The Irish Beauty It List

This year is all about buying Irish beauty! If you're anything like me, around the Spring of every new year, I go OTT with spring cleaning, chuck out most of my beauty products, and reevaluate what I do and don't like. Thus begins the process of buying all new hair, skin and make-up products at the behest of my bank account! This year I've become staunchly resolute in my cause to keep my cash in the country as much as possible and support as many homegrown brands as my paycheck allows.

Trying to figure out what is and isn't produced in the emerald aisle can be a tad overwhelming, so we've taken out the guesswork and put together a list of a few of our favourite cosmetic brands!

Skincare

GROUND Wellbeing

Created by spa expert Peigin Crowley, GROUND Wellbeing focuses on high-quality, sustainably produced skincare and wellness products. All of the products are handmade in small batches using vegan and organic ingredients, blended with a sincere intention to soothe the soul.

Pestle & Mortar

Pestle & Mortar is a skincare brand born out of County Kildare, whose pared-back line-up has earned a cult following since its launch in 2013. If you're looking to slow down the signs of ageing and get a healthy glow, these products genuinely work wonders. The brand's most popular product is the Pure Hyaluronic Serum, a silky smooth, multi-molecular hyaluronic acid that hydrates and plumps skin.

Skingredients

Skingredients is a range of multi-award-winning, active-led, results-driven skincare products created by expert dermal facialist & skin tutor Jennifer Rock. The award-winning range Skingredients focuses on four key ingredients that everyone should use as part of a daily skincare routine; a Pre-Probiotic Cleanse for gentle exfoliation, hydrating hyaluronic acid to draw in and hold moisture on the skin, a pro-ageing vitamin A, C + E serum, that smooths, tightens and brightens for youthful-looking skin and a broad-spectrum SPF to protect the skin from harmful UV rays.

Kinvara

A native brand from the West coast of Ireland, Kinvara was initially developed by Joanne Reilly for use by her own family and then bloomed into a beloved brand with a devoted following. Kinvara's selling point is its simplicity and use of organic ingredients. Each Kinvara formulation contains ingredients rich in omega fatty acids, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, minerals & active ingredients like hyaluronic acid. Their precious face oil is enriched with Bakuchiol, a multitasking plant-based alternative to retinol that has no adverse side effects on the skin and can be used more regularly!

VOYA

VOYA started out as a family-run seaweed bath in County Sligo and has grown into a successful spa brand with an extensive product range. Their skincare products contain extracts of wild seaweed, which is sustainably hand-harvested from the cleanest waters off the Atlantic coast of Ireland. With their serums being some of the most popular products, is it a wonder that VOYA is stocked in some of Ireland's best five-star spas?

Makeup

Sculpted By Aimee

Founded by one of Ireland's best-known makeup artists, Aimee Connolly, Sculpted By Aimee focuses on the building blocks of all great beauty looks: a subtle and long-lasting base. With an extensive array cruelty free of foundation shades and handy presents to suit all skin tones like glowy primers, setting sprays and luxurious all-purpose balms. If you're looking for the perfect base for your wedding day then here's your first port of call!

SoSue

It can't be an Irish beauty It list without the woman who started it all, back when blogging was an alien concept and we were all still using our fingers to blend eyeshadow and blatantly ignoring anything to do with brows. SoSu owner Suzanne Jackson has now created a beauty empire selling quite literally everything you may ever want or need in the beauty sphere, from tanning to faux nails, eyeshadow palettes to beauty blenders with no compromise on quality

UP Cosmetics

Spurred by the hugely successful Blank Canvas x Pippa O’Connor Ormond collaboration launched in 2015, entrepreneurs Pippa and Úna Tynan have reunited to bring the own cosmetics brand to the market. UP Cosmetics is a luxury cosmetics brand created to meet the needs and wants of make-up enthusiasts world-wide. If you're a full glam girlie then you're going to adore UP Cosmetics!

Ayu

Kildare make-up artist and beauty tutor Suzie O’Neill launched her brand Ayu with a range of premium quality, vegan and affordable makeup brushes in 2015. Since then, the brand has quickly expanded to include to every step of your beauty routine. With a dedication to simple to use products, Ayu is known as the makeup bag staple brand, once you fall in love with their products you'll have a hard time trying anything else!

KASH Beauty

Kash Beauty is the beauty brand your makeup bag has been waiting for. Created by one of Ireland's most-followed beauty influencers, Keilidh Cashell, KASH offers a wide range of high quality cosmetics including highly pigmented eyeshadow palettes, easy-to-use contouring kits and faux mink eyelashes.

Haircare

We Are Paradoxx

Belfast based haircare brand We Are Paradoxx are leading the way when it comes to sustainable beauty products. Their huge range of hair products and tools are centred around "clean, conscious beauty" and are up to 90% plastic-free. Believing product performance shouldn’t be compromised when choosing natural, clean beauty, their hair care and body care is formulated with 100% natural with organic extracts. Toxic-free, clean formulas with no parabens, sulphates, PEGs or mineral oil, We Are Paradoxx is sourced sustainably, and locally where possible. Their best known products are their Volume & Growth regime bundles and their moisture hangover hair elixir. Not to mention their all metal packaging gives their reasonably priced products a high quality look and feel.

Daughters Of Flowers

If you're looking for the perfect talc-free, not aerosol dry shampoo then you're going to love the Dervla dry shampoo from Daughters Of Flowers. An ode to the simple beauty of plants, a love letter honouring slow and traditional processes. Daughters Of Flowers is a grassroots botanical studio dedicated to creating nourishing herbal offerings in small batches, each step guided and tended to by hand, using natural fragrances and ancient ingredients all sustainably and ethically sourced.

Tools

Nima Brushes

Nima Brush is an award-winning Irish owned brand that sells every type of makeup brush you can think of: foundation, contour, eyes. Creating professional quality but affordable brushes, owner Niamh Martin has cultivated quite the cult following in the Irish beauty market. With their signature mint green matte style handle and brushed gold ferrule. Each brush is named after a strong influential female figure in Niamhs’ life. We've heard nothing but ravings about their insane new line of NimaFil Smart Fibre brushes. This is a vegan friendly, man made  fibre that enables a synthetic hair to mimic the design of a natural hair.

BYSK

Every shape of makeup brush you could imagine, creamy lipsticks and handy palettes from this store created by renowned makeup artist Sarah Keary. BYSK gives you the tools for success with their high-quality, professional standard brushes.

Blank Canvas Cosmetics

Another makeup brush brand comes in the form of Blank Canvas Cosmetics, who offer pro-quality brushes without the professional price tag. Stocking up your brush kit never seemed so affordable. Founded by Una Tynan in 2011 in the midst of the recession, Blank Canvas Cosmetics has gone from strength to strength in the past five years. Having started as a professional brush brand, their brush range has grown dramatically with over 150 styles to choose from, and they now offer cosmetics too.

Spotlight Oral

Spotlight Oral Care is a dental care brand founded by dentists and sisters Dr Lisa & Dr Vanessa Creaven. They offer a wide range of products to fit every oral hygiene concern from bad breath to bleeding gums and teeth whitening. If you're looking to whiten your teeth but don't want to pay a fortune to get it professionally done definitely check out this brand.

ALISO

After finding a gap in the market for a clean but effective lip balm, ALISO founder Andrea Roche decided to develop her own; from that idea, the all-natural and certified organic, ALISO’s ultra-nourishing lip balm was born! Since then, the brand has focused on making tools and products that help you to replicate the benefits of a professional spa treatment - at home. From the Ultrasonic Skin Exfoliation Tool to the bestselling Cryo Globes, ALISO is the cult beauty brand that bring the luxury of a spa to the comfort of your own bathroom.

Fragrance

The Burren Perfumery

A small family owned business nestled in the mountains of Country Clare, The Burren Perfumery takes inspiration from the wild Irish landscape to create unique fragrances using natural and organic ingredients. Everything is created by hand in small batches, ensuring a high quality and loving care poured into every bottle. Their seasonal harvest fragrances are perfect for the botanical bride who wants to match their scent to the seasons!

Stories Parfums

Based in Northern Ireland and founded by Tonya Kidd-Beggs, STORIES Parfums has positioned themselves comfortably as forerunners of the ‘new niche’ in the premium luxury fragrance market, proudly bringing luxury and sustainability together in the world of fine fragrance. And speaking of sustainability, once you've enjoyed the last mist of your fragrance and the bottle is empty, you can send it back for a refill and 20% off!

Cloon Keen

For twenty years, the Cloon Keen collection of award-winning perfumes have captured the poetic spirit of Ireland. This small artisan perfumery overlooks the beautiful Galway Bay. The Cloon Keen Atelier perfume collection, influenced by their film making heritage, sets evocative scenes that are both precious and fragile. Each fragrance unravels the mysteries of  their  Irish home. Cloon Keen Atelier’s perfumes are the expression of discreet Irish style and impeccable craftsmanship. Timeless elegance, Irish lyricism, and the spirit of warm generosity are the values underpinning Cloon Keen Atelier.

Waters & Wild

Based in scenic West Cork, and founded by Joan Woods, Waters & Wild uses locally sourced ingredients like rosemary, lavender, seaweed and gorse in its four fragrances. Based in scenic West Cork, and founded by Joan Woods, the unisex and vegan perfume brand uses locally sourced ingredients like rosemary, lavender, seaweed and gorse in its four fragrances. Packaged in glass bottles with wooden lids, each scent is made in small batches to reduce wastage and also come in candle form so your whole home can smell incredible.

- Gráinne