Soraya

Soraya is a Polish cosmetics brand founded in 1984 by Jolanta Zwolińska [8]. It makes skincare, body care and makeup at the drugstore price level, and since 2020 has been owned and operated by the Kraków-based Bielenda Group [6]. The brand is based in Kraków and remains active, with a broad current product portfolio spanning more than twenty lines.

The name comes from Princess Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari of Iran, chosen for her beauty and elegance — qualities the founder wanted the cosmetics to embody [8]. That reference has stayed with the brand, whose historical slogan translated as "How beautifully you look today."

Zwolińska established Soraya in Poland in 1984, during the final years before the country's economic transformation [8]. Marek Bielenda, president of the group that now owns it, has placed the brand's origins in the same period as his own company, describing Soraya and its sister brand Dermika as products of that transition era [9].

The princess who lent the brand its name married the Shah of Iran in 1951, moved to Europe after her divorce in 1958, and died in Paris in 2001 [8]. According to the naming account, the founder chose blue for the brand's colours, to signal trust and freshness, with gold accents.

Soraya is owned by Bielenda Kosmetyki Naturalne S.A., part of the Bielenda Group, a Polish cosmetics manufacturer founded in 1990 by Barbara Bielenda and headquartered in Kraków [6]. Bielenda acquired Soraya in 2020 from Orkla Care Poland, part of Norway's Orkla Group, buying it alongside the skincare brand Dermika [6][7]. To finance the purchase, the Bielenda founders sold a portion of their shares to the private equity firm Innova Capital [7]. The acquisition was reported at the time as pending regulatory approval [7].

Within the Bielenda Group, Soraya sits among a large stable of brands that also includes Bielenda, Dermika, Miya Cosmetics and Tołpa, among others [6].

Soraya presents itself as a "laboratory of comfort for your skin," aiming to make effective, pleasant-to-use cosmetics at reasonable prices. The company frames skincare as a form of everyday self-care and sums up its pillars as happiness, naturalness, sensuality and fun. Its formulas are described as vegan and built on natural plant essences and active ingredients, with a stated concern for animal welfare and sustainable development.

Trade press covering the 2020 acquisition placed Soraya in the mass-market face and body care segment [9].

The range covers face care, body care and makeup, along with sun care. Among its lines, PLANTE is positioned as the natural-origin flagship: the company states its products contain 98 to 99 percent ingredients of natural origin and no parabens, silicones, artificial dyes or SLS. Its plant-based actives include wakame algae, Japanese cedar, neroli water, white tea, aloe and oils such as macadamia, jojoba and avocado.

Other lines include a prebiotic-focused Probio range (Probio Care, Probio Clean and Probio Make-up) and Peptydowy Zastrzyk Młodości, a peptide anti-ageing line segmented by age group for consumers in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

The brand describes most of the ingredients in the PLANTE line as certified by EcoCert and COSMOS — a certification the company applies at the ingredient level rather than to finished products across the brand.

Soraya is active. Its website carries a 2026 copyright and current product lines, and the brand operates primarily in Poland; it is also distributed in Nordic markets. Ownership and operation remain with the Bielenda Group.