, Cay Skin, included an Isle Lip Balm with SPF 30, I had to have it in the flashiest of flashes.

I’m not sure why brands have struggled to marry SPF and lip balm, because the skin of your lips is ultra-thin and needs to be protected too, so it feels like an easy and natural product to fall into place. But most of the lip balms with SPF I have tried take all the complaints about traditional sunscreen — chalky, white cast, stings, doesn’t settle in — and package all of them in a tiny tube. Somehow, the Cay Skin lip balm isn’t like that at all.

The Isle Lip Balm reminds me of the lip balms and best glosses of the late 2010s: It's viscous but not gloopy, and gives a shine that is more glossy than traditional balms. If you like a waxy, stick balm, this probably isn’t for you. The texture reminds me of the Le Labo lip balm, one of my favorites of all time, but with a sugary-sweet scent and the added benefit of UVA/UVB protection, so take that Le Labo! 

I love it because I tend to forget a lip look — even more now since I’m often wearing a mask when I leave the house — and this lip balm is glossy and shiny, giving the illusion that I put a ton of effort into a lip look, while also providing my lips with sun protection. I also appreciate that it’s a sunscreen-forward product, rather than a lip balm that just happens to have sunscreen — which is probably why it feels like a different product than other similar ones. 

Plus, if there’s anyone I’m going to trust when it comes to lip products, especially a juicy, glossy lip, it's Winnie Harlow. I feel like that’s a safe bet.