When the pandemic broke out in March, only those with essential jobs were allowed to venture out of their homes once precautionary measures were put in place. The rest of us could only hope and pray that these essential workers, these front-liners would be able to go about their jobs safely and efficiently.

People sent medical workers everything from daily refreshments to surgical masks and face shields. It was the bayanihan spirit coursing through a pandemic.

This year, this new breed of heroes was chosen by Burt’s Bees Philippines to receive care packages consisting of lip balms from the all-natural skincare brand. A total of 1,000 lip balms were turned over last week—200 per hospital—to front-liners in five hospitals in Metro Manila: The Medical City, St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, Lung Center of the Philippines, National Children’s Hospital, and Cardinal Santos Medical Center.

“We hope that by treating our front-liners with something as simple as Burt’s Bees lip balm, we can spark hope and lift them up,” said Paulo Lao, Burt’s Bees international sales and marketing director for Southeast Asia. “This is our own little way of sharing joy, paying gratitude and respect to all their heroic efforts in saving and protecting Filipinos.”

The all-natural skincare brand from San Francisco is widely known for its lip balms that have been a staple in purses for close to four decades. The variants have been expanded to include vanilla bean, honey, strawberry and pomegranate. Its other product lines include tinted balms and shimmers for just a hint of color.

Despite pandemic restrictions, the brand did well the past few months. “Overall, Burt’s Bees as a natural skin care brand is doing well as we observed more people becoming particular with conscious skin care especially during this time,” Daye Delos Reyes, Burt’s Bees brand manager for Southeast Asia, told Lifestyle.

“We are gaining traction with lip care as it gains focus now that interactions are done online. Our e-commerce platform has definitely taken a surge compared to last year, especially with our holiday lip care sets,” she added.

The company is grateful to those who supported their recent promo where they donated a lip balm to one front-liner for every Burt’s Bees holiday set purchased. It’s an initiative they plan to do regularly.

The five hospitals were singled out because as Delos Reyes explained, they were at the forefront in managing COVID-related cases at the height of the pandemic. “We intend to roll it out to a few more partner institutions by the first quarter of next year,” she said.

“Our efforts in the past have been geared towards spreading awareness and action to help the bees, which are disappearing at alarming rates. In the US, for every ‘Selfless Selfie’ created at selflessselfie.burtsbees.com and every purchase of a #BringBackTheBees lip balm, The Burt’s Bees Foundation will plant 5,000 wildflower seeds. The goal is to plant two billion wildflower seeds.”

Burt’s Bees lip balm has all-natural ingredients to help maintain moisture and prevent lips from drying which is a big issue given how we wear masks for longer periods of time.

“The beauty of Burt’s Bees is it is a natural skin care brand and not classified as makeup per se. Consumers like our lip balms, tinted lip balms and lip shimmers which provide a hint of tint and long lasting moisture to keep lips soft and smooth. They prefer to use these while at home instead of heavy makeup or lipsticks,” Delos Reyes said.

Burt’s Bees is currently available in select department and cosmetic stores, Shopee and Lazada. For more information, follow @burtsbeesph on Facebook and Instagram or go to https://www.burtsbees.com.ph/

ADVT.