Ireland has produced some genuinely strong independent beauty brands over the last decade — founders who built real businesses from small starts, and in some cases created products that compete comfortably with international names. But not every brand that markets itself on Irish identity, natural ingredients or skin-first formulation actually delivers on those claims at the ingredient level.
We have reviewed publicly available ingredient information for the major Irish and Northern Irish makeup brands, running formulas through our flag system — checking for microplastics, cyclosiloxanes, parabens, carbon black, PFAS, and other problem ingredients. This article was updated in August 2026 to reflect our v2.0 flag standard, which moved Cyclopentasiloxane (D5) and Cyclohexasiloxane (D6) from hard flags to soft advisory flags. Several brand assessments have changed as a result.
Supporting Irish brands is worth doing — but not at the cost of putting flagged ingredients on your skin. Knowing what is in the formula before you buy is always the right move, regardless of where the brand is from.
✦ How We Review Irish Brands — Flag Standard v2.0
Every product is reviewed individually — no brand gets a blanket pass or fail. Hard flags are ingredients we flag as incompatible with our clean standard — microplastics, parabens, PFAS, carbon black, and others considered problematic or potentially harmful to health or the environment. Think of it the way you might think about processed food labels — not every flagged ingredient is an immediate danger, but knowing what is in the formula lets you make an informed choice. Soft flags are advisory — ingredients worth knowing about but not dealbreakers, including certain UV filters, fragrance allergens, and volatile silicones. Products with soft flags only are not excluded but the flag is noted.
Where a brand does not publish full INCI ingredient lists, we note that explicitly — EU Cosmetics Regulation requires brands to make this information available to consumers on request, and we do not guess at ingredients.
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Sarah Keary
Sarah Keary is a Cork-based indie brand that stands out for ingredient transparency and, based on our checks, for genuine formulation quality. Founded by makeup artist Sarah Keary, the range is deliberately curated rather than wide — but what is there has been formulated with care. Keary publishes full INCI lists on her website, which sets the brand apart from several of the bigger Irish names reviewed here.
The BYSK Lipstick is worth highlighting specifically. In an audit that found Polyethylene — a hard flag microplastic — in the lipstick formulas of SOSU, BPerfect, and Kash Beauty, the Sarah Keary lipstick contains none. The mascara is also a standout: no Nylon-12, no carbon black, fragrance-free — one of the cleanest mascara results in the entire review. Across six products checked, no hard flags were found anywhere in the range.
Poco Beauty
Poco Beauty is an Irish brand in the premium indie space, and our August 2026 audit returns a significantly improved picture from our previous assessment. Earlier checks flagged Cyclopentasiloxane (D5) as a hard flag — under v2.0, D5 is now a soft advisory flag, not an exclusion. That reclassification changes the Poco verdict materially.
The brand publishes full INCI lists across the range and the formulas we checked are clean throughout. The Skintuition Concealer is a standout — identical formula across all 8 shades, no D5, no fragrance, no hard flags of any kind. The Elevate Tubing Mascara is equally clean across both shades. The Universal Solar Glow SPF30 is the most heavily soft-flagged product in the range — Nano TiO2 is explicitly declared, and the citrus and lavender botanicals bring in six individual allergens — but no hard flags anywhere in the range.
Kash Beauty
Kash Beauty was founded by Northern Irish beauty creator Keilidh Cashell and has built a strong following on the back of high-drama, pigment-rich products. The brand publishes ingredient information and has invested in some genuinely clean formulation — but the range is inconsistent, and the gap between the best and worst formulas is significant enough that you cannot buy across the range without checking individual products first.
Our August 2026 audit gives a clearer picture of where that inconsistency sits. The Aura Skin Radiant Foundation passes our v2.0 standard cleanly across all 26 shades — no cyclosiloxanes, no parabens, no microplastics, no fragrance. The Endless Lash Affair Mascara and Gold Beam Skin Glaze are also clean results. The Aura Skin Concealer carries D5 across all shades at a prominent position in the formula. The Matte Lipstick range is a different story: Polyethylene is confirmed in every shade — a hard flag microplastic that appears regardless of the clean results elsewhere.
SOSU Cosmetics
SOSU Cosmetics is one of the most transparent Irish beauty brands we have reviewed. Founded in Dublin by Suzanne Jackson, SOSU publishes full ingredient information across the range. The makeup formulas we spot-checked showed a generally clean approach — no cyclosiloxane flags, no parabens, no PFAS in what we reviewed.
Two significant findings from our August 2026 update. First: the Matte Eyeshadow Palette carries a confirmed Carbon Black (CI 77266) NANO hard flag — explicitly declared in the Neutral and Warm palette formulas. This is a hard flag under our standard and the most notable finding in the SOSU range. Second: the Matte Lipstick contains Polyethylene at position 6 — a hard flag microplastic. Both findings are category-specific and do not reflect on the broader SOSU range, where the formulas we checked elsewhere are clean.
BPerfect Cosmetics
BPerfect was founded in Belfast in 2012 by Brendan McDowell, growing from a market stall into one of the most widely distributed Northern Irish beauty brands across Ireland and the UK. Our August 2026 audit covered foundation, primer, mascara, and lip products — and the picture is more nuanced than our previous assessment suggested.
The makeup products we checked — Chroma Cover Luminous Foundation, the Annalivia Perfection Primer, and the Double Impact Mascara — all came back soft flags only under v2.0. No Polyethylene, no parabens, no PFAS, no D4 in any of them. The primer carries three declared fragrance allergens (Benzyl Salicylate, Hexyl Cinnamal, Hydroxycitronellal) in a leave-on formula, which is the most notable specific finding in the makeup range. The lip products are a different matter: the Annalivia Lipstick carries Polyethylene at position 4 — a hard flag. The Lip Oils are soft flags only and are not excluded.
A Note on Lipstick Across Irish Brands
Our August 2026 audit included lipstick formulas from every Irish brand where they were available. The finding is consistent enough to state plainly: Polyethylene — a confirmed microplastic and hard flag under our v2.0 standard — appears in the lipstick formulas of SOSU, BPerfect, and Kash Beauty. In most cases it sits in the top six ingredients, indicating significant concentration. It is applied to the lip area, one of the highest-absorption surfaces on the face.
This is not unique to Irish brands — Polyethylene wax is a standard ingredient in conventional lipstick formulation globally, inherited from contract manufacturers and present across most mainstream lipstick ranges regardless of price point or marketing positioning. The problem is not that Irish brands are unusually bad; it is that the default lipstick formula is a problem formula.
The two brands that avoid Polyethylene in their lip products — Sarah Keary and Poco Beauty — have both made an active formulation choice to do so. Sarah Keary uses a silicone-based lipstick formula with no conventional wax base. Poco uses Polybutene as a slip agent in a cream stick format. Neither approach is accidental. If you are buying lip colour from any Irish brand, check the INCI for Polyethylene before you buy.
Sculpted by Aimee
Sculpted by Aimee is one of Ireland's most widely known makeup brands, founded by Dublin makeup artist Aimee Connolly. The brand does not publish full INCI ingredient lists on its own website — which is a significant transparency gap. EU Cosmetics Regulation requires brands to make full ingredient declarations available to consumers on request, and without that information publicly accessible, consumers are left hunting across third-party retailer listings to do even basic ingredient checks.
We were able to locate ingredient information for six products through Boots.ie, and those results are worth reporting — but they should be read as a partial picture only. The face products checked returned soft flags only or no flags at all, which is a positive finding as far as it goes. The Nylon-12 hard flag in the mascara is consistent with the microplastic-in-mascara pattern found across most brands in this review. The setting spray and lip balm add useful context but again are sourced from a retailer, not the brand directly.
Brands We Cannot Fully Review — Limited Ingredient Information
Luna by Lisa, founded by Irish influencer Lisa Jordan, does not publish full INCI ingredient lists across the product range. Most products on the brand website list key or hero ingredients only — this is not a complete ingredient declaration and cannot be reviewed against our flag standard. We were able to locate full ingredient lists for two products and have reviewed those below.
Where full ingredient information is not available, we cannot give a product a rating of any kind. We do not guess at formulas. For any Luna by Lisa product not covered here, we recommend checking the brand website directly before purchasing — as with any brand, the only reliable way to assess ingredients is to read the full INCI list.
Under EU Cosmetics Regulation, every brand selling to consumers in the EU is required to make full ingredient declarations available on request. If the product you want is not listed here and the brand website does not show the full INCI, you can request it directly from the brand — that is your legal right as a consumer.
The Bigger Picture on Irish Beauty
The Irish beauty industry has genuine talent in it. Sarah Keary and Poco Beauty stand out in this review as brands that have made deliberate formulation decisions — avoiding the Polyethylene-based lipstick default that most of the industry uses, publishing full ingredient information, and producing products that pass a meaningful ingredient standard. Kash Beauty's foundation and mascara results are also strong, even if the lipstick range lets the brand down. That quality of formulation is worth recognising and worth supporting.
The broader picture across the range is more mixed. Polyethylene in lipstick is the clearest category-wide issue — it appears regardless of brand positioning, price point, or clean marketing claims, because most brands are using the same contract manufacturing formulas. Carbon Black NANO in the SOSU eyeshadow palette is a more significant finding — it is a hard flag in an eye-area product and is worth being aware of specifically. Sculpted by Aimee's failure to publish its own INCI lists remains a transparency gap that no positive formulation result can fully offset.
The advice is the same regardless of where a brand is from: check the ingredients before you buy. Our bot covers a wide range of products available through verified retailers. For Irish brands not yet in the bot, the brand website is your best starting point — and where brands do not publish their own INCI lists, major retailers like Boots.ie sometimes carry ingredient information that is worth checking before you purchase.
Transparency about what is in the formula is the baseline standard, not a bonus feature. Every brand, Irish or otherwise, should be meeting it.
Irish Beauty Brands — Frequently Asked Questions
Sarah Keary stands out as the strongest overall result in our review — full INCI transparency, clean formulas across all products checked, and the only Irish brand whose lipstick passes our standard without a Polyethylene hard flag. Poco Beauty performs well across the full range, with soft flags only in the foundation and SPF bronzer, and clean results for mascara, concealer and cream stick. Kash Beauty's foundation and mascara are clean, though the lipstick range carries a hard flag. SOSU is transparent and generally clean, but Carbon Black NANO in the eyeshadow palette and Polyethylene in the lipstick are significant findings.
It depends on the product category. The makeup products we checked — foundation, primer, and mascara — returned soft flags only under our v2.0 standard. No hard flags in those formats. Lip products are different: the Annalivia Lipstick carries a Polyethylene hard flag. The Lip Oils are soft flags only. Check the INCI list for any specific BPerfect product before purchasing, and pay particular attention to lip formats.
Sculpted by Aimee does not publish full INCI ingredient lists on their own website. We found ingredient information for six products on Boots.ie and reviewed them against our v2.0 standard. The face products returned soft flags only or no flags at all. The mascara carries a Nylon-12 hard flag — consistent with the microplastic-in-mascara pattern found across most brands in this review. Until the brand publishes its own INCI lists, full verification is not possible. You can request a full ingredient list directly from the brand under EU Cosmetics Regulation — that is your legal right as a consumer.
Kash Beauty is inconsistent across the range. The Aura Skin Radiant Foundation is clean across all 26 shades, the mascara and highlighter are also clean results. The concealer carries D5 (Cyclopentasiloxane) — a soft advisory flag under our v2.0 standard. The Matte Lipstick range carries a Polyethylene hard flag in every shade. You cannot assume that a clean result in one product category means the same across the full range — always check the INCI list for the specific product you are buying.
SOSU is one of the most transparent Irish brands and the face products we checked are generally clean. Two findings are worth knowing about specifically: the Matte Eyeshadow Palette carries a Carbon Black (CI 77266) NANO hard flag confirmed in the Neutral and Warm palette formulas, and the Matte Lipstick contains Polyethylene — also a hard flag. If you use SOSU eyeshadow palettes or lipstick, check the ingredient list before purchasing. For other SOSU products, the brand website is a reliable source of INCI information.
Polyethylene wax is the standard structural ingredient in conventional lipstick formulas globally — it gives lipstick its solid form and smooth application. Most brands use formulas developed by contract manufacturers, and Polyethylene is the default in most of those formulas. It is not specific to Irish brands; it is an industry-wide issue. The brands in our review that avoid it — Sarah Keary and Poco Beauty — have made an active choice to use alternative formulation approaches. They are the exception, not the rule.
Cyclopentasiloxane (D5) is a volatile silicone that gives makeup formulas a silky, easy-spreading texture. It is restricted under EU regulation in rinse-off products due to concerns about environmental persistence and bioaccumulation. For leave-on makeup — foundations, concealers, primers — it remains permitted. In our August 2026 flag update, we moved D5 from a hard flag to a soft advisory flag to reflect that distinction: applying the rinse-off restriction to leave-on makeup was scientifically inconsistent with how the EU restriction actually works. Products containing D5 are noted for transparency but are not excluded from our database. It appears in several Irish brand foundations and concealers, including the Poco Beauty Skintuition Foundation and the Kash Beauty Aura Skin Concealer.
Our ingredient checker bot covers a wide range of products from international brands available through verified retailers. Irish brands are not yet fully added to the database — for those, the brand website is your best starting point for INCI lists. Key things to look for in the ingredient list: Polyethylene (microplastic hard flag, common in lipstick), Cyclopentasiloxane or Cyclohexasiloxane (soft flags — advisory), parabens (any ingredient ending in -paraben), Carbon Black CI 77266 (hard flag, watch for in eye products), and Parfum without declared individual allergens. If a brand does not publish ingredient information, you are legally entitled to request it directly from them under EU Cosmetics Regulation.
