About
Matka Botanicals is a Vancouver Island based vegan beauty brand founded by Nicolina Kolster, dedicated to providing clean and cruelty free solutions to the beauty market while actively defending animal rights through education, awareness, and monthly donations.
At Matka we religiously believe in a simplified skincare routine with fast-acting and long-lasting results. Our products are vegan, cruelty-free, and made with love and care in small batches with high performing and 100% plant-based ingredients. We love playing scientists with everything nature has to offer, creating original formulas from scratch, tested on real people - never animals!
Matka is the Finnish word for journey - a never ending journey to design, research, source, formulate, create and provide products you can trust and that are safe for you, your little ones, the animals, and the planet. We pride ourselves with environmental friendly packaging, recycleble materials where possible, cruelty-free practices, and petrolium free, ocean safe, and sustainably sourced ingredients. 1% of our monthly proceeds are donated to Humane Canada.
Nicolina’s background
Nicolina grew up in Southern Finland on a small hobby farm with her mom and dad, two younger siblings, three horses, two goats, three cats, and two dogs. The early introduction to herbalism, natural beauty, organic farming, a love for animals, and entrepreneurial parents laid the ground for her burning passion for clean, homemade skincare and later animal rights activism.
After finishing her degree in Aesthetics from the secondary vocational institution Yrkesinstitut Prakticum in Helsinki 2012, Nicolina left to travel the world for 3 years, eventually moving to Canada to live with her Canadian partner, where she continued her studies in nutritional science, graduating the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition in 2017.
In 2018 Nicolina founded Matka Botanicals, a natural skincare business making artisan soaps, bath bombs, and beauty products, mostly as a paid hobby while still working her 9-5 job in Nanaimo. Not until the year of 2020, after getting laid off she decided to go all in, making clean and vegan beauty products full-time, and quickly landed several retailers across Vancouver Island. Today she is actively speaking up against animal cruelty within the beauty industry, educating people to make more sustainable choices when purchasing skincare.