Irish beauty brand Hildun Beauty wins major Arnotts award

If you've been anywhere near beauty TikTok or Instagram in the past year, you've probably seen those viral eyeliners everyone's been raving about. The ones that glide on like butter, stay put through a full day at the office and a night out, and somehow cost less than your usual coffee order? Yeah, those are from Hildun Beauty.

And now the Irish brand has just won something pretty major: Pitch '25, Brown Thomas Arnotts' annual competition that champions the best emerging Irish brands. The prize? A €10,000 business grant and a permanent spot in Arnotts. Not too shabby for a brand that launched without a celebrity face or major influencer campaign, just pure product excellence doing the talking.

Founded by beauty writer and entrepreneur Suzy Griffin Dunne, Hildun Beauty has been quietly building a cult following since day one. The concept was simple but ambitious: create luxury makeup that actually performs like the expensive stuff, but at prices that won't make you wince when you check your bank balance on payday.

The Kajal That Started It All

Suzy launched Hildun while on maternity leave. She worked with top-tier R&D teams across the globe to develop formulas that would impress makeup artists and everyday users alike.

The brand's debut product, the Silk to Set Kajal Eyeliners, went properly viral. Not the kind of viral where someone films a 15-second video and moves on, but the kind where over 100,000 units have been sold and the product's won three national UK beauty awards, including Bazaar's Best of the Best Eyeliner Award.

The bestselling lineup from Irish beauty brand Hildun Beauty.

That success gave Hildun the momentum to expand into lip products (the Silk to Set Lip Pencil and Melting Moisture Balms, developed in Italy and South Korea) and eyeshadows. The Luxe Quad in Mythical Romance has become a particular standout, loved for its cool-toned, wearable shades that deliver serious pigment payoff.

Why This Win Matters

Pitch '25 isn't just about the money or the retail space, though both are obviously brilliant. It's the mentorship, the strategic support across product development, branding, supply chain, finance and legal that comes with it. For a founder scaling a beauty business in an increasingly crowded market, that kind of backing from one of Ireland's most iconic retailers is genuinely invaluable.

Suzy said of the win: "Winning Pitch '25 is an incredible honour and a defining moment for Hildun Beauty. Arnotts is an iconic Irish retailer, and to receive this level of support and belief from Brown Thomas Arnotts is deeply meaningful. From day one, Hildun has been about letting product excellence lead the conversation."

Ciara Crilly, Marketing and Creative Director at Brown Thomas Arnotts, clearly agrees: "Suzy Griffin Dunne is a compelling founder with a sharp eye for product excellence and a clear understanding of what today's beauty customer expects. Hildun Beauty impressed us with its proven performance, strong community and commercial traction."

Where to Find It

Hildun Beauty launches today at Planet Beauty in Arnotts and online at Arnotts.ie. If you've been curious about the hype or just fancy treating yourself to some genuinely good makeup that won't drain your account, now's your chance to see what all the fuss is about.

Because sometimes the best beauty brands aren't the ones shouting the loudest or spending millions on campaigns. Sometimes they're the ones quietly perfecting formulas, listening to what customers actually want, and letting the products do what they're supposed to: make you look and feel brilliant.