MÁDARA

MÁDARA is a Latvian skincare and makeup company founded in 2006 and based in the Riga metropolitan area, where it develops and manufactures natural and organic certified products built around wild Northern and Baltic plants. The brand name comes from the Latvian word for Galium mollugo, the bedstraw plant. Styled in capitals as MÁDARA, the company also trades under the legal entity AS MADARA Cosmetics and describes itself as Latvia's largest beauty manufacturer [5].

The company is publicly traded, with shares admitted to the Nasdaq Baltic First North market in 2017 [7]. It reported revenue of €23.22 million for 2025 and employs around 180 people [4], and remains active across the Nordic markets and the wider EU.

MÁDARA traces its beginnings to founder Lotte Tisenkopfa-Iltnere, whose interest in Northern botanicals is rooted in her childhood. "As a child, I spent my summers exploring Latvian nature, picking wild herbs and listening to grandmother's stories about their healing properties," she has said of the brand's origins. From that starting point she built a company around herbs of the harsh Northern climate, examined through laboratory research rather than folklore alone.

Sources differ on the founding team. The company's own site and Wikipedia name Lotte Tisenkopfa-Iltnere as the founder [1][4], while the sustainability directory COSH! describes the brand as established in 2006 "by a visionary quartet of Latvian women" [6]. Wikipedia refers to her as a co-founder, which is consistent with more than one person being involved. The founding year of 2006 is not in dispute; Wikipedia records the precise date as 28 July 2006.

The company positions itself around the idea that the cold Northern environment produces plants with unusual potency, which its scientists and chemists aim to capture in skincare and makeup. According to the founder, the goal is "pure skincare and makeup for every skin type, every skin need." The brand frames its work as combining traditional herbal knowledge with scientific scrutiny, describing an approach of studying "legends about healing Northern herbs under the penetrating gaze of doctors in the fierce light of scientific labs."

Its products are natural and organic certified and produced at the company's own factory in Latvia. The brand maintains a published "free-from" list that excludes parabens, mineral oils, silicones, chemical UV filters, PEGs, GMOs, artificial and animal-derived colourants, nano materials and synthetic fragrances.

The range spans skincare, makeup, body care and haircare, and Wikipedia notes a catalogue of more than 80 products. Among the Northern and Baltic ingredients the company highlights are Northern birch water, an extract of chanterelle mushroom, berry and plant seed oils, plant stem cells, lady's mantle and algae.

The brand has carried out its own research in partnership with the University of Latvia, and the directory COSH! reports that this work produced a patented formulation based on birch water, chanterelle mushroom extract and dragonhead stem cells [6]. The company states that its products are dermatologically proven.

MÁDARA's products are certified as natural and partly organic by Ecocert Greenlife under the ECOCERT and COSMOS standards [6], and the company describes them as vegan-friendly and cruelty-free, though COSH! notes that some products contain lanolin or beeswax while the rest are vegan. According to the same directory, 95 percent of the brand's plant-based ingredients are certified organic.

The company says it has used recyclable and sustainably made packaging since its first product, with all bottles, tubes and flacons described as fully recyclable [5]. It has offered carbon-neutral delivery since 2021 and publishes an ESG report. In October 2022 it became, by Wikipedia's account, the first small or medium-sized enterprise in the Baltic states to partner with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on reducing transport emissions [4]. In March 2025 the company was certified as a B Corporation, with an overall B Impact score of 80.7 against a median of 50.9 for ordinary businesses [5].

In 2007, a year after its founding, the brand's logo and design received the EULDA/WOLDA award and the title "Best of Latvia" [4]. The company launched a sub-brand, MOSSA, in 2014, accounting for roughly a tenth of overall turnover [7]. In 2017 its shares were admitted to trading on the Nasdaq Baltic First North market following an offer whose demand reached 2.6 times the base [7]. The company has since described an export focus on building brand awareness in France, Germany and Sweden.

MÁDARA is an active, publicly traded company. It maintains an operating online store and ongoing product lines, reported revenue of €23.22 million for 2025, and was certified as a B Corporation in the same year [4].