COVER STORY: A FRIENDLY CHOICE

A FRIENDLY CHOICE

A PROFESSIONAL VEGAN CHOICE FOR AN ADVANCED SALON ENVIRONMENT, A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO THE COMMUNITIES IN WHICH IT TRADES AND AN OPPORTUNITY TO JOIN STOCKHOLM’S NUMBER ONE HAIRCARE BRAND, MAKE IT HARD TO NOT WANT TO EXPERIENCE MARIA NILA, WRITES CAMERON PINE

Maria Nila is your modern hairdressing muse, she’s trendy, aesthetically relevant and she’s conscious about the environment – she also produces all of her formulas from a state-of-the-art Helsingborg factory, one of the cleanest and greenest custombuilt factories in the hairdressing world, complete with solar power for every step of the process.

From what started in a family backyard in Sweden with a commitment to producing a better quality, naturally derived product than what the market had ever seen, the brand is now in 45 countries across three continents, with specific community minded initiatives that span the globe as the core to their growing army of Maria Nila lovers.

Maria Nila was founded in 1999 by the entrepreneurs Ann and Ulf Wikström. Their son Marcus Wikstrom has now continued the brand’s legacy. After numerous challenges, Maria Nila now rests as a staple in European salons and has risen to become the number one haircare brand in Sweden.

The Maria Nila story is one of resilience, family heritage and transparency whereby, still to this day, a painting of the founders hangs proudly in the Maria Nila factory, reminding each and every employee that they are very much part of a family.

“Maria Nila is a very friendly, honest and transparent familyowned business. I think people want more than just products. With our own production, we can show the salons and consumers that we walk the talk, and you vote with your money. We want to make a real difference through the products but also through our charity work. Our goal is that everyone working with Maria Nila should feel that difference and be able to see it via our products, partners and social media channels,” said Maria Nila Europe CEO, Thomas Barka.

“As the number one professional haircare brand in Sweden with a strong consumer following, the growth potential for Maria Nila is significant. We believe there is more opportunity to accelerate global expansion and increase share in underpenetrated categories by leveraging the brand’s successful go-to market strategy and differentiated brand proposition.”

The range of care and styling products is joined by a bleach collection and colour refresh range, an ambient range including candles and body products that span multiple pastel tones and categories, for every hair type and fragrance lover. A further expansion of products is on the horizon for 2024 and beyond.

“At Maria Nila we see everyone as equal, we believe that innovation is the key to the future and that you get richer when you also give back. With this in mind, we look forward to continue to find new and innovative ways with our products, materials and services together,” Thomas said.

Ahead of its time, before a vegan approach became part of our daily product conversations, the brand was established with the vision to create haircare that was of both a premium professional standard but also cruelty-free while overall contributing to a more sustainable world – beyond just the hairdressing industry. The sustainable message starts with the products using ecofriendly and sustainably sourced ingredients as well as reducing their overall environmental footprint from its Scandinavian headquarters and factory.

Offering a wide range of shampoos and styling products for every hair type, Maria Nila is widely recognised for its colour preserving products – as one of the first brands to incorporate highly effective colour care formulas without harmful chemicals. The colour care ranges were among the first to extend the life of colour and maintain its vibrancy using 100 per cent vegan formulas. More recently the brand also launched a range of colour refresh products including the Maria Nila Colour Refresh nourishing colour hair masks with semi-permanent colour pigments that will quickly freshen up hair colour tones, no matter what the colour choice. All Colour Refresh masks can be blended with White Mix to create pastel colours or mix two different colours to create a unique personalised colour.

Over the years, Maria Nila has expanded its presence beyond Sweden and is now available in various countries around the world. They have gained popularity among both consumers and salon professionals in all corners of the globe, largely due to the fresh and colourful packaging that utilises on-trend colours and the variety of products that all fall under the same environmental ethos.

Following the financial crisis of 2008, Maria Nila found itself at a crossroads. In order for the brand to survive, they had to do something new, so founder Ann decided to take everything she owned to invest it in the company once again. This was the starting point for the 100 per cent vegan products that are friendly to the hair and the environment. Since then, they have been devoted to giving the world environment-friendly hair and beauty. Maria Nila herself was the great-grandmother of Ann and she lived up in the Swedish mountains about 100 years ago. Maria showed great respect for her surroundings and animals, and the heritage from Maria Nila’s natural philosophy is still the core foundation of everything that they do. That is why all products are vegan and the packaging is climate compensated for. With this heritage, the brand wish to keep providing the world with professional, friendly beauty and keep on moving in the right direction.

The commitment to green manufacturing at the factory spans to energy efficient technologies and production schedules as well as water management and sustainable packaging. Not only this but Sweden is well known for high-quality standards and has a strong reputation for innovation and research. The vegan and professional brand is a hot favourite in its home market. Brand ambassadors include Elsa Hosk, the former Victoria’s Secret model, and Swedish pop phenomenon, Zara Larsson. Further afield, global expansion is key, and a relationship with Australian distributor Rogue Beauty has been pivotal.

To signify its significant growth, Maria Nila opened a monthlong pop-up store in New York in June to signal its further ambitions in the US market, and will continue to drive consumers to the messaging behind Maria Nila.

Marking 2024 as the year of the ‘friendly bee’, Maria Nila extends charity work across all corners of the globe. For 2024, the brand is set to support a small yet important creatures close to home – the pollinators - AKA bees, which are crucial for maintaining a colourful and flourishing environment for us all to live in and are a very important part of biodiversity. Without pollinators, all of us humans and all of earth’s terrestrial ecosystems would not survive. From bees and butterflies to birds, pollinators facilitate the transfer of pollen between flowers, enabling the reproduction and survival of countless plant species.

For 2023, Maria Nila supported the sea turtle species that has been roaming the oceans for 150 million years, but whose population is vastly decreasing. Several turtle species are in danger due to various and largely human-induced factors, and a rapidly changing ocean environment. Pollution, such as plastics in the waters, fishnets and oil emissions, are all a danger to this important species. It’s estimated that each year 640,000,000 kilograms of discarded fishing equipment endanger species in the ocean, killing marine line for up to 600 years and resulting in millions of killed marine animals and fish every single year. The nets also comprise more than 50 per cent of all harmful microplastic in the water. Together with The Perfect World Foundation, the brand donated profits to the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre to combat these issues.

Across the entire brand, Maria Nila champions and advocates for the environment and animals, which is why all of their products come in CO₂ compensated packaging. Beyond this, they also work with Plan Vivo to climate compensate for the total emissions of CO₂ from their entire operation. This initiative has contributed to the planting of 280 000 metres² of forest in Nicaragua since 2016.

“Since we started out in 1999 with ‘The Friendly Year’ it has been in our inner core that animals should not be part of human vanity. This means that we have continued to choose a specific cause or endangered animal that will actively lead our charity work and friendly initiatives for the next 365 days,” Thomas said.

The Maria Nila Eco Therapy line takes the cause of sustainability even further on top of Maria Nila’s incredibly conscious efforts, while also ensuring effective results on all hair types. In the world of beauty, it’s rare to find an eco-friendly brand that works on the finest hair, as well as the thickest, curlier textures. From styling products to colour masks, and several product families dedicated to repairing, balancing, protecting, toning, and softening, Maria Nila as a brand covers so much ground.

In the ever-changing world of beauty across both care and styling, Maria Nila believes that they can continue to make a change for the better - to adapt, explore the unknown and allow innovation and playfulness to lead the way. With this in mind, they decided to launch an entirely vegan wax range. Some called them crazy, but after a lot of time, energy and formulation trials they launched Minerals – the world’s first professional 100 per cent vegan wax collection.

When visiting the Maria Nila factory in Helsingborg in July, I was fortunate enough to work with a lab manager and product formulator, Jenny Månsson, Senior Product Developer, to produce my every own Maria Nila product. Providing a hands-on insight into how the products are made and what ingredients are best for specific hair needs, I opted for a highly moisturising Sea Algae and Aloe Vera inspired formula, which was subtle on smell and high on hydration. It’s this transparency with every client and the consumer that is allowing complete engagement and authenticity through content and sharing and is pushing the brand ahead. Even the cars at the Factory HQ are electric Volvos - testament to their brand pledge of spending a little bit more so they are not as taxing on our planet.

This ability to see everything that goes into the products and complete transparency is a fundamental element in the integrity and global growth of the professional network too –with stylists choosing to come on board for the aligned values and not just for notoriety.

It’s this daily work that guides the brand to a familiar, friendly organisation that constantly strives for innovative products, processes and people. The brand’s growth proves that now is a great time to jump in and align with a brand that speaks best to you and your increasingly discerning clientele, no matter who you are.

For more information visit www.roguebeauty.com.au

WHY CHOOSE MARIA NILA?

• Colour protection focused haircare with professional performance

• 100 per cent vegan and friendly beauty

• Unique design, scents and active ingredients

• Climate compensated packaging

• Give back to animals and the environment

• Swedish production built around a better conscience

• High quality PETA approved formulations

• Instead of beeswax, lanolin and silk proteins, Maria Nila includes proteins from Cale, Carrot and Lemon, She Butter and Carnauba and Candelilla Wax