New FDA Requirements for Sunscreen, Lashify Drama, SXSW, and More Updates
Plus the two apps that made doing my taxes SO MUCH easier.
This week/month/life has been insane, but let’s do a quick update, shall we?
In mid-February, I took a little vacation to northern New Mexico with my fiancé, my sister, and her boyfriend, and we had the best time. Northern New Mexico is so incredibly underrated. Red River, New Mexico, is the best little ski town in the Southwest, and you can’t tell me anything different. We left Austin around 4:30 am and would’ve gotten to Red River around the same time that evening, but the mountain pass was completely stopped due to frozen weather conditions, so we spent a good two hours just minutes outside town waiting for the roads to be salted and cleared.
The next day, we got up bright and early, got our skis, and spent the rest of the day on the slopes. I took a good decade off skiing, but I got back into it two years ago and have gone back every year since. While I would love to go more, it’s been enough to keep me upright on skis. Red River is a great mountain with a lot of varied terrain. I mostly stick to greens, but I went down a few blues without absolutely crashing out.
The following day, we drove the 45 minutes to Taos Ski Valley, which was nearly twice as expensive as Red River. One of the major lifts was closed, which meant there were very few greens open, but my sister and I made the most of it and skied until the lifts closed at 4. It was a quick four-day trip, so by Monday, we were back on the road, headed home to Austin. As a lifelong Texan, I’m used to long road trips, so driving 10+ hours at a time isn’t that unusual for anyone who vacations in the South. We listened to The Martian by Andy Weir on the way there and Artemis by the same author on the way back. Skip Artemis, but don’t skip The Martian if you love audiobooks.
The day after we got back, we closed on a house (!), and it still hasn’t hit me. We’ve spent the last few weeks working on projects like removing popcorn ceilings and creating this wooden panel ceiling in the living room, so we’ve been busy! Luckily, my fiancé works in construction, so he’s been taking the lead on all of these home projects, and I’m so grateful because I’ve been so busy these last few weeks/weekends. We’re officially moving in next weekend, so send us good vibes.
Last month, a story I’ve been working on for close to six months finally came out. I wrote a story about the FDA‘s insistence on animal testing for chemical sunscreen ingredients, and it really caused a stir industry-wide. I feel like it’s important to mention that it wasn’t new information, but it hadn’t yet been publicized in that way before BeautyMatter covered it. I got statements from the FDA, suppliers, and product developers who were aware of a situation, but it hadn’t yet reached the beauty industry masses, which I feel was important for such a huge regulatory shift.
A lot of people have a lot of feelings about these initiatives (Fat Mascara even covered the news in a recent episode), which I understand. I hope the FDA changes its mind about animal testing, and I hope that’s what my story contributes to. Ultimately, my job is just to make what has been shrouded in secrecy in our government and bring it into the light publicly. As citizens, we all have the power to make our voices heard, and I hope the beauty industry speaks out against these outdated regulatory updates.
The week after this FDA article came out, TikTok lit up with the controversy between Bethany Frankel and Lashify founder Sahara Lotti. I had written about Sahara Lotti and Lashify’s previous patent win for BeautyMatter in January, so the article experienced a resurgence as a result of the drama. I posted a TikTok video sharing my take on the drama, which is that patents are different from dupes, period.
I remember pitching the story to my editor, and I was surprised that no other editors or beauty publications had covered what I saw as huge beauty news, which is that Lashify won $34 million in a patent infringement case against a Chinese competitor. I had never heard of a beauty brand winning such a massive patent litigation case against a competitor, which is why I decided to cover it. Sahara Lotti was very open with me about the process and why she decided to litigate against these Chinese competitors, and I really respected her ambition and the reason why she was fighting for her patent.
In the beauty industry, you can’t patent shades or even formulas. But if you are an inventor, you can patent your inventions, and that’s exactly what Lotti did when she created Lashify. She was the first to take her idea and patent it with the US government.
However you feel about her patents, I think the latest case against the Chinese competitor proved that the US government upholds her patents above all others who attempt to imitate them and sell them. As an inventor, Lotti is owed royalties on her patented invention. That’s how patterns work, and it’s a great thing. The lash category has completely caught fire over the last few years, and I think Lashify’s product and patents had a lot to do with the category’s growth.
I can’t predict the future, and I don’t know how the case between ProLash and Lashify will end, but the win against the Chinese competitor and the International Trade Commission (which was recently reversed in favor of Lashify) proves that Lashify’s patents are almost ironclad. Best of luck to both parties, and I hope the case gets resolved soon.
It’s SXSW season here in Austin, and this year, I was thrilled to be asked to moderate two official SXSW panels as part of the Fashion & Beauty track. This was a huge goal of mine, and I remember having a conversation with my sister either last month or in January that it probably wasn’t going to happen this year, but I wanted to make sure it happened in 2026. Well, color me surprised when a week before SXSW I get an email asking me if I’d be open to moderating not one, but TWO official SXSW sessions. I love being the Universe’s favorite!
The first panel was with DIBS Beauty co-founders Jeff Lee and Courtney Shields on the brand’s retail strategy, and the second was a conversation with Alli Webb, co-founder of Drybar. I definitely over-prepared for both, but it came in handy when we blew through the few must-ask questions within the first 15 minutes of both panels. I’ll be moderating two panels at BeautyMatter’s FUTURE50 event in New York City next month, so it was great practice for that.
Tickets are still available for FUTURE50, so if you haven’t yet booked your tickets, there’s still time! We have a stacked lineup of sessions: My panels cover the longevity movement in skincare and opportunities within dupe culture. I hope to see some friendly faces there and make the most of a week in the city.
I’m also excited to meet Janna Mandell, who just joined the BeautyMatter team as a Senior Editor. She’s written for The Washington Post and The New York Times and is helping shape BeautyMatter’s editorial coverage. BeautyMatter already has such a strong editorial point of view, but I have no doubt that Janna will help us take it up a few notches.
My taxes were due to my accountant on March 1, and yes, I did wait until the last minute on February 28th to send everything in. Every year, I feel like I get better at planning for taxes, and last year, I started using two apps that made it SO EASY this tax season: Keeper and MileIQ. Keeper tracks purchases, while MileIQ tracks miles. I was pretty good at classifying drives at the end of every month in 2024, so all I had to do was export the data. Classifying expenses in Keeper took the longest amount of time this year, so in 2025 my goal is to spend some time at the end of each month doing my expense reports. My other goals include opening a business checking account and credit card because all my business expenses are still on my personal credit card, oops! All in all, my taxes took about six hours to complete from start to finish, which I feel is an improvement from previous years.
If you’re a fellow freelancer with a pretty low overhead, what bank and/or credit card do you use and love? Please tell me in the comments!
I somehow snagged a Platinum badge for SXSW, so I’ll be popping in and out of sessions this week in between deadlines and packing up boxes for the big move this weekend. I’m also trying to post more on TikTok, so follow me there.
Thank you for being here. It means the world to me. Follow me on Instagram; my DMs are always open to questions, comments, or horse memes.
Great piece!!