Heroes Unmasked: Influencer gives out free beauty products to frontline workers as ‘token of appreciation’

As Singapore battles the Covid-19 outbreak, TODAY’s Heroes Unmasked series highlights those who are doing their bit to spread kindness and compassion during this period. In this instalment, we speak to beauty influencer Sahur Saleim who is giving out gift bags filled with make-up and skincare products to frontline workers.

SINGAPORE — Make-up artist and beauty influencer Sahur Saleim, 22, was scrolling through Instagram on Thursday (March 26) afternoon when she saw a post by another influencer from the United Kingdom (UK) who was giving away hair styling tools to workers in UK’s public healthcare system, the National Health Service (NHS). 

Ms Sahur looked around her room filled with unused make-up, skincare and haircare products, and realised that she, too, could do her part.

Two hours later, she posted a video to her 326,000 Instagram followers to introduce the #ThankYouFLWsg campaign, which stands for Thank You Front-Line Workers Singapore, where such workers can sign up online for a free bag of beauty products. 

Within two hours, she received 50 requests and that number has grown to more than 250 as of noon on Monday (March 30).

The requests have come from healthcare workers, supermarket staff, cleaners, security guards and delivery workers. Stewardesses, police officers, firefighters, retail assistants at pharmacies and passenger service officers at the airport have also signed up.

“I think I'm inconvenienced (by Covid-19) but I have the liberty of staying at home and feeling safe while they really have to go out there and pull it together for the rest of us. I thought it would be nice if I could put some sort of gift bags together for them just as a token of appreciation,” said Ms Sahur, a Pakistani national who has lived in Singapore for a total of 11 years. She spent two years in Singapore when she was a child before moving to other countries but returned here in 2011.

“I said in the video that I'm not Elon Musk, I can't make ventilators and I don't have my own factories to make hand sanitizer but this is something I could do.”

Ms Sahur, who started posting make-up tutorials on Instagram in 2014, has seen a 95 per cent decrease in her own income in February compared to January, when the outbreak began. 

Her main source of income comes from conducting make-up demonstrations for various brands, many of which have been cancelled in recent weeks. 

Marketing campaigns she was engaged for have also been delayed by “five or six months” and her clients who are brides have also postponed their weddings.

As part of her job, Ms Sahur often receives packages from the beauty brands she works with and has accumulated a fair amount of unused products over the years. 

Her campaign has also caught the attention of some brands — Make Up For Ever, Caudalie, Tarte Cosmetics, Fresh, Pixi Beauty, Souffle Beauty, Molly Cosmetics, Maison 21G — who offered their products to include in the gift bags.

Apart from providing surgical masks and hand sanitizers in each bag, Molly Cosmetics will also hire taxi drivers to send out the gift bags.

“The products range from lipsticks to hair spray, fragrances, eyeliners, eyeshadow, some foundation shades, highlighters, concealers, body butters, a lot of sunscreen,” said Ms Sahur. She added that in the online form, those who sign up can indicate the kind of products they prefer so that they can make full use of the products they receive.

To ensure that the gift bags are only going out to people they are intended for, frontline workers have to upload a picture to verify their place of work.

“Some have uploaded their identity card, others posted pictures in their uniform, some have shown me their name cards. I really feel like people are being very sincere,” said Ms Sahur, who added that many of these workers have reached out to her to share their stories.

“When I started this initiative I thought it'll be nice to do something for them but when I read about other people's perspective and what they're really going through from their mouth, it's different. People are signing up for their moms, their aunts and their husbands. It's very sweet,” she said.

Since Friday, Ms Sahur, her two assistants, Syaza Sophie Pinz and Anusri Subramaniam, and a few Molly Cosmetics staff have begun sorting the products into different bags according to the different preferences that have been stated.

She hopes to start sending out the bags by this Friday after receiving more products from the brands that have reached out to her.

For now, Ms Sahur has no end-date for her campaign and with each message she receives thanking her for what she is doing, the more she wants to give back. 

“When I read their stories about how every day they're exposed to people who actually do have the virus, or that their families are working 12-hour shifts and how they're not getting enough rest, it made me feel I’m doing my part in a way that I can,” she said.

“I'm so stressed about this virus situation but I can only imagine how it is for them. I really think my worries seem super superficial now compared to theirs. It made me realise how much I'm taking for granted.”