Why, it’s none other than BURT’S BEES LIP BALM!! One of our favorite, minty lip softening products!!

Remember, though, that Burt’s Bees does not provide SPF. We discussed this here. Read the comments, too, because we have since recommended more products that will protect your kisser from the harsh rays of El Sol.

ANYHOO, as the sun waxes stronger in these here parts, a girl starts to think about SPF products for the lips (and fellas should, too, since your lips are tender little darlings and shouldn’t be left out there all alone to bake unprotected). Turns out that most SPF products are just dull, though; waxy Chapsticky things that don’t slide easily over lipstick or Covergirl Outlast All Day Lipcolor (PeaceBang’s daily product), which is what *I* certainly want them to do. I would think that even men seek a lip product with ease of application and a decent taste (not overly minty or medicinal or herbal or fruity).

(Incidentally, there’s a lip balm called, no kidding, Chicken Poop out there. I wanted to recommend it but it has no sun protection factor. Darn.)

I did find a tropical-flavored lip balm during my January trip to Florida that has good SPF coverage, but it makes my lips taste like a shirt Don Johnson would have worn in “Miami Vice,” so it’s a choice of last resort. I want something sophisticated with little or no flavoring, thank you very much. A cruise around my local CVS yielded nothing interesting (and did you know that Burt’s Bees lip products don’t even have SPF in them??? I just assumed that they did!). A girl can’t smear Carmex all over her mouth, for heaven’s sake: have you tasted that stuff?

So I did a little googling around online and discovered that the good people at Revlon have a Super Lustrous Lip Gloss that looks to have not only nice, glossy color coverage but SPF 15. Has anyone tried this stuff? It’s expensive, so I’d rather not purchase it without having some advance word on it. It may be that getting SPF coverage into a gloss form is a costly process, which is why so few companies are doing it.

If you’re looking for a subtle hint of color, or a clear lip balm with SPF coverage, Kiehl’s makes a very fine product that lasts and lasts, and that comes in a tube, which I love. This would be a great gift for the guy in your life. I mean, isn’t that packaging positively MANLY? Kiehl’s has its own web site and is also available at upscale department stores. This lip balm costs about $9 but again, it last for a long time even if you use it every day.

Oh, and this advance word to you, my doves: do not ever rely on make-up to provide full sun coverage for your face. If you really want to protect yourself from all the ravages of the sun (and you should), it is wisest to apply your sunblock of choice before any make-up. After much searching and many flare-ups of red blotching on my face (curses on you, Neutrogena tinted sun block! Because I love your other products so much!), I am sticking this year with Alba Botanica Facial Sunscreen for Sensitive Skin.

I was using a Juice Beauty Organics product but it smells kind of yucky and I had a devil of a time getting the product out through the pump dispenser. I like that it’s entirely non-chemical and mineral based, but they’d do better to put it in a tube so a girl or guy can actually get the stuff out of the ever-lovin’ container.

When applying sunscreen, don’t forget to get your chest, your neck, the back of your neck, the edges of your face at the hairline (wherever that hairline may be), and your ears. Let’s not be worrying our dermatologists and requiring snippings of suspicious moles and bumps this year. Be safe out there and for heaven’s sake wear a hat when we’ll be in the sun for any prolonged period of time. And just this once, I’ll give you a pass: it doesn’t even have to be particularly fashionable or attractive, it just needs to keep your skin and scalp protected. Extra bonus for those who color our hair: wearing hats is a big deterrent to fading. So go get you one! They’re always on sale at TJ Maxx or Marshall’s and places like that.

A reader who isn’t clergy but who does have a job requiring public presence and lecturing wrote recently to ask PeaceBang’s recommendations for an emollient lipstick for African-American women that will last through a big talk-athon.

Since our dear reader mentioned favoring Clinique, Nars and Vincent Longo lines, she obviously knows her way around a Sephora and isn’t limiting herself to what she can find at the local drugstore.

So Lady Speaker, I’m wondering: what if you found a shade of, say, CoverGirl Outlast All Day lip color (or a similar product — one of those stay-on-forevah lip colors), and used that as a base, and polished yourself before and after your speaking engagements with a Nars lip gloss (PeaceBang loves Nars lip gloss: she finds that Nars and MAC lip lacquer are the most budge-proof, and have the most intense pigmentation)?

In fact, it just occurs to me that the lovely (and African-American) Beyonce Knowles is currently shilling for a Revlon stay-on lip color product that I’ve been meaning to try, and I think the color she’s wearing on the commercial is gorgeous. I’m just a believer in using the long-lasting lip formulas as a base at any rate — if you search the archives under “Lips” you’ll find previous posts and comments on the matter, with loads of recommendations therein for those.

As for blush and bronzer, I would get to a Nordstrom or a Sephora and shop around for lines that suit your skin tone first, and then choose formulations based on your skin type. Again, Nars makes gorgeous powder blushes (I use one called — pardon me but it’s true — “Orgasm” — that has a lovely peachy tone with a tiny bit of glow factor). It’s perfectly okay to warm up your skin tone with a fluffy, light dusting bronzer over much of your face (concentrate on the perimeter where the sun would hit) and then to accentuate the cheeks with a well-blended application of cream blush. I like to do this when layering powder on powder might make me look crusty and over-done, like when I’m dehydrated or tired and wrinkly.

If you have oily or combination skin, lightly apply (using puff or brush) a translucent powder to your forehead, chin and sides of nose (if the bridge of your nose gets oily, lightly powder that, too) before going out before the crowds. For touch-ups during the day, use blotting papers rather than build up layers of powder.

Of course, if your skin is dry, make sure you exfoliate and moisturize gently, regularly and well so that your bronzer and blush will go on evenly. I find that if I slap on my moisturizer in the morning and don’t give it time to sink in a bit before applying powder bronzer, everything is a blotchy mess.

As far as particular lines for African-American or other women of color, I know that my readers will have all kinds of brilliant recommendations which they will contribute in the comments section. Won’t you, dears? It seems to me that MAC is a good bet here - they seem to get that women come in a huge variety of skin tones and offer products accordinlgy. Clinique always strikes me as looking good in the package but whimpily pigmented when I get it home. I think the same of Chanel and Estee Lauder — neither of which seem willing to acknowledge that women of color even exist, so I don’t use their products.

There’s a drugstore line called Black Opal that looks like it has some really pretty lipstick shades and I notice they sell it on-line, too. A white friend of mine who is partial to very dramatic lip colors loves it.

I suspect that this eye cream would be doing even better things for my crow’s feet than my current Roc product with retinoids in it, but I’m not about to spend $33 to switch now. I’ll wait until my Roc is finished, which should be in about four months. So far I’m not impressed with it, but you do need to use an eye cream for awhile to see real benefits. I use some kind of eye cream religiously and I think it’s paying off, since a Florida woman at the karaoke bar the other night said she thought that I was TWENTY THREE or so!! God bless her dear, overly-tanned heart!! Speaking of which, the sun does still shine in the winter months, northern people, so let’s not forego our SPF protection as an excuse. PeaceBang is watching!

I love how Oprah dresses. Whereas Ellen DeGeneres is all “I’m a hilarious sporty gal wearing totally sporty, casual stuff to make you feel right at home here in my studio audience,” Oprah is all, “I’m going to put on just a little bit of bling and elegance because I know my audience deserves someone to dress up for THEM once in awhile.” Watch how, as she gets a little heavier, her eyelashes get bigger and longer, and her eyeliner thicker. I’m serious. Oprah’s a genius when it comes to scale and cut. She knows that gaining ten pounds warrants MORE glam, not less, and carefully fitted garments, not shapeless garments from Omar the Tentmaker.

But I have one eensy beensy complaint. I think that when we’re doing a show on domestic abuse, the make-up artists on the show could be a little more judicious with the lip gloss, which currently looks as though they’re trowelling it on. As a result, these women’s poignant and enlightening stories are being upstaged by their big GLOSSY LEEPS, and that’s not right. There’s Oprah presiding with globs of gloss. Her interviewee is dripping with the stuff. The prosecutor who sent her abuser to prison for 36 years (I’d like to buy that gal a beer sometime) is also suspiciously uber-shiny, as though someone backstage said, “Sweetie, you’re going to be on camera, let me shine you up.”

PeaceBang is an admitted lip gloss addict but she does think that in this case, too much of good thing is a bit much. When someone is telling an important story to a national audience I certainly want them to feel confident and camera-ready, but if the make-up artists don’t cool it I’m going to have to suggest an Oprah episode called “Gloss Abuse: You CAN Get Help.”

Must be that the pleasant tingling-sensation is generated by some drying ingredient like mentholatum.

PeaceBang can no longer recommend Softlips products. Protect your lovely kissers some other way, O Speakers Of Love and Truth.

I’ve never heard of it, and I’m fascinated. She’s going to send me more info, but have any of you tried it? Comments?

I did some research and came up with this UK company:

www.lipink.com

It looks like it’s organic, and it looks like the starter kit is quite expensive (but that after that, re-fills are quite economical). The blonde model in the video is a little bit overwhelmed by her big red lips, but the other models are wearing more subtle colors that look lovely.

Do you have to scrub it off with another special product at the end of the day?

I wonder if I could get the company to send me a free starter kit for reviewing purposes…!

It has been one cold week here in the Land of PeaceBang — so cold, in fact, that it is reminding PeaceBang of her years in the Chicago area and in Minnesota, where winter was so brutal we would kiss our friends goodbye in October and say, “See you in March! Or maybe May! Depending on when the temp gets up above 40-below zero!”

PeaceBang remembers walking along the Northwestern University campus with icicles forming on her eyelashes and in her nose. She had one of those ankle-length down coats from Marshall Field that made her look like a small Abominable Snowman, but she was grateful for that thing, believe me. Her freshman year roommate Mary’s parents bought it for her, tsking at the lame little woolen thing she had brought out from Connecticut. Bless their hearts. I saw them last summer and they’re still darling as ever. Also, they haven’t aged a bit. I wonder if they have any beauty regimen I should know about? Aside from doing good works, I mean?

ANYHOO, I digress.
I just wanted to alert you to a very fine product that came to me as a sample and that I’ve fallen in love with:
http://www.softlips.com/

I love Soft Lips for two reasons: one, they have SPF 20, which is wonderful and rare in an inexpensive lip balm. Second, they remind me of back when I was in elementary school and had about ten different Bonne Bell Lip Smackers that I jealously guarded from my sister, who probably had only about six Lip Smackers. Remember Lip Smackers? They were enormous and stinky and you compulsively applied them all day long because they were yummy and they were your first real cosmetic purchase that you bought with babysitting money?

I used to slather on my raspberry or Dr. Pepper or watermelon Lip Smackers in the morning and kiss my dad goodbye, and he would say, “Honey, what in the hell did you just get all over my face?” And I’d say, “SORRY, DAD!” and he’d rub his gooey cheek and grab his briefcase and his tin-foil wrapped muffin and I’d hear him laughing ruefully as he ran out the door.

Soft Lips is like the grown-up version of Lip Smackers. They come in vanilla, cherry, strawberry, raspberry, and mint, and probably an un-flavored version, too.

Because I wear CoverGirl Outlast All Day Lipcolor every day, which comes with a moisturizing lip balm top coat, I love Soft Lips. It is almost the same exact consistency as the CoverGirl top coat, and it has sunscreen. Plus, there’s that Bring Me Right Back to 1976 strawberry flavor, only much less intense.

After all, I’m a grown-up lady now.

And I cackle madly because I am supremely busted.

Her first, as you know, is CoverGirl Outlast All-Day Lip Color in Blush Pearl.

Her second is outrageously cheap and gooey lipglosses by Rimmel. Less than four bucks and tons of shine. You can keep one in every bag. It goes great over the CoverGirl.

Her third very top secret trick is this ultra-perfect neutral shade lipstick:

http://tinyurl.com/t3uo2

It’s Sephora Lipstick #35, Warm Beige Shimmer.

PeaceBang keeps two tubes of this on hand at all times, and has converted Sister of PeaceBang to it, too (SOPB would love to wear red lipstick, but it just doesn’t work for her. But this does, like a gorgeous charm).

The super top secret of this shade is that you can wear it OVER bright, killer reds, and it tones down the red and looks fabulous.

You can also wear it alone if you have the right complexion for it. PeaceBang likes it as a neutral balance with smoky eyes, or when she’s a bit tanned and wants to wear black liquid eye liner and a neutral lip is best.

For $10, it’s worth a try!

PeaceBang recommends:

Sephora creme lipstick #35 in warm beige shimmer.