You know I have a thing for sunscreen lip balms. If it were up to me, all lip balms would contain sunscreen in them by default. What’s not to like? You get to moisturize your lips and protect them from harmful UV rays in one go. But it’s not always easy to find a sunscreen lip balm that gives you everything you’re looking for: the right color, the right moisturizing properties, the right SPF protection.

I just spent the past week in Vegas, and boy, did my skin feel like it was actually sizzling in that 100-degree heat. The sun feels much stronger out there—and indeed, the UV index was 9 in Vegas today, compared to 7 in NYC. You can look up the UV index for your city here on the EPA’s website. It definitely served as a catalyst for getting serious about finding a quality sunscreen that I could apply on my body every day (without going broke). And I think I found it: Alba Botanica…

If you’ve ever seen the package for an Asian sunscreen before, you may have noticed a lot of plus signs on the bottle. They aren’t just there to make you feel positive (get it? ha!)—they actually refer to the sunscreen’s level of UVA protection. SPF measures a sunscreen’s UVB protection. Europe and Asia actually have established UVA testing and labeling standards (hence the PA+++ on labels). However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t ask companies directly,…