About Us
it all started with the beeswax
Burt Shavitz and Roxanne Quimby created Burt’s Bees in the remote Maine wilderness in the early 1980s after leaving their hectic city lives behind. The two hit it off when Burt pulled over to pick up a hitchhiking Roxanne. Burt had learned to keep bees and had been selling honey roadside. Roxanne apprenticed and found a book of recipes that they used to transform their beeswax into candles and lip balm. Like the forest outside of Burt’s 300-square-foot-turkey-coop-turned-cabin, everything flourished from there.
as nature intended
Today, we make all our products with some of nature’s most effective ingredients, all sourced with respect for people and the land. Each ingredient is chosen for its proven ability to replenish and strengthen a healthy skin barrier. That means only the good stuff, and absolutely none of the bad, for hydrated and happy skin.
protecting tomorrow
As Roxanne said, “We take from nature, so we must respect and preserve it.” Doing better to safeguard the future just isn’t negotiable. We’ve designed our packaging to be recyclable, powered our facilities with renewable electricity, and promised to keep 1.5 million pounds of plastic out of our oceans—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
giving back
It’s in our nature. Co-founder Roxanne sold balm to buy land for conservation, finally donating 87,000 acres of Maine wildlands to the National Parks Service. Our foundation pays it forward through projects that open access to green spaces and steward the land.