How Three Mom-Owned Businesses are Supporting Front Line Healthcare Workers

Three mom business owners, all working independently of each other, have sent hundreds of creams, balms, and lotions to frontline healthcare workers to help with the chafing, redness, and irritation that comes from wearing masks and gloves all day as well as extra hand washing.

“Seeing our medical community bearing the stress - physically and emotionally, and the effects of that being visible on their faces and in their eyes, how could I not share the Ishq,” says Ishq Skincare founder Sarah Zareen. “Ishq” means “love” in Urdu.

Danielle Trapp, founder of Halisi says seeing an Italian nurse’s red & raw face on an Instagram post brought her to tears. “I began brainstorming when Italy was in their peak, but it took time to formulate, get necessary supplies, and find contacts.”

Alison Warlitner, founder of Cherry River, says “I have multiple cousins who work as RNs and I know more doctors than I realized. They started telling us how their skin was chafing under masks and under gloves, and we realized that our lotion or shea butter would give relief, and the CBD would help with skin irritations, redness, and swelling."

Ishq Skincare ready to ship. Rynly is mom-owned local shipping company.

Ishq Skincare

Local pharmacists holding Ishq Fitoor scrub and Uns clay mask.

Through Ishq, Sarah has sent nearly $1,000 worth of organic moisturizing creams, scrubs & masks to contacts working at OHSU and pharmacies around Portland, Oregon. 

Sarah also says “I know my products bring healing. It was a driving fire that rose within me. As soon as the thought of sharing came into my mind, I asked members of the MOB Nation for connections.  Service to others is what my brother & I were taught from childhood, and it being Ramadan, I felt this urgency to share Ishq’s healing powers.”

Halisi Skincare

Halisi chafing balm.

Halisi, which was created to create safe and natural solutions to skin care problems, has sent over over 700 tubes of her newly created chafing balm to nurses in New York City and California. Danielle is also distributing them to employees at local senior homes.

Although the project started as a service project with her teenage son, they have surpassed the original goal. The new goal is to send 1,000 tubes.

Danielle says “Medical professionals have no choice when it comes to wearing a mask, and they’re sometimes two masks at a time for their entire shift, every day. That gets painful - not only the chafing, but also the humidity inside the masks just wreaks havoc on the skin.”

Cherry River

Cherry River Mango Aloe Gel, Muscle Gel, and Beauty Lotion

Cherry River’s program of sending items to healthcare workers on the front lines is part of a larger donation program.

“Our primary concern was getting items to people working in healthcare, but we also realized there was going to be a need for donations because many who use CBD as medication would not be able to afford it,” Alison explains.

Cherry River’s first donation arm acts as a buy one, get one program, except instead of the purchaser getting an extra item, Cherry River makes an in-kind donation and gives items away via an application system. There is no screening or documentation needed. Through this program they’ve sent out over $4,000 of CBD tinctures, capsules, topicals, and even bath bombs to close to 100 applicants.

That program also funds donations to healthcare workers, and allowed them to give over 40 lotions and shea butters to pediatric doctors, nurses, ER technicians, and personnel making PPE for medical staff.