About a year ago, teen Lil' Mama livened up the music scene with a light-hearted ode to lip gloss where she rhymed about "how her lip gloss was poppin'", in her hit song, "Lip Gloss".

I love wearing lip gloss too, so I was somewhat skeptical when a friend informed me that they might be a link between cancer and lip gloss, but here's the scoop.

Skin care specialists are suggesting that many non-SPF (sun protection factor) based lip glosses and lip products make you more vulnerable to skin cancer. If you're wondering how, it's because the skin of the lips are so soft that it's easier for ultraviolet rays to affect the skin and spread.

They also are saying that squamous cell carcinoma (the type of cancer which occurs in 90% of the lip skin cancer cases) occurs more aggressively if it begins on the lips as opposed to other areas of the body.

If you're a lip gloss lover, don't worry. There's plenty of glossy lip products that already take sun protection in consideration. Some popular brands that I've seen that do encourage sun protectant in them like Aveda, Clinique and Kiehls. My guess is eventually all lip products have a SPF level in them for safety. So pay extra close attention to SPF levels in your lip products; sure you want to look cute, but your health comes first. (The original report can be found here.)