I’ve been writing a weekly blog here for well over a year now, and I think this week might just be the easiest one I’ve ever had to write.
Because I am so incredibly proud — and still slightly ecstatic — to tell you that last night, Janni Bars won the Sustainability Award at the Irish Made Awards 2026!
Even typing that feels a little surreal.
Last night’s awards took place at the beautiful Johnstown Estate, and it was such an incredible evening from start to finish. Niamh Devereux and the team at Irish Country Magazine put together something really special, celebrating not only this year’s finalists but also the tenth anniversary of the Irish Made Awards.
There were friendly, familiar faces, plenty of new ones, brilliant Irish businesses everywhere you looked and a real feeling of celebration in the room.
There was also a lot of emotion.
Some of the speeches were happy, some were incredibly moving, and some were heartbreaking. There were stories of businesses built through difficult times, people taking enormous chances on ideas they believed in, families working together and businesses growing from the smallest beginnings.
As a small business owner, so much of it hits home.
And then they called Janni Bars.
Our first Irish Made win
Janni Bars has been lucky enough to be recognised by the Irish Made Awards before, and honestly, being nominated alongside so many incredible Irish businesses has always meant a huge amount to me.
But this was different.
This was our first actual Irish Made Awards win.
And to win Sustainability feels particularly special.
You don’t specifically enter yourself into the Sustainability category. The Irish Country Magazine team selects the businesses they believe deserve recognition for the work they are doing in this area.
So to know that somebody looked at Janni Bars, looked at what we have built and what we are trying to achieve, and decided that work deserved to be highlighted means more than I can really explain.
Because sustainability is where this whole slightly mad journey began.
It actually started with washing horses
Anyone who has followed Janni Bars for a while probably knows this story.
I didn’t originally set out to build a beauty brand.
I wanted a better way to wash my horses.
I was using bottle after bottle of shampoo, looking at all that plastic and thinking there had to be another way. That thought eventually led me down the rabbit hole of solid products — experimenting, learning, formulating and discovering just how much could actually be achieved without the bottle.
And from there, Janni Bars grew.
What started with wanting to wash horses more sustainably eventually became shampoo bars, conditioner bars, body washes, face care, soaps and an ever-growing range of solid products.
But something else became incredibly important along the way.
Sustainability alone isn't enough.
People have to actually want to use the product.
I said this when I accepted the award last night, and it remains one of the biggest beliefs behind Janni Bars.
I don’t want you to buy a Janni Bars shampoo bar simply because it saves a plastic bottle.
I want you to buy it because it works.
Because you love how your hair feels.
Because the ingredients have been carefully chosen.
Because there is a bar designed for what your hair actually needs.
Because you used it, loved it and came back for another one.
And then the fact that you've chosen something solid, concentrated and plastic-free becomes this fantastic added benefit.
That has been my approach from the beginning: performance first, sustainability built in.
What a year this has been
Last night also gave me one of those rare opportunities to stop for a second and actually look back.
Small business owners are notoriously bad at this.
You reach one milestone and, instead of celebrating it properly, you're usually already thinking about the next order that needs packing, the invoice that needs sending, the batch that needs making or the idea you want to try next.
But 2026 has already been quite a year for Janni Bars.
Earlier this year we were recognised locally with a sustainability win through the Local Enterprise Office in Longford.
We had the enormous excitement of Janni Bars being featured nationally on RTÉ’s Nationwide, giving people around Ireland a look behind the scenes at what we do and where these little bars actually come from.
And now we can add:
Irish Made Awards 2026 — Sustainability Winner.
And somehow, as I write this, we still have three months of 2026 left!
It would be lovely to pretend that these things just happen.
They don’t.
Anyone running a small business knows how much work sits behind the moments people eventually see.
There are early mornings and late nights. There are products that work and ideas that absolutely do not. There are cash-flow headaches, enormous orders, tiny orders, exciting emails, disappointing emails, manufacturing days, paperwork days and days when you genuinely wonder what on earth you're doing.
Then there are nights like last night.
And suddenly you get this wonderful reminder that all those tiny steps are actually taking you somewhere.
This award belongs to more than me
Janni Bars might have started as my idea, but it certainly hasn't grown because of me alone.
Every person who has ordered a bar, reordered one, recommended us to a friend, bought Janni Bars from one of our stockists, shared a post, sent me a lovely message, stopped for a chat at a show or simply told somebody, “You should try these” has played a part in getting us here.
Word of mouth has been one of the most powerful ways this business has grown.
And I think that makes an award like this feel even more special.
We're showing that sustainability doesn't have to mean sacrificing quality, luxury or results.
A shampoo bar doesn't have to be the worthy eco alternative you reluctantly choose because it's “better for the planet.”
It can simply be the product you prefer.
And if we can get more people to choose solid products for that reason, while quietly removing bottle after bottle from bathrooms along the way, then I think we're doing something worthwhile.
So today I'm allowing myself to enjoy this one.
I'm incredibly proud of what Janni Bars has become, very grateful to Irish Country Magazine for recognising what we're trying to achieve, and even more grateful to all of you who keep choosing these little bars and allowing me to keep building this business.
Irish Made Awards 2026 Sustainability Winner.
That one is going to take a little while to sink in.
Thank you. 💚
And, as always:
Raise the Bar