Beauty brands have been waiting for this sunscreen moment

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved bemotrizinol (BEMT) as a sunscreen filter on June 9, the entire Ultra Violette office in Melbourne, Australia, erupted screaming. Stateside, the La Roche-Posay group chat exploded with messages and memes, including that Friends GIF of Rachel and Phoebe jumping for joy. To the average shopper, this may not seem like a big deal, but for skincare companies, it’s the culmination of a yearslong hope for access to an ingredient that could reshape the U.S. sunscreen market. “It’s a door crack to what could be, to what the industry could look like,” says Ultra Violette cofounder Ava Chandler-Matthews. “The U.S. is very far behind in sunscreen innovation, and it’s dealing with outdated technology. The rest of the world is in the future.” Before BEMT, the FDA hadn’t approved a sunscreen filter in 27 years, and only a handful of chemical and mineral filters are commonly used. Bemotrizinol—a broad-spectrum chemical filter that works at lower concentrations and breaks down slowly time—can be easier to formulate with and is helpful for creating lighter sunscreens that don’t leave a white cast or heavy residue on the skin. Now it’s at last avai…