Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Tom's of Maine Clean & Gentle Peppermint Toothpaste





This is going to be a sort of weird review. It’s about toothpaste, peppermint toothpaste at that. But it’s special toothpaste I promise.

Tom’s of Maine Clean and Gentle fluoride toothpaste in peppermint flavour in my opinion is fantastic. There are multiple reasons why so let me break it down into more manageable chunks to explain.

First Tom’s of Maine is the only toothpaste brand that I’ve ever been in contact with that is cruelty-free. Tom’s of Maine is also free of animal ingredients (so it’s vegan); shares every ingredient, its source and its purpose of every product it produces on its website www.tomsofmaine.com; includes no artifical colours, flavours, fragrances, or preservatives, makes sustainable practices a priority in every aspect of their business, works to maximize recycled content and recyclability of packaging, and also insures that 5% (12 days) of employee paid time is spent volunteering. In addition they also spend 10% of their profits on human and environmental goodness (whatever that means).

Now taking all of that into consideration and just going on the cruelty-free point alone I had tried a portion of the brand before and was majorly disappointed. The tube of toothpaste I bought fell way below normal toothpaste standards for me. The tube itself was aluminum, which made it hard to squeeze down toothpaste in the bottom of the tube. It was highly prone to forming sharp edges (which hurt) and these edges themselves were prone to breakage, which of course leads to leaks.
Not only did the packaging suck, the toothpaste itself didn’t have fluoride (which frightens me to be honest, I really don’t want to risk cavities) and the taste was wayyyyy too strong of mint. Bleehhh. I thankfully lost the tube after awhile (no really I did actually lose it) and guiltily switched back to a more normal toothpaste, wishing Tom’s of Maine was better.

So when my dad bought a new tube in the states and said I should try it you can understand why I was skeptical.

However, this new tube is in a nice super-soft, easy to squeeze plastic. The ingredients and information is much easier to read on the tube. And, there is fluoride in the toothpaste (yay!). So I figured what the heck I’d try it again. My dad has rarely steered me wrong before.

Oh wonderfully sweet subtle mint goodness. No kidding. This is coming from the girl who preferred the vanilla-mint, orange-mint, flavours when they were still available. Or bubblegum. Seriously I hate strong mint flavours, it took forever to wean me off of kids toothpaste. This mint has a sweet flavour to it. I seriously love that, it makes brushing my teeth less of a chore. Which to me is always a good thing.

Now the toothpaste doesn’t foam up as much as normal toothpastes but I’m alright with that. It still spreads easily throughout your mouth without needing extra.

In addition to this I think the cuts in my mouth are healing slightly faster than normal due to the major aloe content of the toothpaste. Now I may be wrong about this but I really do think they are. As someone who still has some trouble with the area where my wisdom teeth were extracted even six years later (eww, I know sorry!) any possible hint of slightly increased healing is most welcome.

Overall, I think it’s easy to see why I’m converted. The major bonus of this toothpaste is tied between the taste to me and the fact that the company is cruelty-free. I won’t be giving my dad back his tube of toothpaste when he returns from his trip. I’ve claimed it, it’s mine. Especially because it may be helping the more sensitive areas of my mouth.

Sprite Rating: 10/10 Yep I gave a toothpaste a perfect score. Even though this is a beauty blog. But! Keeping your smile healthy is beautiful, so there :P.

Would I buy this again? Looking above it’s fairly obvious but yes, even though I’m only able to get this across the border. Luckily my dad does a ton of work over in the USA so he can be my toothpaste supplier. Yay! :D

2 comments:

  1. First of all.... EFF Fluoride you do not want it in your toothpaste.
    Second... it's the "soft" packaging that sucks now... the metal tube was easier...
    How many times now have I squeezed the soft new tube and nothing happens as it's not full anymore, so I squeeze and just get stupid air until it suddenly erupts on me and vomits Loads of toothpaste on my brush? Many times... too many times... I'll still buy the fluoride free Tom's but really and truly... the aluminum tubes... they cut you? Were too sharp? JC grow some.

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