Iris Smit has spent more than $50,000 patenting and protecting her beauty product, The Quick Flick. Sold at major retailers including The Iconic and Priceline, Smit’s product, which makes it easier to apply eyeliner, should be an Australian success story. But despite her efforts, it hasn’t stopped other companies copying her and passing off her eyeliner stamp as their own idea.

“The first time I was copied, it was by someone in my friendship group,” Smit says. “That was seven months into the business. She had copied the entire concept of the eyeliner stamp.” That was in 2020, and four years later, Smit says her product has been imitated so often that she has lost count. She is reluctant to name the larger companies she alleges have copied her for fear of defamation and further legal costs.