The RUNESILK Story · 2023 & 2024
Where the Hat-Trick Began: Success at the Beauty Shortlist Awards
Every streak starts with a first win. For RUNESILK, that moment came in 2023, when Dark Night Bedtime Beard Butter took the Best Grooming Product award at the Beauty Shortlist Awards for the very first time. A year later, in 2024, it won again, and our Revolution Beard Butter was Commended alongside it. Neither of us knew it yet, but that back-to-back result was the first two steps of what would become a four-year winning streak.
The products that started it
At the heart of both wins are two of our longest-standing beard butters, each whipped from Shea, Mango and Cocoa Butters, enriched with Grapeseed, Jojoba, Argan and Sea Buckthorn oils. Dark Night is the quiet one, a bedtime blend of lavender, neroli, fennel, clary sage and benzoin designed to work while you sleep. Revolution is the sharper counterpart, built around sandalwood, black pepper and bergamot. Different moods, same standard.
Why the Beauty Shortlist Awards matter
The Beauty Shortlist is known internationally for its independent, rigorous judging, so being recognised there in consecutive years told us something about consistency, not just a single good batch. It's one thing to make a great product once. It's another to keep making it well enough that the same panel of judges comes back and says so again.
A founder in the ring, not just behind the counter
I've always competed in UK beard competitions alongside running RUNESILK, most notably taking 3rd place at The British Beard and Moustache Championships. It's the same instinct either way: put the work in, show up, and let the result speak for itself.
Looking back, that 2024 quote undersold what was coming. What felt like a strong two-year run has since become four consecutive wins, with Dark Night taking Best Beard Product again in 2025 and 2026. Sustainability and organic sourcing have stayed non-negotiable throughout, from minimal packaging to the safety testing behind every product, because the awards were always a byproduct of doing the work properly rather than the goal itself.