Ekopharma

Ekopharma, also styled EKOPHARMA Helsinki, is a Finnish professional natural-cosmetics series built around the extracts of Nordic berries. The brand makes skincare and haircare for use by trained beauty professionals, and according to the company its formulas combine locally grown berry extracts and seed oils with researched natural actives. Products are developed and manufactured in Finland, and the series is owned by the Finnish family company Berner Oy, which acquired it in 2021 [8]. The brand remains active, with a full product catalogue and a live website.

The Ekopharma series originated under Naviter Oy, a Finnish cosmetics company founded in 2012 whose professional ranges included Ekopharma Helsinki [8]. The line was developed around northern berries used as active ingredients — an approach the company frames with the tagline "Hyvinvoivaa ihoa, pohjolan luonnon marjoilla" (healthy skin from the berries of the northern wilds).

In December 2021, Berner Oy bought the entire share capital of Naviter Oy, bringing Ekopharma into its portfolio [8]. Berner is a long-established Finnish family business whose roots, by its own account, trace back to a herring-import trade begun in 1883. Within Berner, Ekopharma sits alongside sister cosmetics brands including BTB13, Pure=Beauty, By Raili and Murumuru.

Ekopharma organises both its skincare and haircare around berry-named product lines, each tied to a different fruit and function. The skincare lines include Vadelma (raspberry, moisturising), Herukka (currant, protective), Tyrni (sea buckthorn, anti-age), Karpalo (cranberry, cleansing), Mustikka (bilberry, fragrance-free) and Hilla (cloudberry, for the body), plus a men's range. The haircare side mirrors the same berry families across shampoos, conditioners, masks and styling products.

The active ingredients are drawn chiefly from Finnish and Nordic berries, listed by their botanical (INCI) names: raspberry (Rubus Idaeus), blackcurrant (Ribes Nigrum), sea buckthorn (Hippophae Rhamnoides), cranberry (Vaccinium Oxycoccos), bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus) and cloudberry (Rubus Chamaemorus), used as fruit extracts, fruit waters and seed oils [4]. The brand pairs these with more familiar cosmetic ingredients such as sodium hyaluronate and glycerin, and pitches the berries as a source of vitamins, antioxidants and polyphenols.

Ekopharma is sold as professional cosmetics rather than directly to consumers: its distributor describes it as a domestic, certified natural-cosmetics series whose retailers are beauty-care professionals [6]. The same distributor states that the products use professional-grade actives with researched effects, and that the berry-based range was developed to be effective and well tolerated by sensitive skin [6].

The company says its products are for the most part vegan, with any non-vegan ingredient flagged on the relevant product page, and that the Mustikka (bilberry) line is completely fragrance-free [5]. Ekopharma also appears among the certified series listed by FI-Natura, a Finnish natural-cosmetics certification scheme established in 2014, where it is described as "a Finnish skin care series developed for use by beauty care professionals" [7].

Ekopharma is active. It operates as a series under Berner Oy, with a fully populated brand site offering its current skincare and haircare catalogue and distribution through Finnish beauty professionals. Its scope is largely domestic, and the brand has limited English-language editorial coverage and no Wikipedia entry, which is typical of a niche professional line.