Dunboyne holistic therapist wins multiple accolades at Beauty Shortlist Awards 2025
A Dunboyne holistic therapist has been honoured with several awards for her skincare range at the recent Beauty Shortlist Awards 2025.
Josie's Botanicals has been named Best Aromatherapy Skincare Brand at the prestigious awards, alongside multiple product wins.
According to Barbara McAteer, Creator of Josie's Botanicals; "We are absolutely thrilled and deeply honoured to receive these awards. It's a testament to the love and care we put into every product, ensuring our customers experience the best, purest, safest and most beneficial ingredients that nature has to offer."
Josie's Botanicals was inspired by Barbara's late mother who used natural remedies on her and her eleven siblings when she was a child inspired her to start her own organic skincare range during lockdown.
Like many Barbara McAteer's life took a detour when the pandemic forced her to give up her job as a holistic therapist providing treatments to people with special needs but the transition allowed her to explore another avenue that had been passionate about since childhood.
Having seen the benefits of using her own specially mixed products on clients during treatments, Barbara used the time to experiment further and created Josie's Botanicals, named in honour of her mother who was the driving force behind the Dunboyne's woman's passion for natural alternatives.
Speaking previously about how her mother who lived into her 90s instilled the idea that remedies closer to nature were always best, Barbara said:
"Growing up in a large Irish family we had a very simple life. Mum was from Co Cavan and our dad Jimmy from Donegal but most of us were born in Kildallen, Co Cavan.
"Mum was always a very earthy, sweet lady who always inspired me, particularly with home made remedies and cures which always seemed to work a treat.
“She grew herbs in the garden and used them as teas and was always reading lots about herbalism and telling her children and grandchildren all about the medicinal benefits.
Josie's Botanicals was born out of Barbara's "simple" life growing up
Barbara and her siblings would experience ways to heal naturally growing up rather than always turning to traditional medicine as she explains:
"She would have her green tea in the morning, her peppermint tea in the afternoon and camomile tea at night for their health benefits.
"We used dock leaves to cure nettle stings, a dock rhyme we used to say when rubbing was “Dockin, Dockin in and out, take the sting of the nettle out!"
"We'd have gripe water always at hand which was used as a remedy for colic and stomach upsets in babies. It's a mixture of water, baking soda, and herbs such as dill, fennel, lemon balm and ginger.
"We always got cod liver oil for our tummy upsets and barley water for our chest ailments.
"She collected nettles sometimes which were very good detox for the immune system and my sister Aine who was a macrobiotic chef would sometimes make delicious nettle pesto.
"I remember picking elderberry flowers with her while walking in the countryside and we infused them for tea.
The passionate holistic therapist says there is much more than just aesthetic benefits from embracing organic skin care.
"I think there is very much a mind, body, spirit feeling with natural products, it's not just the skin benefits you see with them, I've worked with people with additional needs and I have seen the uplifting benefits from using nourishing ingredients and bringing the aromatherapy and essential oils into it I think it's good for the mind.
"The skin understands what we get from nature more, I think the chemicals disrupt the structure and disrupt the skin, the skin is a natural organ and I really believe that natural ingredients and natural substances work in harmony with the skin."
"I think there is very much a mind, body, spirit feeling with natural products, it's not just the skin benefits you see with them, I've worked with people with additional needs and I have seen the uplifting benefits from using nourishing ingredients and bringing the aromatherapy and essential oils into it I think it's good for the mind.
"The skin understands what we get from nature more, I think the chemicals disrupt the structure and disrupt the skin, the skin is a natural organ and I really believe that natural ingredients and natural substances work in harmony with the skin."
Josie's Botanicals took home:
Best Aromatherapy Skincare Brand (Wellbeing Section)
Best Reparative Hand Cream – Hand Repairing Cream Best Aromatherapy Skincare Product for Winter – Nourishing Night Cream Best Face Mist – Refreshing Skin Tonic
Best Men's Moisturiser – Hydrating Moisturiser (Mandarin & Cedarwood)
Editor's Choice Beauty – Hydrating Moisturiser (Frankincense & Geranium)
Commended Awards: Organic Cleansing Balm, Rose & Oat Facemask, Muscle & Joint Ease Balm, Skin Repairing Balm.